Appalachian State's Mental Illness Problem

We are really shitty at talking about mental illness. "Our best" amounts to a couple of links and the phone number for the suicide hotline. "Talk to someone" they repeat over and over again. As if just sitting someone down and talking their ear off about all the little nuances of our psyche is something that never crossed our minds. And yet, mental illness is in vogue. It's quirky and fun, highlighting the unique natures of a generation that is frothing at the mouth to stand out in an increasingly homogenizing world. When a celebrity or person of interest dies as a result of it, we jump at the chance to spout off our opinions on why/when/where/how they did the deed. We extoll the virtues of not committing suicide and vomit vague platitudes about the fullness of life. We hawk Prozac, Xanax, Zoloft, Lexapro and a veritable menagerie of other mind-numbing bullshit aimed at just calming people with uncomfortable thoughts down.

Fuck off.

Mental illness isn't the next talking point that you get to include in your "good-little-progressive" quota for the day. This will not be KONY 2012 because this isn't a problem that you can throw money and "awareness" at until it just goes away or climbs back under a rock. This will require work and it will require shoving yourself face-first into the ugly side of human life and the human mind. If I sound melodramatic, it's because I'm still bristling at the latest bad handling in a long line of poor responses to suicide in my community.

Earlier this week, Mary-Catherine Johnson, a student of Appalachian State, was found dead in her dorm room. She was 19 years old and she was from Raleigh.

Early last semester, a young freshman named Anna Smith went missing. After two weeks of searching, police found her body in the woods near campus. She was 18 years old and from High Point. 

These tragedies have rocked Appalachian's campus and caused a great deal of grief and uproar from students and faculty alike. In response, Appalachian State sent an email from Chancellor Sheri Everts with a vague link to a university website dedicated to giving you all sorts of phone numbers....including 911! Have no fear, victims of mental illness and personal strife, Appalachian has its best web designers on the case. 

Tongue in cheek aside, I understand that the university is trying. I really do. It's nice that the Chancellor takes time out of her busy day of posing for photographs to write us an email about how much this death has affected her personally. But you guys really aren't trying hard enough. Let's take the counseling center, for example. It's a great resource on paper. Free counseling (occasionally with dogs!) for all Appalachian State students! What a bargain, right? That is, if you wait for several weeks for them to match you up with a counselor who then spends the first meeting talking about the problems they'd like to address in the coming months and sends you packing until two weeks from now.

For those of you that do not understand the toll mental illness takes on the mind, let me put it this way: If you were to walk into the emergency room with a wound that, while not immediately a threat, might become one over time, would you find it reasonable to be told that a doctor will be available to see you in two weeks? Fuck no.

I get it. Hiring enough mental health professionals to accommodate a university of thousands is a daunting task. But it's not an impossible one.

Let me be clear: I am not blaming the university for the suicides of its students. There is no way that people in power could know what each and every student is going through. What I am saying is that there are ways to prevent this in the future that the university is not currently exploring. An idea off the top of my head: Dorm counselors. Because right now the only in-house solution are several confused kids who just happen to have a shiny badge that says "Residence Assistant." 

I'm not saying I have all the ideas, either. I'm just an angry bystander who finds the amount of effort and passion put into suicide prevention lax and irresponsible. 

We don't want phone numbers; we want help. 

A Cursory Explanation of Falling Oil Prices

Because I am neither an economist nor a geopolitical expert, I can not claim to give you the full rundown on why, exactly, this exciting price of oil free-fall is occurring. For the sake of brevity, I will do my best to summarize what has been the strangest and most surprising economic event to occur in (my) recent memory.

Indeed, it would seem that everyone is baffled by the recent price of oil across the United States. With prices dipping below two dollars in many states, shouts of Christmas miracles and the impending return of Quetzalcoatl are tempting. But behind every miracle is a logical collection of data and an asshole to explain it to you. I accept the mantle gladly and willingly.

On the surface, there is an obvious (albeit incomplete) reason for our sub-$2 gas range. You see, where once we relied heavily on other countries for our oil, the United States has (gradually) become one of the largest producers of oil in the world. That's right! We've drilled our way into the big leagues and our shale-oil cup overfloweth with more gas than we know what to do with. But with great power comes.....well, no responsibility. As a non-member of OPEC, we really aren't obligated to play by their rules and adhere to their needs, letting us give them the oil-doused finger and laugh our way to the bank.

Of course, we aren't just hurting big oil with our antics. We're also effectively crippling the economy of those countries that rely on oil production for their livelihoods. With Russia's currency losing "half its value against the US dollar in 2014" it's clear that we are about to make a lot of powerful players very desperate. But that's conjecture and I don't like to deal too much in that.

Also conjecture, however, is the entire notion that our shale production is wholly responsible for the falling prices. It would, of course, be insane to dismiss it entirely, but it plays a much smaller part than seems initially evident. It's worth noting that we didn't just suddenly start producing shale-oil this year. It's been a process several years in the making. Why are prices only just now falling? According to Mother Jones (quoting James Hamilton), that can be rather simply attributed to reduced demand. Seems rather obvious now that you think about it, but it's a significant aspect of the whole ordeal.

Oil is what economists like to call "price-inelastic," which means that demand is not easily affected by a change in price. Obviously, people still need to get to work and visit family and go out for a midnight snack. In other words, lazy Americans are going to drive regardless of the price and bitch about it later.

So why is demand down? 

I'm glad you asked! I also asked (read: Googled) this question and was brought to a lovely little article in The Economist that sums up these questions and more. In short, demand is down due to "weak economic activity, increased efficiency, and a growing switch away from oil to other fuels." This is, of course, merely one in a laundry list of reasons including turmoil in Iraq and Libya and some weird wheelings and dealings amongst the Saudis and their Gulf friends, but I felt it was the most explicit answer to the persisting question of: what in the hell is going on with the price of gas?

Hopefully, it's evident to you that I have barely scratched the surface on this entire thing and I do urge you to research much further should you want to learn the nitty-gritty details. Besides that, I hope I've enlightened you just a tiny bit on the state of oil prices, and now you have a fun little list of articles that you can use to educate your friends! Just please don't be a pretentious asshole about it.