College students are displaying more severe mental illnesses, including depression than from a decade ago, according to a study presented at the 118th annual convention of the American Psychological Association.

“When I become stressed out my depression has a tendency of flaring up, so in school when I am stressed my depression can disturb my concentration and I often feel fatigued,” said Andrea Moore, 21, a CSU East Bay Mass Communications major.

Moore was diagnosed by her psychiatrist with depression in her sophomore year of high school and has been suffering for five years.

In a National College Health Assessment survey taken at CSUEB in 2010 with 1,598 respondents, 11 percent of students said that depression has affected their individual academic performance, according to the survey.

“A disadvantage of having depression is that unless you have it, you don’t understand how impactful it can be, and therefore, finding someone to talk to outside of therapy can be very difficult,” said Moore.

John Guthman, PhD and director of student counseling services at Hofstra University, author of the APA study and his co-authors looked at the records of 3,256 college students who accessed college counseling support between September 1997 and August 2009 at a mid-sized private university, according to the American Psychological Association.

“Overall, the average quality of depression and anxiety experienced by students in counseling has remained constant and relatively mild during the last decade,” Guthman said. “However, the percentage of students with moderate to severe depression has gone up from 34 to 41 percent.”

Twenty five percent of male students and 32.8 percent of female students stated they felt so depressed that it was difficult to function any time within the last 12 months, according to the National College Health Assessment survey.

“Without medication, there were days when I had to force myself out of bed,” said CSUEB student Kelsey Papzaian. “It was hard for me to keep in touch with friends, I became introverted. It had a negative effect on my relationship with my boyfriend to the point where we almost broke up.”

The Health and Wellness Center located at the CSUEB Hayward campus offers short-term individual counseling for support due to stress, relationship problems, depression, anxiety, family issues, alcohol/drug use, or other personal concerns at no cost, according to the counseling services homepage.

“Students are eligible to receive free personal counseling to explore depression, receive free psychiatry services to assess and maintain medication,” said Jennifer Miranda, manager of Health and Wellness Services.

“It used to be that students would come to university counseling centers because they broke up with their partner or failed a test,” Guthman said. “Now, they are coming with emotional distress and requesting mental health treatment for the same reasons that other adult populations seeks out treatment.”

“CSUEB offers counseling services I could take advantage of but my therapy seems to be enough for me,” said Moore.

“I exercise in order to help soothe my depression. I work out at least four to five times a week and it seems to be beneficial,” said Papazian.

“University and college counseling services around the country are reporting that the needs of students seeking services are escalating toward more severe psychological problems,” said Guthman.

“While the condition of students seeking counseling doesn’t necessarily reflect the experience of the average college student, our findings may suggest that students with severe emotional stress are getting better education, outreach and support during childhood that makes them more likely to attend college than in the past,” said Guthman.