Like so many services on campus, the Counseling Center is one of those underappreciated, underrated and underutilized facilities on campus.

It shouldn’t be.

Last week’s editorial board column on the risks and signs of depression listed the Counseling Center as one of the vital resources available on campus that can help deal with this severe psychiatric condition. But I fear it contributes to the stereotype of what a counselor is.

After all, what immediately pops into my head after hearing the word “counselor” is the person who talks to the survivors of a shootout, the New-Age type yuppie talking a young couple through marriage or the classic Salute Your Shorts summer camp geek-in-charge. And I’m willing to bet that a fair number of people have any combination of these stereotypes as well.

Here’s the reality: forget all those ideas. Counseling is so much more. It’s not just for your personal problems; it’s for any problem you can’t solve by yourself.

A quick glance at the services offered by the Counseling Center shows that it offers personal, academic, career and group counseling sessions. So, yes, if you feel you might be depressed, you should go talk to someone who can help you. But you should also talk with a counselor if you are struggling in school, worrying about your future or are in a major quarrel with that annoying suitemate.

Counselors are there to listen with an ear that is both sympathetic to your experience and unbiased to your specific situation. It really does help to have someone to talk to, particularly if that someone isn’t going to tell you the same stuff as your friends or your parents — work harder, study harder, use the silent treatment on that annoying suitemate and so on.

I speak from a basis of personal experience with the counseling center. Like many students, I had some issues with effectively budgeting my time between a social life and class work. This lead to many a stressful, late-night cram session for two exams that, thanks to a vast conspiracy by my professors, were on the same day and only an hour or two apart.

After I realized both my need for sleep and sky-high grade expectations were seriously jeopardized by continuing this strategy, I decided to talk to someone who wouldn’t tell me the same old story.

So the moral of the story is that I was able to resolve an academic and a personal roadblock by going to the Counseling Center. And guess what? That’s exactly what the center is there for.

But don’t procrastinate about using this fantastic campus resource. While the Counseling Center isn’t exactly that car dealership with that amazing offer that expires in only two days, it is just as limited as that new car shipment the screaming maniac car dealer just received. And it is a fact that the traffic to see counselors late in the semester is worse than a Manhattan traffic jam, mostly because people wait until the last minute to deal with academic or personal issues.

Don’t delay or hesitate to see a counselor and talk about a problem before it becomes too big. Deal with it!

Send Paul your stories about the Counseling Center at [email protected]