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Monday, April 18, 2016

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Vol. CXXV, No. 112
©2016 The Michigan Daily
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WEATHER 
TOMORROW

HI: 63

LO: 39

Michigan swept on 
both diamonds this 
weekend.
» INSIDE

» INSIDE 2A

» INSIDE 2A
Broomsday
Faculty 
letter to 
University 
president 
condemns 
Diag 
chalkings

CNN, New York Times and Politico 
leadership talk foreign news

“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

