The Student Room Group

Myth-Busting Mondays: How many people disclose a mental illness to their university?

Poll

How many people disclose mental illness to their university?

From Monday 17th April until Sunday 24th April is Depression Awareness Week and is all about reducing some of the stigma surrounding the illness - with around 350 million people globally affected by it.

As you all may know; around 1 in 4 in people experience a mental illness at some point in their lives but how many people do you think disclose mental illnesses to their university? Use the poll to cast your vote!

Do you think is enough is done to encourage people to open up about this kind of things to their uni? What do you think could encourage people to be more open? Is stigma associated with mental illnesses a barrier to those thinking about attending higher education?

If you need support; details of how to contact the Samaritans and Nightline can be found here: http://www.samaritans.org and http://nightline.ac.uk/want-to-talk/...our-nightline/.

You can post anonymously in this thread!
(edited 7 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Original post by Deyesy
x


PRSOM :frown:

I can imagine a lot of students don't disclose it - whether this is out of shame/stigma or not knowing how to. I selected 1 in 75, but I really don't know! I think students need to be made more aware of how to access this, I wouldn't know how to at my uni without fully looking into it :redface:
I m not sure on the ratio as anyone i know personally has declared but do think people may not be informed on how to access support or be worried about declaring for various reasons.
I voted for 1 in every 50 because... well, no particular reason :redface:

This one is a tough question to ask! It's easy to think of why people may not declare an illness but it's hard to guesstimate how many people DO declare. Plus I'm hopeless at guessing games anyway :getmecoat:

Something that I've found in my own experience is that even when I was first experiencing symptoms of psychosis, I didn't consider it a disability or something worthy of declaration. Having developed mental health problems at my undergrad institution, I declared a disability to my Master's degree institution but only because I needed them to know I had had mental health problems so that it would give some context to my very shoddy transcript. I wasn't comfortable with doing so and when they invited me to an open morning especially for self-declared disabled students, I wrote back saying I wouldn't be attending since I don't use a wheelchair and thus don't consider myself disabled :facepalm: I also took ages to fill in the form for Disabled Students' Allowance because, again, I didn't consider myself disabled and didn't understand why people at uni wanted me to fill out the form :erm:

These days, having had time to get to better grips with my disability and the related shortcomings I have as a result, I am now far more at ease with declaring disabilities to both educational institutions and when applying for jobs (only if there's an equal opportunities form, though!) :yes:
I guessed one in every 25, just because I had severe depression and an eating disorder and didn't tell anyone about it, my flatmate had anxiety disorders and was addicted to anti-depressants and my other flatmate had various emotional problems caused by anxiety about her Asperger's syndrome. None of us had informed our uni of any of this, though I did see a uni counsellor and advised my flatmates to do the same.

I'm fine now btw, pretty much over my eating disorder.
(edited 7 years ago)
I voted for 1 in 100 because... well for no reason really. I have absolutely no idea.

I declared my mental health issue to university but that was because I acknowledged the fact that I would need serious help to get through the course. I found everything really difficult at first and I absolutely NEEDED an en-suite room. I couldn't have coped for as long as I did if I had to share a bathroom with other students. Depression is a funny one though. It is a sliding scale. On the one hand you can have depression and it not be very serious at all and at the other end you can have depression that is bad enough to be worse than cancer when it comes to survival rates as the suicide rate is so high.

It really depends on your own mental illness as to whether you declare it or not. It got to the stage with me that I absolutely had to acknowledge the fact that there were certain things I absolutely could not do and that is why I finally accepted that it was a disability.
Original post by claireestelle
I m not sure on the ratio as anyone i know personally has declared but do think people may not be informed on how to access support or be worried about declaring for various reasons.


This.

How have people gone about it if you have told your uni? :smile:

(You can post anonymously in the thread)
I'm not sure. Although the 1 in 4 statistic is a bit of a misleading statistic for this purpose.

While it might be true that that many people experience some type of mental health problem, I imagine that far fewer will require support beyond that provided by friends etc. And of those, many will be put off by the stigma. Perhaps 1 in 100.
Original post by Kvothe the arcane
I'm not sure. Although the 1 in 4 statistic is a bit of a misleading statistic for this purpose.

While it might be true that that many people experience some type of mental health problem, I imagine that far fewer will require support beyond that provided by friends etc. And of those, many will be put off by the stigma. Perhaps 1 in 100.


Many sources quote 1 in 4 experience in a lifetime and 1 in 6 at any one time. I agree that not everyone who experiences it will necessarily require support from their uni, or they may be getting support elsewhere. I think it is important to disclose it for courses such as healthcare with fitness to practise to protect the individual and others, however I doubt all in those positions would disclose it due to sigma and fear of consequences (even though in most cases it won't go against them). Perhaps more information on the process, such as what does happen if you disclose it, should be provided too.

