Muleskinner

ANNELIA NIXON Reporter

Sophomore and Occupational Safety major, Benjamin Shaffer, has benefited from utilizing the University of Central Missouri’s Office of Accessibility Services. Shaffer, who has dealt with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, major depressive disorder, insomnia and some anxietyrelated symptoms, has made vast improvements in his mental health. He says OAS has played a role in his improvements.

Cathy Seeley, director of OAS, says students needing accommodations for any disability have to follow certain steps to be registered with their office. Seely said students must provide documentation of disability. This can be from a private physician or the Counseling or Health Center on campus. Then, students will be given an appointment where they will discuss how their disability is impacting them and their college experience and what accommodations might work best for them.

“For me, they have the time and a half testing if I am in a class where I’m like, I cannot focus on this,” Shaffer said. “I also get homework extensions if I’m having an off week or an off day and feel like I cannot focus.”

Shaffer said he can’t recall much of the incident. He said his father found him and called his doctor and he was an inpatient for a week. Shaffer said he failed a class that semester.

“That was the first ever class I’ve failed and I was like oh my gosh, I thought if I was diagnosed I could explain to my professor like this is what’s going on,” Shafer said. “And that’s whenever my journey started with the OAS office. I didn’t quite understand that we had an office like this. A lot of students think that it’s a get out jail free card for homework assignments and stuff but it’s a lifeline for a lot of students.”

Shaffer said his psychiatrist told him UCM had an office that could help with his situation. Shaffer sent his paperwork to OAS, got an appointment, and not only used their services, but obtained a job in their office as a secretary, certified peer educator, and proctor. Shaffer said he wants those struggling mentally to keep fighting to get help.

Another campus resource students can go to for assistance is the counseling center. Clinician Heather Lawson said, at the Counseling Center they work with students with many different diagnoses and disabilities and if need be they’ll refer students to other on-campus resources.

“We might make a referral to either the university health center and encourage them to see one of the providers there where they can potentially talk about medication,” Lawson said.

Shaffer first began experiencing mental health disabilities at the age of 10, when his brother committed suicide. He began seeing a grief counselor. He said things were going great for a while but they did not stay that way.

“Whenever I started to hit puberty and mature, the prefrontal cortex started developing,” Shaffer said. “Eighth grade I was having thoughts of suicide, having thoughts of harming myself, and that’s whenever my grades were declining, but I was always a really good student and my parents were like, let’s take him to a see a doctor.”

Shaffer began seeing a different doctor who diagnosed him with ADHD. Shaffer said his symptoms improved. He said he became more active in school but by the end of the day, he would feel drained of energy. He said at this time, he had discontinued taking his medication per his doctor’s instructions because of its side effects. Shaffer said this is when the symptoms of depression and thoughts of self-harm returned. He said he also had problems sleeping, so he started taking melatonin, Benadryl and Nyquil. Then, he eventually started taking the medication that he had previously stopped. He said his counselor recommended he see a psychiatrist.

During his senior year of high school, Shaffer was also a full-time college student juggling extracurricular activities including swim meets. On the day of one particular meet, Shaffer had just enough time to go home, grab his belongings, have a meal, then get to the bus that would take him to the meet. Shaffer said he was so exhausted that he fell asleep and missed the swim meet.

“My parents called and they were like, you missed the bus for the swim meet,” Shaffer said. “My coach called me and some of the other swimmers called me and they were really mad at me. It was a series of events that led up to it. I attempted suicide.”

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