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Hard Choices

Students find mental health resources tough to navigate

In February of her first year at Harvard, "Melissa" realized that something was wrong. She couldn't get her work done. She couldn't even leave her room.

Her friends convinced her to visit Room 13, a peer counseling group. But sitting on the cozy couches in the Grays basement was not the therapy she needed.

"I actually felt more helpless," she says. "They were nice, but they didn't know me."

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It took some coaxing, but her friends persuaded her to set up an appointment with the mental health clinicians at University Health Services (UHS).

They offered her a pill.

Uncomfortable with the idea of taking drugs, she left, determined never to return.

But as her depression worsened, Melissa--whose name has been changed to preserve her privacy--turned to the Bureau of Study Counsel (BSC), a non-hospital based counseling facility staffed with psychologists rather than psychiatrists.

She says they offered her meaningless talk. So Melissa made no more appointments with 5 Linden St.

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