College students battle hidden illnesses

Katie Anthony had to take a medical leave from college before returning this spring to Iowa State University as a part-time graduate student and teaching assistant.

To date, the 25-year-old woman from Cedar Rapids estimates she's missed almost half the term balancing her studies with debilitating bouts of cyclic vomiting syndrome. People with the condition, commonly known as CVS, can end up vomiting as many as seven times an hour for half a day.

"I would have to walk into these professor's classes and be like, look, I'm going to miss more of these classes because if I don't, I'm going to be throwing up in your class," said Anthony, who is seeking a master's degree in journalism after earning her bachelor's degree at Simpson College.

"I don't know if I'm going to wake up tomorrow and be in a full-blown vomiting cycle. Or if I'm going to wake up Monday and be completely fine and able to go to class."

Conditions like Anthony's are sometimes called a hidden disability or invisible illness. These diseases can include chronic illnesses, such as Crohn's or POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), or learning disabilities, such as dyslexia or ADHD, or mental illnesses, such as anxiety or depression.

While challenging for the students, the illnesses also challenge colleges and universities that deal with medical problems rarely encountered but which drastically impact how students deal with their studies, an IowaWatch/Simpson College journalism report reveals.

The students fall under the "invisible" category because they can walk across campus and sit in class without appearing to outsiders to struggle with anything. Yet, the illness can hinder a person's work, education or social life.

Exact counts do not exist for Iowa college students. But school officials, students and faculty at several Iowa college and campuses said in interviews that more people with invisible illnesses and disabilities pursue higher education as each new school year starts.

A 2011 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics reported one in six children was diagnosed between the years of 2006 and 2008 with a developmental disability that could be called a hidden disability. These disabilities require increased health and education-based services.

Dealing with the diseases

University of Dubuque sophomore Amanda Harrop said she doesn't remember much of her senior year of high school. A Clinton native, Harrop, 20, lives with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS.

For nearly two years from senior year in high school into college life, POTS controlled her daily schedule and knocked her into a coma-like state for up to an hour and a half at a time.

"I have chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, chronic dizziness," said Harrop, a biology major with a minor in chemistry. "I can't exercise for very long periods of time, but in the last year I've been working my endurance up. There was a point in time where all I could do was lie on the couch."

Harrop worked with university officials to find living space because her sleep schedule, which included keeping her blood sugar at a normal level and a 9:30 p.m. bedtime, conflicted with the schedules of other students in her freshmen residence hall. The college helped her move into housing for upperclassmen, where she could get quieter nights and better rest.

Belmond native Aimee Loats, a sophomore at Simpson College in Indianola, doesn't show any outward signs of being sick, but living with Crohn's disease has had a drastic impact on her life since she was 10 years old.

One bad day of Crohn's easily can turn into a few more days of being bedridden. During hard times, Loats, 20, estimates she misses three to four classes a week. That makes maintaining class assignments and laboratory work for her biology major demanding when most labs are covered only once in a semester.

"Having the college load is a little bit different than high school. In high school you can make up things way faster," she said. "Here, if you miss a day or two, you miss a lot of material."

Loats took a medical leave from college midway through last fall's semester but returned in January 2015 as a full-time student. She continues to pursue a degree in biology because she has a passion for medical-related studies, but Crohn's will continue to have an impact on her.

Accommodating the students

The students may seek class accommodations in order to continue studies while dealing with illnesses.

Donna Musel, Buena Vista University's disabilities coordinator and Center for Academic Excellence director, said accommodations can include auxiliary aids such as note takers, interpreters and assistive listening devices. Others include revised class schedules and timetables for getting work done and other methods that help a person with a disability learn at a college level.

Many students do not seek the help, though, school officials said. Tracking how many is difficult while they fly under the radar.

Musel attributed part of that to individual experiences seeking accommodations in high school, which were negative. "The thing (students) say most often is they want to be 'normal,' " she said.

Pride kicks in for many students. "They're reluctant to use the accommodations at first, because they come to college and think, 'I can do this on my own,' " said Tammy Faux, an associate professor of social work at Wartburg College in Waverly.

Mental illnesses the most prominent

Mental illness is the most common invisible illness college students deal with .

Stephanie Newsom, director of counseling services at Wartburg College, said 25 percent of that college's student body seeks help from counseling services for various illnesses. "The top two reasons students utilize counseling is to help manage symptoms of depression and anxiety," Newsom said.

At the University of Iowa, a survey conducted in spring 2014 for the National College Health Assessment showed depression and anxiety were the most commonly diagnosed or treated conditions in the mental health category.

Lisa James, the university's associate director for clinical outreach at Student Health and Wellness, said student health professionals participate in summer orientation for incoming students, giving parents information and responding to parents' questions.

Moving forward: Awareness, advocacy

Michelle Laughlin, student disabilities service coordinator at Drake University in Des Moines, said a huge step for students needing accommodations is simply reporting their disabilities.

"I often talk to professors who will say they are concerned about a student and refer them to my office," Laughlin said. "And then I see perhaps they (the students) need counseling, perhaps they need testing, or they just haven't disclosed that information yet."

Buena Vista's Musel said colleges and universities can help students who have not yet requested accommodations with better education about available assistance.

Buena Vista, in Storm Lake, holds events on campus that help bring awareness to disabilities students deal with while in college, Musel said. "We do faculty development to help with that as well," she said. "When students come in for their summer orientation I meet with their parents, so there are a lot of different ways we address that."

This story was produced as a Simpson College journalism project for Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch.org, a nonprofit, online news website that collaborates with Iowa news organizations to produce explanatory and investigative reporting.