Auburn University’s Active Minds kicked off its Mental Wealth Week Monday night with a five-person panel discussing the implications of mental health among the represented communities on Auburn’s campus and spark the conversation for the remainder of the week.
The panel included Baker Smith, director of health and wellness for SGA; Dylan Clark, programming director for Spectrum; Auburn University’s Gay-Straight Alliance; Kyle Venable, president of the Auburn Student Veteran’s Association; Justin Mercer, graduate student representing Active Minds in which he has been involved in for five years and Jennifer Robinson, associate professor and cognitive neuroscientist from the psychology department.
“It’s remarkable y’all have the courage now to come forward to talk about these things and give those dialogues that are needed,” Robinson said. “Groups like Active Minds are incredibly important in getting that dialogue started and trying to understand how we can help, how we can make better, more supportive communities."
Mental health is an especially important issue for college-age students with one in four college-aged students having a mental-health issue.
“I think many of you would be shocked by how many of your peers are struggling mentally, especially during this time in your life because so much is changing,” Robinson said.
According to the panelists, the most pervasive mental illness for students aside from eating disorders is anxiety.
“Everybody struggles with some amount of anxiety at some time,” Mercer said. “Whether it’s about tests or relationships or making new friends or anything like that.”
Venable reminded the audience that Auburn has 350 student veterans, most of which returning from combat experience to an environment they haven't been in since high school.
“It’s been 25 years since I was in school and having to relearn how to learn has made me really anxious,” Venable said.
Robinson said society today has new standards for students with increased pressures to perform and feel the same way as previous generations despite the differences between generations.
“I think one of the most remarkable aspects of your generation is that this is becoming a topic that you all are willing to talk about and willing to share,” Robinson said.
The urge to share has created a dialogue commanding the stigma of mental health issues to change from negative to positive in hopes that the issues will cease to be viewed as disorders, Robinson said. Historically, the stigma surrounding disorders has made coming out about struggles with anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress invoke a sense of failure, self-consciousness and isolation.
“Any of those disorders can make it seem that people look down at you, make you feel like you’re not that much of a man, not that much of a woman, you can’t deal with the stresses of life,” Venable said.
But Venable said that more recently, the conversation is moving away from a discussion of a disorder to something that people can and will overcome.
“They’re trying to get away from the word,” Venable said. “Everyone goes through post-traumatic stress, whether it be combat, a car wreck, getting grounded as a kid, getting yelled at by your parents. Everyone goes through those things, so learning how to deal with those is the problem — not backing down to fear but overcoming it.”
However, Mercer said sometimes struggles can be difficult to see or believe, especially with the curation of social media and highlight reels.
"[Social media] gives us the false sense that maybe I’m not doing the best that I should be,” Mercer said. “The danger is that you start to feel like you’re the only one who has problems, and that’s when a mental illness can sneak up on you and really get you.”
The panel acknowledged the strides the University has made to foster a community that provides an accepting environment for those struggling with mental illnesses, particularly on the student side with groups like Active Minds and SGA. The panel also commended the expansion of the Mental Health Center office to Haley Center and an increase in the number of counselors.
However, Clark said that with personal experience, he believes the administrative side of the University’s endeavors could fare better.
“In my total experience, if I were to give it a one of a five-star rating, I would have to give it a one or two,” Clark said.
Clark took a medical leave to focus on his mental health. While he considered his interactions with counseling services and the medical clinic to be courteous, he considered it systematically poor in its ability to create a better campus climate, particularly for the LGBTQ community.
“We can do more to create safe spaces," Clark said. "For example, having counselors and medical staff who are trained to address some of those issues particular to those of say transgender students, international students, those of ethnic or religious minorities."
From a faculty’s perspective, Robinson agreed, arguing that one of her biggest frustrations is the lack of protocol students and faculty have for dealing with mental-health situations.
“I don’t think there’s a blanket answer, I just think we need to have multiple avenues for how to handle and respond to a mental-health crisis whether it’s a peer coming to you or a student coming to us,” Robinson said.
Another difficulty Robinson sees with mental health is its stigma apart from physical health.
“It’s very vulnerable to approach somebody and tell them about your mind and what’s going on with your mind, whereas you tell someone you have a cold, it’s no big deal,” Robinson said. “When it’s your mental health, for some reason, we view it very differently.”
Whether its the intimate connection that people feel with their own thoughts and feelings or the stigma of what others will think with the admission of a mental health issue, Robinson said failing to rank mental health in the same category as physical health remains one of the biggest hurdles society faces.
“At the end of the day, they’re no different," Robinson said. "One is much harder to deal with. We have antibiotics and drugs, but sometimes, I think we use drugs as a Band-Aid. We need to fix the cognitive processes that are leading us into these negative paths.”
A change in stigma behind the prevalence and understanding of mental health issues is one of Active Minds' major goals for this week. The fear of being labeled as inferior or sick due to a mental-health issue keeps students from seeking the help they need, Mercer said. The first step in giving those struggling the resources they need to overcome is a change in dialogue.
“If people, both experiencing and living with this kind of stuff as well as the general public, were more aware that this wasn’t just some abstract, conceptual thing … that would really change the conversations that we have on this,” Clark said.
The panel offered suggestions for those struggling with their mental health, such as journaling or writing, finding a community and reliable friend group and taking time to find peace with a busy schedule. Most importantly, however, they acknowledged the road to overcome one’s struggles does not come over night.
“Change what your idea of progress is because the end goal is obviously to be better, but you’re probably not going to hit that on your first day,” Mercer said. “Getting out of bed, getting dressed — that’s a victory. You got out the door, that’s a step in the right direction.”
Tuesday, Oct. 23 on the concourse, Active Minds will focus on the stigma of mental health's prevalence across campus by handing out different colored ribbons to students: blue meaning you struggle with mental health, green meaning you know someone who struggles and silver meaning that you are a mental-health advocate.
“Our goal is, hopefully, you see all of these ribbons, and you see that mental health is a thing, and people have it, and it’s okay,” said Gabby McKinnel, president of Active Minds.
Active Minds will be on the concourse all week to raise awareness for Mental Wealth Week, culminating with an event at Surge Trampoline Park Friday from 6–8 p.m.
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