Ross Szabo Campus Wide Presentation

Review by Sarah Stewart

On April 22nd, the Office of Student Wellness and Counseling and Psychological Services were proud to present Ross Szabo to UCSD students, staff, and faculty. Szabo, author of the book Behind Happy Faces came to talk on subject not easy to approach: mental health and illness. Szabo is not your typical public speaker. In tune with college life, Szabo has his own brand of humor to identify the disorders that are affecting college-age students all over the country. 

At age 16, Szabo, a football star and highly involved teenager was diagnosed as “bipolar with anger control problems and psychotic features.” Since mental illness was taboo, Szabo kept his internal struggles from friends and family until he attempted to take his own life. Today, Szabo has accepted the challenge of breaking down the stereotypes that deter people from reaching out and getting help.

 “When I speak, I am not speaking only about me - I am speaking about a generation. The older generation was quiet about mental illness. It is time for us to stop losing to old ways of dealing with mental health issues and start winning the battle.” It’s an uphill road the change the stigma surrounding mental disorders. Media portrayals depict people without hope of living healthy lives. 

Here are some important quotes and ideas that caught my attention at the presentation:

Obstacles to Mental Health

Silence and the culture of ‘being normal’ are the main obstacles to educating people about mental health. Szabo still laughingly describes sharing his diagnosis with college roommates as awkward,  “They thought I just needed a couple of shots and to hook up...Pick a girl and we’ll take care of this right now!” Regarding mental health, this experience is a shocking indicator of how students cope – or don’t cope. 

Stress & Sleep

“Students love to compete over who is most stressed. If you’re not stressed, you must not be working hard enough!” (If Szabo had attended UC San Diego as an undergraduate, he couldn’t have said it better). Most know the popular exam routine: all-nighters involving lots of caffeine from the newest energy drinks. However, Szabo claims losing sleep does more harm than good. Military torture techniques allow prisoners to sleep 2-5 hours a night - enough to break them while allowing them to retain their coherence to confess information. “So we have to ask, why are you torturing yourselves, UCSD?”

Alcohol

Another popular coping mechanism for youth today is drinking. Why do students drink? “It’s fun! It loosens you up, makes you a better dancer and peers suddenly become better looking.” Others drink to deal with anxiety in social situations. Szabo described the ‘party progression’ by painting a vivid picture of people huddled with their friends in the beginning, branching out after a few drinks, and then table dancing. 

Why is it a problem that young adults cope through alcohol abuse? “The way you learn to deal with issues early in life is the way you’ll feel most comfortable dealing with them for the rest of your life.”

Your Challenge: Breaking Down the Stigma of Mental Health

Szabo’s challenge to students is to take away the stigma.  This starts by changing how we define ourselves and the culture we live in. “It’s so cool to be myself as long as there is someone else like me.” Maintaining the illusion of normality is what prevents us from reaching out. “No one is normal. What we have made normal is not talking about being different.”

Ross closed his presentation with a challenge to students in regards to breaking down the stigma of mental health problems, "What are you going to do about it? It requires no strength not to change. It requires no strength to not care.”