Often at Case Western Reserve University you will hear about the importance of therapy. People will say it’s imperative that we take care of our well-being to make sure that we can show up as our best selves in our academic pursuits. Yet there seems to be a disconnect between this advice and genuine therapy attendance. In many ways, society has changed to become more mental health positive, with less stigma surrounding the idea of therapy. On campus, we have many clubs and offices that champion mental wellness, such as University Health and Counseling Services, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and Self-carE, Xoxo You! (Se-Xy) just to name a few. Yet actually making sure you are mentally well at such a rigorous university can take a lot more effort than attending one therapy session or doing a couple wellness activities a week. Additionally, accepting that you may not be doing well can be a tough pill to swallow, as many try to convince themselves that these are problems that concern other students, not themselves.

Many of us come from homes where academics are considered paramount to success in life. Our parents may be working hard to afford our education, or maybe they don’t even believe that non-severe mental illnesses, such as moderate anxiety and depression, exist. Perhaps when you’ve expressed your concerns about burnout to your mother or father, they’ve chided you for being lazy or claimed that when they were younger, they just suffered so you should do the same. They may even say that you are working hard so that someday you’ll be able to support yourself—that’s when you can finally relax. It’s likely that, as a result, you were one of the highest achievers in your high school classes, pushing yourself to accomplish more and more from an early age. It makes sense, then, why you’d be so set on stretching yourself thin. You could be harboring anxiety that you’re fully aware of but don’t believe that you have enough time to genuinely tackle.

A 2020 study identified some of the main barriers that prevent children and adolescents from seeking professional mental health advice. Some of the factors are the following: “limited mental health knowledge and broader perceptions of help-seeking,” “social factors, for example, perceived social stigma and embarrassment,” “young people’s perceptions of the therapeutic relationship with professionals” and “systemic and structural barriers and facilitators, such as financial costs associated with mental health services, logistical barriers, and the availability of professional help.” At CWRU, it is likely that working out the logistics of therapy prevents a lot of students from seeking help. It can seem daunting to make that first step, and instead it may appear easier to try not to poke at the problem for a fear of making it worse. Resources on campus consist of appointments from University Health and Counseling as well as TimelyCare, a third-party online service which allows you to make an appointment with a therapist. The problem with these solutions is often availability. For example, there are only so many staff members at a time in the Health and Counseling office that can see students. Additionally, by using a third-party app, it can be difficult for students to establish a connection with one therapist if the person they are able to see is always changing based on availability. If you have many topics that you feel you must cover in a session, it can be difficult to get everything out without having the stability of time or familiarity. In fact, you could end up wasting time simply explaining the backstory of your problems rather than working on genuinely rectifying them. Thus, after a session, students may get frustrated or become convinced that therapy isn’t for them. They may begin to believe that continuing to suffer is the most painless course of action.

A larger issue could exist with our generation’s increasing self-isolation. Due to technological innovations such as smartphones, laptops and social media, we’ve become increasingly connected to people over a digital space. While giving the illusion of appearing to be more connected to each other, this hyperconnectivity allows for comparison between individuals. We can see all of the highlights of our friends’ lives, even the highlights of people we don’t even know. We compare how much we study to other people, communicate through comments sections and lament over the fact that we don’t seem to be having as much fun on nights out. Additionally, these devices act as distractions for both boredom and our problems. We cling to our phones, hoping that self-help advice online will help us to fix our mental problems and regulate our thoughts, when in reality, all we may need is to talk to someone. Many of us are guilty of keeping our true feelings to ourselves for fear of inconveniencing others. In fact, social media discourse about friendship often pops up on platforms such as X, formerly known as Twitter. Posts with someone complaining about their friend asking them to pick them up from the airport or talking too much about their own life always generate heated arguments in the comments, with people commiserating about their “overbearing” friends or claiming that the original poster is simply a bad friend. In this increasingly digital age, we need to be willing to be more gracious to each other and provide a safe space for our friends to vent.

In addition to providing a safe space for others, we need to do the same for ourselves. So the next time you are feeling like it is better to suffer in silence, maybe take a closer look at the information you have been fed which has forced you to believe such. Getting yourself into an overall better headspace doesn’t always come with a quick fix. Relying on the beliefs of people who have come before you in survival mode is only going to ensure that you continue to spread their narrative that hard work always comes with suffering. As we go forward into the second half of the semester, try to break out of that cycle that you may be in and reach out to someone about your problems. Who knows? It may help you develop your own story to tell.