{"id":20755,"date":"2014-07-30T07:15:27","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T11:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=20755"},"modified":"2014-08-04T07:30:11","modified_gmt":"2014-08-04T11:30:11","slug":"mental-health-and-youniversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2014\/07\/30\/mental-health-and-youniversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health and University"},"content":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve noticed that most (i.e. all) of my posts have been humour-centric, and that\u2019s perfectly fine because that\u2019s who I am!\r\n\r\n
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via: http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/klvkwkq<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nThis week, though, I want to talk about a topic that affects a lot of students \u2013 including myself. Mental health. More specifically, balancing your mental health with university<\/strong>.\r\n\r\nBecause most people consider me the happy-go-luckiest person they know, they\u00a0are almost always surprised to learn that I struggle with clinical depression. With that being said, I want to make it clear that mental illnesses can affect anyone.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nI remember being STRESSED<\/strong><\/span><\/em>\u00a0(Wowza!\u00a0Capitalized, bolded, italicized, and underlined!) in first year. Now that I think about it, I wasn\u2019t stressed from the work itself. Most of my anxiety came from the stress of procrastinating during my bouts of depression. I was physically and mentally unable to do anything productive.<\/strong> I didn\u2019t even take the time to do anything fun \u2013 like Facebook stalk middle school pictures of friends. I would just lie down and try to sleep for hours on end, until I was too awake to sleep. Even then, I still felt too drained to pull the \u201call-nighters\u201d that people wouldn't stop raving about.\r\n\r\nConsequently, my grades weren\u2019t nearly as stellar as they could\u2019ve been<\/strong>, partly because of what I was dealing with, but mostly because I didn\u2019t make an effort to ask for help. Until late into first year, I never asked for extensions, I never explained my problems \u2013 I never actively sought help.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThat was the problem.\r\n<\/strong>\r\n\r\n
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NO, NOT THIS PROBLEM. via: http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/q3qkr9r<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nSo many students think that their mental illness is inconsequential. Mental illness is not a synonym for lazy. It\u2019s not. Just like diabetes is an illness, just like addiction\u00a0is an illness \u2013 mental\u00a0disorders are\u00a0an illness.\r\n<\/strong>\r\n\r\n
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Yep. via: http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/kkysb5l<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nEventually, I sought help, although it took a lot of encouragement\u00a0from the caring people in my life.\r\n\r\nI want to assure you that it\u2019s perfectly okay to not be okay 100% of the time. There are so many individuals who feel the same way you do, and the university knows that.\r\n\r\nProfessors aren\u2019t robots<\/strong>, if you tell them what\u2019s going on, they will listen. It\u2019s not their mission to ruin your grades \u2013 they want to help you.<\/strong> If you\u2019re going through distress, don\u2019t be afraid to contact them. Whether it is through email or in-person, they will almost always understand, and together, you can decide on a mutually appropriate solution regarding an academic matter.\r\n\r\n
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What I used to think professors were like. Whoops. via: http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/kkysb5l<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nIt doesn\u2019t stop there. Never forget that in each college and faculty, there are wonderful registrars who can help guide you.<\/strong> They can help you with talking to your professors, and they can even aid you if you feel that you would benefit from CAPS<\/a> (Counselling and Psychological Services) or Accessibility Services<\/a>.\r\n\r\nNever forget that you're not alone, and there are people that care. Don\u2019t lose out on your university experience because you think your problems aren\u2019t real.<\/strong> I abandoned that mindset, and I think my life\u2019s pretty rad right now.\r\n\r\n