Mental Health

Mental health, as defined by the World Health Organization, is "a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community".

This page is intended to be a practical guide to finding help for yourself if your mental health isn't so great. Note: This page is still very much a work in progress. If you can think of better ways to word things or want to add new content, feel free to revamp the page as significantly as you want.

When should you get help?

What are some sorts of things you can get mental health support for? MIT Medical provides the following list:

• "You’re finding it hard to work, because you’re anxious or sad
• You’re having trouble sleeping or concentrating, or you’re sleeping too much
• You don’t enjoy activities you once looked forward to
• You’re distressed about a relationship with another person
• You’re concerned about feelings or behaviors having to do with alcohol, drugs, food, sex, or other issues
• You feel lonely, isolated, angry, or irritable
• Talking to your friends or parents about a problem doesn't really help
• You’re worried about a student, colleague, or friend
• You, your living group, or your workgroup are coping with a traumatic event"

Resources

Hotlines

These resources can be used when you need to talk to someone immediately especially when you're in crisis:

• Georgia Crisis & Access Line (GCAL): 1-800-715-4225
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-TALK (8255)
• National Hopeline Network: 800-784-2433
• Georgia Crisis & Access Line: 800-715-4225
• Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
• Trevor Lifeline (targeted toward the LGBTQIA community): 866-488-7386
• Grady Rape Crisis Center: 404-616-4861
• Crisis Text Line: Text 741-741 when in crisis to speak to live, trained crisis counselor
  • Students of color can text STEVE to 741741 to reach a crisis counselor trained to support students of color
• Warmlines: non-crisis support, often peer to peer
  • GCAL (24/7) at (800) 715-4225
  • Decatur Peer Support (24/7) at 1-866-488-7386
• Georgia Crisis and Access Line (GCAL) App

GT CARE

Before you're able to access the on-campus Counseling Center or Stamps Psychiatry, you'd have to go to CARE (the Center for Assessment, Referral and Education) for a primary assessment and referral. You'll discuss what's been bothering you, and they'll recommend on-campus resources to you such as the GT Counseling Center and/or Stamps Psychiatry, and/or off-campus resources. In itself, CARE is intended to provide assessment and referral, and your session with CARE may or may not feel therapeutic. If the next available appointment is far into the future, you can try to find off-campus counseling options on your own.

Call 404-894-3498 to make an appointment at CARE. CARE's office hours are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Tuesdays from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and it is closed for lunch from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM. CARE is located on the first floor of the Smithgall Building at 353 Ferst Dr NW, Atlanta, GA 30313.

Counseling

In talk therapy, also called psychotherapy, you have regular (often weekly) confidential sessions with a professional therapist where you discuss your feelings and what's been going on in your life. At the start of your first session with a therapist, you might discuss what you're looking to get out of therapy. You can speak openly and freely about what's on your mind. Your therapist might provide emotional support and advice, or suggest more productive ways of thinking about what's going on, in a non-judgmental manner. They might also assign "homework" such as nightly journaling if they think it would help you achieve the life you want. Oftentimes, mental illnesses like anxiety and depression involve patterns of irrational or unhealthy thoughts like "I'm worthless", and evidence-based treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy can help you learn new ways of thinking to overcome these. In general, you'll probably feel better directly after talking with the therapist—although it's also sometimes important to have difficult conversations with your therapist—and your therapist should also be helping you learn and practice mental skills to have healthier thinking.

You don't have to have clinical anxiety or depression to benefit from therapy. Therapy can also help with navigating relationship issues, stress management, eating disorders, substance abuse, trauma, etc.

A patient's relationship with a therapist is very personal, and sometimes a therapist just doesn't click with you or you don't feel like you're progressing. If it's been a couple sessions and you're still feeling this way, talk to them about it. You could say something like, "There’s something I wanted to talk about. My goals from therapy are [insert said goals here]. I’m concerned we’re not meeting them together. Is there any way we can get closer to helping me achieve these goals?" If the client–therapist relationship still isn't working out for you, you can tell them that you'd like to discontinue the sessions, and then you can find a different therapist.

If you're interested in reading more about finding the best therapist for you and learning about what therapy is like, "The Guide to Getting a Therapist, Pt 1 — Kate, Writing" is quite good.

