THOUGHTS OF SUICIDE AS EXAMS LOOM, MTV JOINS FRAY URGING TROUBLED STUDENTS TO GET HELP.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

In only an hour, a college co-ed had her first thoughts about suicide and then tried to kill herself.

Why? She had just learned her grade-point average would drop below a 4.0 for the first time.

``She was simply not prepared for that experience. She had never `failed' in her life,'' said Michael J. Bradley, a Philadelphia psychologist specializing in teens. ``So she goes from being this incredible kid to attempting to kill herself over that kind of trauma.''

Suicide is believed to be the No. 2 cause of death among college students, according to the National Mental Health Association. Nearly 1,100 students kill themselves each academic year on U.S. college campuses. The actual number likely is higher because it excludes student deaths away from campuses and those not conclusively deemed suicides, such as solo traffic accidents and drug overdoses.

And as in the case Bradley cited, there are no real statistics on attempts.

A difficult month

December is a particularly tough month, experts say, as students face final exams without the light at the end of the tunnel that spring testing offers, and freshmen reckon with their first grade report.

MTV's campus-telecast mtvU network last month launched a television and online public service campaign aimed at encouraging troubled students to recognize their problems and seek help through their health centers or other crisis services. The campaign and its Web site are called ``Half of Us,'' a reference to the nearly 50 percent of students who reported in an October survey that they have at some time been so depressed they could not function.

The mtvU network is seen in cafeterias, student unions, fitness rooms and other common areas of about 750 schools nationwide, including USC, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and Cal State campuses in Northridge and Los Angeles.

The public service spots, also available on the halfofus.com site, show students in everyday settings -- a sports locker room, a professor's office, on the phone with parents -- and the types of situations that can trigger suicidal thoughts. They urge preventive measures, with prominent links on the site directing students to their own campus counseling service.

They also aim to put down the stigma associated with psychological treatment, which remains a major issue even among young adults.

The study, which mtvU commissioned, showed 77 percent of students would not want their friends to know they were in counseling for emotional problems, and 54 percent of students would not seek such help because they are afraid their friends and roommates would find out about it.

Major stigma attached

``I think what amazed us in the focus group was the pervasiveness of the stigma and the fact that the very words `mental health' equals `crazy' in the minds of college kids,'' said Stephen Friedman, general manager of mtvU.

Bradley, author of ``Yes, Your Teen Is Crazy'' and ``The Heart & Soul of the Next Generation,'' said today's students are under a great deal of stress and often are ill-equipped to cope with it, in part because of parents who have pushed them in school and fought their battles for them, from arguing with a coach about too much time on the bench to threatening legal action against a teacher over a grade.

``Parents have to remember they're not in the business of raising Ivy League students. They're in the business of raising the parents of their grandchildren,'' Bradley said. ``It's just a matter of helping kids accrue wisdom, resilience, strength, and that has to do with dealing with life, with failure, with losing, and then getting back up and getting in the game.''

Donna Satow knows too well the suffering suicide causes. Her son, Jed, was a 20-year-old sophomore on Dec. 29, 1998, when he committed suicide. She and husband Phil took that very painful lesson and created the Jed Foundation, which is partnering with mtvU on the Half of Us campaign. Its Web site includes a self-evaluation screening to help students assess their own needs or those of a close friend.

``These young-adult suicides have such long arms,'' she said. ``They affect so many students and so many people. Any death is a terrible thing, but it's a complicated experience on a college campus.''

Bradley says recent research indicates that about half of college suicides are 60-minute processes, from the first thought to the act itself.

``That appears to be a function of the acceleration of young people's worlds, that things move so quickly that the technology seems to outpace their ability to be resilient,'' Bradley said.

For those suffering from longer bouts of depression or other mental issues, parents can spot warning signs, he said.

``Often parents say, `Her eyes look different to me,' or `She's not smiling anymore, she's not playing with the dog, she's not interacting with her little brother,''' he said. ``What parents should do is ask straight up. A lot of parents say, `I didn't want to ask; I didn't want to put the thought in her mind.' Well, I tell you, the thought is already in her mind. Kids talk about (suicide) all the time.

``So parents should ask, `Honey, are you thinking of hurting yourself?' Often kids are waiting to be asked that question because there's almost always a voice inside a potential suicider who does not want to die and is looking for somebody to say, `Hey, are you in trouble?' ''

Some kids may be looking for their parents' tacit or clear permission to get counseling, Bradley said.

``A lot of this suicide education ... ought to be aimed at parents to help them understand that suicide for this generation of kids is anywhere from three to five times the rate of what it was for the parents' generation,'' Bradley said.

``There's a huge opportunity to send a wake-up call and use the channel very much as a megaphone to alert them that their friends are going through it, and at the local level there's help,'' mtvU's Friedman said. ``The infrastructure is there. It's just not being used.''

Valerie Kuklenski, [phone]

[e-mail]

Where to call or click for help

`The mtvU College Mental Health Study: Stress, Depression, Stigma & Students,'' conducted in October, found that one in five college seniors say they have thought about committing suicide, nearly three times the number of freshmen.

Almost half of respondents say they would encourage a troubled friend to seek counseling, but only 22 percent say they would go for treatment themselves if they were in the same position.

The Web site for MTV's new public service campaign, www.halfofus.com, makes it easy for students to understand their emotional issues and to get help if needed, with easy-to-navigate links to college campus mental-health facilities.

In conjunction with the Jed Foundation (www.jedfoundation.org), the site connects to UlifeLine.org's anonymous online screener, developed by Duke University Medical School and consisting of a series of questions that tailors feedback based on the user's school and available services.

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is available at [phone] (TALK) or at www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.

-- V.K.

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(1 -- cover -- color) The SUICIDE season

College students are more at risk with the arrival of final exams and other pressures

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(3) www.halfofus.com

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Where to call or click for help (see text)