Rob Hardy

 

It’s October, and by now we are all knee-deep in yet another semester at university.  Some of us have been around the block a few times and have developed strategies of coping with the oppressive workloads we acceptingly swallow while others have yet to learn these kinds of critical life skills.  The problem seems to be - if you are anything like me – that with all these safeguards in place, time seems to constantly elude us.

One of the default answers of this age when asked “how are you?” can often go something along the lines of “oh my God, I’m so busy.” This is followed by further conversation, which quickly, if not immediately, drifts to something else.  Apparently, that we are bone-tired merits little attention, at least as something that we would attempt to discuss at length. The underlying meaning in all this is that our fatigue gets reduced to an anecdote, a commiserating joke, something we begrudgingly accept but never really question beyond its annoyance or even pain.

Chronic fatigue, however, is very serious and not something to make light of; it can even become dangerous.  Although some people report feeling fine with only a few hours of sleep, many of us need at least seven, if not eight, to feel a sufficient level of vibrant alertness. Our society, though, doesn’t really take this into account, as fuzzy math tends to think that some things can be overlapped or reduced without consequence. In reality, a lack of sleep is one of the biggest health indicators over time. Restful sleep also requires a gradual winding down. Finishing an essay and then racing to bed right away isn’t a positive segue to optimal sleep. But few of us have the luxury of enough downtime to enjoy the ritual of preparing for bedtime, even on weekends.

So, if we are not sleeping for most of the 24 hours a day provides us, then what are we doing? Going full-force into templates of full-time course loads, part-time jobs, and a mix of volunteering, interning, clubs/sports and a myriad of other social activities. Not all of us are doing all of these things, but even a portion brings us into 16-hour days. We come to see that no matter how quickly we check things off on our to-do list, the problem becomes not time-management itself but simply having way too much to manage in the first place.

All of these endeavours, superimposed also onto a perennial process of new applications and constant upgrading, just so that we can prove to others that we can handle it, and in turn be rewarded with future positions that leave us even more haggard. That’s fine for those who are truly this ambitious, but not all of us can juggle 17 plates while balancing on a ball on ice with one foot. And even for people that can, sooner or later they burn out from the level of severe demands we have grown to accept.

A common regret for many as they grow old is that they got into the rat race and before they knew it they were middle-aged, seeing their best years pass them by. Not knowing how to shift into a transition, many continued down this path until it was too late and burning regrets took over the remainder of their life. What has evidently become the burning issue of the Gen-Y’s is that all this work and sacrifice may return dubious dividends in an economy that is not able to sustain the entire work force, and in return is burdening us to support the widespread scarcity.

Maybe I am idealistic, on top of being hyper-exhausted, but we should really be aware of these things and be sure to make time in our lives to walk in the sun with abandon. This doesn’t mean you are being frivolous or hedonistic, but that you take your health seriously and understand how different components can work together to either strengthen you or undermine your end goals. “Personal days,” as they have come to be known, are crucial to health and rejuvenation and actually staying off sickness, thereby increasing productivity.

Princeton grad Timothy Ferriss, wrote a best seller a few years back called. The 4-Hour Workweek in which he outlines principles of productivity and return on investment.  Though most of us cannot become successful entrepreneurs, it is food-for-thought on ratios of time, money and energy expenditure.  We have forgotten to be really aware that our lives are our own, and that when we put so much effort into spending those lives in efforts to influence what others think or whether they will hire you, we may be in for a very rude awakening.

Cultivating confidence, which often stems from doing what makes you happy, is a very powerful factor in achieving the gains we so often seek anyway.  In order to do this, we have to create new realities for ourselves, as well as reclaim our lives.  If this is too great a task right now, we can start by at least reclaiming our nights.

Filmmaker Woody Allen has hinted in both interviews and films (case in point: his latest, To Rome With Love) that he equates retirement with death. He is continuing to make movies well into his seventies, he says, so that he doesn’t have too much time on his hands to sit and wait for the inevitable.

He might describe the life of man in nature in the words of Thomas Hobbes: “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” In other words, Allen figures there’s a lot to be unhappy about in life, so it’s best not to spend too much time thinking about it.

All this is to say that I should have gotten a job in the summer I turned 16.

Instead, I sat around at home. I watched movies. It was About Schmidt, a 2002 film starring Jack Nicholson, that set me off. In the movie, Warren Schmidt retired from his career as an actuary. Soon after, his wife died. He had little to do but mope around the house, feeling useless as he tried in vain to prevent his daughter from marrying a waterbed salesman.

It got to me. I was young, and my life was a good one. But somehow, watching Warren Schmidt wonder how he was going to spend the final sad years of his life hit a nerve.

That summer, I got depressed. It hung over me every day, from when I woke up until I went to bed.

I didn’t expect it to happen to me. I couldn’t really name the source of it, either. I felt stupid about it. What did I have to be depressed about? How were my problems unique or worthy? I didn’t talk about it.

