Today we have this semester’s first episode of FSU Student Life! Our host Nick Campau returns and is joined by Andy Slater, Levi Stevens, and Carrie Thompson. They talk about “de-stressing distress” and taking better care of your mental health. They discuss meeting with a personal counselor, the effect of COVID on students, becoming a better supporter, and more.
Campau starts off the discussion by asking Andy Slater How do we define mental health? Slater defines mental health as one’s ability to regulate their own emotions, having a good skill set to help you cope with struggles as well as having resilience to get through tough situations in an effective way. Campau then goes to ask Slater what does it mean to struggle with mental health and how does he define that for students? Slater’s response is that it is different from person to person and the personal experiences people go through play into their struggles. Clinically speaking, struggling with mental health is derived from how your mental health impacts your daily functioning.
Campau then shifts gears towards Carrie Thompson asking her how she helps students normalize struggling with mental health and seeking out resources to help with that. She goes on to say that she encourages students not to compare one’s struggles to another. We are all going through different things and one person’s struggles are different from someone else’s. She also advises keeping track of one’s sleep and eating habits because those have a direct correlation to mental health. Levi Stevens then chimes in explaining the Psychology Club has many open conversations about how people are doing. From personal experience, Stevens feels students become more comfortable being vulnerable when the people around them open up.
The group then goes on to discuss counseling appointments. How to help students prepare for their first appointment and even help students schedule that initial appointment. Slater explains that he always asks students if they have ever done this before and to let them know it’s okay to feel anxious or uncomfortable. Thompson goes on to say that with her students she’ll even sit in with them when they’re scheduling those appointments to help guide them and put them at ease having another person there with them.
Nick then asks the group what the students are struggling with. Levi says the students are struggling to go to class or to reach out to their professors. Andy adds that experiencing all the different changes that happen when going to college can be difficult. While talking about that a graphic appears and says that “since 2021, the personal counseling center saw an increase of 31.06% in different student clients and 18.5% increase in total sessions”. Carrie finishes by saying that the most common struggle that she hears about from students is trying to balance college life and life back home.
On the final segment of the show, they go over the stigmatism around mental health and about how hard it is to ask and answer the question: “are you ok?” Each of the guest speakers explains the signs they look for when asking “are you ok?” A sign they talked about a lot was a change in mood and a change in appearance. When a student that tends to be happy and wears brighter colors goes through a massive change in appearance it can show that something might be going on inside that is making them want a change. They also talked about how being around people could provide a mental boost and how nice it can feel to just take a walk. They highlight 15 min of physical exercise, sleeping, tending to responsibilities and taking a break.
As our guests said today, it is important to take care of yourself and others. Keeping an eye on your mental health will allow you the chance to reach out for or receive help before it is too late. Thank you for joining us for this weeks episode of FSU Student Life. Be sure to tune in next week for Campus Conversations with President Pink!