Daily Staff Writer

College is an exciting time for most students, but for those diagnosed with depression, it can be a different experience.

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 10 percent of college students have been diagnosed with depression.

Depression affects 17 million Americans. By age 24, one out of four young adults will have experienced a depressive episode, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

Jessica Vicker, junior is sociology, usually had trouble getting into school mode. About two weeks before the fall semester started, however, she noticed that something just wasn’t right.

But she didn’t think it was a health problem until it got in the way of her classes.

“I couldn’t even sit down and finish an assignment,” Vicker said.

A month into the semester, Vicker was diagnosed with clinical depression.

“A lot of days I felt like ‘I’m out of bed and I’m dressed, what more do you want from me?'” Vicker said. “It was an inability to do anything.”

Clinical depression, also known as major depression, is a biological, medical illness of which Vicker’s family has a history.

Biological depression is one of the two main types of depression, said Michelle Roling, program coordinator for Student Counseling Services.

People with depression usually feel hopelessness, have a lack of motivation, are tired, have loss of enjoyment, have a change in eating habits and isolate themselves.

“It really interferes with the student’s success in class,” Roling said. “They could be there physically, but mentally checked out.”

Roling said depression also affects day-to-day planning in some students, which can then affect future planning such as co-ops and internships. It impacts home life as well, because students don’t want to share with their parents what’s going on.

“I felt like I was letting everyone down and I could tell there were frustrations from friends and family,” Vicker said. “I also felt like I was wasting money for school because I couldn’t go.”

Since Sept. 1, the counseling center has served 110 clients whose primary counseling concern was depression.

At the counseling center, students with depression are counseled on building support systems, accepting themselves, empowering themselves to make a change and working with medication management, Roling said.

The center works closely with other resources at Iowa State to help students facing depression.

“There are resources available if you look for them,” Vicker said. “If someone can’t help you [at Iowa State], they’ll get someone who can.”

The counseling center works with physicians at ISU Thielen Student Health Center on medication management.

The health center dispenses 22 different individual agents for depression or side effects of depression, said Greg Yeakel, chief staff pharmacist for the health center. Ten percent of the total prescriptions sold at the health center are antidepressants.

The counseling center also works with ISU Disability Resources to help with accommodations for test taking, which can be useful to students during finals.

The center also works with the Dean of Students Office for medical leave, however it depends on when in the semester the student is struggling.

“At this point, if the student presents this [issue], we ask them if they want to take the final or call it a loss,” Roling said. “The more informed faculty are, the more options and understanding they have.”

Vicker talked to her professors and has been looking into incompletes for some of her classes.

“I feel a lot more positive about it now that I’m feeling better,” Vicker said. “It’s been a bad semester and I’m not going to get good grades, but I’m going to try to prevent it the best I can.”