Research Blog #8

Interview:

I've interviewed my roommate, Kali. She has experience with depression and I felt like her viewpoint was well-needed in writing this paper. She is a low income student who works part time on the weekends. I needed some kind of solid confirmation that there was something about college that had the potential to create depression in young students or to make it worse in those already suffering from it. In the case of my roommate, she was already diagnosed with depression and the environment of college as well as the pressures to do well, while being financially responsible for herself was a heavy burden to bear. A lot of what I wrote about is only inference from what I know of depression and its symptoms. Some interesting quotes:

1. When did you first start to experience symptoms of depression? K: When I was 16. It was Constant sadness and mood swings. I couldn’t eat when I was depressed. I ate too much when I was stressed.  

2.

What was your experience with depression in college? K: Being depressed all the time I felt like I couldn’t handle stress would get overwhelmed by the smallest things. I felt like I couldn’t talk to anyone about what was going on. And it seemed like everything was happing at once, causing deeper depression.

3. Do Feel like it affected your work? K:  Yes for first two years It negatively affected my grades. They went down and I felt like they couldn’t go back up.

4. How did you cope with depression? K: Crying, Drinking wine, Alienated myself.

5. Do you think your depression got worse in college? K: Yes it got worse this year. Why? Me constantly comparing myself to others. I felt like I wasn’t where I needed to be. I felt like I was behind and I wouldn’t get to where I wanted to be.

This may not seem like much, but so much can be inferred from this interview from her. Depression may be an individual issue of a person who lacks resilience or it may be a systematic issue that could affect anyone's mental state negatively.