Learning objectives

1. To become familiar with the many ways of knowing and the importance of understanding lived experience.

2. To develop an understanding of the factors shaping the changing terminology for distress and the socio-political factors shaping these changes.

The quotes above from Ella and John, both names self-chosen pseudonyms, add meaning to the Higher Education Authority’s statistics. They help us to move beyond percentage points or trends, important as these are, and into the minds, thoughts, feelings, and experiences of students who, in Ella’s case at least, are represented in these non-progression statistics. Ella and John’s stories open up our understanding of the experience of dropout and the array of utterly understandable factors that result in non-progression. Factors, that upon learning them, we too can imagine how, if faced with such difficult thoughts, feelings and experiences, we might have followed a similar path. Their stories allow us to learn, not only with our minds but with our spirits, the meaning of experiences. In short, they allow us to understand. As Munhall suggests, “isn’t that what we all wish for – to be understood?” (Munhall, 1994, p. 170).

This book is all about understanding. Its aim is to offer an insight into the lived experience of Irish university students with mental health difficulties so that readers might better be able to say “I understand”. It offers an understanding of the experiences of students, their routes to higher education, the barriers they face, and the assumptions underpinning their presence on campus. It offers valuable insights into diagnosis, support, and the efforts students invest in managing their mental health so that they may complete their university education. This chapter sets the scene for understanding. It examines how we understand, the words with which we create and name this understanding, and why understanding is important in the first place. In doing so, this chapter lays important groundwork for the insights to come. It begins with a description of why I wrote this book and, in particular, sought to focus on understanding rather than describing or explaining. From here on I, as author and researcher, take a step back and allow the lived experiences themselves to come to the fore. The chapter concludes with consideration of the terminology that will be used throughout to refer to a phenomenon that can variously be described as illness, disorder, or distress.