mental health – The Oberlin Review

Administration, Students Must Collaborate to Deal with Mental Health on Campus

Kristen Harris, Contributing Writer

November 16, 2018

A campus-wide email was sent out to students Oct. 30 by Associate Dean of Students Matthew Hayden, asking them to participate in the Healthy Minds Study. The survey was designed by the Healthy Minds Study Team of the University of Michigan to give students a chance to reflect on and express concerns with mental health stressors within the institution and campus environment. The survey also aims to heighten awareness of sources of support. In the survey, students are asked about their eating and sleeping habits, substance use and abuse, current and past emotional and mental health, and body image. Upon reflecting on this study and our current state of affairs as an institution, I have come to see it as a potential...

The Brotherhood Needs to Step Up

Khalid McCalla

September 21, 2018

“Rub some dirt on it.” As a young football player, every bump, scrape, and bruise was met with this response or one similar to it. “Shake it off and get back out there,” was the message, and, in a sport like football, this sentiment is sometimes inevitable. You’re going to get hurt. It’s part of the game. You’re expected to take it in stride and continue to help the team. You’re expected to rub some dirt on it. But what happens when the pain you’re feeling can’t be reached by a handful of dirt or pushed aside for the sake of the team? Football finds pride in its masculinity. Every year, teams across the country are filled with only the biggest, strongest, and fastest young men i...

Pro Athletes Destigmatize Mental Illness

Alexis Dill, Sports Editor

April 20, 2018

Editor’s Note: This article contains mentions of mental illness and suicide. Shooting hoops in the driveway and kicking around a soccer ball in the backyard as a kid, I never thought that being an athlete at a high level could be so taxing. My sports heroes had glamorous lifestyles, driving expensive cars and gracing the covers of Sports Illustrated. It never occurred to me that the biggest and strongest opponent that many collegiate and professional athletes ever face is mental illness. According to Daniel Eisenberg, an associate professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan, 33 percent of college students experience symptoms of mental illness. Although 30 percent of those students get help, ...

Rabbi Shais Taub Delivers Spiritual Take on Stress, Self-Care

Ananya Gupta, Arts & Culture Editor

December 8, 2017

In this particularly stressful time of year, various groups on campus are organizing events oriented around self-care, some of which include inviting visiting speakers to bring their perspectives to the topic. On Wednesday, Pittsburgh-based Rabbi Shais Taub was invited to Oberlin by Chabad to offer insights on creating a healthy environment within one’s own mind, and ignoring that which distracts you from your purpose. Rabbi Taub, a scholar, teacher, and author who NPR has referred to as “an expert in Jewish mysticism and the Twelve Steps,” provides spiritual guidance to people facing stressful situations in their lives. After studying at the Central Lubavitch Yeshiva in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, he combined his relig...

Finding Community Reduces Stress, Improves Mental Health

Melissa Harris, Editor-in-Chief

September 15, 2017

One endemic problem I see constantly in college students — a problem I’m guilty of feeding into myself — is the pressure to push yourself everyday, treating each semester like a marathon that you have to run on your own. Some lock themselves in their rooms, spending hours on endless problem sets while others find themselves buried in Mudd’s eerily silent corners, reading stacks of assigned articles and books. This experience has been all too familiar to me throughout my time at Oberlin and, as I kick off my senior year with a capstone and honors project to tackle this semester, I’ve been isolating myself more than I would like. In getting wrapped up in my research and personal stress, I sometimes forg...

Administration Neglects Mental Health Needs

Marissa Maxfield, Contributing Writer

February 17, 2017

Psychiatric and counseling services on college campuses typically receive inadequate attention compared to other areas of health care, and Oberlin is no exception. While past disparities can be attributed to the invisibility of mental conditions and suppressive social influence, ignorance is not a viable excuse. It’s time for the institution to stop putting mental health on the backburner. In a Feb. 6 article published by STAT News, Megan Thielking reported a lack of mental health resources on campuses nationwide. From small colleges to major universities, “Students often have to wait weeks just for an initial intake exam to review their symptoms,” Thielking wrote. “The wait to see a psychiatrist who can pre...

