Page 8 - Issue-15

ELITE ISSUE 15, JANUARY 2020 PAGE 8

Mental Health & Depression
Report with Cairo University Students

Cairo: Carolin Sherief, Farah Ezzeldin, Hana Zakare yya, Habiba Atef and Dina Ehab
In your opinion can psychological pressure lead to mental health
On Tuesday 10th of December,2019, a survey was held among college
problems?
students from different faculties in Cairo Universi ty. Those faculties were
The students were all in agreement that sure psycho logical pressure can
faculty of Economics and political science, faculty of Arts, faculty of Law,
lead to mental health problems if it was continuous and the person going
faculty of Mass communication and faculty of Commer ce. The survey was
through that pressure surrender to it through not f acing the pressure,
conducted with an equal ration among female and mal e students.
stopped fighting it or getting rid of it. This woul d may in fact lead to

aggressive tendencies and increase the need to be i solated from other
These students were asked some questions about psyc hological pressure, its
people.
consequences and its impact on mental health and th eir answers were as

followed:
What is your definition of mental illness?
The survey started with asking them about the defin ition of the term
To this question we didn ’t find a specific and adequate answer. Which led
“bullying ” from their point of view?
us to deduce that unfortunately many people are una ware of the meaning of
Almost all of the answers stated that bulling is th e process of making fun of
‘mental health ’ or when can a person be diagnosed with being menta lly ill.
a person in terms of (his illness, physical appeara nces, environment in
However, some people answered that mental illness i s worse than physical
which he grew up or his social background ... etc.) . Some also said that it is
illness as it is an on-going internal pain that we cannot pinpoint its origin.
simply the mockery of a person for being different than others.
Mental illness may present as a person ’s fear to deal with other people(not
Does bullying causes Psychological pressure even if it was done in a
being shy) or as severe depression. What was really surprising that one of
humorous way?
the students that answered that they didn ’t know what mental illness is, she
All students answered that it is inevitable for bul lying to lead to
admitted that she was in fact diagnosed by the doct ors as a patient of
psychological pressure even if it was only a joke, and also if it was
mental illness and she was even admitted in psychia tric hospital.
repeated.

They were also asked about the type of psychologica l pressure that they
From your own perspective when does mental illness lead to suicide?
each face?
All of the students have agreed that mental illness can lead to suicide
The answers to this question varied from one studen t to another. Some
however their reasons varied, some of the reasons w ere the presence of
students faced stress and pressure from college eit her from the work that
despair, weak faith and the inability to cope with the illness and the
they had to do or because this college was not the one that they wanted to
surrounding environment.
attend in the first place. Some were due to family and social problems.

However, one student gave us a different answer whi ch was the fact that
Finally, we ended our survey with this question: in your opinion can a
the pressure she faces is her fear of disappointing her parents.
person who suffers from psychological stress visit a psychiatrist?
How do you face stress?
Most of the students answered that of course they s hould visit a
The answers here were divided into two categories. Some students faced
psychiatrist because it is the solution to his illn ess and no one can help him
stress by being an introvert and isolating themselv es from the world, other
except an expert despite the refusal of the customs and society to the idea.
faced it by having some kind of escapism such as li stening to music or
However, others replied with rejection to the idea of a psychiatrist.
hanging out with the people they love.