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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1998)
Page 4 • Tuesday, October 6, 1998 elife Living in the Dark i S.O I \ ^° n SUCK. wv 9 r f Kn oW vMherc » «« 9 A* am nothin 9" Campus services help students suffering from depression * * PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BRANDON BOLLOM BY MARIUM MOHIUDDIN The Battalion don’t want to go to class, I don’t want to get dressed. My ""■grades suck. I don't know where I am going. There must ■ be something wrong with me. I am not worth anything. I am nothing.” These sentiments are among the signs experienced by a de pressed individual. According to a pamphlet released by Charter Behavioral Health Systems, depression is more than feeling low for a day. Depression is more accurately defined as a long-lasting, often re curring illness as real and disabling as heart disease or arthritis. People who experience clinical depression may feel an oppres sive sense of sadness, fatigue and guilt. Performing on the job may be difficult, going out with friends may be unthinkable and merely getting out of bed may be impos sible. The person who has depression feels increasingly isolated from family and colleagues — helpless, worthless and lost. One student said she did not know she was depressed, but lived in a constant world of gloom. “I felt like everything was my fault,” she said. “Some days I felt like an ogre. 1 felt everybody was looking at me and staring at me. “I felt like nobody loved me. Actually, it was more than that, t felt like nobody cared. Coming to A&M didn’t hefp. No one would talk to me, and I didn’t have any friends.” Dr. Andrew Smith, associate director of counseling for the Stu dent Counseling Service, said when depression settles in, a person’s perspective about himself or herself changes. “They begin to feel very negative and hopeless,” he said. “Some think that this is just the way I am, and it is my fault and my prob lem. Sometimes they will have bad days, and sometimes they will have good days, but it is usually constant.” The student said it took a friend to point out what she might be going through was depression. “My friend was a psychology major, so she was studying this kind of stuff,” she said. “One day I was talking to her, and she just said, ‘I think you are depressed.’ It hit me like a ton of bricks. 1 could not admit to myself that this is what it could be. 1 felt that if I admitted being depressed then I would be considered some kind of nut.” The student said she was embarrassed to even let her family know how she was feeling. Keystone Beaver Creek College Shi S Snowboard Week 4 Resorts tor the Price of One! Luxury Condos, lilts. Rentals, Lessons, Air, Bus § Parlies Sold Out 11 years in a row! Call Today!!! #1 College Ski Week wwvu r . tubslci.com Want: OFFICER TRAINING SCHOOL Start your career off on the right foot by enrolling in the Air Force OfficerTraining School. 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So 1 told no one.” Dr. Anna Jenkins, psychologist at the Employee Assistance^ gram and coordinator of The Depression Screening Day.saiditis ciety, we make people feel as if depression is not valid. “Something just goes wrong in their life, and it does not)* to be anything specific,” Jenkins said. “People feel ashamei admit they have a problem. We make them think it isabsol® nothing. So they end up not telling anybody and just assumiaf | will go away.” There are several signs of depression, hut Smith said theqia of whether someone has depression cannot be diagnosed by thew ing signs alone. “There is not one simple answer to this,” he said. "There is not* a ‘Yes you are.’ or ‘No you are not.’ Some typical signs arenottak care of themselves. In general, they experience a loss of enetgy. “There is a flip side to this as well. Some don’t look depress!, all. They are trying to compensate for what they are feeling, bums it is difficult for them. But this is not to say that all people who art! this are depressed." The student said most of the time she would wear thesamette over and over again. £ “Most people associated depression with wearing black, buti beyond that,” she said. ”1 did wear it a lot. but that was morebec* those were the clothes lying on the floor. I also wore it becauseli the darker the colors the more I could blend into the background* not be noticed.” e< See Related Column on PageI Depression affects about 10 percent of the United Stales pope tion — 17.6 million people. This is crossing all racial, gender, ages religious lines. One in four women and one in 10 men will experience depre® in their lifetime. Depression accounts for $24 million a year in lost productiit Smith said depression always has been a problem, but wearejusllt | ginning to look at it. “The numbers seem to be high because society is now paymjm attention to it,” he said. “There are a lot of people who just don’ttro that this is an illness and that it can be diagnosed and treated.lt trying to help people through this.” Jenkins said it is important for everybody to gain more iirioma and to be screened. “I just feel, ‘Why go through it when you don’t have to,”’shea “Yes, in time it may become less, but why put yourself through! pain and misery.” Jenkins said Thursday will mark the eighth National Depress: Screening Day. The Employment Agency will be hosting events fori day on the A&M campus for faculty and staff only. The day willbes with a seminar about depression followed by a depression screen’ test. The Student Counseling Service will hold a depression screei day later in the year for all students. Students who feel they may be suffering from depression can or tact the Student Counseling Service Monday through Friday 8 a.m.! 5 p.m. or call the HelpLine, open 24 hours a day, at 845-2700. as j n a : M, « yant, pond a and zht p ( l^asj gath Hid h anie now is he 1 P.m ;h in ?akai ■rve « 1 lea' I beh I Gc b h s hip. k’ av lisyne |fe.” |tte I the Ilk wil I aics ias ra Datin of tc lical p gand fn coll Jed tl |i the' [st. ■try to Stephenville, IX i-ONDOl October 9: October 21l sed Hfe her owt October 16: Chris LeDoux October gw host Prince / couch in )|i talke |Ped by a Hnd-rur ! $sed 20 |She de Tickets are on sale NOW. Call beforevSarah ... are sold out to get yours! pother Ip was k ar accidei 1 -800-LIMITS-9 Mum tc F ^ was t Fish Camp ’9! USsic i.OOO t sign rigj Chairperson Applications Available in the Fish Camp Office! 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