I understand now that what I felt that summer was a relatively mild version of what a lot of students here at Mac go through. I wasn’t suicidal, and once school started up again, I got better. That’s not the case for everyone.

McMaster’s Student Wellness Centre is trying to “stomp out stigma” around depression this week. Its events will present statistics gathered by the Wellness Centre to make the case that depression is serious problem affecting a significant chunk of the student population.

It’s a great and necessary campaign. But I’ve got a word of caution.

Among the statistics, words like “anxious,” “overwhelmed” and “stressed” will get mixed up with more severe ones like “hopeless” and “suicidal.” Truth is, we students are supposed to get a little bummed out when we bite off more schoolwork than we can chew. We complain about being overworked to our friends. We work through it, learn something, and then blow off steam on a free weekend.

Depression is something else entirely. It’s isolating. It’s frightening. Piles of homework might not help it, but depression is deeper than the plight of your average struggling student.

You don’t need a good reason to be depressed. That it’s happening while school weighs you down doesn’t make you weak. Like any illness, I’ve learned, depression can take you by surprise, and you might not know where it came from.

Take it from me, or Woody Allen or Thomas Hobbes or Warren Schmidt; life’s a bitch. So don’t be hard on yourself.

On September 5, Maclean’s magazine released an article entitled “The Broken Generation,” giving an in-depth look into what they called a “crisis” affecting students across North America.
In this age of high-stress schooling, coupled with high unemployment after graduation, more and more university students are struggling with mental illness, the report claimed. McMaster is no exception to this trend.

Dr. Debbie Nifakis, Associate Director of Counselling at the Student Wellness Centre, says there is definitely a trend of more mental health issues coming to light.

“I’ve been working in the field for a very long time and definitely the number of people coming in to access services has increased over the years,” she said.

This can be attributed both to the increase in the number of post-secondary students, and increased awareness of mental health conditions, she explained.

“A lot of people are coming with a lot of awareness and less sense of stigma… I think there’s a lot of talk about mental health issues now.”

One person keen to promote the talk about mental health issues is Huzaifa Saeed, Vice President of Education for the MSU.

“Mental health was something that when I came to McMaster, in 2008, wasn’t a big deal on campus. But in the last year or two… things have ramped up a bit.”

As MSU External Affairs Commissioner last year, Saeed worked with other student leaders from the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) to write a paper on student health issues, with a focus on mental health.

This project, combined with his experience as a Welcome Week rep, inspired his “pink elephant in the room” campaign, which offered mental health training to all 1100 of this year’s reps. The response, he says, has been very positive.

“I’ve done a lot of campaigns for the MSU, and I don’t think any particular one of them has been this successful.”

The goal of the initiative is to make Mac a “stigma-free campus,” and to increase awareness of the much-needed support the university offers to its students.
And students need that kind of support more and more, as it’s not always something that they find on their own.

“People are losing the small school connection,” he said of McMaster. “If you’re sitting in a 600-person, MDCL 1305 lecture, you’re not really going to have anyone to lean on if you run into problems.”

Reports have shown that students are generally more stressed and more prone to mental health issues than before. According to the campaign’s website, about 5700 of McMaster’s undergraduate and graduate students will have “a mental health concern.”

A National College Health Assessment done at McMaster in 2009 reported that half of students surveyed “felt overwhelming anxiety,” while 56 percent “felt things were hopeless.”

But although mental health issues may present themselves to a significant portion of students, only about ten percent of the student body takes advantage of the Student Wellness Centre’s counseling services, Dr. Nifakis says.

With nine full-time counselors during the academic year, the Wellness Centre is comfortable with its availability of service.

“There is sometimes a wait time,” Dr. Nifakis said, noting that most complaints come when students may have to wait a few weeks for follow-up appointments. But this wouldn’t necessarily be remedied by increasing the number of counselors.

“I think that you could increase your number of counselors to the nth degree and you would still not meet the demand in the way people sometimes come to expect counseling to be.”

The Student Wellness Centre and the MSU have teamed up to continue promoting the “pink elephant in the room” campaign and further increase awareness about available services for students.

“We’re not counselors,” Saeed said of the MSU, “but what we can do is let people know that these [counselors at the Student Wellness Centre] exist.”

Both organizations will benefit from this partnership as they plan to offer recommendations to the university in a Mental Health Strategy Document later this year.

Jeff Wyngaarden

SHEC Media

Most times of the year, a casual conversation on campus will touch on work, sports, vacations planned and gone on, maybe a relationship, and perhaps the odd foray into politics or religion. But around the middle of March thoughts turn to one thing: exams.

It’s at times like this that tensions run high and stress is at a maximum. You may be concerned about that term paper or worried about making plans for the next year; perhaps you’re calculating how well you need to do on the final to get the mark you want. With work piling up and exam stress on the rise, many people find that they have less time for jobs, relationships, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, adding to the list of anxiety-inducing factors. Whatever your situation is, chances are you are feeling stressed, and while a certain amount of stress can help you accomplish tasks a large amount of stress can be detrimental to your health.

