Patsy Palmer, Stephen Fry, Ruby Wax and Alastair Campbell. They’ve all recently come forward about their problems with mental health for a national campaign to end discrimination. This lead LS1 to examine matters of the mind in the academic arena.
“Cheer up!” One of the most redundant and annoying phrases in the English language, it also embodies a common attitude of dismissal towards mental health problems. Everyone at some point or other has felt low, anxious or stressed, but we might be cautious about admitting it to others for fear of seeming weak or attention seeking. At the other end of the scale, serious mental health issues have unrealistic associations with insanity and violence, and can sometimes seem like distant problems experienced only by celebrities or creative geniuses.In reality, 1 in 4 people will have a mental health problem at some point in their lives, and this includes a whole spectrum of cases which are particularly common to students such as anxiety or depression. The vast majority of this quarter of the population won’t have an illness where they’re followed around by Paul Bettany or Brad Pitt, as glamorously portrayed in A Beautiful Mind or Fight Club. An equally high proportion won’t have the bipolar form of depression attributed to the artistic creativity of Pablo Picasso or Vincent van Gogh. Most will be ordinary people with ordinary lives and problems.

It is generally understood by psychiatrists that most problems relating to mental health arise from a mixture of genetic predisposition and environmental triggers such as bereavement or stress. Problems show themselves in a variety of ways dependent on the person and their situation, ranging from the sometimes discreet symptoms of anxiety and depression to more disruptive experiences with eating disorders, substance abuse or self-harm. Students at university may be particularly at risk of developing problems with mental health what with newfound pressures of self-sufficiency, and time management between work and social commitments. Coupled with family or relationship issues, students are even more vulnerable and may suddenly find themselves unable to cope, needing outside assistance.

Katie Hamilton, a 19-year-old student doing a foundation year in mixed sciences who is part of a campaign called Respect?, describes her past problem with self-harm as the result of, “a build-up of pressure”. Before coming to Leeds University, she started a year in dance training, where she first started to cut herself at the age of 16.

“In the beginning it made me feel better,” she explains. “But because it’s addictive you have to do it more and more to get the same affect. It’s a bit like a drug I suppose. I used to be able to cut a tiny bit and then feel relieved, but then I had to do it more. The last time I cut was the time I almost needed stitches- but I didn’t get any effect from it at all”.

Like most people who have problems with mental health, Katie’s experience was the result of a combination of factors, including a new intense regime and issues with her parents, who forced her to leave home during her dance training. After an initial period where she cut herself up to three times a day, she went through phases of up to three months without abuse after which the problem would return. It was her own recognition of the issue that led her to seek help, though she explains how she was forestalled in her recovery by the misconceptions and stereotypes attached to self-harm:

“Some of the doctors thought I was just attention seeking and that there was nothing wrong with me- I’ve actually been blatantly told that before, which is horrible because it’s just the last thing that you want to hear. Especially if you’re suicidal, it motivates you to be like, “What’s the point? Nobody believes me anyway,’” she says.

The discrimination Katie experienced is not uncommon. A survey carried out by Mind Matters, the university’s first mental health society established last November, showed that out of 950 Leeds students, 50.9% believe that the stigma of mental illness is still prevalent in the student population. It also revealed that only 63% of students would definitely seek professional help if they felt they had a mental health problem, and 48% were unsure or did not know where they could seek help if they wanted it.

The on-campus Student Counselling Centre located at Clarendon Place is the first port of call for many students who need help with mental health issues. In 2007/08 the centre saw 1711 students out of which the most common problems were related to relationships, depression, academic work, and anxiety. The centre provides a variety of resources for those looking to increase their sense of mental well-being, from a series of “head start’ cards offering practical tips for dealing with common issues such as low confidence, exam stress and trouble sleeping; to individual counselling, drop in services and workshops.

One of the most notable things about the Counselling Centre is its emphasis on “depathologising’ mental illness. Mental health is seen on a continuum, and the centre explicitly avoids labelling or providing a medical assessment of students who come to see them, making referrals to GPs or the Leeds Student Medical Practice only in extreme and necessary circumstances. If mental health is indeed on a continuum, the question might arise of how to know whether your problem is serious enough to need help. Where, for example, is the line between being feeling depressed and needing counselling, and how do you know when you have crossed it?

Nigel Humphrys, Head of the Student Counselling Centre, recognises the distinction:

“Saying “I feel depressed’ is often an expression people use when they actually mean I just feel low or melancholy, and all of us at some point will feel low and melancholy, that’s a fact of life,” he explains.

“It’s when it becomes something that stays around for a long time; when you get up in the morning it’s the first thing you think about, and it’s the last thing you think of at night. You notice that there is a change in the way that you respond to friends or your ability to concentrate on your academic studies. If you have extended feelings of lowness or melancholy; if you feel like you’re withdrawing from your group; if you feel desperate on occasions and that desperation kind of sticks around, then you’re showing the early signs of depression,” he defines.

Nigel explained how issues may derive from recent incidents such as bereavement or the end of a relationship, or may be a concern from the past that is still hanging around.

