John

John Watson in the show Sherlock is a veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and somatoform disorder. While these are his only two “diagnoses,” he exhibits multiple other traits of psychological issues and mental illnesses. For the most part, John comes off to others in the show and viewers of the show as mentally stable - it is when you look deeper into his past and current personality that his issues become more evident. After John was discharged and sent back to England from Afghanistan, he subconsciously felt inadequate or “crippled,” as if he had been stripped of his purpose. These feelings, combined with the physical trauma he experienced, may have manifested themselves into what became his psychosomatic limp (somatoform disorder). His feelings of being mentally or emotionally crippled seemed to have digressed into a physical sensation. John also has a strong desire to put himself in stressful or very risky situations to gain the pleasure of excitement. Even though John is very calm by nature, he tends to bottle up all his anger and issues and release everything at once. He also struggles with his eating habits. Not in the sense that he wants to lose weight, but he likes to have control over something so concrete in his life that he knows he can manage his weight. He also just does not really see the point or feel the need to feed himself anymore. A lot of what John struggles with is psychosomatic survivors' guilt. The issues that John faces are due to his PTSD and depression. John does have access to a therapist but continues to struggle even with help. John lives a successful life, but still struggles every day, like many college students.  Anxiety and depression are two of the most prevalent mental health disorders on college campuses. Students are experiencing more stress from school and social life than they have ever before, creating negative effects on them personally. Eating disorders, however, are less well-known and becoming a much larger issue than ever before. Data from one college over a 13-year period shows total eating disorders increased from 23 to 32% among females and from 7.9 to 25% among males and the percentage of students eating according to a special weight loss diet increased from 4.2% in 1995 to 22% in 2008. There are many factors that can play a role in provoking an eating disorder, such as bulimia or anorexia, including an increased workload, less structure, more focus on peers, anxieties, learning issues, poor self-esteem, and other stressors. When you mix the school-related stressors and social-related stressors, it creates an almost perfect storm for an eating disorder. Students might feel the need to control such a stressful environment, but this control is shown through over-exercise, food restriction, and an unhealthy focus on body weight. For most students, college is the first time in their lives that they have absolute control over when what, and how much they eat. The University of Louisville provides students with psychiatric services through campus health services. These confidential psychiatric services are free to enroll students and cover disorders, like depression, anxiety, sleep issues, eating disorders, and problems with drugs and alcohol. Students will meet with licensed, board-certified faculty psychiatrists who will complete initial evaluations, follow up with care, and refer students to other community of campus resources. The Eating Anxiety Treatment (EAT) Lab is a lab and clinic located at UL and is directed by Dr. Cheri A. Levinson, Ph.D. The lab is dedicated to research on and treatment for eating disorders and anxiety. The EAT lab provides specialty clinic services for eating disorders, disordered eating, appearance anxiety, body dissatisfaction, and eating anxiety. In 2008, almost half of college students had a psychiatric disorder within the past year, and as school continues to get harder and the societal expectations of students and young adults increase, those numbers are only getting worse.  College campuses, the University of Louisville specifically, have increased their amounts of mental health resources for students around campus, but as we see with John, sometimes going to therapy is not enough. 

If the university is already providing free psychiatric services to students and it still is not sufficient, then what else can be done?  Students across campus struggle within their own minds every day, but from a faculty standpoint, this can be super difficult to recognize, but it is important to try. Professors typically see students more than any other university staff, and while it is not their job to notice when a student’s mental health is lacking, they should be aware. Red flags can include skipping multiple classes without reason, lack of focus in class, a lot of irregular movements in class, bad grades, exceptional grades, sudden weight loss, excessive bruising, scarring, or burns. When some students feel like their lives are so out of their control, they deflect these issues onto other things that they can control; grades, food intake, social life. It is normal to think that when a student has great grades and is always in class that they are mentally okay, but this just is not always the case. The university can also begin to implement and advertise mental health screenings and the help options for mental health more publicly. Mental health screenings are available on campus but happen irregularly. Monthly campus-wide screenings have been very beneficial to other campuses across the nation. Another thing that can be done to improve student's mental health is to educate them more on the topic. A lot of students are not able to recognize when they are struggling mentally or are too scared to seek help. If courses, informational meetings, mental health training videos - similar to the ones we had to watch about COVID - students would be able to educate themselves more on what a mental issue can look like and how to better help themselves.  

Just as we see with John Watson, mental illnesses can be deceiving and very misunderstood. Someone who seems to be okay to the public and even attempts to better themselves by going to therapy can be struggling much more than you can see. College is such a hard time for many students for many reasons and campuses just like ours have made advances in making it easier. But there is a lot more to be done, and action must be taken immediately.