Death on Campus: Our Stories (presumably UK-only doc)

[BluesRunTheGame]

What do people make of Andrew's, Stefan's and Lucy's stories? Three young people with seemingly everything going for them and the world at their feet. Until depression came along.

 

[Sherri]

I've seen that documentary , very touching indeed.

 

[262653]

Imagine you're a college student and there's this person who is your role model.
She's intelligent, attractive, athletic... and then she kills herself! What a mindfuck that could be.

 

[awfullife]

That was a good documentary. It's sad when young people CTB.

 

[death137]

Suicide is a sad thing but I always try to use other ppl suicide as a motivation to ctb. Those ppl were very brave to ctb and I admire them for that.

 

[Endeavour]

I notice that a few of them were at the top universities in the country. I wonder if they are in their original schools super smart and super the top of everyone academically. Then they go to Oxford or Cambridge and realise that suddenly they are no longer the super smart one, they feel like their world has collapsed because suddenly they're average at best.

Then imposter syndrome sets in and they feel like they don't deserve to be there, they aren't the world/game changer they thought they would be.

Then they fall into a spiral of depression?

It must be a bitter pill to swallow, going from exceptional your entire life, to mediocre overnight?

 

[BluesRunTheGame]

I notice that a few of them were at the top universities in the country. I wonder if they are in their original schools super smart and super the top of everyone academically. Then they go to Oxford or Cambridge and realise that suddenly they are no longer the super smart one, they feel like their world has collapsed because suddenly they're average at best.

Then imposter syndrome sets in and they feel like they don't deserve to be there, they aren't the world/game changer they thought they would be.

Then they fall into a spiral of depression?

It must be a bitter pill to swallow, going from exceptional your entire life, to mediocre overnight?

Interesting observation! You may have a good point here. I guess I just looked at it like depression is depression and the friends who said they wish the person had reached out cos they would have been there don't really get it.

 

[elfgyoza]

You never really know what's going on with someone. From an outside perspective I've always looked like a high achiever with 'everything to live for', but the reality is very different. I'm a student in the UK too and I know what it's like to go from being the best in your school to average at university, it's a shock. It's a hard pill to swallow, but it's definitely not the only factors driving depression in young people. Personally, I think going from the sheltered kid/teenage life into adulthood really messed me up. The future doesn't look bright anymore and just being smart with a degree doesn't seem to have any affect on getting a good career, being able to afford a house, etc. It's just not attainable anymore and it's bloody depressing

 

[Endeavour]

Interesting observation! You may have a good point here. I guess I just looked at it like depression is depression and the friends who said they wish the person had reached out cos they would have been there don't really get it.

I think the nursing student who was "all or nothing" in relationships and fell in love instantly and had her whole life mapped out with that person smacks of something like BPD - I think hers is different.

But the exceptional ones, where the brothers are saying he would have won a nobel prize or whatever, he'd probably been primed with that his whole life - he gets there and realises there are, in fact, a lot of people a lot smarter than he is.

Entire personal universe collapses.

Depression sets in, I don't deserve to be here, etc.

All depends like Einstein said on the viewpoint of the observer.

You never really know what's going on with someone. From an outside perspective I've always looked like a high achiever with 'everything to live for', but the reality is very different. I'm a student in the UK too and I know what it's like to go from being the best in your school to average at university, it's a shock. It's a hard pill to swallow, but it's definitely not the only factors driving depression in young people. Personally, I think going from the sheltered kid/teenage life into adulthood really messed me up. The future doesn't look bright anymore and just being smart with a degree doesn't seem to have any affect on getting a good career, being able to afford a house, etc. It's just not attainable anymore and it's bloody depressing

That's another thing. When I was at school some kids left and got jobs at the end of school, some went to college or did apprenticeships, a handful went to university.

University was supposed to be for the creme de la creme to get the best education possible to a very high degree.

Since as a species we haven't suddenly become super smarter, so everyone can be the creme de la creme (Christ just talk to some of the dummies - I talked to a person who had qualified in teaching and they asked me - how do you work out percentages?) - then the courses have to have become easier to accommodate the less intellectually gifted.

Then you get to the point where you need a degree to get a job stacking shelves in a supermarket - whereas when I left school, you'd just leave school and do that job.

It reminds me of the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, where they decide to make the leaf the unit of currency - but there are leaves everywhere, everyone will have so many leaves they'll be worthless - it's okay we'll burn down all the trees and go through an intense program of deforestation.