Declining Student Resilience: A Serious Problem for Colleges - Polidicks

Source: [url]https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201509/declining-student-resilience-serious-problem-colleges[/url] [QUOTE]A year ago I received an invitation from the head of Counseling Services at a major university to join faculty and administrators for discussions about how to deal with the decline in [URL="https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/resilience"]resilience[/URL]among students. At the first meeting, we learned that emergency calls to Counseling had more than doubled over the past five years. Students are increasingly seeking help for, and apparently having emotional crises over, problems of everyday life. Recent examples mentioned included a student who felt traumatized because her roommate had called her a “bitch” and two students who had sought counseling because they had seen a mouse in their off-campus apartment. The latter two also called the police, who kindly arrived and set a mousetrap for them.[/QUOTE]

[quote]Recent examples mentioned included a student who felt traumatized because her roommate had called her a “bitch” and two students who had sought counseling because they had seen a mouse in their off-campus apartment. The latter two also called the police, who kindly arrived and set a mousetrap for them.[/quote] And here I am, thinking this may have been caused by legitimate, actual problems. How adorably naive of me.

When I went to university, I was a whiny bitch. It emotionally wrecked me several times, but I hung in there. Now I've graduated I actually feel like the experience has given me a lot more resolve now I've been through that stress. Perhaps this is just similar growing pains, except that some of these people grew up in an even more sheltered environment than I did.

This explains a lot, actually.

Weak ass people!

Rousseau called it: [quote="Rousseau - On the Origin of Inequality Excerpt]The horse, the cat, the bull, and even the ass are generally of greater stature, and always more robust, and have more vigour, strength and courage, when they run wild in the forests than when bred in the stall. By becoming domesticated, they lose half these advantages; and it seems as if all our care to feed and treat them well serves only to deprave them. It is thus with man also: as he becomes sociable and a slave, he grows weak, timid and servile; his effeminate way of life totally enervates his strength and courage.[/quote]

[quote] Recent examples mentioned included a student who felt traumatized because her roommate had called her a “bitch” and two students who had sought counseling because they had seen a mouse in their off-campus apartment. The latter two also called the police, who kindly arrived and set a mousetrap for them.[/quote] Force these people to live on a farm for a few months. All problems resolved.

[QUOTE=Zenreon117;48881667]Rousseau called it: descartes.txt[/QUOTE] I sure am glad his theories were mostly applied to the nature of humans rather than animal husbandry, or our meat would be gamey, grizzly and gristled.

Okay I was thinking like "Well, people in there are under lot of socio-economical pressure these days, makes sense there's more depressions, anxiety, that kind of stuff" but "oh god there's a mouse in my room call the cops" is just silly.

I feel a lot like there is an increasing gap between differently educated social circles and it's a lot due to cultural bubbeling through social media.

[QUOTE]haven’t developed skills in how to soothe themselves, because their parents have solved all their problems and removed the obstacles. They don’t seem to have as much grit as previous generations.”[/QUOTE] Pretty much this. Parents teaching kids to treat every adult as a potential child molester and never allowing them to go out and do stuff on their own, etc. Hell.. some places have this codified into law.

[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;48881622]And here I am, thinking this may have been caused by legitimate, actual problems. How adorably naive of me.[/QUOTE] Well to be fair from just those examples its hard to draw any real conclusions, I doubt calls like these are anything new. They're going to cherry pick the worst they can find rather then try to represent which type of call are increasing proportionally.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;48881752]Okay I was thinking like "Well, people in there are under lot of socio-economical pressure these days, makes sense there's more depressions, anxiety, that kind of stuff" but "oh god there's a mouse in my room call the cops" is just silly.[/QUOTE] I have a pair of fucking squirrels above my bathroom, I wish I could kill them, and I've complained to my building manager plenty [editline]11th October 2015[/editline] Also ya there's some unusual skills people are missing but the same case has been leveled at every generation, go watch revenge of the nerds, the same issues mentioned here, codified into a movie that's almost 30 years old

I wonder how it ended up coming to this. One thing I find that will add to this is prescribing stuff for theses symptoms rather than teaching people to take it head on.

The biggest issue is there is so much more on the line in today's colleges, you fail, youre not going to work at a steel mill or factory, youre fucked And people are much more aware of mental health issues like depression today than ever before

[QUOTE=DELL;48881793]I wonder how it ended up coming to this. One thing I find that will add to this is prescribing stuff for theses symptoms rather than teaching people to take it head on.[/QUOTE] Parents cared about their kids feelings too much. People lose their shit over participation medals but thats just one small aspect of the problem.

[QUOTE=DELL;48881793]I wonder how it ended up coming to this. One thing I find that will add to this is prescribing stuff for theses symptoms rather than teaching people to take it head on.[/QUOTE] helicopter parents shielding their children from life. this is what happens if you don't let your kids play outside or just do anything in general without parental supervision.

[QUOTE=Sableye;48881795]The biggest issue is there is so much more on the line in today's colleges, you fail, youre not going to work at a steel mill or factory, youre fucked And people are much more aware of mental health issues like depression today than ever before[/QUOTE] Trade and tech schools will get you a job before many college degrees. People think college is the only solution post graduation but it's the worst solution for many. Also uni can be stressful as fuck. Living away from home for the first time, taking care of yourself, challenging courses. At least if you're there to get a degree and not just party your tuition away.

