Depression is a serious illness and causes a lot of changes in college students. College is where you figure yourself out and if you can’t even keep yourself together there is no way you can determine what you want to do with your life. Depression is isolating yourself from your best friends for no reason, it’s the everyday self talk of “should I go to class or should I just stay in bed and sleep”. College is the worst time to realize you are going through depression. Depression usually goes hand in hand with anxiety. I have both of these things and they definitely affected my grades last semester.
Not being able to explain the issues to your professors or friends is even harder. They just ask a lot of questions that you don’t have answers too. This article is a really good one! Depression rates for college students are going through the roof now a days and something needs to be fixed about it.
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Sources: http://www.kon.org/urc/v9/keith.html
Having several close friends dealing with this right now, I can vouch for seeing this first hand that grades do plummet. Given the amount of stressors college students have in their lives, and the pressures put on them by their institution, society, family, and themselves, you would think that this would be more known and understood. Hopefully, through the raising of awareness through posts like yours and videos/articles you’ve cited we’ll be there.
This topic is very prevalent to people our age today. Depression is such a huge thing that has been going on for a long time. I would have liked to see more research done if possible.You could’ve talked about solutions or maybe studies that were done about depression and its effects but the articles you did mention were great articles. Here is a source you could use and read more about depression
http://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-causes-depression
I would like for you to know that you are not alone!
Depression affects an overwhelming people every day and has been an ongoing problem for years. Depression provokes people to make irrational decisions and feel worthless. Author Maia Szalavitz says that Depressive Thinking Can Be Contagious. Depression is often thought to be just a chemical imbalance in the brain, but researchers are performing studies that are proving that theory to be incorrect. Szalavitz sets out to prove that depression is not just a chemical imbalance and that it is actually even contagious given the correct scenario. The first style of depression is being the constant thoughts of how bad things are going for them, and the second being a sense of hopelessness where the victim feels like s/he has no self worth and is useless. The research suggested that the hopelessness depression did not show any signs of contagion while the rumination and constant depressed thoughts were contagious. It is not the actual illness of depression that is contagious, it is the style of thinking. Roommates of depressed people are more inclined to pick up a more negative perspective and depressed style of thinking.
The conclusion I came to after reading this is that depression itself is not a contagious illness. However, the illness itself is awful and affects many. It seems that people can pick up on others’ mindsets and that another person’s mood can affect your very own. Rooming with a depressed person could very well change one’s style of thinking and give one a more negative outlook of the world. But, I believe that a person can choose how they look at the world and since depression itself is a chemical imbalance, it cannot infect another person’s mind negatively. Although a person might begin to have some depressive traits from hanging out with a depressed person, I believe that it can be easily reversed from a different environment and more positive surroundings. This topic has a particular health emphasis, especially since teenagers are the likeliest of all people affected. Knowing the risk factors and signs of depressions early on can improve one’s quality of life or in some cases even save lives.
Thanks for sharing! I hope you enjoy this article.
This topic initially sparked my interest from the topic. Growing up, a lot of my close friends have suffered from depression and anxiety. It was heartbreaking to watch some of the people I loved most grow tired and weary and just uninterested in learning, let alone their grades. Specifically, my one friend in high school was top 5 in our class of 500, and was always feverishly striving to attain better grades, and a better GPA. Until one day, she just stopped. She no longer cared. She even voluntarily failed a Chem exam, knowing it would take her out of the running of Top 5. It’s definitely a serious matter.
Here’s an article that demonstrates that depression not only deteriorates school performance, but also several other aspects: http://www.livestrong.com/article/90021-effects-teen-depression-performance/
This blog post was very interesting and relevant. I am sorry to hear this and can’t imagine how tough it must be to manage your grades with all of that. I liked your blog because it makes people realize just how serious depression can be. A lot of people think depression is being extremely sad. What those people need to realize is that is not the case. Depression is proven to be a disease.. not just a feeling of sadness, even for extended periods of time. I am taking psychology and we are currently studying diseases such as depression. There is a much higher chance that someone who is depressed will commit suicide. I am obviously not saying all cases are this way, but it makes people realize how serious depression is. it is not just a feeling. There is, however, hope. There are resources and people who might be able to help. Here is a website I found that goes into detail and explains what depression is. Thanks for sharing.
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression-what-you-need-to-know-12-2015/index.shtml