Depression among students is very well documented. From fresher stress to the pressure of finals, money worries, exhaustion, loneliness and coursework, the road is riddled with pitfalls. But leaving education doesn't mean leaving problems behind. Every year graduate depression strikes, and seems completely unexpected.
"It didn't occur to me that this was going to happen to me," says Melanie, who graduated with a first-class degree in psychology two years ago. "I think I went a bit crazy for a while . . . I didn't handle it very well. I felt adrift, with no direction after being so focused."
While one in four students suffers depression during their university years, there are no official figures for the post-graduation period. Mike Burton, of the Sussex University Counselling service, admits that this group "slips through the system". They become indivisible from any other adult facing major life transitions - even counsellors who work with students seem to be unaware of the problem. It is also quite possible that some graduates don't realise they are affected, as symptoms are not always as obvious as feeling miserable all the time. Feeling tired, restless or agitated, losing interest in life and becoming unable to enjoy anything, finding it hard to make decisions, having difficulty sleeping, avoiding people and losing self-confidence are some of depression's guises.
Saying goodbye to the familiar haven of education and the flexible but purposeful structure of university life can be a real shock to those who don't have a definite career plan. Nicola, 23, went straight to university from sixth-form college, then finished her English degree not knowing what she wanted to do with her life. She went to her parents' house for the summer, then picked up part-time work but wasn't happy. She became apathetic, couldn't get out of bed, lost her appetite and all her confidence: "The minute I was on my own I'd burst into tears. It didn't hit me until March that I was horrendously depressed," Nicola says.
It isn't just those graduates taking their first steps into the adult world who lose their footing. Melanie was 30 when she began her degree, after raising two children. She excelled at university and enjoyed her new identity. When she came out with a first she felt invincible. "I thought, 'I'm going to conquer the world' - that this was the start of something fantastic."
Her PhD proposal was accepted but she couldn't get funding, so, taking time off to look after her kids, she began to feel that she was back where she started. Lots of her friends, other mature students, also went back to doing the same thing they were doing before their degree, "not because they wanted to, but that was just the easiest thing to do". She had succumbed to the luxury of learning, and she and her friends all wanted to go back to it, to the active mind-set of constant discussion and discovery.
"When you're at university, you do a piece of work, hand it in, get a response," she says. "There's no other environment where you get that, that kind of validation all the time, those rewards." When she left she realised she didn't feel equipped to actually do anything. Nicola agrees: "It's all 'transferable skills', but you don't have any idea where to transfer them to!"
"I think those people who got themselves work before they left [university] were much better off," says Melanie. "You can go straight into work, you don't have that loss."
According to a 1998/99 census, 68.5% of students were employed six months after finishing their first degree. But the figures, collated by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, include part-time and voluntary work and make no distinction between career choices and stopgap jobs. Research from the Institute for Employment Studies shows that many graduates take two or more years to settle into "stable" employment, with one in three entering temporary or fixed-term contracts.
Even for those who walk into their dream jobs, the transition is not necessarily an easy one. Hannah, 22, was head-hunted to work for a record company in London and expected it to be hard work, but was less prepared for how it would radically change her life.
"You think life's hard when you're a student, then you get into the real world and discover what being skint really means," she says.
On top of the exhaustion of flat-hunting in London, the 12-hour days and the distance from her friends, Hannah found her idealism deflated. "University is for yourself, for your personal development. In the corporate world, no one cares about you."
After being encouraged to think independently at university, to compare ideologies, to criticise her own and other people's judgement, she found herself put into place as a cog of capitalism, working to make money for someone else and never being asked to engage her brain.
Mike Burton, a psychiatrist, sees this post-university period as just one of many major life events that can bring about unease and anxiety. "We're just not very well designed for large changes," Burton says. As post-university may be a time when many transitions happen at once, while also losing a support system of friends and tutors, it is unsurprising that this is a prime period for self-doubt.
"Vulnerable students are likely to be those who have unrealistic goals with little or no back-up," he says. Burton points to another contributing factor: the transition from the structured rituals of academic life to the relatively formless ordinary world of earning a living.
Surely this need not be an inevitable stumbling block? With so many students facing difficulties, is there anything being done to make the transition more seamless? Careers services do provide advice, resources and seminars to help students with their decision making, and new research projects are under way, aiming to help students recognise the skills they have learned and apply them in the workplace.
Although Nicola wishes her university could have prepared its students earlier for what lies ahead, she recognises that careers offices can only take so much responsibility. "It's getting out there and doing it that teaches you what you want to do," she now realises. Burton suggests arranging an exit interview with careers or counselling staff to talk through fears and hopes, but in most cases it is not until students have left that they realise theirvulnerability.
Higher education should equip adults for fruitful futures, but actually it only postpones responsibility and reality.
"Expectations are so high these days," says Patricia White of Depression Alliance. "With increasing competition, and spiralling debts, the pressure is endless, and for some this can turn into a depressive episode. If you think you might be suffering from depression, go to your GP. Choose some close friends or family to confide in and, most importantly, remember that it is not your fault. It is a medical condition and a very treatable one. When diagnosed early, recovery can be relatively quick and your quality of life doesn't have to deteriorate."
For further information, contact Depression Alliance on 020-7633 0557. The organisation's website address is: www.depressionalliance.org