You should get fined for wasting police resources and time on a mouse. Call an exterminator if you can't handle a pest yourself.

I was expecting this to be because of legitimate issues. I always thought my university had some bad mental health problems because times I've needed a counselor I could never get in because of the long ass waiting list, but for all I know it could be caused by asinine shit like this making it impossible for the people like me who need legitimate help to get it.

I was expecting this to be about the stress of schools and the looming issues in the near and far future that many young people will come to live with as a reality. Not about mice and being called a bitch. Like I genuinely get anxious thinking about the world in 2030 just due to the numerous issues currently in play that will be more obvious in 15 years, but it's not like I'd call a cop or a counsellor over that.

People used to be bothered by stuff like "Oh no, part of my crop failed, little billy might not make it through winter" "Oh no, I don't have a good education" "Oh no, I don't have the latest car" "Oh no, it is taking 5 minutes to connect to people across the world" "Oh no, it is taking more than 3 seconds to load the internet on my mobile phone" "Oh no, a mouse, my life is over" Louis CK: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEY58fiSK8E[/media] 1:30 onward specifically

[QUOTE=DELL;48881793]I wonder how it ended up coming to this. One thing I find that will add to this is prescribing stuff for theses symptoms rather than teaching people to take it head on.[/QUOTE] I think that they become easily startled because they aren't exposed to dealing with issues. They're encouraged to avoid problems instead of tackling them.

Well I can sort of understand the issue with many students entering a university environment. They're being put into a completely different environment; no longer in high school. Your friends are likely in a different college, separated, or behind so you're expected to get a long with others in your classes or in your dormitory. You're also being given a ton of responsibility and also a ton of freedom compared from being high school, you are responsible for managing your courses, finances, what you eat and how you set up a schedule. For many, and this is anecdotal, but a lot of my uni friends took this sense of freedom too much. Bird out of a cage. Your family is also having expectations of you; you got yourself admitted to a nice university, your parents are likely paying for your tuition. Many students probably had to go to additional prep classes while in high school at the will of their parents. Even more students go to college with little to no sense of direction or than 'my parents just wanted me to get a degree'

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;48881752]Okay I was thinking like "Well, people in there are under lot of socio-economical pressure these days, makes sense there's more depressions, anxiety, that kind of stuff" but "oh god there's a mouse in my room call the cops" is just silly.[/QUOTE] I've never had a quicker flip in attitude while reading an article

I feel like they definitely plucked the worst, or tiniest problems they've had to deal with in the past to build up their point. But college and university can lead to a colossal amount of mental and physical health issues, boosted by strict deadlines, financial issues, work/school workload, and just overall stress. That's no lie. It's not always because a person is just "too weak" to deal with it. These few specific cases are just. Ridiculous enough for them to single out, I guess. I wish they hadn't. It really downplays the cases in which people, who were already likely having mental health issues, just on a smaller, more manageable scale, were suddenly pushed into overexposure by school and forced to acclimate. Idk it's a huge problem all around, but yeah, I doubt those two cases were simply cut and dry. Maybe the girl with the roommate had been facing consistent verbal or possibly physical abuse from this other girl. Maybe the people with the mouse in their room had severe phobias. Obviously, these are a bit of a guess, but you just never know. It's hard to say whether or not someone is valid in searching for help when you just don't know what's going on.

Everyone is sensitive about everything and its just.... Kinda sad, really. Crippling problems like legit Depression/Anxiety/etc should be the only reason for use of such resources. Like right now, a friend of mine is in college and she sees a counselor for the sole reason that really, no one likes her cause she's sort of a stuck up bitch, and she's trying to get out of that habit. And even then, she hates every minute of having to go to a counselor in the first place... It doesn't quite make sense. I didn't go to college to make friends, I went for an education. That's what its fucking for.

[QUOTE=No_Excuses;48881981]Trade and tech schools will get you a job before many college degrees. People think college is the only solution post graduation but it's the worst solution for many. Also uni can be stressful as fuck. Living away from home for the first time, taking care of yourself, challenging courses. At least if you're there to get a degree and not just party your tuition away.[/QUOTE] It's a little different in the US though, even trade schools don't garentee a full time job after high school, and often you have to still go to some sort of college for some kind of certification which can be costly, and if by tech schools you mean like ITT or any of those other for profit degree farms, its a waste of money, again most colleges have absorbed the engineering tech programs and you need to go through them to get the better paying technician jobs

[QUOTE=NoobieWafer223;48882169]Everyone is sensitive about everything and its just.... Kinda sad, really. Crippling problems like legit Depression/Anxiety/etc should be the only reason for use of such resources. Like right now, a friend of mine is in college and she sees a counselor for the sole reason that really, no one likes her cause she's sort of a stuck up bitch, and she's trying to get out of that habit. And even then, she hates every minute of having to go to a counselor in the first place... It doesn't quite make sense. I didn't go to college to make friends, I went for an education. That's what its fucking for.[/QUOTE] That sounds like a legitimate case And college is also about networking

The mouse thing reminds me of [video=youtube;RH1v8J6Wjtg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH1v8J6Wjtg[/video]