When times get stressful it’s important to strike a balance. Feeling stress is a normal physiological response to certain situations. It makes you more alert, gives you greater strength and sharper eyesight, and can provide you the boost of energy you need to make that final push on your work or overcome a particularly difficult obstacle to achieving your goals.

However, too much stress is undeniably a bad thing; if you are overstressed you may exhibit symptoms like insomnia, headaches, fatigue, cold sweats, having poor concentration, or a rapid heartbeat. When these symptoms persist over a long period of time they may have lasting negative effects on your health.

The first key to managing stress is knowing how to avoid it. A large part of this is planning for big events well in advance – maybe instead of cramming the night before you can schedule study times throughout April so that you’re prepared and well rested for that final exam.

You can also try to avoid common, daily annoyances that cause stress. Perhaps you get stressed from being late, or getting into arguments with roommates; try leaving home a few minutes earlier and resolving some of those minor disputes so that you can focus on your work.

The second key is knowing how to manage stress. Avoidance doesn’t always work – there will always be assignments and dishes piling up, and at some point you’ll feel like there just isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done. When the going gets tough, try breaking your work down into small, manageable goals that can be accomplished easily and quickly. This will make it seem like your work goes faster and will help you organize your tasks so that you know how much you need to do and how much time you need to do it. If you find that you simply can’t manage, try talking to a friend, stopping by Campus Health for some consultation or counselling, or access a campus resource that can respond to your particular need. Whether it’s school, relationships, finances, or living arrangements, there is someone on campus who can help you and provide information on how to deal with your stressors.

Avoidance aside, it’s important to know how to make stress work for you. Knowing what stresses you out can empower you to make educated decisions about the situations you put yourself in and the tasks you take on. Maybe there are particular people that stress you out when you study with them, or there’s an assignment that is taking longer than you thought it would.  Ask yourself whether each thing you’re stressed about is important and whether it’s worth worrying about, and then be active in addressing your stress.

Channel the extra energy and concentration that stress provides into finishing your work, and then take some time to relax. It may be just a two-hour movie break or a short bike ride, but a brief reprieve from the daily grind can refresh and rejuvenate you, enabling you to take on your work more efficiently.

In addition, spending time with friends can be a huge stress reliever, as long as you don’t spend the entire time talking about what stresses you out.

In the end, the most important thing to ask yourself is whether it’s worth worrying over.  If the answer is no, it’s a lot easier to deal with the stress, but if the answer is yes the question becomes more complicated.

Before April begins and the exam season kicks off, make sure you have a plan for managing your stress so that you’re prepared if – and when – it comes.

 

Dina Fanara

Assistant News Editor

November has been labeled ‘Stress Month’ by the newly formed Advocacy department of the McMaster Students Union (MSU).

Through the month, the Advocacy Street Team will be holding table days every Tuesday on the first floor of the student centre, where students can come to get tips and free swag to help them de-stress.

The headline events for Advocacy Stress Week are the de-stress rooms, which will be run each Wednesday for the rest of the month by the Advocacy Street Team.

At these events, students are welcome to drop in at any time to participate in the activities and pick up some swag, courtesy of Advocacy and their partners in organizing and running these events.

Some of the groups signed up to present or lead activities at these sessions are Moksha Yoga, organized through the Student Health Education Centre (SHEC), student lobby groups, the MSU Promotions and Advertising Committee and Diversity Services, as well as several motivational speakers, brought in by the club Motivation for McMaster.

The Advocacy department is new addition this year. It works as an informational and promotional tool that connects the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) and the MSU as a whole.

In addition to Advocacy Stress Month, Advocacy runs the OUSA Blue Chair campaign and promotion of MSU presidential elections in the second term.

“November [was chosen to be Stress Month] because it’s the time when students are realizing how busy school is and are hit by the big wave of midterms, essays and assignments,” said Shivani Persad, Advocacy Coordinator.

The kickoff session held on Nov. 16 gave students the opportunity to listen to and interact with motivational speaker Pamela Tracz

Tracz focused her discussion on the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, leaving those in attendance with this final message: being a student is the time of your life, and too many students are too busy stressing to fully appreciate it.

The thought provoking message  explained that if you take proper care of yourself, you will be able to more thoroughly enjoy what is happening in the world around you.

An instructor from Moksha Yoga was also present to give an introductory yoga lesson to all in attendance, with focus on relaxation and self-awareness.

As Advocacy Stress Month is the largest event to be organized by Advocacy thus far, much pressure lies on the success of event to promote Advocacy and its sub-sections to as many students as possible.

This is the second year that the Stress Week program has run at McMaster. Alicia Ali, MSU VP (Education) and last year’s OUSA Coordinator for McMaster, launched the program last year with Chris Martin, former MSU VP (Education).

This year, Advocacy aims to de-stress students through these planned events primarily in terms of their educational concerns.

This can be achieved through activities that will allow them to take stress off other aspects of life, help them find the proper tools to be productive in all they do and get the most out of their time here at McMaster.