Posted from TSR Mobile
I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety a few weeks ago so am still mulling over the diagnosis. I am in Year 13 and have been through the whole UCAS process whilst selecting 'no disability', do I now class as someone with a disability so therefore do I need to contact my unis? My school knows about the diagnosis and haven't told me to make any amendments
Reply 10
Original post by Anonymous
I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety a few weeks ago so am still mulling over the diagnosis. I am in Year 13 and have been through the whole UCAS process whilst selecting 'no disability', do I now class as someone with a disability so therefore do I need to contact my unis? My school knows about the diagnosis and haven't told me to make any amendments


What I found with selecting that I had a disability on my UCAS form was that it meant the universities got in contact with me to try and put the support in place before I moved there in September :smile: There's absolutely nothing stopping you 1) asking if that could be changed on your UCAS form or 2) waiting until September and acccessing the support available when you get there? :smile:
I've had depression and anxiety for about three years now. When applying, I didn't include anything about it in my UCAS application, and I went to uni with no intention to tell anyone, really. In my second week there, I had a meeting with my guidance tutor, and when she asked if there was anything they should know about that might affect me during the year, I sort of just ended up blurting it out. She said she was glad I told her, because most people don't bother letting them know. I found myself quite glad to have informed them, because I ended up missing classes on a lot of my bad days, but they were aware of my circumstances. I think people are more inclined to be open about such things if it means lectures and class time will be missed.
Original post by Anonymous
I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety a few weeks ago so am still mulling over the diagnosis. I am in Year 13 and have been through the whole UCAS process whilst selecting 'no disability', do I now class as someone with a disability so therefore do I need to contact my unis? My school knows about the diagnosis and haven't told me to make any amendments


I wouldn't stress over this too much at the moment. I had a similar experience where I put no disability on UCAS and then a couple of months later was suffering with anxiety. I think (I'm talking about 2 years ago) in the end I put it on a form during my enrolment not long before joining, someone from the uni called me about it and we had a chat (this may be because it's a healthcare course, they may not do this with other courses) and they said it was all fine and that there were counselling services. I didn't end up going to my firm uni anyway, so telling them would have been a waste of time. If you want to contact them to make sure, then definitely do. But yeah, I wouldn't stress too much about it, it'll get sorted :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by McNuggetsAhoy
I voted for 1 in 100 because... well for no reason really. I have absolutely no idea.

I declared my mental health issue to university but that was because I acknowledged the fact that I would need serious help to get through the course. I found everything really difficult at first and I absolutely NEEDED an en-suite room. I couldn't have coped for as long as I did if I had to share a bathroom with other students. Depression is a funny one though. It is a sliding scale. On the one hand you can have depression and it not be very serious at all and at the other end you can have depression that is bad enough to be worse than cancer when it comes to survival rates as the suicide rate is so high.

It really depends on your own mental illness as to whether you declare it or not. It got to the stage with me that I absolutely had to acknowledge the fact that there were certain things I absolutely could not do and that is why I finally accepted that it was a disability.


I applied to a uni and declared my mental illness, and they told me to give them more information. I said that I would need an ensuite room as I can't share a bathroom with people either! I thought it sounded a bit strange in my head when I typed it out, but after mulling it over, I did realise that having my own bathroom played a rather huge role in maintaining my sanity.

How did that work out for you though? Were you allocated an ensuite room?
Original post by annamatcha
I applied to a uni and declared my mental illness, and they told me to give them more information. I said that I would need an ensuite room as I can't share a bathroom with people either! I thought it sounded a bit strange in my head when I typed it out, but after mulling it over, I did realise that having my own bathroom played a rather huge role in maintaining my sanity.

How did that work out for you though? Were you allocated an ensuite room?


Yeah it worked out. I obviously had to pay full price for it the same as everyone else but I did manage to get an en-suite room which really helped.
I voted 1 in 25, I know many people who have a mental illness and never once told their university about it-mainly because they were afraid. I have a learning disability-and am not entirely convinced that I will ever go and tell a university-mainly because atm they have to fill a quota-so they have to have a certain amount of people with a disability and an illness-therefore I think I would rather have the university judge my grades rather than look at what I do and don't have.
Reply 16
Original post by LostGirlOnTheRun
I voted 1 in 25, I know many people who have a mental illness and never once told their university about it-mainly because they were afraid. I have a learning disability-and am not entirely convinced that I will ever go and tell a university-mainly because atm they have to fill a quota-so they have to have a certain amount of people with a disability and an illness-therefore I think I would rather have the university judge my grades rather than look at what I do and don't have.


Interesting point you've brought up there :holmes: Would you ever consider telling them once you were there? If you decided not to disclose it on your UCAS application?
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Deyesy
Interesting point you've brought up there :holmes: Would you ever consider telling them once you were there? If you decided to not disclose it on your UCAS application?


Maybe-but that's a decision I will have to make when I'm in that position.....but then there's quite a lot of paperwork that is required just to prove that one has an illness or a decision.
Reply 18
Original post by LostGirlOnTheRun
Maybe-but that's a decision I will have to make when I'm in that position.....but then there's quite a lot of paperwork that is required just to prove that one has an illness or a decision.


That was required for my mental illness was a letter from my GP stating what diagnosis I had; how long I'd had for it and how it may affect my studies :smile:
Reply 19
I've never heard of anyone with the illness I have. Its OCD where I pick my skin. I have so many scars from it and it makes me hate myself. Literally if I could find a way to get rid of them my confidence would improve so much. I just bought my prom dress and even my mum noticed I was looking at dresses that covered my neck because I have picked so much there. It gets worse and worse. I see photos of myself with a normal clear neck and good skin and I feel like an absolute idiot. I wish I could turn back time but then again I cant control myself. I can't tell anyone, Its very rare and embarrassing.

Quick Reply

Latest