I originally wrote this piece for mental health week back in November, but exams are one of the most stressful times for university students. Please be kind to yourself and make your exam time mental health a priority.
Second year was a really rough year for me, and halfway through it I realized I didn’t really know how to deal with what I was going through. I decided I needed a little help.
They say admitting you have a problem is the hardest part and I now know that’s true. I think for me it was the hardest part because I didn’t even really know what that problem was. I had always prided myself on being strong, capable of coping with just about anything.
My childhood hadn’t always been easy, nor the teen years after that, but I’d still kept good grades, had lots of friends and I considered myself successful. This is what I told the woman at the desk after I trucked up four flights of stairs (just btw there is an elevator—I just didn’t know it at the time). As a sat in her office the tears spilled out.
“I just never thought I was the type of person who needed this. I never thought I’d have to stoop to getting help.”
She nodded sympathetically. Everything was permeated with mental health stigmas and my own stubbornness, but she listened attentively anyway.
When I had finally cried myself dry and choked out why I wanted to seek help she was silent. I was worried she thought my problems were silly, that there were others much worthier of our school’s too-limited psychological help. Of course, she didn’t say any of these things. Instead she surprised me. She spoke quietly, but what she said is something I’ll never forget.
She said, “We all need a little help sometimes.”
When you have grown up in a world of mental illness stigma, a world where strength, independence and self-help are highly praised, this is a hard thing to accept. I know it was extremely hard for me.
I am lucky. I don’t have bio-polar disorder, or depression or schizophrenia. I don’t have anything really, but not having a diagnosed disease didn’t mean I was ‘mentally healthy’. I wasn’t. I needed to take care of my mental health and I needed help.
Admitting I needed that help was the hardest thing I ever did. It was also the best thing I ever did.
I know I’m not the only one who has/does or will struggle with this, but I am sharing this because I want whoever is reading this to know that taking that first hard step is worth it.
Starting on November 16, and going until December 18 student services will be offering drop-in counselling sessions. I don’t promise going to one will make an immediate difference. I don’t promise going there will be easy, but I do hope that knowing no matter who you are or how strong you are, we all need a little help sometimes, makes it a little less scary.
The Exam Stress Drop-in Program was made possible by funding raised by The Canadian Mental Health Association Middlesex through the generosity of Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity and their third party fundraiser, the Austen Berlet Campout and by donations raised by students at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.
November 16-December 18
Please visit room 4112, WSSB to book an appointment (9am-3pm)
Visit http://www.sdc.uwo.ca/psych/ for more information