Stress generation

A quarter of students struggle with Burnout symptoms. This news, following a research shook up the Netherlands last spring, but it did not stop there. The number of students who (very) often experience performance pressure has risen by 11% to more than two-thirds in two years. And more than one in seven suffer from severe anxiety-depression symptoms. In short, the number of depression, burn-outs and suicide attempts among students is growing.

There is a real 'stress generation'. We are told we can achieve anything, and as a result we feel we must achieve everything. At the same time, we don't get jobs because we don't have experience, and we don't have experience because we don't have work. The BSA and increasing student debt do not make things easier.

Therefore, DWARS's first themed campaign this year is about - you guessed it - stress. An overdose of stress is one of the most common problems among young people. We would like to raise awareness of this problem inside and outside DWARS and are organising various activities around this theme. We will also be looking for stories from young people who themselves have experienced burnout or depression.

Timeline

Below is a timeline of the theme campaign: what have we done and what are we going to do next?

Wouter Ubbink (vice president of DWARS) wrote on September 5 an opinion piece on Joop.nl about one of the causes of increasing stress: the announced increase in student debt by Minister van Engelshoven. He states, "Young people are becoming debtors to society. The only way to promote students' mental health is to get them out of this precarious position."

Retrieved from 14 September we took action against this problem: Together with hundreds of young people, we protested against the increase in student debt, because high debt causes more problems: finding a mortgage, for example, is becoming increasingly difficult. Julia Matser, president of DWARS, gave a speech: "We have to work practically all our lives to pay off our debts. We are not the millennials. We are the stress generation.".

Also on DWARS XL, on September 22, we focused on young people's mental health. Jasper Scholten (author of The Millennial Mystery) gave a workshop on stress. He explained what exactly stress is and why we experience it so much. It also covered how to combat stress.

Retrieved from 3 October DWARS Amsterdam is organising a theme night on the future of Care in collaboration with the Care and Welfare Committee. Here we will discuss problems in care. Among other things, we will discuss how it is possible that waiting lists for young people with mental problems are so long. How is it possible that some care institutions have to refuse young people because they are full?

Retrieved from 12 October we wrote a open letter to minister De Jonge and state secretary Blokhuis. We told them about the problems young people face when they need mental health care. It became clear that some things really need to be better regulated if we want to be able to guide everyone sufficiently to good care. We hope the government will take action.

Stories

Below are some stories from DWARSers who have experienced severe stress and depression themselves. The stories show some of the many cases of mental health problems among young people. The names of the people who have shared their stories are not their real names.

Maxime:

I once started at vwo. Due to a difficult home situation, I managed to concentrate less and less at school. When I had to fail in 5 vwo, I decided to go to 5 havo. Everyone thought it was a shame that I went to the vwo, because 'I could do better'. But I couldn't manage to stay at home for another two years. After my final exams, I went to college and immediately moved into rooms. Unfortunately, I did not like my hbo studies and found out that hbo did not suit me, so I decided to go to university.

Halfway through the first year of my undergraduate studies, I became depressed. I didn't feel like doing anything anymore and nothing worked. On the advice of my tutor, I went to therapy with a psychologist. Diagnosis: severe depression. I managed to struggle through the first year. Things got better and better. Until, at the beginning of the second year, my mother turned out to be seriously ill. Lung cancer, incurable. Since my parents were separated and I had no siblings, I was given a lot of responsibility. I had to make sure my mother received care, I arranged her finances and, of course, I visited her regularly. After a few months, things got so bad for her that she had to go to a hospice. In the second year, I passed one subject. Because of the tension, stress, grief and depression (for which I was still in therapy), I did not manage to focus on my studies. Finally, my mother died at the end of the second year of my studies.

After a gap year, I decided to start a new study at university after all, as I was afraid that having to retake courses would demotivate me. I am very stressed about my student debt. I won't get back the debt I accumulated in the second year. Moreover, I also accumulated debt over my year in college and the first year in university. Now I have to complete my studies at an accelerated pace, as I am running up against the limit of the number of years I am allowed to borrow money from DUO. I can lie awake at night worrying about it. I will soon have such a huge study debt. What can I do about it? I have always done my best for my studies. The idea that I have very little time left to complete my studies and am building up a gigantic debt in the meantime sometimes paralyses me.

Robin:

In primary school, the GGD found out that I had stopped growing and had lost weight, so they suspected an eating disorder. Yet the exact diagnosis remained vague, perhaps because I did not meet the exact criteria and perhaps also because I denied myself that I had an eating problem.

