Growing up doesn’t come without growing pains like stress, anxiety and depression. College students are no exception.

Depression is a condition that can be induced by lifestyles afflicted with levels of high stress and anxiety, and it’s no wonder it has increased in high school and college-aged students over the past decade.

According to Dr. Michael Kelley, the senior director of Counseling Services, the majority of what students complain about is depression; however, that number is slowly decreasing, and more students are having problems with anxiety.

Kelly explained that although depression and anxiety are two different things, they often go hand in hand depending on what students are having difficulty with. Higher levels of stress and a severe lack of sleep can cause anxiety within students, which can often times lead to depression.

“If it’s more serious than a low-end case of depression, the first thing is the change in a motivation to study,” Kelley said. “Most students associate a lack of motivation to study with depression. Then, if it gets more serious, depression can cause loss of appetite, loss of a sense of direction, failure to attend class and trouble sleeping.”

Kelley also said Creighton’s Counseling Services sees about 800 people or more per year, and there are many things they do around campus to help students feel comfortable coming to talk to one of the counselors. Students don’t have to feel embarrassed about it.

“The main group of students that come through here are freshmen,” Kelley said. “It’s mostly during the first eight weeks of school, because those are the hardest. Those first eight weeks can be a difficult transition for some students for a number of different reasons. The recovery and counseling process is really just a way of problem-solving with your emotions and getting it all out on the table, which brings hope to students that they will be able to get through it.”

Kelley also said anti-depression medication is rarely used unless there is a serious issue.

“The real issue here is that students can get too involved on campus with academics and extracurricular activities, which can be overwhelming and stressful,” Kelley said. “If students have too much on their plate, then simply taking something off of it can do wonders for their mental health.”

The simplest thing students can do to avoid symptoms of depression and anxiety is to take care of themselves and only do what they can handle.

Sydney Morton, an Arts & Sciences sophomore talked about depression in Dr. Amy Badura Brack’s health psychology class.

“We discussed in class how depression can have negative physical effects on the body, and not just negative mental effects,” Morton said. “Chemical imbalances, being overworked, chronic stressors and lack of support from friends and family are all factors that can lead to an overabundance of epinephrine and cortisol, which compromise the immune system.”

These chemicals are released by the body as an initial stress response. A body under the influence of an extreme stressor, such as depression, results in immunocompromise, which means that the body does not respond well to vaccines, recovery from wounds and surgery may take longer and the body is simply more susceptible to viruses and disease.

“High levels of the epinephrine and cortisol can remain in the body for long periods of time, which increase the likelihood of a compromised immune system,” Morton said.

In order to understand depression more clearly, Brian Cole, Creighton’s field placement counselor, explained it’s important to understand the different ways men deal with depression versus the way women deal with depression.

“Depression is looked down upon by men, because men feel the need to bottle up their emotions inside of them, so it’s not something that is always open for discussion,” Cole said. “Instead they act out and drink and take longer to come in to counseling or get some form of help.”

Real Men Real Depression is an outreach campaign to men that allows them to break the trend of conforming to masculine norms specifically within the line of depression. Men identify different symptoms of depression compared with women.

“For men, they typically have to have a higher degree of distress, and symptoms can look different,” Cole said. “Men are more likely to drink, over exercise and become aggressive and angry, because it’s more socially acceptable.”

Arts & Sciences freshman Anne Schwieterman gained interest in depression awareness when she started researching depression as her speech topic for a communications class.

“I was trying to pick a relevant topic to college students,” Schwieterman said. “I wanted to pick something that focused specifically on teens. I really enjoyed the information I found.”

Schwieterman said depression was an important subject not only to her peers, but also to her family.

“I’ve had past personal experience with it, so it was something I could relate to and that I wanted to get other students interested in as well,” Schwieterman said. “I had family members and friends who struggled with it, and I felt that I could add a personal touch to the information I presented because of the background I had. I know it’s kind of a taboo topic to talk about, but it really hits home once you get older and understand how it really affects you.”

Since Schwieterman is also involved in the Freshman Leadership Program, she decided to take her depression awareness message to the next level. During the spring semester, FLP students are asked to propose a community activism project that involves all of FLP. Out of all of the proposals, Schwieterman’s depression awareness project was chosen.

“The project will consist of several depression awareness seminars that we’re hopefully going to present to a couple of Omaha high schools,” Schwieterman said. “At this point, we are just getting groups together to go and give a general presentation of statistics and basic information on how depression affects teens and also make it interesting and something they will remember.”

The FLP depression awareness project will also have two main presentation teams that will put on skits to make the presentations more interactive. Each member of FLP will help with some aspect of the project. The committees include things like contacting local schools, organizations, professors, researching and providing pamphlets.

“Depression is important, and it affects a lot of people’s lives, not just the ones suffering directly from it,” Schwieterman said. “The main thing for me is that I want to make sure people don’t go unnoticed and that students know where to go if they need help and what signs to look for if they see a change in the attitude and lifestyle of their friends or family members. I want to make it just like talking about a regular medical condition, instead of something people think isn’t really OK to talk about.”

The second main committee is the depression awareness committee. People on this committee will perform awareness activities in a hospital, go to a therapy session or meet with a counselor to get a general feel about the kinds of medicine, therapy and counseling that people who suffer from depression go through and follow the steps necessary for recovery.

“Depression is something that I truly think is hard to talk about, and because it’s somewhat downplayed makes raising awareness even more imperative,” Schwieterman said.

The actual presentations are expected to take place in late April.

Kelley’s main message to students who may be suffering from depression or anxiety or who know a friend who may be showing some of these symptoms is that there is hope.

“People who address their feelings can get relief,” Kelley said. “Depression is the most treatable of mental health problems. It is painful, but it is very treatable. There is a lot of hope, and people can get back on their feet.”