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Letters to the Editor
Suicide not about breakups
According to the latest statistics, one in five Americans is diagnosed with depression in their lifetime. This does not include people who are unwilling to get help from a doctor. To understand clinical depression, imagine being at your best friend's funeral and having just heard the funniest joke ever as a big brass band plays in the background-24 hours a day, seven days a week.
People don't try to kill themselves because of breakups and failed exams. They try to kill themselves because of a feeling of emptiness brought on by a sickness-a mental sickness every bit as much a sickness as cancer or the flu.
What's sad is that most Americans look at depression the way Johnson does, not with a medical or even compassionate perspective. Like all too many Americans, she thinks that depressed people can simply will themselves to get better. She seems to think that all a person suffering from depression needs to do is think, "Hey, people in other countries have it so much worse," and they'll be magically cured.
No one expects cancer patients or people with the flu to will themselves back to health. Yet because people suffering from depression don't wear bandages and casts and tend not to talk about it, Johnson and others like her expect them to do just that.
No one enjoys having that empty feeling. Anyone faced with a choice between feeling miserable and enjoying life would choose to wake up feeling great every day.
But no one can choose their inheritance. Unfortunately some people are predisposed to mental illnesses. What people who suffer from mental illness need is a strong network of family and friends to help them through their tough times.
Jeremy Johnson
Senior, Biochemistry
I am writing in response to Thursday, April 3rd's Op-Ed column by guest columnist Sandra Johnson "Americans' suicide reasons no good." First, it is clear that Sandra's perspective on mental illness is either quite misinformed, or uninformed. This misinformation is understandable given much of the public at large still doesn't know much, if anything about the mental illness that at least 10 million Americans live with every day. Major depression and bipolar disorder, both of which can trigger episodes like the ones Johnson described, are biological diseases.
Things that seem to Johnson "obscenely stupid reasons" to commit suicide, to a person with a mental illness, are triggers for episodes of depression that can do just that, kill them. The chemical imbalance or other causes can blow situations out of proportion and trigger their depression. They are not actually killing themselves over that bad grade, as Johnson stated in one of her reasons that suck, they are behaving out of influence from their disorder.
The best advice one could give a person suffering from major depression is to seek psychotherapy and a psychiatrist, should they need one. Do not, and I repeat, do not tell them to think about all the rape, torture, genital mutilation and war victims who have it worse than them.
Also, implying that a person should be successful in killing themselves the first time is quite offensive. Given that Johnson could very well have upset the seven percent of readers currently experiencing depression, not to mention all the people whose loved ones did kill themselves, Johnson might want to think twice about speaking on a subject she knows nothing about. Many diseased individuals are quite fed up with being blamed for something they have no power over.
Kristof Berg
Junior, Mass Communications
Squirrel letter sent in good fun
I would like to respond to Anthony and Sam's letters ("Squirrels not to be afraid of," April 3) because they seem to have missed the big picture. I know a lot of people have had similar experiences with squirrels and other animals on campus and off. I know this by talking with other people and because my letter was a response to two other related articles. You must realize that these squirrel articles are supposed to be humorous and not to be taken too seriously. Am I terrified of squirrels and scarred for life? No. Is Kelsey? Probably not. Is Andy? Again, probably not. The point here is that my article, along with the others, was done in good fun. These days, it is good to be able to laugh at yourself and find humor in the little things life throws you. I am sure you both would agree.
Stephanie Jo Voges
Senior, Human Resources Management
Smoking lounge must go
Whenever I go into the lower level of the Atwood Center it reminds me of rushing through the terminals at Heathrow Airport, with the same designed corridors and especially that smoke-filled lounge. It's not that I'm against the smokers, but it's the fact that I'm against the smoking lounge on campus. Many people would agree that it doesn't even sound good to have such a facility in an educational institution. I've also seen people making a handful of joints while sitting in the smoking room in Atwood. It's an open invitation to use drugs under protected shelters where no one actually notices you, and you don't even have to worry about the cops also. Do the campus authorities have an answer to all this?
After all the anti-nicotine campaigns on the TV and effects of secondhand smoke, I would like to ask a couple of questions from the campus administrative authorities. Do we really need a smoking room on campus? If most, if not the majority, of U.S. campuses do not have such facilities then why do we have them? Why do we need to sell tobacco and encourage smoking by having such a facility? The university is responsible for providing a safe environment for its students, faculty, staff and visitors. Student health and counseling staff need to be aware that there is an association between tobacco use and other risky health behaviors. Students who smoke more than one pack a day are more likely to be high risk users of alcohol and/or other drugs. So in one way or another we need to stop the growing tobacco use on the campus.
There should also be a policy to stop the people who smoke in front of the building entrances, which is very common, and also the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products should be prohibited anywhere on university property to prepare a healthy campus.
Ehtisham Iqbal
Senior, Computer Science
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