A Harvard psychiatrist who works at Mass General Hospital is claiming that half of all college students have some sort of mental disorder.
While this goes a long way towards explaining some of the campus behavior we’ve documented over the last few years, it also serves as just another excuse to treat college students like victims.
CBS News in Boston reports:
New Concerns Arise About Mental Health Of College StudentsNew concerns arise about the mental health of students on college campuses all across the country.Dr. Gene Beresin, a psychiatrist and Executive Director of The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital, says 50% to 60% of college students have a psychiatric disorder.“What I’m including in that is the use of substances, anxiety, depression, problems with relationships, break-ups, academic problems, learning disabilities, attentional problems,” says Dr. Beresin. “If you add them all up 50% doesn’t seem that high.”Some undergraduates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) agree.“People go through tough times,” says Dane Erickson, a rising junior from Naples, Florida. “It’s really stressful sometimes here at school.”“I know a couple of friends who had a difficult first semester last year,” explains Maddie Burgoyne, a rising sophomore from Michigan.Dr. Beresin says the suicide rate in college in astronomical. “A college student kills himself every day,” he says.Maddie is also concerned about the higher than average suicide rate a MIT. “I think that’s something unique to MIT,” she says, “you can’t blame the institute itself. The type of student that goes here often puts a lot of pressure on themselves.”Dr. Beresin says the brain doesn’t fully mature until age 26 so college students are put in a difficult situation.
Here’s the video report for the story:
On one level, this makes perfect sense. People who are mentally ill would need things like safe spaces and trigger warnings, right?
On the other hand, under-developed brain or not, by the time you’re in college you’re an adult in the eyes of the law and you should be treated like one.
That’s not to take away from the very real issue of mental illness which so many people have to deal with. In a way, fully functional people who demand trigger warnings and safe spaces are taking away from people with legitimate mental problems.
Featured image via YouTube.
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