What happens when you wake up and you are so weighed down by your mental illness that you physically can’t get out of bed? For nearly half of adults in the United States this is a normal occurrence.
1 in 5 U.S. adults suffered from a mental illness, according to a 2018 study by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. But fewer than half of them get treatment.
M.S.W., LCSW
Katherine Strauss is a professional counselor, licensed clinical social worker and a member of the Tallahassee Community College Counseling Center staff. Strauss said that the stigma surrounding mental illnesses can make the illness worse.
“I think it’s getting better but there’s still a large population of people who are afraid to ask for help or don’t know how to ask for help when they’re experiencing increasing anxiety, depression or stress,” said Strauss. “So there might be a lot of people who kind of suffer alone.”
Anxiety disorders, depression and stress are the top three mental illnesses affecting TCC students. More than half of college students in the United States suffer from mental illness, according to a 2012 survey from NAMI.
TCC Associate Professor of Psychology Dr. Cicely Brantley is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Brantley said that students who do not get help with their mental illness are more likely to fall behind.
Associate Professor of Psychology
“Students who struggle with depression or anxiety or other mental health challenges when they get help, they tend to do well,” said Brantley. “But when they just kind of try to do it on their own they’re more likely to withdraw from the class altogether.”
64 percent of students dropped out of college due to their mental illness, according to NAMI’s 2012 study .
A first-year TCC student, who would like to stay anonymous due to the stigma surrounding mental illnesses, said that their illnesses affect her everyday life.
“Sometimes all I feel like doing is laying in bed and like just shutting myself down and shutting out from everything else” said the student.
Brantley believes that the stigma surrounding mental illnesses is starting to diminish due to younger generations willingness to share.
“There’s this idea to go to therapy or counseling gotta be crazy,” said Brantley. “But once you’ve seen someone who’s very normal say, ‘I needed therapy, I went and it helped it,’ makes it a lot more, you know, you feel like you too can do that same thing.”
