This column is dedicated to any loyal readers of my column, should they exist.
It is my sincere hope that you engage my column out of a yearning to gain awareness about mental health.
But maybe you just feel obligated by the sacred bonds of friendship. Whatever the case, current events have yielded a need for mental health awareness. Not just on campus, but particularly in Chicago.
On Jan. 14, The BG News published an article telling the tale of a girl ostracized by her campus due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She endured a horrifying flashback during a class, causing a blackout.
The panic attack was so sudden, she barely had time to remove herself in order to keep her ordeal private. In response, the school gave her the ultimatum to take medical leave, or they would make her leave. She would be expelled solely on the basis of her mental condition.
If you know anything about PTSD, then you know the key symptom is terrifying flashbacks. These are moments when retched, repressed memories flood the senses. A barrage of images and sensations from the event that triggered a person’s PTSD cloud their mind, inducing panic.
It is often common for these flashbacks to be triggered by scents or sounds from the original occurrence – perhaps the smell of a particular type of cologne, or the texture of a distinct fabric. These flashbacks fling the sufferer into a panic-induced frenzy, often causing blackouts.
Flashbacks are difficult to overcome and demand incredible willpower from the point of view of the sufferer. Often times a combination of intense therapy and anti-psychotic medications.
Surely these are not acts committed to attention-grab. And by no means are they intended to aid the sufferer in evading the classroom. Why then are they being punished as such?
It is downright prejudice to punish a student for a mental condition they cannot control. As someone who has battled major depression for the majority of her college career, it is scary for me to think of this happening at the University.
True, the chances of the University expelling students based on psychotic episodes in the classroom are slim. But it still reveals a grim reality for those college students battling mental illness.
I don’t want to be viewed solely by my depression. I don’t enjoy being labeled by my condition. I want to be viewed for my academic strengths. I want to be labeled by my accomplishments and amicable personality.
It is my opinion that campus counseling centers are to blame. Most are ill-equipped, I feel, to truly be able to assess and assist students with psychological needs. In my experiences I have been interviewed, referred to outside help (which I can’t afford) and then given a pat on the head while I’m told it’s common for college students to feel this way.
The only thing that would have brought my disgust full circle would have been to be handed a sucker as I left. But even a sucker would not replace the feeling that I just lost what little hope I retained upon going into my session.
I don’t think it’s common for a student’s moods to change 20 times during a day. It’s not common for a student to be crying over broken buttons. I know when something is wrong with me.
I feel it is in my rights as a student to be offered and provided with proper mental health care. Not threats of expulsion if I can’t keep my tears to myself.
Hopefully, this is not a black spot for University mental health programs. Hopefully this is just the actions of a select few, paranoid school officials.
I can only hope that I never have to witness the day a student with a mental illness is judged based solely on their condition.
