Ally Nicholson

Alison Boggs

ComJour 333 Section 2

12/2/2019

WSU Educates Students on Mental Health with Guest Speaker Steve-O

Washington State University invited famous actor and comedian Stephen Glover,

famously known as Steve-O, to speak on his experience with substance abuse and mental health.

The event was held on Wednesday, November 20th from 7-9 p.m. in the CUB Senior Ballroom.

Students were able to submit questions to the Student Entertainment Board of WSU on

Instagram.

Mental health services have increased for adolescences and emerging adults. According

to the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, approximately three-quarters of lifetime cases

mental health or psychiatric disorders develop by the age of 24 years old. Some students noticed

their mental health changes when exposed to social media.

Masen White, a junior mechanical engineering student at WSU, attended the event and

said he was not impressed. He felt that some of the questions they asked Steve-O only had to do

with substance abuse and not mental health specifically. WSU should have made the mental

health questions more of a priority, he said.

“WSU should have more resources for guys. I know many of my friends struggle with

something and being a guy makes it harder”, White said.

Steve-O became famous for his dangerous students on the Jackass, reality comedy series

and movie. He explained in the presentation of how he came from a long line of alcoholics.

Regardless of fame, Steve-O believed that substance abuse would have still been an issue. He
was kicked out of the University of Miami for breaking dorm rules and failing all his classes, he

said. He tried multiple times to stop drinking and taking drugs. Just because someone stops

drinking and consuming drugs does not make the urge go away, he said.

Makena Horne, a sophomore at WSU, is training to become a peer health educator on

campus. Her job will include to help design and coordinate workshops, presentations, and be a

human resource for anyone on campus. She understands as a student how hard it can be when

someone moves away to go to college and meet new people and be put in different situations, she

said. One of the best resources Horne though WSU has been the AWARE Network, she said.

“The AWARE program is awesome. I wish I’d known about it my freshmen year,” Horne

said.

The AWARE Network is an anonymous website where anyone on campus and report a

concern with a student’s mental or physical health. This allows someone from the university to

check in on that student. It is important to not only get help for yourself but check in on other

people, she said.

Steve-O explained how he was grateful for the cast on Jackass because they were the

ones who planned his intervention, he said. He was admitted into a psych ward for two weeks

and later on into rehabilitation programs, he said.

“Recovery is to treat the mental illness. Abstinence is just stopping the behavior,” Steve-

O said at the event.

The Lakeside-Milam Recovery centers are located all over Washington State that can

help treat people with addictions. Calvin Walker, one of the administrators at the Lakeside-

Milam Issaquah location, explained how they believe addiction is a primary issue when it comes
to mental or physiological illnesses, he said over the phone. This program offers both inpatient

and outpatient treatment options.

Nikita Alimohammad, the health promotion specialist at WSU explained how the

university does a lot of promotions for mental health awareness. She specializes in mental health

and suicide prevention. The health promotions department tries to incorporate mental wellness in

every training and presentation, she said. The department also offers regular suicide prevention

training for students and faculty on campus. They want to make it a point to ensure that the

students at WSU understand the direct connection between mental health and other aspects of

their health, Alimohammad said.

After the mental health Q & A with Steve-O, the student entertainment board presented

resources for those who needed someone to talk to or seek psychological counseling on campus.

The event ended with Steve-O taking pictures with every student who waited in line after the

presentation.

Psychologists and other health care professionals at WSU did not have any comments at

this time about the Steve-O event on campus or able to provide any specific information without

making an appointment.
 Sources

National Comorbidity Survey Replication:

Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Merikangas, K. R., & Walters, E. E. (2005,

June). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the

National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Retrieved from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15939837.

Makena Horne: (925) 642-6005, makena.horne@wsu.edu

Calvin Walker: (425) 392-8468, general office email: help@lakesidemilam.com

WSU AWARE Program: https://aware.wsu.edu/

Masen White: 801-882-0341 Junior Mechanical Engineering

Nikita Alimohammad: (509)-335-8998 , nikita.alimohammad@wsu.edu