“As this quarantine began back in March, at least for the state of New York, I thought to myself, holy crap, how am I going to mentally handle this. I’m a graduating college senior, and this is in fact, my last assignment, ever. The thought of completing my college career during these unpredictable times was and is daunting. I had to pack up my dorm mid-semester, say goodbye to my friends if they were even around or even, and go home. However, mentally, I’m okay. I thought that since I had major depressive disorder in high school, this would erupt during the commencement of my college career. Wrong. Looking back, I remember how welcoming Hofstra was and how open the environment seemed when I was a freshman. The concern for our mental health was always present, whether it be from each professor, welcome week leader, or RA. In high school, mental illness was taboo. My Catholic, all-girls high school didn’t seem to let us know we had mental health services on call. And if we did, I didn’t know about them until maybe my senior year. They introduced some sort of therapist and made students meet with the newly appointed confidant who seemed desperate to keep her job in all honesty. Fast forward to the end of the year, her shoe closet of an office was closed, and she was fired. Yet her position always seemed like an afterthought to me. I don’t know the backend of why she was hired or who insisted she be hired, but she wasn’t effective. During this time I missed a lot of school, and if you calculated it, probably 2 and a half weeks worth. My grades were higher than average, but my mental health was far below average. When I did seek help from this therapist, I finally mustered up the energy to tell her about my parents’ divorce and the nitty gritty details she seemed appalled to hear. Given, I did face a lot of trauma that later on led me to be diagnosed with PTSD, but the shock on her face made me feel like I made a mistake. Like I was an odd case to her, when in reality, even though everyone’s experiences are different, I have heard of way worse situations girls like me have been in. She later told me to confirm what I had told her because she wanted to contact the police. My face began to fizzle and a flush of red took over my skin. I felt embarrassed, angry, and alone. Isn’t a mental health professional supposed to absorb a patient’s information with extreme understanding and the promise of confidentiality?”
Listen for more.
Works Cited:
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition. United States, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.
Hardcastle, H. (2020, February). Why you should take a break: Prioritizing mental health in schools | Hailey Hardcastle | TEDxSalem. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD0w_gOEbUI&t=222s
Sifferlin, Alexandra. “Why Teenage Brains Are So Hard to Understand.” Time.com, 2017, time.com/4929170/inside-teen-teenage-brain/.
Christina's WSC 119 Blog 