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BY MARY PRAGER

In print | October 4, 2007

“The blues.” everyone gets them, especially as winter approaches and the sluggish academic pace of the beginning of the year speeds up. For some, however, “the blues” is a gross understatement of the complex and heavy emotions they experience every day. The Swarthmore Depression Support Group, the newest closed support group on campus, provides a safe place for students suffering from depression to express their emotions and share their experiences with others.

Swarthmore College already runs Counseling and Psychological Services in Worth Health Center, which explains on its Web site that it provides “psychological counseling and psychotherapy to students, and offers consultation to parents, faculty and staff.”

However, CAPS is different from the Swarthmore Depression Support Group, which Director of Counseling and Psychological Services David Ramirez described as “a support group, not a treatment group.”

Ramirez said that this was an important distinction. “The treatment process can be facilitated by a support group,” he said. “I think [the support group] can be a good thing. Students have a lot of credibility with each other as peers. I think it’s sometimes easier for people to talk to people their own age.”

“I have taken advantage of Ramirez’s services, but we don’t report to him,” said founder and co-moderator Elena Smith ‘09, underlining the SDSG’s independence from college-run programs.

Providing an opportunity for students to talk openly with each other was precisely what the moderators of SDSG, Smith and Lauren Kuzel ’09, had in mind when they created SDSG early this year.

“It’s a group where students can come together to learn that they’re not alone, that there are other students on campus who deal with depression on a daily basis as well,” Smith said. “It’s a place where students can learn more about how to cope with depression in the college environment, because this place has its own challenges.”

Smith began looking into creating a support group for students with depression late last school year for personal reasons. “I thought a support group would be a good idea,” Smith said.

She met with Danielle Toaltoan ‘07, who was a facilitator for the Swat Survivor’s Group last year, and was inspired. “She gave me great advice about starting a support group,” Smith said. Smith sent out an e-mail in the Reserved Students Digest seeking co-moderators, and eventually united with Kuzel. The students met a few times to discuss their visions and plans for the group.

Establishing the group was a smooth process, said Smith. After initially requesting seed funds from Student Council to pay for refreshments, the co-moderators decided that the presence of others would suffice.

On Tuesday, Oct. 2, the group had their third meeting on the second floor of the Women’s Resource Center from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

While Smith and Kuzel were reluctant to go into detail about the meetings, to respect members’ privacy, they said that they were satisfied with the attendance. “We still welcome people to come,” Smith said.

Conversation is the means of communication of choice, though Smith says that using art or other forms of expression is “something to consider.”

“I do caution people that listening is participating,” Smith said. “People can derive great comfort from coming to meetings and listening to what other people have to say.”

To prepare for meetings, the moderators have put their heads together to think of different ways to structure discussions, trying to find a balance between focusing on certain issues and allowing people to express themselves freely as needed.

Ramirez has offered his professional services to SDSG.

“If the facilitators [of SDSG] have any concerns at all that they’d like to run by a professional, I’d be available,” Ramirez said. “I would hope that anyone who’s currently struggling would be in treatment here [at CAPS] or privately.”

SDSG remains a closed group. “I think it’s because other people can be very judgmental,” Kuzel said. “The point of the group is to talk to people who’ve been through [depression].”

“We want people who come to be comfortable. To come out in front of people who haven’t had depression can be hard,” Smith said.

The group also requires that members have been suffering for three months or more.

“We felt that short-term depression is very different from long-term depression,” Smith said. “We want to make sure that just people who’ve dealt with this on a long-term basis are attending.”

A member of Swarthmore Depression Support Group who requested to remain anonymous due to the difficulty of “coming out” in front of others brought up the stigma that those with mental illness face in society.

“I’ve experienced a lot of stigma associated with mental illness, or people who know that about me have preconceived judgments about how I should act, and I don’t feel comfortable with that,” he said. “I have had too many experiences in high school to be able to come out publicly.”

According to the National Institute of Mental Health Web site, “is not a sign of personal weakness or a condition that can be willed or wished away.”

Currently, as the group is still just getting up on its feet, the SDSG will focus its attention on providing a comfortable forum for people suffering from depression.

Eventually, the group may make efforts to change the stigma associated with mental illness and raise awareness about depression, the moderators said. If the group did host a forum or start a project, it would probably be in addition to the closed group meetings.

“It’s easy to feel isolated here,” said Kuzel. “There are lots of hiding places on this campus. If you want to be alone, it’s easy to achieve that.”

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