A state of crisis

The number of counselling sessions among university students rose by almost a quarter between 2009 and 2014.

When watching the popular Jack Nicholson film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, you would never think the mental patients inside the hospital (or the 'cuckoo's nest') have much in common with university students.

They're paranoid to the point of schizophrenia, insanely anxious and visibly depressed. But according to an American study, university students have the same level of anxiety mentally ill patients had 60 years ago. But why? And what is being done about it?

Before we go any further, we need to first determine whether this problem is isolated in the US or happening here in New Zealand. And unfortunately, the stats don't look good. According to a report done by The New Zealand Union of Students' Association in 2014, the number of counselling sessions among university students rose by almost a quarter between 2009 and 2014. The same report also states that 36 per cent of tertiary students surveyed say anxiety caused by student-related debt will affect their decision to have children. On a wider scale, the Mental Health Foundation says one in six adults in the country are diagnosed with a common mental disorder at some stage of their lives.

These figures are not cherry picked, either. There are hundreds - if not thousands - of studies, reports and articles full of shocking statistics like the ones mentioned, and they all point to the same conclusion, which is that the mental health of university students in New Zealand is in a state of crisis.

So what is it about university that makes people so mentally unwell?

Is it the stress of assignments? The infamous pressure of being a broke student? Or is it something we don't even think about, such as diet? Dr Julia Rucklidge, a professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Canterbury, has research to show it may be the latter. According to Dr Rucklidge, there is an undeniable correlation between poor mental health and rising levels of obesity and other physical health issues - a link she says cannot be ignored.

"There are some fantastic studies from all over the world that all show the same thing, which is that the more you eat a Western kind of diet, which is high in processed food and refined sugars and low in vegetables and fruits, the more likely you will suffer from mental health problems."

She adds that, "Being a student is generally a hard time for eating well because you are on a very restricted budget, so people turn to processed foods because they assume they are cheaper." But Dr Rucklidge says you don't need to be a millionaire to purchase healthy food (unless you're a fan of smashed avocados) and that students can eat well on a budget.

However, even if students are not nutrient poor, being financially poor can also heavily contribute to rising stress levels.

Auckland University Student Kayla* knows how it feels to be without cash, and went through intense depression and anxiety during her time at university because of it. "I had to work five days a week with a 5am wake up, which led to a lot of sleep deprivation and stress."
She says the university process was also confusing and isolating, which caused her to sink into an even deeper state of depression. To combat these issues, Kayla started using her boyfriend's anti-depressant medication, and has been taking her own prescribed pills ever since.

"I saw a notable improvement since taking them and have been on them for about two-and-a-half years now. They haven't completely solved my problem but they've helped me cope with it a lot more."

Even for students that are not struggling financially, sometimes the accumulative pressure of having a massive student loan can cause anxiety. AUT student Taylor attests to this, and says that during her time at university she felt so much pressure to pass and not rake up more debt, she developed anxiety. "If we choose the wrong degree or fail a paper, we have to pay so much more money. Our parents didn't have this sort of pressure on them because it was free to study back then." Taylor's point is valid, and could explain why depression in New Zealand is increasing at rapid speed.

Another reason anxiety and depression levels among tertiary students are far higher than they used to be might be linked to the growing number of people studying from varying backgrounds. When I was asking Sarah about the depression she is currently experiencing while studying at Auckland University, she made this point: "University is an intense environment in and of itself, but also universities aren't able to deal with the increasing diversity of experiences of their students, whether that is through pressure from family, needing to work, looking after a family, or systematic discrimination. This may be leading to a lot of students facing stressful environments that they can't cope in."

To exemplify Sarah's point, you can't study a nursing degree part-time at AUT, so if you have a family or any other responsibilities that will require too much of your time, you're basically screwed.

On the other hand, Dr Anthony O'Brien, a senior lecturer in the nursing, medical and health sciences sector at the University of Auckland, says there are a lot more services to help people with mental health problems than in the '80s. However, he is unsure whether the right kind of help is being offered. "There could be more psychological services available ... Most of the mental health problems students experience would respond to psychological therapy rather than medical treatment."

In New Zealand antidepressants were prescribed to 427,900 patients in 2013, a number that is 20 per cent higher than it was in 2008. Dr Rucklidge says this figure is worrying, as, although medication may work for some people in the short term, if we continue to use it as our primary form of help, she says the country's mental health will never improve.

"If the medications were working then the statistics should be getting better. We should be having less people on a mental health-related disability benefit rather than a growing number of people on it, despite taking medications."

Contrarily, Dr Rucklidge says offering counselling to every student would come at a huge cost to the taxpayer. She believes our society should promote healthy mindsets and lifestyles.

And if that means less hours at work, more time with our families, and better quality food at a cheaper price, who could say no?

"We need to be thinking differently about mental health and really focus on empowering people to look after themselves better in order to prevent mental health problems from happening in the first place."

Mental health legislation in this country is clearly not working as well as it should. Our country's spending on mental health is going up and so are the rates of mental illnesses, which should not be happening. We need to shake the system up big time, that way in the future, university students can be the ones flying over the cuckoo's nest, not the ones inside it.

*Some names have been changed to protect identities