Thanks so much Beth for posting this. In my junior year of college I went through a deep depression. No one in my family wanted to talk about anything even related to mental health, because for them admitting that you might need help was synonomous with being crazy. Sad but true. I was fortunate to have a caring professor who directed me to the free Psychology clinic on campus. I was able to find someone to talk to and help me deal with my situation.

I hope that your post will help others feel better about going to help if they need it.

Thanks

COllege and grad students should realize that student health insurance generally has awesome mental health benefits. Since 10% of college students experience symptoms of depression and 30% feel overwhelmed, it's a great time to take advantage of the generous benefits.

Thank you so much for this post! I am entering my third year of law school and have had so many mental health issues over these past two years that it has really frightened me that I'll never be the same as pre-law school. I would love to talk to someone, but the expense always seems not worth it (I'm very suspicious of the worth of therapy) and I don't how to pick someone. Seems like there's a therapist on every block. How did you pick one?

Anon: if your law school is like my grad school experience, you might find that campus mental health services only handles short term issues like grief counseling, whereas they hand you a referral form for deep seeded childhood ones.

Finding a therapist is tricky. I can tell you what worked for me.

1. Does the gender of your therapist matter to you? I knew I'd rather talk to a woman.

2. While totally superficial, an easy way to narrow down your pool of options is to call their office after hours and get their voice mail. Is the voice on the outbound message one you'd be comfortable talking to for an hour?

3. I had brief phone conversations with several about what type of therapy they typically use to handle my problem -- anxiety. If I felt OK, I made an initial appt, but if not, I said I had to think about it, and I just didn't call back.

4. I tested out 3 therapists. You get a feel pretty quickly if you're with someone who can help you. One made me super defensive from the moment I sat down, no way was I trusting her. If you're not comfortable telling him/her that this relationship isn't going to work, go ahead and make the "next appointment" and then leave a voicemail to cancel after hours.

Also, realize you might hit a plateau with your therapist. I had one that worked well for about a year and then 6 more months changeless; I finally left and graduated to a life coach and change kicked in again until I plateaued with her.

Beth,
insurance companies ask more questions about therapy because your typically only covered for x sessions a year unless you have one or more of a certain set of diagnoses. Anxiety disorders (and I think eating disorders) tend to yield unlimited therapy whereas grief counseling shouldn't go on forever. I don't know that it's necessarily a stigma

@anon,
I just graduated from law school and kinda have "the post-Bar blues."
You should know that depression, alcohol issues is RAMPANT and PREVALENT in our profession - both among law students AND lawyers.
Almost every state has a LAP program sponsored through the state Bar Association and it is free to law students, lawyers, and judges. LAP stands for lawyers assistance program. These counselors are trained to help us deal with the stress of law school, anxiety, depression, substance abuse issues, etc.
You should contact your state LAP - information is likely available from the Dean of Students office at your school. You can also find info on LAP on the ABA website. My school included LAP and its director as part of our orientation.
I can tell you this - my school did not have on-campus counseling but the State Bar Association was just behind our building so we had easy access to it. It made my life easy.
From my 1st year to the beginning of my third year, I was in denial of suffering from PTSD after I was mugged my first semester of law school. I finally realized that I wasn't "fine."
The director of LAP was wonderful. It felt so great to talk to someone (for free). Honestly, just one session made me feel better b/c she made it clear that I wasn't going crazy and I really was showing signs of PTSD.
Best of luck to you and know that you really aren't alone. I can't tell you how many people I know that had anxiety issues, substance abuse issues, depression, etc while we were in law school. It is that common.