With a record number of Canterbury students seeking counselling, Anna MacSwan talks to two students about why university isn't always the best period of your life - and why breaking the stigma around mental health is vital...

When Matthew Skingley, 20, first began experiencing depression, he had little idea what he was going through.

Part of a group of friends who openly joked about suicide, he thought of the mental illness as simply "being sad".

Scroll down to hear Calum Kennedy taking about his experiences

Then on a gap year between school and university and working at a coffee shop, he realised something wasn't right when he began struggling to get out of bed in the morning.

At one point, he remembers talking to a friend outside a club on a night out, while looking at a multi-storey car park and contemplating if he could take his own life.

Although he eventually sought help from his GP, the fear of being perceived as weak held him back.

“I used to stigmatise mental health with my friends, a lot,” he says.

“That was damaging. When I was having suicidal thoughts, I felt like I couldn’t tell them, because it was something that was a bit of a joke.”

Now in his second year of studying computer engineering at the University of Kent, Matthew puts reaching the point he did largely down to drifting apart from friends after leaving college.

“I didn’t know what it was, but I was like, I need help, I can’t do this on my own any more,” he says.

He is one of hundreds of students in Canterbury who have admitted struggling with mental illness.

Last year, a record 1,097 received help from the University of Kent’s counselling service, while 1,194 disclosed mental health difficulties.

The consequences can be tragic and a number of Canterbury students have taken their own lives in recent years.

Matthew’s friend, Calum Kennedy, 23, who is studying biochemistry, has lived with mental illness since his teens.

He grew up "hearing voices" and has also experienced hallucinations, disturbing thoughts and severe difficulty concentrating.

To this day, he is unsure whether his latest diagnosis of psychosis accurately conveys his condition.

“My diagnosis was very botched. I was told I had depression, then bipolar disorder, then schizophrenia, then psychosis. I still don’t know what I have,” he says.

"You think no one will understand, it's going to be futile... but as much as people say it gets better, it really does" - Calum Kennedy

After being told as a child that his symptoms were simply part of his "overactive imagination", a turning point came when one day, Calum told his mother he couldn’t face school because he wanted to die.

At a point when he no longer cared about himself, he says seeing his parents’ devastated reaction prompted him to seek help.

“I have never seen them so broken. I consider my dad to be very tough, and he was crying like a baby. It was seeing that, that made me think, I can’t put them through this,” he explains.

Today, he says his family and friends help him carry on.

“You think no one will understand, it’s going to be futile,” he continues.

“But as much as people say it gets better, it really does.”

The pair say there are many reasons why mental illnesses often come to light at university and that breaking the stigma is vital.

“There’s isolation, for sure, but also alcohol and the party culture,” Calum says.

“There’s also the constant lack of sleep, and social pressure to be the sort of person that wants to go out every night.

“You’re always doing things that you’re expected to do, rather than what you want to do.”

Matthew, who has sought support from the University’s counselling service, as well as the Umbrella Centre charity, has appealed to others who are struggling, to do the same.

“We have a first-class level of support, but I think it’s very possible there’s a large number of people that know it’s there, but don’t want to go and seek help,” he says.

“Maybe they stigmatise it themselves, I know I used to stigmatise my own mental illness and that made me feel so much worse about myself, as if needing help was a weakness.”

A spokesman for the University of Kent says the issue of mental health is taken "very seriously".

"We would encourage any student who feels they might benefit from support to contact our Wellbeing Services," they continued.

"The team offers free support to all enrolled students experiencing distress arising from psychological, emotional or mental health issues."

For confidential support on an emotional issue, call Samaritans on 116 123

Take Off is a Canterbury-based mental health charity and can be reached on 01227 788211 or by emailing office@takeoff.works

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