Opinion: Grinnell College has a mental health problem

Just a month and a half into my first year at Grinnell College, I started to lose my footing, both literally and figuratively. I was having vertigo-like episodes making it difficult to get out of bed, and I began to realize that I was way out of my depth. New school, new state, new people — it was all beginning to pile up. After a visit to the doctor and a blood test to rule out mono, I was told that this was primarily psychosomatic, that I was under a lot of stress and I should try to tone it down a bit.

This was not the first, or last, time I have struggled with my mental health. Years of talking with therapists, as well as a good medication regime, have given me better coping mechanisms and lessened the shame that comes with openly talking about my experience with mental illness. However, there are still times where I feel that familiar panic creeping into my stomach, or when I begin to feel numb and detached from reality. I dread those early symptoms, because normally it means weeks or months of trying to claw my way back into a semi-normal state of existence.

Much of the discourse about mental health surrounds the fact that it is not talked about enough. I can’t tell you how many school assemblies I have had where the phrase “it’s okay to not be okay” was uttered. This is the reason why I try to speak up, although it has not been easy. It took a long time to get to a place where I felt I could write something like this op-ed and publish it in a public forum. Now, friends of mine will tell you that I am incredibly open about my own experience, and I try to communicate to others when I am struggling.

The discourse around this at Grinnell, however, seems to be a bit more nuanced — it seems to me that we do talk about mental health here but perhaps in the wrong way. I’ve had so many conversations with friends who are overwhelmed by work, dealing with negative self-image, or dealing with other serious concerns regarding their mental health, and what has struck me is how many of them are willing to share their experiences, at least semi-openly. Even just walking around campus, overhearing conversations outside classes or in the dining hall, I’m bound to hear at least one person talking about how stressed out they are. It’s become a rite of passage here at Grinnell to struggle.

This is not unique to Grinnell College. The Healthy Minds Study from 2023-24 found that 33 percent of college students in the U.S. have been diagnosed with depression or another mood disorder, and 39 percent have been diagnosed with anxiety. Mental health, particularly among college students, is an issue nationwide.

However, stress and other mental health issues have become so entrenched in campus culture that it’s no wonder so many of us have experienced them. The type of student that makes it through Grinnell’s selective admissions process is not one to shy away from packing their schedule with obligations. Many of us were near the top of our high schools academically and filled our remaining time with a variety of extracurriculars in the hopes of being one of the small percentage admitted here or somewhere else comparable in prestige.

In a time when it seems everyone’s calendar is perpetually full, it becomes hard to separate yourself from the mentality that you must be doing something meaningful every hour of every day in order to feel worthy of your status as a Grinnell student. For a while, this mindset worked its way into my sense of self, to the point where instead of valuing my own worth as a person, I was valuing my “output” instead. I don’t know how many times I’ve asked a friend how they are doing, and they’ve answered “good, I got a lot done today,” or “bad, I wasn’t productive.” Tying productivity to our happiness in this way is harmful, and appears to be producing a lot of negative consequences both on an individual and a societal level.

Just a few weeks ago, my dad mentioned to me that the Princeton Review had recently ranked Grinnell as fourth of 391 schools in the amount of hours spent studying outside of class. Most of the others in the top ten had a heavy focus on engineering, and only one Ivy League school even made the top 25. The workload here is not light by any means. I can’t count how many late nights I’ve had out of pure necessity due to the amount of assignments I had. At the same time, it seems that when one ties their sense of self to the time they spend working, they tend to work more than is strictly necessary — and also, their perception of the amount of work they have completed may be skewed as a result. Even while taking study breaks, spending time with friends, or at an event, I’ve overheard so many people worrying about what homework they’re “putting off” for later.

I say this not to dismiss the hard work that most students here are putting into school, sports, work or other activities, but to emphasize that if productivity is always on your brain, there isn’t room for anything else — and of course that’s an unhealthy way to live.

Mental illness is complex, and unfortunately, some of us can’t simply fix our brains by taking a quick study break. However, the environment one surrounds themselves with is still an important factor, and I do not believe that academic rigor has to come at the expense of being mentally sound. Instead, I argue, we need a radical shift in campus culture to promote long-term wellness over short-term productivity.

Ongoing discussions surrounding this issue have been happening for years now. Administration has created a task force, increased treatment options offered through Student Health and Wellness (SHAW) and enacted other temporary measures such as Working Differently Days, now discontinued, and bringing therapy dogs to campus. Some faculty have previously framed the high rate of students who have considered withdrawal, 47 percent in 2023, as being related to a culture of overwork among students, faculty and staff. Additionally, students have acted to promote mental wellbeing through organizations like the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

While these initiatives are good first steps, any meaningful change to campus culture is not going to happen if forced by the top down — it must come from the bottom up. In order for us to be a better collective, everyone must change their individual mindset. Participating in productivity culture is a great way to feel like you’re living up to your Grinnell potential, but will also result in burnout. Keep having conversations about mental health, but as you’re doing so, consider whether you’re further normalizing overwork or trying to detach yourself and those around you from it.

Mindsets don’t heal themselves, Grinnellians do.