College suicides an issue of concern
Editor’s note: This is part one of a three-part series on suicide. This article will focus more on statistics and potential causes of suicide, while the stories that follow will focus on how people have dealt with the topic of suicide as well as resources available. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
“I just didn’t know it was going to be this hard.”
That’s what some students have told Krystin Deschamps, the student conduct coordinator in the USU Student Services Office, as they’ve talked with her about their college experience.
“As I reflect on that … there’s this perception that college is the best time of your life,” said Deschamps. “How many times do you have older adults talk about how great their college experience was? … And I think that that’s the perception, that college is just this time where everything is easy, and the reality is that it’s a hard time.”
As of Friday, Deschamps had received 10 reports in 2015 of suicidal thoughts and ideation among students at Utah State University, one of which was fatal. In 2014, there were 37 total reports of suicide ideation, none of which are known to have resulted in an actual suicide.
Deschamps estimated that in reality, the numbers are higher.
“It’s not (including) students who aren’t talking about it with anybody or who are maybe talking about it with somebody but is not being reported to us,” she said.
Both she and David Bush, director of Counseling and Psychological Services and a licensed psychologist, said they found the recent numbers “concerning,” especially compared to past reports.
They said the increasing numbers seem to be a national trend, though Bush acknowledged that February and March consistently seem to be a season when individuals are more at risk.
In her office Deschamps receives student of concern reports, mostly from faculty members indicating that a student is potentially at-risk. These reports allow Deschamps and other members of the Behavioral Intervention Team, a committee organized to help monitor and assess the well being of students, to reach out to those in need.
She said only a fraction of the reports she gets come from the online submission form. Many times, she is contacted directly by friends and roommates through phone calls or face-to-face visits.
Deschamps said although there are some students who have a history of depression, she encounters many who have never struggled this way before.
Sheree Haggan, a multicultural program coordinator in the Access and Diversity Center, said aside from the pressures from college, Utah has a unique culture that often creates extra pressure for students living an already stressful life.
“Utah has this obsession with perfection,” she said. “It’s like trying to be perfect in school, trying to be perfect in your relationship, trying to be perfect in your life and your body, and there is so much pressure for perfection that when people fall short of that, they beat themselves up.”
Haggan said her office is especially concerned for at-risk LGBT students. Recent measures for marriage equality have been heavily covered by media, which she said can invite conversations of discrimination.
“If you look at the news and kind of see what’s trending and then who is more likely to commit suicide or do self-harming things, then I see kind of a parallel,” she said.
Bush said there are other possible factors weighing into risk level, such as substance abuse, but it’s impossible to predict who will be in danger.
“We’ll do what we can to get them to a state where they can think clearly,” Bush said. “But I think it would be a false message to communicate to the campus community that we have the magical power of predicting who will hurt themselves and who won’t. We can estimate, but ultimately individuals will make choices.”
Haggan said the rising occurrence of suicide should not be ignored.
“I think we’ve got to do something,” she said. “I think that we’re so scared to talk about it because we’re afraid of the ripple effect or clustering, but I think we need to.”
Deschamps said suicides can happen in clusters, citing cases at MIT, Penn State and Cornell. The BIT team hopes to ensure that students dealing with the emotional stress caused by a friend contemplating or committing suicide know that they also have support. And perhaps by learning the statistics, Deschamps said, people will know they’re not alone.
“It’s really easy to look on Facebook and see how great everybody’s lives are,” Deschamps said. “It’s easy to get locked into your own world view and think, ‘I’m the only one who feels this way. Everybody else is together. She’s always smiling. She never comes to class wearing her pajama bottoms.’ … It’s nice to know, ‘Oh, OK. I thought I was the only one who doesn’t feel great right now.'”
She said she hopes students will talk with friends willing to listen and help as well as trained professionals in the CAPS office and others throughout campus. Bush agreed.
“The message we’re trying to get out on campus,” he said, “is that there’s always someone who’s interested in listening and helping you find some reason to live.”
For more information on resources for students through CAPS, visit www.usu.edu/counseling. To submit a student of concern report, visit www.usu.edu/campussafety/reportingstudents.cfm.
— m.noble@aggiemail.usu.edu
Editor’s note: This is part one of a three-part series on suicide. The following two stories will go more in-depth on coping with suicide and resources available for those struggling.If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.