The percentage of college students with mental health disorders has gone up tremendously over the past few years. It has also recently become more and more common for students to enter college with an already developed mental disorder.

According to a study done by The American Psychological Association, these students suffering from mental disorders are often willing to seek help after they have arrived to college. Many believe the reason is because these students begin to realize the affect that their mental health is having on their academics and day-to-day lives.

On average, there has been a rise in the number of students who seek counseling on college campuses across the country – as stated in the study done by The American Psychological Association.

Bringing the topic of college kids with mental disorders closer to home; here at William Peace University there are a fair number of students who visit our college counseling center. These students are often looking for someone to give them guidance and to help liberate them.

When interviewing Nicole Davis, director of counseling and disability services at William Peace University, she stated: “The job of a counselor is to empower the students, not to give advice.”

Although same counselors may disagree with Davis’s statement, she makes a clear and valid point: these students don’t need to receive advice they’ll never follow, they need someone instead who will push them to become a stronger and more confident person.

After interviewing a couple of students around William Peace University, one particular student stood out the most. Freshman, Tracey McClellan believes: “counselors should not instil their own advice into these students who are suffering from mental disorders; but instead should help these students build up the confidence in the idea of controlling their own lives.”

After reading off a couple of statistics about how popular mental disorders are around college campuses across the country, McClellan also added: “I’m actually not surprised by those numbers, a lot of my friends who suffer from anxiety and other mental disorders say that a lot of their stress has to do with the pressure that college puts on one person; while also trying to balance everything else going on in their personal and professional lives.”

We are seeing now more than ever, the growth of mental disorders within college campuses across the board. With such an increase of mental health disorders, we are also seeing an increase of suicide rates within these same colleges.

Through counseling and empowerment, there is hope to reduce the number of suicides seen each year on college campuses. As many would suspect, these suicides are typically students who are suffering from mental disorders, such as: depression, anxiety and stress.

“I think it’s sad to see these types of statistics. There are so many different ways we can prevent suicides on college campuses, but the problem is getting the person who’s suffering from the mental disorder to take initiative; unfortunately, we can’t just force them to take control. I hope that in the future, we will be able to reduce the number of suicides and mental disorders seen on college campuses,” said sophomore, Lisa Trader.