“Coming here and being able to talk about and reflect on it often lifts the mood,” he relates. “Interestingly you come out with more resources than when you came in because you actually know that by coming here for counselling that you personally have the resources to deal with the difficulty.”

With mental health, deciding to deal with the problem personally is of great importance. In her bid to stop self-harming, Katie sought support from a variety of sources including the Internet, GPs, counselling services and friends; however she found that her own willpower was the greatest aid to recovery:

“I was extremely determined,” she says. “I was so determined to get out of this and live normally, and that was the biggest thing. Everything else- there wasn’t enough. It’s such a cliché and people always say it but you do have to want it in order to change. You’re the only one who can actually do the changing, people can hold your hand but you’re the one who actually has to do it. And I really wanted it.”

The idea of the individual as his or her own strongest aid to recovery is a frightening yet empowering concept. Unlike physical illnesses that can mostly be treated entirely by a medicinal approach and involve almost no effort of the will, problems centred in the mind must be tackled head-on by those involved, which takes a lot of psychological strength. In this respect overcoming a mental health issue can be a difficult but rewarding challenge. Dominic Martin, President of the Mind Matters society and a final year Spanish student at Leeds says that, “a lot of people view mental health problems as a hindrance but there have been reports in the media saying that actually mental health problems can be a real character builder.”

He goes on to explain: “People that have had problems with depression, for example, develop a very good sense of self awareness and if they are to develop a problem in the future they’re very much in tune with their emotions”.

Despite the importance of personal recognition and determination, an emphasis on communication and contact with others also constitutes much of the recovery process. For those with a mental illness, outside support is vital but family and friends can also suffer difficulties and be negatively affected when someone close to them is having problems. It can be a frustrating situation to see the behaviour of someone close to you change without understanding why, and a daunting idea to broach the subject with him or her directly.

Elijah Wolf and the Rubalous are an indie band whose bassist Cage has bipolar disorder. In the band’s press release for their single Camouflage -which was released in January to raise money and awareness for the bipolar foundation Equilibrium- Elijah relates, “Whilst working on the new single, Cage had a dramatic change in personality. He went from being a committed, enigmatic, driven person to being vague, distracted and elusive. We had no idea why and our immediate reaction was anger.”

Such a reaction is common and highlights the need for de-stigmatisation and raised awareness of mental health issues in order that others in similar situations can understand, and support their friends and family through mental illness. The Mind Matters Society aims to demystify mental health issues and educate students to be able to recognise and react helpfully towards them. During Healthy Week this year the society hired out the Riley Smith Hall for Mind Matters day in which four zones-nutrition, exercise, relaxation and art/creativity-were explored to promote the different aspects of mental well-being.

The President of the society, Dominic, has also had experience with anxiety and depression, and cites CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) as his most helpful resource for recovery. His time in CBT has motivated his plans to train as a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist after graduation from Leeds. Though Dominic’s treatment was private, the Student Counselling Centre holds a FLASH (focused learning and self-help) clinic every Wednesday, which incorporates certain CBT techniques to provide practical tips and guided self-help. Dominic describes why he thinks it is so effective:

“CBT is mainly about challenging negative thinking,” he explained. “There are certain negative thought patterns which are very harmful- for example there’s one called “dramatisation’ where you’ll be sitting outside your exam room and you think to yourself, “Oh my God I’m going to fail this exam.’ CBT would say in this situation, “Well actually, you’ve done lots of revision, you’ve been to all your lectures, you’re going to be fine.’

“It’s very much a practical way of thinking about things,” he continues. He gave another example of negative criticism: you go out with a friend, he calls you tight for not buying him a drink, and you go away dwelling on how ungenerous you are. “It’s this idea of heaping criticism onto yourself,” Dominic says. “CBT teaches you to say, “No, you’re not tight at all, look at the evidence.’ Basically it’s all about positively re-assessing the way you think.”

Low self-esteem is something everyone can relate to. After all who hasn’t at one time or another worried about exams or taken unfounded criticism to heart? However in the wrong circumstances such thinking can escalate into something a lot more serious, and by taking the problems back to their origins, CBT and other guided self-help can overcome the effects of a snowballing mental health issue.

It’s important to recognise and deal with mental health problems as soon as they emerge, and with the establishment of the Mind Matters society the issue is at the forefront of the university’s consciousness; mental health was the focus of this year’s Healthy Week, and a campaign called Mind Your Head is currently being launched in conjunction with Leeds Met and Leeds Trinity in order to raise awareness of local support resources. This year will also see the establishment of a Mental Health Officer, a new role within the union whose job will be to help students access specific mental health resources.

There are up-coming events to raise awareness too, with the Mind Matters Society holding a press conference next week to release the results of their survey alongside guest speaker Rufus May, a clinical psychologist who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 18 and is concerned with creating more peaceful and helpful approaches to mental health problems within the NHS. After Easter there will also be an open mic night for people to come and talk about their experiences
with mental health.

Dominic from Mind Matters sees these sorts of event as crucial to ending discrimination, which is among the society’s top priorities.
“We’d like to help change attitudes towards mental health, to show that it’s not something that people should be afraid of or feel embarrassed about,” he says. “If we can empower people to come forward, I think that would be a great thing.”

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