TITLE
Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection
DESCRIPTION
This article discusses two students at an ivy league school, whose distorted perceptions of themselves as failures, clashed with the high expectations placed upon them from their family life; theses students felt the “pressure of perfection.” Though the students were bright, athletic, popular, they focused on their misperceived failure and disappointment and contemplated suicide; one was effective but the other was helped. The article discusses the epidemiology of suicide on campuses around the country, especially those that are top tier schools. The article further discusses what might be done by colleges to help students in this hidden epidemic.
SOURCE
New York Times, July 27, 2015, by Julie Scelfo
LINK TO RESOURCE
(shortened URL) http://tinyurl.com/opjaubq
CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
•ADVICE TO FACULTY: if you make use of the article for discussion, be ready with resources to suggest to students if they find themselves in a similar situation. Also be aware that students often speak to faculty about such matters during office hours. Best advice, break confidentiality (even if you promised it) and walk the student to the counseling center on campus or notify the proper people on campus (counseling center staff, RA staff in dorms).
•Why has the rate of suicide risen on college campuses?
•How does the “pressure of perfection” become a cognitive distortion?
•Like other mental health disorders, such as eating disorders, how does the self-perception process become further distorted when students make negative comparisons about themselves to others.
•How might Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) be employed to help students?
•What are preventative measures that colleges might put into place?
Leave a Reply