GT Counseling Center

Georgia Tech provides free and confidential on-campus counseling through the Counseling Center. Before going to on-campus counseling, you'd have to first get a referral from GT CARE. Unfortunately, GT Counseling has a fairly limited capacity and might reach capacity within the first month of the semester or so. You might be encouraged to do off-campus counseling or group therapy instead after going to CARE. GT Counseling focuses on "brief therapy", and for issues that require longer-term care, you'll likely be referred to off-campus counseling. Unfortunately, one-on-one GT Counseling doesn't have a good reputation on the r/gatech subreddit, and it is often targeted toward crisis situations, so you may want to go with off-campus counseling like Mercer instead.

The Counseling Center also provides informal, short (~15 minute) sessions twice a week called "Let's Talk".

Off-campus counseling

Low-cost off-campus counseling which doesn't involve insurance:

• Mercer Family Therapy Center
  • 1938 Peachtree Rd NE Suite 107 Atlanta GA, 30309
  • 678-547-6789
  • https://medicine.mercer.edu/mftc/
  • Per-session fees range from $5 to $65 depending on income. Usually it's a flat $5 for students because it's graduate students doing the therapy (and student therapists who receive regular feedback from supervisors are as effective as regular therapists).
  • About 10-minute drive from campus without traffic
• Samaritan Counseling Center of Atlanta
  • 1328 Peachtree St. NE, Suite B317 Atlanta, GA 30309-3902
  • (404) 228-7777
  • http://samaritanatlanta.org/
  • Income-based sliding scale fees, with a minimum per-session fee of $25
  • About 9-minute drive from campus without traffic
• Metropolitan Counseling Services
  • 2801 Buford Hwy NE, Suite 470, Atlanta, GA 30329
  • 404-321-1794
  • http://www.mcsatlanta.org/about-us
  • Income-based sliding scale fees, with $40 initial charge for an intake assessment
  • About 14-minute drive from campus

For free virtual phone/video call therapy using the UnitedHealthcare student insurance plan, you can use the HealthiestYou app from Teladoc.

You can find more counseling options using the following sites which were recommended by r/gatech, or of course by going to GT CARE. You can filter to therapists that accept your health insurance. One Redditor writes, "You can choose from that list and maybe call a few... calls will probably go to voicemail if they're in session with other clients, and they'll call you back and you can chat about what your situation is and get a feel for if they might be a good fit before setting up a first appointment."

• https://www.psychologytoday.com/us
• https://www.opencounseling.com/
• https://www.auntbertha.com/

Psychiatry

TODO: define psychiatry

On-campus psychiatry: https://health.gatech.edu/services/psych. As with GT Counseling, you'd have to first get a referral from GT CARE to be able to go to Stamps Psychiatry. Stamps Psychiatry probably won't provide psychiatric medication unless you're seeing a therapist.

Note: A general practitioner / family doctor / primary care physician can also prescribe things like antidepressants—not only psychiatrists. But you may want to turn to a psychiatrist if you need to fiddle some more with your medication, since they specialize in it more deeply.

You can get coupons for prescription drugs and compare prices at GoodRx.

Peer coaching

https://counseling.gatech.edu/content/peer-coaching

Workshops

Sky at Georgia Tech provides regular guided yoga and meditation workshops for stress relief.

List of resource lists

• https://www.sga.gatech.edu/new-student-tips/
• http://www.mhsc.gtorg.gatech.edu/resources/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/gatech/comments/718klo/how_can_we_improve_mental_health_at_tech/

Self-help

Things that are generally good for mental health:

• Getting enough sleep (7–9 hours per night)
• Having a regular sleep schedule, where you go to sleep at about the same time every day
• Meditation
• Regularly thinking about things to be grateful for
• Staying in touch with friends
• Eating healthy food
• Staying hydrated
• Exercising regularly. Apparently cardio is most effective, but find a type of exercise that you love.
• Get regular exposure to sunlight. For people with seasonal affective disorder, lack of sunlight during winter months can cause low mood.

CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) can be done in a self-help workbook format. https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Looking-After-Yourself has some self-help workbooks for a variety of mental health issues.

These self-help options are not meant as a substitute for professional help.

Mental illness diagnostic criteria

Sometimes if you have a mental illness, you might not even realize that what you're feeling is clinically significant and something you should seek help for. (That's not to say that everyone who doesn't have a clinically significant mental illness can't benefit from things like therapy or extra support, though.)

Anxiety and depression are the most common mental illnesses among college students, so this section will focus on those two.

