The LSU community’s experience with mental health tragedies reflects the increasing prevalence of mental illness among young adults today, which has been further enflamed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Demand for mental health and addiction services increased significantly in 2020 as shutdowns left many people feeling isolated, according to polling data released by the National Council of Behavioral Health.  
The impact of the pandemic on mental health disproportionately impacted young people, with one in four people aged 18—24 contemplating suicide “in the past 30 days” during August, according to the CDC.
Now, more than ever, students should know how to access mental health resources, such as therapy, on and off campus.
How to know if you should talk to a therapist
A common misconception around counseling is the idea that people need to have been diagnosed with a mental illness to seek and benefit from therapy. Shana Breaux, a therapist practicing in Baton Rouge, explained that therapy can be viewed as a proactive approach to wellness, almost like going to the doctor to get a checkup.
“I have clients come to me who say ‘I don’t know what’s going on with me. I just feel like something’s missing,’” Breaux said. “Maybe they just graduated college and they don’t know where to go from there. I can work with them, help them formulate some goals and help them explore what they may potentially be looking for.”
However, Breaux said there are signs that may indicate someone needs to see a therapist:

• You are thinking about or coping with an issue for at least an hour every day.
• The issue negatively affects school, work or relationships.
• You’ve had to alter things in your life to cope with the issue. 
• You are too embarrassed to talk about the issue with others or avoid others because of the issue.
• You feel emotionally numb (i.e., you don’t experience positive or negative emotions). 
• The issue has caused your overall quality of life to decrease. 
• You have lost interest in activities you used to enjoy, in the world around you or in life in general.
• You have a desire to increase self-awareness, improve coping skills and/or maintain emotional wellness.

“If someone is having a recurring issue — something like anxiety, for example, is becoming a daily issue that is in the forefront of their minds — if they’re feeling not so good most of the time, [or] when it starts to really impair school or impair their relationships, it’s definitely time to get some help,” Breaux said.
Breaux said that students don’t have to wait until their issues become this serious to seek and benefit from therapy.
“People don’t have to necessarily wait for that to happen, until they’re struggling,” Breaux said. “They can seek out therapy to work on wellness as a whole and work on coping skills so that when a big event, a major life event does happen to them, they’re better able to cope with it.”
What to expect from therapy
There are many different types of therapy, and the process of therapy will look different depending on patients’ needs. Generally, therapists are trained to help their clients understand themselves better, process emotions, ease mental illness symptoms and cope with various life challenges.
“What a therapist is going to do is help you identify some barriers, some things that are in the way of you feeling your best and doing your best,” Breaux said. “They’re going to help guide you and maybe help to illuminate some things that maybe you already know but that you really haven’t become aware of yet.”
History and communication studies junior Madeline Holmes has been seeing a therapist off campus since October. She said people shouldn’t view their therapist as someone who will fix their problems or heal them. The work is on the part of the patient, and therapists serve as tools to help people improve their lives.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Oh my gosh, my therapist is magical and she just solved all my problems,’” Holmes said. “It was the fact that I got to go sit somewhere [and] talk about something without judgment, especially things that I had been holding on to for a really long time.”
Philosophy sophomore Adam Birmingham has been seeing a therapist at LSU’s Student Health Center for three semesters. He said the process of therapy was simple for him: he and his therapist would talk about whatever was running through his head at the time.
“I told my therapist once… ‘You feel like a little flush on my brain,’” Birmingham said. “‘My terrible, anxious thoughts just go down the drain when I come here every other week.’”
Does therapy work?
Digging into research on the outcomes of therapy can involve sorting through contradictory and confusing information. However, meta-analyses on the outcomes of psychotherapy for people generally show that therapy is effective, and that instances of people becoming worse off while in therapy are rare.
It can’t be said that therapy will work for everyone, but research shows that the likelihood of improvement for those in therapy is high, especially when compared to people in control groups who didn’t attend therapy.           
Holmes and Birmingham both said they have noticed improvements in their mental health since starting therapy.
“I’ll find myself in a situation that I originally might have gotten really stressed out about, and I take a second and think about what I talked about in therapy and I’ll handle it a lot better,” Holmes said. “Something simple as just changing the way I think about something has made a difference in my life.”
Therapy at LSU
LSU’s Student Health Center offers free therapy for full-time students. LSU’s Psychological Services Center also offers individual and group therapy; their services are not free.
Birmingham said he had to wait for a month or so before getting an appointment at the SHC, but started going regularly after his first appointment.
Birmingham said trauma from his past caused him to spiral out of control from even the slightest bit of stress.
“I realized I need to dive into these things I’d rather not think about and work through that,” Birmingham said. “There really should be no shame in it. I think in a perfect world, everybody should be seeing a therapist, especially if you do need the help.”
The SHC has a limited number of slots for therapy, so students interested should make an appointment as soon as possible.
“It stinks that in the middle of the semester or toward the end if you get told it will be like a four-week wait or a six-week wait,” Raime Thibodeaux, associate director of mental health at the SHC said. “That’s a pain point we’re trying to resolve.”
The SHC also employs a psychiatrist who can prescribe or adjust students’ medication, such as anti-depressants.
If someone feels they could benefit from mental health resources outside of therapy, LSU’s Mental Health Center offers non-therapeutic services for students, such as MindWise, an anonymous self-assessment which can direct students to resources based on their responses.
Finding a therapist off campus
The biggest benefit to seeing a therapist at the SHC is that it’s free. However, there’s a chance that students may not have the ability to try different therapists to find the right fit, or they may not be able to schedule an appointment as soon as they like given the SHC’s limited slots.
Fortunately, there are tons of therapists in the Baton Rouge area. Students can browse therapists’ profiles near them by using Psychology Today’s “find a therapist” tool. Therapists’ profiles include a picture, what they specialize in, communities they often work with, what insurances they take and their number and email to schedule a consultation.
Oftentimes, therapists will offer free consultations, which are short meetings done over the phone or video to see if the client and therapist would be a good fit. In this way, students can browse profiles and schedule multiple consultations with providers until they find someone they like.
If students have health insurance, they can see if a therapist takes their insurance. However, even if a therapist doesn’t take insurance directly, insurance companies will often reimburse their clients for the cost of their sessions.  
Generally, insurance companies will cover most of the costs of therapy, paying anywhere between $100 and $300 per visit, while the patient may be asked to pay a relatively small co-pay between $15 and $50.
Again, this is the kind of information students can find on therapists’ profiles, scheduling a consultation or by finding a list of providers on their insurance company’s website.
If students don’t have health insurance, many therapists will offer a sliding scale, which means they will charge however much a client can afford per session. Students can even filter their therapist search on Psychology Today by only viewing those who offer sliding scales.
“If a client is willing to work and invest in therapy, a lot of therapists are willing to be flexible if they know somebody is interested,” Breaux said.
Mental health problems can be especially impactful on a college student’s life. If depression, anxiety or any other problem is interfering with a student’s ability to do schoolwork, keep a job or maintain healthy relationships, it can affect the trajectory of the rest of their life.
“The college age comes with its own suitcase of stressors,” Breaux said. “You’re making the transition from being an adolescent to a young adult and there are many major life transitions in that time. 
“There’s a lot of new things to navigate. It can’t hurt to get some extra guidance and support during that time.”