Miami Student

Issue date: 3/11/08 Section: Campus

Student Counseling Service, in the Student Health Center, offers individual and group counseling for mental health issues, such as self-esteem, sexual identity concerns, eating disorders and multi-cultural issues.

It's no secret that college can be a difficult affair for students. Whether you're a wide-eyed first-year student or an over-achieving senior, there's a seemingly endless source of stress and pressures that can break a person down.

So what happens to someone that finds themselves waist-deep in trouble?

The Miami University Student Counseling Services tries to provide help to students in that situation.

Kip Alishio, director of the Student Counseling Center, said students often lose balance and then come to the center to try to sort things out.

"Students have been accessing mental health services in the record numbers in the last decade," Alishio said.

However, Alishio said that this trend is nationwide and not limited to Miami.

Alishio said that when students visit the center, they might be suffering from one of many potential maladies. The long list includes anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, eating disorders, adjustment difficulties and interpersonal difficulties.

Often, students try to put too many activities or responsibilities on their plate, Alishio said. Not everyone, he said, is cut out to last under those conditions.

"This generation of students feels tremendous amounts of pressure," Alishio said. "They feel the need to achieve at high levels or else bad things will happen to them. This might be the first time they face barriers achieving at the levels they are used to."

He added that this is especially true for Miami students, as the university tends to attract high achievers. Alishio said that he believes students often can't recognize their own limitations, which they must come to accept.

Last year Alishio said the counseling center was visited by more than 2,000 students, roughly 12 percent of the student body. He said this year's total is on pace to be slightly higher, however those numbers also include students making use of the center for career advising.

According to Alishio, the center handles five to seven emergency cases on a weekly basis. While the definition of emergency is left up to the student's discretion, it is usually a case of extreme depression or anxiety, when students feel they need immediate help.

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