Reformed University Life, a ministry of the First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, is offering free depression testing at the Russell House today.
Depression is an issue that many students face, but few are prone to talk about or seek help. The Counseling and Human Develop.m.ent Center in the Byrnes building on campus is the part of the Thomson Student Health Center that deals with mental health.
A study by the American College Heath Association found that 45 percent of students are affected by depression enough to affect their functioning at least once a year, said Russell Haber, director of the counseling center.
"Forty-six percent of our students come in for depression," Haber said. Others come in for anxiety, relationship problems, and family problems.
The Counseling and Human Develop.m.ent Center sees about 1,700 students a year - about one-third of those students see a psychiatrist and a nurse practitioner.
"If people are experiencing depression, it's very treatable, both with medication and with counseling," Haber said. " Generally, the two together give students the best chance of recovering from their depression."
The most prescribed medication here besides birth control is anti-depressants. About 600 of the students treated here have prescriptions for an anti-depressant.
Depression can be caused and aggravated by a number of factors.
"Biological predispositions and family factors do influence the rates of depression," Haber said. "The other thing is lack of sleep, lack of good nutrition, a lot of stress and basically poor coping skills, like drinking to deal with problems."
The center usually sees more students during times of increased stress, such as during midterm and final exams and transitioning from home to school or school to home, Haber said.
The counseling center has alerted faculty, staff and RA's to the warning signs of depression. Some symptoms include self-isolation, sleeping or appetite problems, expressing hopelessness, being prone to tearfulness, lacking a sense of a future, losing interest in things they used to have interest in, or if they are very disorganized both mentally and appearance wise.
The Counseling and Human Develop.m.ent Center just received a grant for a suicide prevention program that will start this semester.
"We will be hiring a program director to work with housing, University 101, and English 101, particularly targeting freshman, to deal with suicide prevention," Haber said.
"They are making a pretty massive transition to the university."
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