Why Are Colleges Becoming Mental Crisis Centers?

Young people are flooding college campuses, but the upbeat excitement of my college days is apparently an anachronism. According to a recent Psychology Today article titled "Crisis U," colleges "are being transformed into something more akin to mental health wards than citadels of learning." Declares the article, "Whether troubled Facebook posts or middle-of-the-night cries to independent support services like Crisis Text Line, such messages, along with class absences, disturbing writing in course assignments, or direct threats to fac­ulty, are a new common core of college life." Per the University of Michigan's Healthy Minds Study cited in the article, 22% of the nation's collegians seek therapy or counseling each year, 19% of college students regularly take psychotropic drugs (antidepressants, anxiolytics, and stimulants such as Adderall), and self-harm is commonplace, with close to one in five students engaging in cutting, burning, or other form of self-mutilation. What in the world is going on? The leading mental health concern in 2015 is anxiety: 54% of all college students report feeling overwhelming anxiety, according to American College Health Association surveys quoted. And the universally cited precipitant of anxiety is stress. Yet stress itself is not the problem (I doubt it's higher than in the past); in fact, research shows stress actually enhances performance, especially when viewed positively. The problem is how students handle stress. Without basic coping skills, every frustration, competitive challenge, romantic disappointment, or social media insecurity turns into an overwhelming stressor. Another recent Psychology Today article by Diane Dreher, coach and author, puts the blame for the coping failure on parents who are "protecting their children from failure while pressuring them to excel, doing their homework, making their decisions, and micromanaging their lives," and thus creating students who have "difficulty dealing with the challenges of college life because they’ve been denied the opportunity to develop age-appropriate cognitive function," she writes. "Insecure, confused, and emotionally fragile, they experience high anxiety and chronic stress, which further weakens their cognitive ability." Experts urge parents to instead encourage unstructured play, provide honest criticism and praise, encourage children to solve their own problems, and give increasing responsibility. Dreher suggests some reading for concerned parents: How to raise an adult: Break free of the overparenting trap and prepare your kid for success by J. Lythcott-Haims; A nation of wimps by H.E. Marano; and The gift of failure: How the best parents learn to let go so their children can succeed by J. Lahey. For more on the college mental health crisis: https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201509/crisis-u