When I went to secondary school, the problems got worse. There was more social pressure and, on top of that, more work pressure. In everyone, the cause of mental problems is partly hereditary, but it is also society that makes a lot of demands on you. I felt: you have to be healthy, exercise enough and snack little. If you are fat, you did it yourself. If you see it that way, being healthy or thin is also an achievement, which adds to the achievement pressure.

I have had psychological help from the age of 12. In doing so, I ran into many things. What didn't help in particular was that each institution used one approach that had to suit everyone, and if that didn't work, they looked at the patient accordingly instead of evaluating their own treatment method. In short, they did not look at the person, while each person needs different treatment. Also, people often suffer from combinations of problems, but the institutions each focused on one type of problem. I was passed from one institution to another for this reason. At one I was helped for compulsions, but nothing could be done about my eating problems. At the institution for eating disorders, they wouldn't/couldn't help me because I had too many other problems. According to yet another institution, my problems were "too complex". That way, you never end up in the right place and you feel more and more like a hopeless case. And that is anything but helpful.

I also found that insurance companies have a lot of influence on care. I was literally told that I could only stay in a certain institution for exactly 9 weeks "because that was how it was agreed with the health insurance company". Healthcare providers have to justify everything they do to the health insurer, making a personalised approach impossible.

I also noticed that people find it difficult to talk about psychological problems. When I wasn't doing well, I sometimes told girlfriends, but they never came back to it. They never asked, "How are you doing now?", as if I would find it an annoying question. I feel they often think: I'm not her best friend, so I won't ask. Someone else will. But if everyone thinks that... so in the end, no one is really interested

Chris:

My first call for help was to the student psychologist. The student psychologist immediately referred me, which meant I could not go there with my immediate need for a conversation. I needed to be tested for autism, even though those were not the complaints I came for. In fact, I came for complaints due to stress, partly due to a lot of studying, two sick family members and gender issues.

Meanwhile, I kept working pretty hard. Only when I really couldn't go on any longer because of the stress, did I take my referral to the GP. Then I still had to go through my autism diagnosis first, while I needed talks and a way to deal with stress better.

Later, I found a place that counselled people with gender problems as well as autism and giftedness. I thought I could also go there with my problems with stress, but because I only had a referral for gender problems, my conversations were only about that too.

I then requested another referral, this time for stress treatment and depression. I requested this referral only when I was again unable to function from stress.Then I finally got the treatment I needed over six months earlier.

Despite being able to talk about my problems with friends, I was bothered by people not noticing anything. I was quite tired, did not always look cheerful and did walk around with visible self-harm, but nobody seemed to notice. I had needed someone to ask me once `And, how are you really doing?'

Puck:

I have been depressed since I was 12, and was diagnosed with depression at 15. I left home for my studies and when I started having negative thoughts again, I got a referral from the GP and was allowed to pick a practice on my own.

Waiting

I chose a practice specialising in functional impairment because of my ADD and spent four months on the waiting list after the telephone intake. Between the telephone interview and the first appointment, I received no updates at all. During that waiting time, the situation worsened and I became increasingly in crisis: the worst phase possible. No meaning in life anymore. Completely empty. Filled only with nasty emotions. Unable to take care of yourself, get up, seek contacts.

After the first interview, they said I was not in the right place because the issue was too complex. They had done my telephone intake, got the referral letter and my file, but only after four months of waiting did they say I should go elsewhere. As a matter of urgency, I was referred to a larger treatment practice. I then had to wait again for at least two months. I was sick, suicidal at the time.

Treatment

There was absolutely no flexibility in the new practice. After two weeks of voluntary closed admission, I had to wait to start programmes, three quarters of which I had already completed. I had little benefit from these, told that, but then had to chase it myself to get something from another treatment in the meantime. After I completed the (useless for me) programme, the conclusion was that I needed to work on my ADD first, and that specialisation was not in this practice. I then had to arrange everything around the switch myself and was used as a means of communication, while I am the patient.From initial application to now took about two years, much of it I was in crisis. And there I still haven't had personalised treatment targeted at me for depression and crisis.

Better mental health care

I would like that as a patient, you don't feel like a number. That what you need is looked at personally and protocol is deviated from if necessary. In addition, there should be more clarity around waiting times and an assessment should already be made during the telephone intake whether a patient is at the right address. Apart from the institutions, it would help if there were more understanding in society for mental problems. People are afraid to ask for help because there is a lack of understanding. Mental problems should be taken seriously, just like physical illnesses.

Do you need help? Through your GP, a low-threshold appointment can be made with community mental health worker. In case of suicidal thoughts you can contact 113 Suicide Prevention Foundation on 0900 0113 (available 24/7) and 113.co.uk.