Stress

1. Stress Using the analogy of a rubber band, positive stress is just the right amount of stress needed to stretch the band and make it useful. Negative stress snaps the band. – American College Health Association Group Work Info Session Group Activity Real life

2. What do you think…? What do you think are the most common stressors you college kids will face? To be posted on our Gateway to College Blog

3. Staff Thoughts Studying in a suite, meeting deadlines - Chris Exams, finals balancing time, College life and freedom - Emily Finals, incompetent teachers - Edgar Juggling extracurriculars and school work! - Noelle Balancing school and leadership. Culture shock! - Brian

4. Record Level of Stress Found in College FreshmenJanuary 26, 2011 “This fits with what we’re all seeing,” said Brian Van Brunt, director of counseling at Western Kentucky University and president of the American College Counseling Association. “More students are arriving on campus with problems, needing support, and today’s economic factors are putting a lot of extra stress on college students, as they look at their loans and wonder if there will be a career waiting for them on the other side.” “One aspect of it is how women and men spent their leisure time,” she said. “Men tend to find more time for leisure and activities that relieve stress, like exercise and sports, while women tend to take on more responsibilities, like volunteer work and helping out with their family, that don’t relieve stress.” To some extent, students’ decline in emotional health may result from pressures they put on themselves…Other findings in the survey underscore the degree to which the economy is weighing on college students.

5. Dealing with Stress “Psychological stress was associated with an increased risk of acute infectious respiratory illness in a dose–response manner; this risk was attributable to increased rates of infection.” – The New England Journal of Medicine

6. Dealing with Stress Short Term Help Stop right where you are Step away towards “me time” Strategize, needs now, wants tomorrow Long Term Help • Manage your time • Eat and exercise properly • Let your feelings out • Know yourself. “Eating well, exercising and sleep are often the things that go, as does having down time. If we are not eating or sleeping, we will be more stressed. -University of Mississippi Counseling Center substance abuse services coordinator Amy Fisher

7. Life Change Stress Test

8. What do you think…? Using what you’ve just learned, what are some specific ways to deal with stress?

9. Two Quick Exercises “Guided Imagery” and What stresses you out?

10. New York University Mental Health Staff expanded to 40 clinicians from 25 Added a 24-hour hot line that takes 9,000 calls a year (number on back of student ID) Walk in clinic open for 45 hours more than past years Employees in campus “hot spots” where students may become especially stressed are trained in first-aid and knowing how to identify mental illness symptoms and defuse tense situations All 20,000 students who use the medical clinic, even for a sore throat, fill out a questionnaire with two items about depression Specially trained Student Health Center Ambassadors provide free and relaxing 5-7 minute backrubs and wellness information to fellow students and staff at community events, club meetings, residence halls and wherever else the stressed gather—day and night!

11. Virginia Tech Mental Health budget increased by $1 million Adding an additional psychiatrist 2 more nurse practitioners 7 more counselors

12. Pima Community College • For a troubled student, the campus: • Responded to complaints • Asked the student to leave, • Delivered to the home, explaining the suspension • Spoke with his father • After the incident • A state official called the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare and requested that a mental health first-aid training be conducted

13. Positives With Roots In Tragedy On Campus In a 12-month period from 2003 to 2004, six New York University students committed suicide… “We painfully realized the effect on our community was so great we had to do something,” Ms. Ragouzeos said. M.I.T. expanded its program after a rash of suicides in the 1990s that culminated in April 2000 with the suspected suicide of Elizabeth Shin in a dormitory room fire that she may have set herself. And after 32 people at Virginia Tech were shot to death in April 2007 by Seung-Hui Cho, a senior with a long history of mental illness, the university increased its mental health budget by 50 percent. So the question is: Will Pima Community College in Tucson — alma mater of Jared L. Loughner, the man charged with shooting to death six people this month — be the next to create something good from something so bad?

14. Class DiscussionAmerican Foundation for Suicide Prevention In your school, how widespread are emotional problems, particularly depression and thinking about suicide talked about? Students occasionally talk about how difficult it is to share feelings of depression with their friends and how isolated they feel during their periods of depression. Does that seem to be a real problem in your school? Why is it that people have such a hard time talking about depression and other mental illnesses? How would you help a friend who is depressed or suicidal? What would you recommend that they do? What would you do if your friend refused to get help? Would you feel comfortable offering to accompany a friend in such a situation?

15. Dr. Laura Nelson, deputy Director for Behavioral Health at the Arizona Department of Health Services, said the state has no record of (Jared) Loughner seeking mental health treatment in the public system. "I truly believe that it could have (helped)," Nelson said.