This info is just to provide a guide; for an actual diagnosis, you'd have to see a trained professional.

Generalized anxiety disorder

DSM-5 criteria (paraphrased by Wikipedia):

1. "Excessive anxiety or worry" experienced most days over at least six month and which involve a plurality of concerns.
2. Inability to manage worry.
3. At least three of the following occur:
   1. Restlessness
   2. Fatigability
   3. Problems concentrating
   4. Irritability
   5. Muscle tension
   6. Difficulty with sleep Note that in children, only one of the above items is required.
4. One experiences significant distress in functioning (e.g., work, school, social life).
5. Symptoms are not due to a substance use disorder, prescription medication or other medical condition(s).
6. Symptoms do not fit better with another psychiatric condition such as panic disorder.

Major depression

DSM-5 defines the following criteria for major depression. If one experiences five or more of these symptoms during a two-week period, at least one of which is either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest/pleasure, then they are classified by the DSM-5 as having major depression.

1. Depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day.
2. Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities most of the day, nearly every day.
3. Significant weight loss when not dieting or weight gain, or decrease or increase in appetite nearly every day.
4. A slowing down of thought and a reduction of physical movement (observable by others, not merely subjective feelings of restlessness or being slowed down).
5. Fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day.
6. Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt nearly every day.
7. Diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every day.
8. Recurrent thoughts of death, recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide.

FAQ

Should I avoid mentioning thoughts of suicide because that might lead to involuntary commitment to a psychiatric facility?

• Theoretically, involuntary commitment is only allowed if you present an imminent harm to yourself or others. If you have "passive suicidal ideation" of wishing you weren't alive, without a specific plan to make that happen imminently, then you should be able to say so without fear of involuntary commitment, if you make it clear that you wouldn't do it, at least if the counselor/doctor is reasonably confident. (If there is a real risk that you would attempt suicide, then you should strongly consider reaching out to people to make that not happen. Depression and anxiety are very treatable, while suicide is forever, and to say the least, it'd make your friends and family very sad.) However, according to a Reddit comment, GT Counseling has sent multiple people to psychiatric wards despite not being an immediate threat to themselves, so perhaps be very cautious about mentioning suicidal ideation to them.
• One Redditor writes, "if they start talking about hospitalization, do everything you can to avoid Ridgeview. Ridgeview Institute is the psychiatric hospital Tech uses, and if you get yourself in a situation where they decide to involuntarily hospitalize you that's where they will send you. There was always at least 2 Tech people there while I was there. It's a really shitty, really expensive, profit driven place that's run like a prison. Try to make a deal to "voluntarily" admit to an inpatient program of your choosing, and then do some research. Whatever you do though, don't try to refuse outright. If they're bringing it up you're already dangerously close, and voluntary commitment makes it a lot easier to leave even if you go to Ridgeview. It also means the difference between riding there in a cab or in the back of a GTPD car." Another writes, "Also don’t go to Atlanta medical center."

Ally resources

If you want to support other students with mental health needs, here are some ways to get involved.

How to support a friend who may be in need of help: https://medical.mit.edu/services/mental-health-counseling/helping-others

Clubs:

• Mental Health Student Coalition: works on various mental health initiatives, such as listing mental health resources on Canvas
• To Write Love on Her Arms: "seeking to decrease the stigma around mental health and point people towards hope and help"
• Active Minds: "to help prevent suicide by creating a better atmosphere for those who are struggling and educating students on how to seek help and notice signs of mental health issues in others"
• SMILE: plans fun activities to "raise students' spirit on campus"
• Wreckless: plans fun events to promote positive mental health
• SKY: provides guided meditation and yoga workshops to promote mental health on-campus

QPR training helps you learn the warning signs to identify someone who may be at risk of suicide, persuade them to get help, and guide them in accessing resources like therapy. Georgia Tech provides free QPR training every few weeks or so. In the interim, while you're waiting for the next workshop, you can read the following guides:

• https://www.verywellmind.com/what-to-do-when-a-friend-is-suicidal-1065472
• https://www.bethe1to.com/bethe1to-steps-evidence/

Attending a workshop would be helpful for practicing the skills interactively and learning some more details though.

The 2019 Intercollegiate Mental Health Conference conference proceedings summary by the Mental Health Student Coalition provides an interesting overview of resources on-campus and some initiatives that they've worked on.