College students and rising levels of Depression

I stumbled across an article from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090521/ap_on_re_us/us_college_poll_depression that depression is setting in on college students throughout the country. The article blamed the bad economy ,grades, school work, money and relationships for this escalation. According to the article at some Universities this has lead to higher suicide rates and other harmful activities.

I have to refute some of these causes because some are given with the territory. College students will always have school work and grades to deal with and a little bit of stress and concern over these will motivate students to do better. I admit it does get somewhat stressful at the end of the semester when all remaining school work and finals come due but its nothing a little time management and a divide and conquer mentality cannot handle. After you kill off the remaining assignments and finals one by one all that is left to do is wait for the results.

Relationships

I agree that trying to create or maintain relationships with significant others can be depressing/demoralizing ,but again this is nothing new and comes with the territory. I have heard numerous students and faculty admit that women on campus can be crappy, its just a fact of life. I remember after one demoralizing failure my junior year, besides gaining the ability to legally consume my favorite beverage which hails from my European heritage and access to 21 + gentlemen's clubs(which both helped considerably minimize the sting of failure) I over the next few months with the aid of movies such as Conan the Barbarian, 300, The enemy below, and the PC game Rome Total war was able to realize full blown defiance was a great way to counteract any crappiness that anyone or situation including the wonderful women on campus could muster at me. If women on campus were going to be crappy then the hell with them I will pursue women off campus.


Money

I have been working since I started college, while the off campus job is not as good as the jobs I have had on campus, it provides a means to save a little and supply oneself with the capital to finance recreational activities and hobbies. Working low wage jobs are better than not working at all. Sucking up any extra hours and possible overtime could get one a fatter paycheck.


The crappy economy

This is the only one that effects us all. Many who have graduated have not landed jobs that pertain to their majors due to our wonderful economy . I bumped into someone from high school who said everyone he knows who graduated is sitting at home doing nothing. I admit this could be somewhat depressing but instead of doing nothing one could turn misfortune into opportunity by going to graduate school, which I did anyways with the helpful advice of a Mentor at the University.

As stated earlier lower paying jobs are better than none and they could provide one with the capital to engage in recreational activities and hobbies. Between going to graduate school, working, and partaking in recreational activities and hobbies(all avenues in themselves to shout one's defiance at the bad economy and any other problems) , one could easily keep their mind off the rigors of the economy and other problems. There is no need to get depressed, just get defiant!