Loved ones mourn death Esteban Bustillos Managing Editor
She was getting ready for church when she saw the slew of missed calls from her best friend’s boyfriend. Jaymi Jacob called back, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. Once he had finally collected himself, Jacob heard all of it. Her best friend Shifa Mirza had died in a car accident earlier that morning. Jacob, a healthcare studies senior, said she couldn’t believe the news.
// See Mirza, page 16
Mental health workers stress importance of dialogue Miguel Perez Editor-in-Chief
It seemed like just another Wednesday, only the third day of the fall semester, and Alex Miller was navigating his return to college: finding classes and meeting professors and students. It all seemed fine, but by day’s end, it would prove to be one of the most haunting days of his life. After class, he returned home to the sound of screaming. He found his mother distraught, crying and barely able to speak. Amid her garbled distress, he pieced out one phrase: Her boyfriend had died. Miller took the phone and addressed the officer on the other line. The officer said his mother’s boyfriend had been found in his car. There was evidence that indicated he had taken his own life. The following day, Miller, a neuroscience junior, found out he had been offered a position with a 24/7 crisis hotline he had applied for. “I was overcome with emotion,” he said. “If I can’t see somebody right here who is suffering, who committed suicide, how can I take this job and help someone else?” Despite Miller’s internal conflict — justifying a position where he would eventually be helping callers understand their mental health when he felt he couldn’t recognize illness in those close to him — he believed taking a job with an organization that addressed the issue was the right choice. “It would help me understand what could happen if (the hotline) wasn’t around,” he said. “What CONTACT does is help prevent that from happening.” CONTACT is a nonprofit crisis line that offers confidential support via phone for people dealing with anything from relationship issues to suicidal ideation, or suicidal thoughts.
Brandon Willis, CONTACT’s crisis line program director, said the perception of mental health and mental illness is beginning to lean toward understanding and addressing those issues while removing their taboo nature. “Some people can be very depressed and still go through their day smiling and talking to people, but they’re still depressed,” Willis said. “Right now, we’re in a place where people are recognizing it more. We’re talking about it more, and people are learning about how to respond to it.” Still, mental-health issues continue to be prevalent on college campuses, said Kandi Owens, a postdoctoral psychology fellow with the Student Counseling Center. She sees a significant amount of depression, anxiety, distress and general-stress cases, and with a growing population of veterans, the pervasiveness of illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder is also increasing. She said the biggest reason people don’t seek help is because of the stigma associated with it. “When you get into thinking about other cultures that are represented on our very diverse campus, there are a lot of cultural messages around keeping things within the family or keeping secrets, which does include mental-health issues and emotional-health issues,” Owens said. UTDPD is often called in to address reports related to the mental health of students. Chief of Police Larry Zacharias said there have been eight student hospitalizations related to mental health this
// See mental health, page 16