Student Mental Health Crisis – How Campuses Have Become Mental War Zones for Our Youth

April 24th, 2017

By Andreas Toupadakis Ph.D

Contributing writer for Wake Up World

“Student mental health… is the elephant in the room that no one is talking about.” ~ Richard Kadison from Harvard University, author of ‘College of the Overwhelmed: The Campus Mental Health Crisis and What to Do About It’ 

Michael (not his real name), after I had been acquainted with him for a few months, walked into my office one day and confessed to me what made him behave oddly every time he visited me. “Dr. Toupadakis, every day I have thoughts to kill and rape.”  Michael had been visiting me often at my office and he had taken one of my two first-year seminars. Michael was a likeable, wonderful young man, who slowly had come to trust me. I could see something was not all right since the beginning we met, but I could not figure out what it was. I was at a loss after his grave statement. I did not know how to respond and what to do.

I never expected to be in such a predicament being a chemistry teacher. After all, I never studied psychology or psychiatry, I just studied chemistry. I brought him that night to his dorm and while sitting with him in my car, I tried to encourage him to visit the appropriate services of the university for help. From his response, I found out that before he was accepted to the university, he was under medication. But, he decided to stop taking it because, as he said, he was afraid of the side effects. He made it clear to me that he did not want to visit the psychological services of our college.

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Also by Andreas Toupadakis Ph.D:

• Creating Your Future – Arise Great Warrior, Arise!
• Awaken Students! Education is for Self-Awareness and Inner Growth

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