When it comes to mental illness, never assume.
Appropriately, Jennifer Myers’ office at the headquarters of Healthy Carolina assumes little.
Myers, the assistant director of Campus Mental Health Initiatives, came to USC a half-decade ago to become coordinator of Suicide Prevention Services. Prior to her arrival in Columbia, she had a private counseling practice in Bloomington, Indiana, where most of her clients were young adults. Since then, Myers has counseled USC students through everything from academic anxiety to relationship concerns.
Originally an athletic training student, Myers switched to psychology when she discovered an uncommon talent: listening.
“I found that our society tends to not talk about mental health very much,” Myers says. “It seemed like friends around me and family members were having a rough time, and so I figured, ‘Let’s do something about this.’”
A particular point of pride for Myers is the Student Health Services campaign she helped found: "Be real. Be there. Mental health matters at UofSC.” The campaign webpage encourages students to, among other things, “[b]e real with how you are doing. Open up to friends, family, and others in your support system. Be there for others. Listen. Follow up.”
The campaign includes posters, postcards and a five-minute video featuring USC students telling their stories of mental health struggles. As the online mantra states, the goal of Mental Health Matters is to make students comfortable with talking about their conditions so that they can seek help.
On YouTube, the video has been viewed over 1,100 times since April 7.
At one point in the video’s pre-production stage, Myers asked students at a meeting of the National Alliance on Mental Illness if anyone would be willing to tell his or her story on-camera. Among those in attendance who jumped at the opportunity was Dane Johnston, a fourth-year geography major.
Johnston said he had no symptoms of mental illness when he arrived at Carolina. In fact, prior to his initial troubles as a freshman, Johnston says he “never really even thought depression or anything like that was a real thing.”
But as he settled into campus life, reality set in. Johnston began to experience what he could only describe as withdrawal as a byproduct of simple, everyday tasks, including classwork and spending time with friends.
After initial on-campus counseling proved ineffectual, Johnston took a medical withdrawal from USC and returned home to Greenville, where his condition only worsened. A three-week stay at Marshall I. Pickens Hospital followed, at which time Johnston was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. His initial evaluation was grim.
“None of [my doctors] thought that I would ever be able to hold a job … going back to school was a ludicrous idea,” Johnston said.
After a period of treatment, Johnston decided to return to USC, registering with the Office of Student Disabilities and taking on a part-time course load. As his condition improved with medication, his grade point average followed suit, eclipsing the 3.0 mark last semester. Much of the credit, he says, belongs to his on-campus counselor.
“He’s been in my corner the entire time,” Johnston said. “He’s a great guy.”
Joining Johnston in the video is a familiar face to fans of USC cross country and track, namely, long-distance runner Hannah Giangaspro.
The St. John’s, Florida, native enrolled in the South Carolina Honors College in 2014. In her first year with USC’s cross country team, Giangaspro competed in five events, including the 2014 Charlotte Invitational 6K, where her top-20 finish of 23:03.0 helped the Gamecocks capture the team title. The following July, her name appeared on the First-Year SEC Academic Honor Roll.
But off the racecourse, something was wrong.
Giangaspro, now a fourth-year exercise science major, previously worked through an eating disorder in high school, only to have it resurface as she trained for cross country early in her freshman year. Eventually, she reached the point where she felt her performance would suffer if she gained "even an ounce of weight.”
“It ended up with me losing a lot of weight to the point where I looked like just skin and bones,” Giangaspro said.
The disorder began to affect Giangaspro’s social life. Friendships melted away. After spending a family vacation in misery, she decided to seek help. It wasn’t an easy decision at first. The shame she felt at having a mental ailment made her feel hesitant.
“There was always just a stigma around going and getting help like, ‘Ooh, they must be crazy,’” Giangaspro said. “That’s really the thing that Jen [Myers] and I are trying to target.”
As for friends of ailing students, Johnston praised his acquaintances for encouragement in the midst of his struggles. But, he said, aiding a friend in need requires a certain distance.
“If it’s something you’ve never personally experienced, you’re not gonna be able to fully understand what your friend is going through,” Johnston said. “People just need to keep that mind.”