When I was still at community college, sometimes I'd walk all the way to the bus stop to catch the bus to go to school, and I'd get there and just turn around and walk back home. I'd get back home, get into my pajamas and watch the O.J. trial all day long. Similarly, Kathy Reeves, a resumer at Mills, was barely able to cope with the rigorous demands of the Mills curriculum after the antidepressants she had been taking stopped working in the Fall of last year. Dr. Dorian Newton, director of Mills' Counseling and Psychological Services, agrees that the demands of academia can really take a toll on students who deal with depression. Depression is viewed by psychiatrists as an illness in which a person experiences a marked change in her mood and in the way she views herself and the world.
Experts say depression is caused by an imbalance of the chemicals in the brain.
What initiates this change in chemistry can be either physical or psychological. Davis feels her experience with sexual harassment on the job was likely the trigger for her depression. Davis was also dealing with a death in the family and the care of two elderly parents at the time. Whatever the catalyst, it's clear that depression among college students is a prevailing problem. It wasn't long ago that Harvard and Stanford were out of their wits because they hospitalized something like ten students.