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WEATHER
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HI: 63
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Michigan swept on
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“I had really bad
panic attacks. I
stopped eating. I
was really, really,
really sick, and I
ended up leaving
school.”
“That anxiety was
what was leading
me to not want to
leave my dorm,
or go out with
my friends to do
things in Ann
Arbor Welcome
Week.”
“There have been so
many other situations
throughout my
college career where
I’ve seen people who
aren’t able to gain
access to what they
need — and that’s
including myself.”
“It was a pretty
rough transition —
especially because
everyone around me
seemed as though
they were having a
good time.”
By EMMA KINERY
Daily News Editor
It was LSA sophomore Lauren Matson’s first night on campus
freshman year when she felt it.
“I was walking back with my friend that night through the streets of
Ann Arbor, and I just felt this pang of loneliness — this pang of sadness,”
Matson said.
It must be homesickness, she thought. Sure, she missed her friends
from home, but didn’t everyone, especially on their first night?
The sadness, however, stayed. Matson began having difficulty eating
and keeping food down. Some days, she would only eat a granola bar
or two because of nausea. Within weeks, her bodily sickness began to
negatively impact other aspects of her life too. Worried she would feel
sudden bouts of queasiness, she didn’t want to leave her dorm and felt
anxious about going out with new friends.
“That anxiety was what was leading me to not want to leave my dorm,
or go out with my friends to do things in Ann Arbor Welcome Week,” she
said.
Transitioning to college
Matson’s experience is one that has familiar echoes for a lot of
University students — last year 4,197 students sought help from CAPS —
and for college students nationwide, with a range of different outcomes,
choices and paths for each as they move forward in their college careers
and lives.
For Matson, the choice was to go to Counseling and Psychological
Services three weeks later, on the advice of a friend. It wasn’t until
November, however, when she would find answers.
She spent months bouncing back and forth between CAPS and
University Health Service. A CAPS counselor referred her to UHS,
determining the medical staff would be more suited to address her
stomach problems. The lines between physical illness and mental illness
blurred.
Matson was put on medication to correct the nausea, but the
medication soon stopped working. As time went on, she began to have
suicidal thoughts — she said she always knew the problem was with her
mind, not her stomach.
When she returned to UHS with the same symptoms of nausea, she
was told she had depressive disorder. She was back to seeing counselors
at CAPS, and her parents started visiting every week — or she would go
home every weekend. But nothing was working.
CAPS currently does not have the resources to support long-term
care, and eventually, Matson said, her counselor felt it was time to refer
her to an outside counselor, who would become essential to her health
improvement in the coming years.
Students seeking mental health help can also go to the University
Health Service, but according to Dr. Robert Winfield, chief health officer
and director of UHS, the psychiatry department only offers prescription
and drug treatments.
“We don’t offer any counseling at Health Services, so there are a variety
of situations where somebody wants to be evaluated for the continuation
of medications,” he said. “And some of those situations are situations
where somebody might choose to not get counseling or may want to focus
on medications.”
There is no one cure-all for patients concerned about their mental
health, though many people choose to turn to medications over counseling
after talking with a doctor. According to the Centers for Disease Control,
across the United States approximately one in 10 Americans ages 12 or
older take antidepressants. At colleges, these numbers are typically
higher.
“Sometimes people just feel terrible with anxiety or depression but
they haven’t been able to put a word on it — they just don’t feel well,”
Winfield said. “And so they may think ‘Maybe there’s something wrong
with me physically,’ so they may come in not knowing what’s wrong.”
LSA junior Raivynn Smith had a similar experience with a physical
sickness accompanying mental health concerns. Before transferring to
the University this year, Smith took a two-year gap following a painful and
difficult freshman year experience at a small private college in Illinois.
She said though it probably wasn’t when she first started experiencing her
social and generalized anxiety, coming to college is when she first noticed
it. Like Matson, the transition to college was difficult and her anxiety
began to affect her diet.
“I had really bad panic attacks,” Smith said. “I stopped eating. I was
really, really, really sick, and I ended up leaving school.”
The gap was cathartic for her, she said, though she noted that she still
deals with her anxiety, especially on a larger campus like the University
of Michigan where day-to-day things like going to the dining hall can be
challenging.
Even for students who have already noticed and begun acting on the
signs of mental health issues before college, the transition can still be
significantly difficult, on top of what is an already challenging process.
LSA sophomore Jarrett Reichel dealt with depression throughout high
school, but had a support system then — leaving home, he said, meant
leaving that comfort and support.
“I had a really good support group in high school, with my friends
and my family, and coming here since none of my friends came here,
the transition was really difficult because I didn’t have that support
group I normally had,” Reichel said. “Then, of course, the added stress of
changing your entire life.”
Reichel lived in Bursley Residence Hall his freshman year and said he
found the experience to be isolating. Like many students, he didn’t make
friends immediately during Welcome Week and felt alone. Everyone in
his hall became tight-knit and he said he felt as though he was missing out
on the college experience.
“It was a pretty rough transition — especially because everyone around
me seemed as though they were having a good time, and it was kind of
hard to recover from that,” Reichel said. “It was irrational, but I felt like
after the first couple of months it was almost too late (to make friends). So,
that was rough, especially in regard to the future.”
Like Reichel, LSA junior Morgan Rondenelli said she found the new
surroundings in college made it easier for her to avoid addressing her
obsessive compulsive disorder.
See HEALTH, Page 7A
MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
KRISTINA PERKINS/Daily
MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
KRISTINA PERKINS/Daily