Did you know that a quarter of your peers most likely suffer from a diagnosable form of mental illness? Seems high doesn't it? That's because of the stigma and resulting silence that surrounds mental health issues.
You may be familiar with the Women's Initiative, which effectively initiated widespread discussion on the topic, detailing many problems that were specific to undergraduate women and coining the phrase "effortless perfection." This phrase would later become the title of an anonymous letter to The Chronicle from a woman contemplating suicide.
Most chilling in that letter was the assertion that it accurately described "what it could be like to be an undergraduate woman on Duke's campus." Also disturbing was the fact that she considered the very admission of an existing problem to be "the greatest failure."
This issue is not confined to women, indeed men are four times more likely to successfully commit suicide than women. In October, an article ran in The Chronicle about Duke's response to the three suicides at NYU last semester. Among college students, suicide is the second leading cause of death and it is estimated that 1,100 suicides will occur on campuses this year.
Jim Clack, director of CAPS, wrote in, as did other students, decrying the importance of counseling and the need to publicize and remove the stigma around mental illness. While there are means to receive private counseling, the negative association with such counseling continues to render silent many of the problems that need to be addressed and force suffering students to remain isolated and confine discussion to the counselor's office.
A group on campus, called Active Minds, is forming to deal with this pressing need. To start, we are putting together a publication of students' personal stories to draw out open discussion.
Please support our efforts and if you would like to send a personal story or any comments, submit them to DukeActiveMinds@yahoo.com. The stories can concern any form mental health issue and may be anonymous or signed.
Dave Strauss, Trinity '05
Logan Leinster, Trinity '06
Cole Wright, Trinity '06
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.