Pomona Profiles: Dr. Michelle Wierson

By Aidan Doherty
News Editor

Dr. Michelle Wierson, professor of psychology at Pomona College, agreed to be interviewed by The Asterisk regarding the state of mental health on Pomona’s campus.

How long have you been with the college?

This is my ninth year with the college.

What classes do you teach?

I teach classes related to clinical psychology. Abnormal psychology. A seminar in clinical psychology. A class called Therapeutic Psychology in Action, which incorporates internships in mental health and counseling. I also teach Introduction to Psychology and Senior Thesis in Clinical Psychology.

Dr. Wiersen, in addition to teaching in the psychology department, you are also a licensed clinical psychologist?

I see a limited number of clients in practice, where I specialize in children and families.

What have you identified as some of the main dangers to mental health on the Claremont campuses?

The interaction between the high expectations of the environment, the juggling of multiple tasks, and the illusion that one should be able to perform highly at all times. There exists a pressure and expectation to excel in academics, and in extracurricular activities, and to operate at 100% efficiency at both. These are social expectations and environmental expectations.

We have a student body that is consistently perfectionistic. Certainly, students are highly competent, but yet can’t be that way at all times and under all circumstances. When things start to slip, a kind of terror sets in and I see students punishing themselves cognitively rather than changing behavior. Part of the goal of college is to learn that it is acceptable to be adequate in some tasks, in order to excel in others. If you try to “do it all”, eventually you cannot do much of anything.

As a community, we need to encourage each other to have fewer obligations, rather than have an implicit competition for who works the hardest or has the most to do. It’s the responsibility of everyone to take a serious look at our community - let’s define excellence, in part, as creating a life that doesn’t require using 100% of our energies every day.

In addition, very few preventive measures are taken by students to anticipate stressful time periods. Fundamental issues that need to be addressed are eating, sleeping and exercise. Sleep in particular. Students subject themselves to both psychological and physical stress and don’t seem to protect themselves during the busiest times of the semester. So, instead of making adjustments to the environment, like reducing obligations and prioritizing during these times, there’s a tendency to push oneself beyond capacity. As a result, there is increased anxiety from not accomplishing everything; this anxiety accumulates until some students are at a breaking point.

What mental health services does Pomona offer? Do you feel that these services are adequate?

There are lots of resources available; the system of having sponsor groups, Resident Advisors, the Dean of Students office, the counseling center. These are intended to be supportive devices, but they tend to operate as interventions rather than preventions - that is, most students wait until things start to get out of control before they make use of these supports. Then, the goal becomes crisis intervention, putting a band aid on a situation that could have been foreseen. I see more and more students thinking that they can handle everything and then waiting until the last minute to seek support. In this way, then, our services are not entirely adequate, because they get overloaded with urgent cases that need more intrusive, time intensive actions. In the end, this reinforces the notion that counseling should be reserved for the worst problems.

Could you talk about those counseling services a little more?

The Monsour Counseling Center provides crisis intervention, an on-call therapist who is available every day and requires no appointment. This person is available for people who feel desperate, for those students who already feel like they cannot function, or are having suicidal thoughts, panic, or impulse control problems.

But, the true goal of a college counseling center is to provide ongoing services for dealing with the stress of college. Every student has access to brief counseling at Monsour, a limited number of sessions designed to help keep things from escalating to severe levels. I would advise students to seek counseling when they begin to feel stressed, before they reach a crisis point. The purpose of the counseling center is to help people identify the cues that things are getting out of control so that something can be done about it before things get worse. Some of these cues are avoiding work, sleeping less, disengaging from other people, drinking more. Beginning to believe that things are catastrophic, responding to that with a helpless reaction. Once you know what your own signals for distress are, you can apply interventions like increasing social contact, meditation, and relaxation techniques. Other people need help changing their cognitions, modifying irrational beliefs such as “if I fail at one thing, I am a failure altogether.”

For ongoing problems, there are referral services to community therapists; and, Monsour does have some mechanisms for long term support that go beyond the “allotted” number of sessions.

Do you think that the mental health situation overall has improved or declined since you began working here?