Mental Health Initiatives Reveal Where Student Opinion Heard Loudest

Editorial Board

September 4, 2015

Laundry prices and ObieID password changes notwithstanding, few things at Oberlin are as widely maligned as the College’s mental health resource infrastructure. While Student Health Services as a whole receives a significant amount of criticism from students year after year and while the College makes regular efforts to respond in due course, the way Oberlin handles mental health issues seems to consistently receive low marks. These resources are understandingly in high demand, since any environment in which academic pressure and personal stresses collide necessitates an effective outlet for seeking help. In line with the issue’s persistence, Dean of Students Eric Estes’ Aug. 25 email to students — which foc...

Student Health Center to Double Number of Psychiatrists

Louis Krauss, Staff Writer

April 10, 2015

Next year, the student health fee will rise from $200 to $230 in order to hire more psychiatrists in the Student Health Center. The health fee, which was introduced in the 2013–2014 year, pays for the counselors and psychiatrists at the Health Center, who visit a couple of times a week to give free appointments to students. According to Dean Eric Estes, who discussed the fee hike with Student Senate about a month ago, the additional $30 will increase the number of psychiatrists from two to four or five next year and increase the number of available student appointments by 50 percent. Student Senator, Chair of the Student Health Working Group and double-degree sophomore Jeremy Poe believes this cost change will...

Working Group Prioritizes Mental Health

February 27, 2015

Members of Student Senate’s Student Health Working Group are pushing for a variety of initiatives this semester to improve the accessibility, visibility and quality of student mental health services, which many feel are not serving their needs. College junior Avalon McKee, co-chair of the Oberlin Mental Health Alliance and member of the Student Health Working Group, said she hopes these initiatives will address both short-term and long-term concerns. “In a lot of our initiatives, we have...

Awareness Vital in Eating Disorder Treatment

Rose Stoloff, Editor-in-Chief

February 20, 2015

Trigger Warning: This article contains discussion of eating disorders. Over the summer I found myself sitting in my bed at three in the morning writing an email to my mother, confessing to her that I had been living with an eating disorder for the last three years. That night, while trying in vain to fall asleep, something clicked in my brain. I was done hiding my disease, done suffering alone and ready for help. Her response the next morning: “I already knew; I love you.” My eating disorder crept up on me during the summer before my sophomore year at Oberlin. It snaked its way into my life so maliciously and silently that I never even recognized it for what it was. I wasn’t planning on losing weight; I neve...

College Must Accommodate Health Emergencies

Goo Mattison, College sophomore

February 13, 2015

Editors’ Note: College sophomore Goo Mattison posted the following letter on Facebook on Jan. 25 and has given permission for it to be printed in its entirety. The recent dissatisfaction with Oberlin College’s health services has been a major issue on campus this year, with the Oberlin Mental Health Alliance communicating with the administration and the Counseling Center to improve access to resources for those with disabilities. To the Editors: I was debating whether or not I should publish this, as it's fairly personal, but the importance of communicating the extent to which Oberlin does not care about the health of its students won out. Before the week of finals began, I was doubting whether I could ...

Misconceptions Delegitimize Seasonal Depression

CJ Blair, Columnist

October 10, 2014

This week not only ushers in a slew of students stressing over midterms but also signals that Oberlin is about to begin its annual descent into the unending bleakness of winter. Especially at a college with such a geographically diverse student body, the emotional shock of this cold can be unforgiving to those unaccustomed to it. While many may feel affected by the change in weather, most of them will grow used to it after a while. Some of them, however, will not. These students suffer from seasonal affective disorder, also known as seasonal depression, a very real condition that most people don’t realize or believe exists. Attitudes toward seasonal depression — and depression in general — often reflect indifference...