America’s taxpayer-funded colleges and universities are aggressively pushing an array of mental health counseling and therapy programs on students. At the same time, school officials say they just can’t understand why there has been an increase in student demand for the programs.
Counseling and therapy programs differ around the country, reports The Wall Street Journal.
At Ohio State University, for example, the counseling staff has ballooned to 65 people. A clinical psychologist at the campus counseling center offers a “Beating Anxiety” workshop — twice a week. Psychiatrist and mixed martial arts black belt Denise Deschenes encourages students to write goals down “barrier they want to break” on boards — “self doubt,” say — and then break the boards. There are also events such as an annual “Recess,” at which students frolic with dogs, blow bubbles and play with a giant, multi-colored parachute on a manicured lawn.
![rainbow parachute Shutterstock/Artisticco](https://dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/rainbow-parachute-Shutterstock-Artisticco.jpg)
rainbow parachute Shutterstock/Artisticco
“I’m going to talk to people about my problems,” freshman Emmanuel Kankam swore to the Journal after attending the “Beating Anxiety” workshop.
The University of Central Florida boasts separate online therapy programs for depression and anxiety. The seven-week programs feature video-conferences with therapists, in-person counseling sessions and a bunch of assignments. The school also does the therapy dog thing by welcoming a bushy white Havanese therapy dog to campus a few times a year. Students wait in line to pet it.
![white havenese dog Shutterstock/Vista Photo](https://dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/white-havenese-dog-Shutterstock-Vista-Photo.jpg)
white havenese dog Shutterstock/Vista Photo
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers 22 therapy groups for students including one that helps students who are either contemplating suicide or like to harm themselves.
At the University of Michigan, taxpayer-funded counselors and a student organization operate Wolverine Support Network.
Nationally, various doctors and counselors have diagnosed fully 17 percent of America’s college students with some kind of mental disorder. Overwhelmingly, the two most most-popularly diagnosed maladies are the hazy catch-alls of depression or anxiety.
The Ohio State campus has seen a 43 percent increase in the volume of students seeking treatment for mental health problems in the last five years. (RELATED: The Cops At Ohio State Have An Armored Fighting Vehicle Now)
At Michigan, the volume of students claiming to have mental health problems has jumped 36 percent in the last seven years. (RELATED: Student Is Now ‘HIS MAJESTY’ After U. Michigan Lets Everyone Make Up Their Own Pronouns)
Taxpayer-funded campus therapists say they just can’t figure out why there has been a massive increase in demand for counseling and therapy now that schools are aggressively funding and promoting various counseling and therapy programs.
Slow economic growth could be the problem, the counselors muse.
Or perhaps ever-increasing college tuition could be leading students to seek therapy.
Today’s college students are “overwhelmed with stress,” Ohio State counseling director Micky M. Sharma told the Journal. “The coping, the resiliency is not where we want it to be. That’s a bad combination.”
“We’re reaching students that would never have come through our doors,” added Central Florida counseling director Karen Hofmann.”
Earlier this fall, a Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor declared that between 50 and 60 percent of America’s college students are beset with some psychiatric disorder. (RELATED: Harvard Psychiatry Professor: Over Half Of America’s College Students Are MENTALLY ILL)
Last year, Boston College research professor Peter Gray, writing last week at Psychology Today, concluded that America’s college students are delicate, immature wusses who become traumatized, get the vapors and seek professional counseling any time they face adversity or — God forbid — earn a grade lower than an “A.” (RELATED: PROOF: Helicopter Parenting Has Created A Generation Of Traumatized, Risk-Averse WUSSES)
Gray explains that he participated in discussions at Boston Colleges with the head of counseling services and other faculty members about how to deal with a notable decrease in resilience among students.
In the last five years, emergency calls to the counseling center have doubled, he discovered. The reasons for the urgent calls were often frivolous and stupid. One woman sought counseling, Gray said, because her roommate called her a “bitch.” Not one but two students wanted professional therapy because they spotted a mouse in their off-campus apartment. The same pair of students also actually called the cops, who appeared and installed a mousetrap.
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