Clarkson Integrator

Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Alex Brown Ross Szabo came to Clarkson Tuesday night to speak about mental health issues among college students, and to promote his book Behind Happy Faces. Szabo covered many common problems, including lack of sleep and general stress, and how to deal with these problems.

On Tuesday night, Ross Szabo came to Clarkson and spoke at Cheel Commons about mental health issues and his book, Behind Happy Faces. Ross spoke extensively about his own battle with bipolar disorder and about mental health issues facing many young people (especially college students) today.

Szabo opened his speech with a discussion about how mental health is viewed by society. Ross said that he believed that many people first think of the extremes of mental health issues, mainly disorders, when they think about mental health issues. The main mental health issues that people face are not disorders, like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, but rather everyday issues like stress, death, divorce, break-ups of relationships, and other things. Mental health issues arise from two different sources: biological sources (such as problems that are passed down genetically) and environmental sources; things that happen around people affect their state of mind. Ross spoke at length about problems facing college students today, the main problem being lack of sleep. Most college students sleep about four to six hours every night. Szabo stated that the military uses sleep deprivation on prisoners by allowing them only three to five hours of sleep per night…leading him to ask the audience, "Why are you torturing yourselves?" Many people have problems dealing with mental health issues because of the stigma surrounding them. People are sometimes labeled as "crazy" when they have problems, some people have trust issues and cannot talk to people about what they are going through, and some people simply do not know what to do when they are faced with mental issues. 66% of young people do not talk to anyone about mental health problems that they are facing, and sometimes it gets worse as a result. 80-90% of people with issues never seek help, even though 80-90% of those who do seek help are successful at overcoming their problems.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools