News of Robin Williams’ suicide shocked the world earlier this month. The 63-year-old comedic actor, who gave us such classics as “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Flubber” and “The Dead Poets Society,” publicly suffered from years of alcoholism and depression. By mourning his loss, however, the public has shown a growing interest in learning about clinical depression.
Though mental illness reported in college students has increased in recent years, talking about mental illness seems to be a declining practice. The National Alliance on Mental Illness reported 73 percent of college students living with a mental health condition experienced a mental health crisis in 2014, while only 34.2 percent reported their college knew about their crisis.
Overall, it is estimated 40 percent of mentally ill students fail to seek help, though it is often hard to calculate students who do so in an unofficial capacity.
Dr. J. Kim Penberthy, chief clinical psychologist for the clinical research programs at the University’s Center for Addiction Research and Education, believes a lack of outward communication may worsen depression.
“Ruminative thinking that accompanies clinical depression has been shown to impair thinking and problem solving,” Penberthy told U.Va. Magazine. “In fact, mindfulness-based psychotherapies directly challenge rumination in depression and have been found to be very successful in preventing relapse in clinical depression.”
The University’s Counseling and Psychological Services offers a therapeutic resource for students suffering from clinical depression and other illnesses. Their information can be found here.
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