I think that we’ve had a lot more incidents of serious mental health problems. That actually parallels a nationwide trend on college campuses, so it is not specific to The Claremont Colleges. The result is a stress on services in general, so that there is more attention to dealing with urgent cases. I believe that we need to devote more resources to prevention, to helping students identify distress in themselves and others before the development of a full scale problem. In the end, this also helps with urgent cases, because the professionals involved are more likely to have a history with the individual and to know whether or not current behavior is aberrant.

Of course, part of prevention involves helping people who do have a history of problems, assisting them as they manage their psychological conditions. In spite of all efforts, however, there are going to be situations where it is not possible to predict what will happen. Violence, in particular, is very difficult to predict. In Jared Essig’s case, for example, while it was clear that his psychological state was deteriorating, it was far less clear that the direction it was taking was aggressive.

Pomona has a pretty prominent drinking culture and, to a lesser extent, a drug culture. How does this figure into the mental health picture?

Both directly and indirectly. One issue is that we have a high rate of abuse of substances. Abusing substances in and of itself is a problem, and may qualify as a mental health diagnosis on its own depending on how much it interferes with overall functioning, frequency and intensity of use, levels of tolerance, and other addiction patterns. More importantly, there is an interaction between abusing substances and having other mental health problems, as drinking or using is a common way to deal with anxiety, depression, manic behavior, and even hallucinations. Similarly, many relapses of mental health problems are preceded by binge drinking.

The last thing that one should do when feeling overwhelmed, then, is to drink more or use more. Not only is it an act of avoidance, it actually serves as a physiological prime for increasing your mental health symptoms. Drugs and alcohol depress the immune system, interfere with restful sleep, and shift the chemicals connected to mood. You feel good for a short time, but there is a rebound effect afterwards. That is, the after effects of substances can actually trigger the very symptoms that you intended to mask or suppress in the first place. So, when you are experiencing stress, avoid the urge to self-medicate by drinking or using.

Where can students go to find help for emotional problems?

Monsour, the Dean of Students office, the chaplain’s office. Often people think they can handle their problems on their own, or that talking things out with friends will be sufficient. And, of course, social supports are essential to coping. However, friends can’t serve as counselors and therapists. Especially during time periods that are predictably stressful for everyone, such as just before a break or during final exams. That’s why professional services are available.

Do you think that students could use better time management skills?

I do think that students could use better time management skills. Because of high expectations of college, in combination with almost no external structure, there tends to be little pacing, especially on deadlines. Students know that, in theory, they can write the paper at the last minute and do fine. Because they did that last semester, or the one before, or their classmates seem to manage to do it. Unfortunately, though, the toll on the body and, ultimately, on mental health, is too great.

So, break things into small components and work on tasks bit by bit rather than all at once. This sounds simple but it is not, and requires self discipline. Instead of being deadline oriented, set up a regular schedule for working on each of your courses, and then stick to it. When something is due, plan twice as much time as you think you will need to complete a project, rather than waiting until all that stands between you and the deadline is the minimum number of hours you could possible imagine. Not only will this reduce anxiety, it is also likely to result in better performance.

And, get regular sleep - during the night, not during the day. Sleeping during the day disrupts circadian rhythms and actually increases symptoms of anxiety and depression. This is especially important if you have had a history of psychological distress, as the consequence for losing sleep is more than just fatigue, but rather a risk for the return of symptoms.

What should we learn from the incident with Jared Essig?

When we see a dramatic change in someone’s behavior or character, we should take that seriously. The inclination to dismiss it or normalize it needs to be suppressed. Pay attention to changes in other people and encourage them to get help. If you don’t see an improvement, let other people know. While this should always be balanced with personal rights, it is also true that once psychological distress escalates above a certain threshold, an individual’s ability to get help for himself or herself is impaired.

And, while the patterns in Jared’s case do not usually result in such a tragic outcome, they certainly are evidence that there is a grave problem. When behaviors like his occur, they don’t get better on their own.

Finally - remember, getting therapeutic help is not the same as admitting that things are out of control, or that you cannot manage your life. In fact, it is a sign of strength to use mental health services as a tool; getting counseling is another way of exerting personal control over stress reactions and mental health symptoms. I would urge people to do exercise that control earlier rather than later.

What does it cost us as a community to neglect the problems of mental health?

One cost we incur is the misimpression that mental health symptoms don’t need to be handled, or that they just get better “on their own.” Because of this, the ultimate cost is that we end up having to deal with more severe problems, both in ourselves and in other people.