A Guide to Maintaining Mental Wellness During Back-to-School
Whether it be studying for a midterm, preparing for a quiz, or even sitting in front of the screen listening to your teachers fix your zoom connection for half of a class (because we all know it happens), stress can quickly enter our lives and affect our mental well-being. The pressures from school, in both university and in high school, can become extremely overwhelming and can sometimes appear as the be-all and end-all. I can assure you, you are not the only one feeling this way and many students experience similar stress on a regular basis.
Research has shown that among students aged 13 to 17, 7 out of 10 students claimed to be undergoing “extreme stress,” and have listed major depression and anxiety as one of the main problems within their community. In addition, research has shown that 6 out of 10 students attending college or university are experiencing “overwhelming anxiety” strictly due to pressures and stress from school-related activities.
In this installment of our Back-to-School series, I will be sharing some general tips to help recognize and cope with stress, ultimately outlining the importance of mental health for all students.
Importance of Mental Health
It is easy for us to strictly focus on our physical health as we go about our day-to-day activities, however, it is just as important to recognize our mental health and be aware of our mental state at times. One’s mental health can be defined as our emotional, psychological, and social well-being and it often affects how we feel, think, and act. Throughout our teenage and young adult life, we gradually become more aware of our mental health as we enter new surroundings and tackle harder challenges. It is important to be aware of your mental health and strive to have positive mental well-being because it allows us to function with a more optimistic attitude and live a fulfilling lifestyle.
Having positive mental health has been known as being able to handle stress, to take breaks from stress-related activities, and to allow your mind to rest and settle your thoughts. Positive mental health can have many short-term and long-term benefits that young adults often do not realize or think are significant to living a healthy life. However, science tells us otherwise. Positive mental health allows us to realize our full potential; which can be important during studying sessions when we feel like failure is the only option. It allows us to cope with stress which in my opinion is the most prevalent in the life of every student and to work productively and avoids procrastination, and lastly, it allows us to make contributions to our community.
If you have ever heard the phrase “people cannot love you if you do not love yourself,” then you know what I mean when I say that making friends and making social connections is much easier when you can appreciate yourself, love yourself, and are happy with the person you are. It is recognizing our beauty in this world that allows us to truly live to our fullest potential. Throughout the next couple of paragraphs, I will let you in on some insight when it comes to recognizing when your mental health is at risk, and some ways to cope with stressful situations.
Signs to Take a Break
Being immersed in an environment where people share common goals of academic success, it can be hard to recognize that stress may be interfering with our everyday activities. School can be a place of fun, laughter, and making memories with our closest friends, however, it is often the root cause of the pressures that many students often face especially due to the pressure of applying to post-secondary institutions in senior year. Speaking as a freshman in university, I can say that applying for university may bring about challenges that are new and may seem scary. Withstanding, having confidence in your accomplishments and the work you have already put in throughout the years is extremely important and is the key to getting through the application cycle. Anyways, the first step to coping with stress and mental health issues is recognizing and being aware that you are experiencing them first hand.
Friends and peers can often be good resources that may reach out and notice you acting differently or perhaps being socially distant, and it is acknowledging their feedback that helps you to begin to face your struggles. That being said, if you are aware that a friend may be struggling with a mental health disorder, it is critical that you communicate with them about it because it is often the hardest part for a person to acknowledge their own struggles. Having a friend to talk to and feeling safe about opening up to a peer can be very comforting for someone going through a mental health struggle alone with little support. In addition to peer resources, it is important that you yourself can recognize if you are experiencing any type of mental health problems so that you can attend to them before things escalate.
Here is a list of some common signs of people who may be experiencing mental health problems:
- Poor sleep cycles
- Poor eating habits (binging and/or restricting)
- Withdrawal from normal routines and activities
- Getting into arguments and fights with family and/or friends
- Abuse of alcohol, drugs, or smoking
- Experiencing mood swings
And the list goes on… These are some of the most extreme and frequent symptoms of those experiencing and living with mental health problems. It is important that if you feel like you are experiencing any of these symptoms, you should talk to a close support person whether that be your sister, brother, mom, dad, friend so that you feel comforted and supported. This first part of recognizing that you are struggling with mental health problems can be the hardest part of the entire process, however, the next part, on learning how to cope, can be important to recovery and an exciting part to finding some self-care tips as well!
Coping Strategies
In this final section of my guide to mental health and well-being during the return to school, I will go into detail about three of the coping methods that help me de-stress and take a break from the chaotic, busy life of a student.
Exercise
Especially during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I began to feel a large amount of stress on myself and it was difficult to keep up with online learning. Soon enough, stress became a prevalent part of my life and it was hard to find ways to cope with it especially due to the lockdown protocols in place at the time. Through social media, I was able to find many useful tips and exercise became one that I completely fell in love with as it helped me in so many ways. Being active may seem difficult when you are limited to no gym access, and when you are living at home for months on end. But getting out on a walk and taking advantage of the outdoors became my sense of peace and relaxation to help ease my stress. Nowadays with the help and advancement of technology, it is extremely easy to search up “easy at-home workouts,” into your YouTube search bar, and discover hundreds of different routines to fit your skill level. Participating in exercise activities not only was a mode of enjoyment for me, but science has proven ways that it has helped to reduce and combat high levels of stress.
There are many short-term and long-term benefits of staying active which include the reduction of stress hormones, improvement of sleep quality, and improvement in self-confidence. Firstly, exercise lowers the body’s stress hormones including cortisol, over a long period. It also releases endorphins which are chemicals known to stimulate and boost your mood as natural painkillers. Exercise also improves sleep quality which can be affected by increased levels of stress and anxiety. Lastly, exercise helps to improve self-confidence since working out and building strength may help to build confidence in yourself. Overall, it is important to find a workout routine that you thoroughly enjoy, and that allows you to feel good about yourself after completing it. All forms of exercise will help and can range from running, dancing, yoga, and even something as simple as walking! Find what you like and what sticks to your personal preference!
Journaling
It may seem cliché to write your feelings down but believe me, it is more helpful than you may think. Journaling is a simple activity that you can take part in anywhere including at your house, at school, on the bus, at a restaurant, and even waiting in line to enter your favourite store at the mall (those are getting pretty common with pandemic times). Taking out a piece of paper or a journal, and writing down specific things about your day (how your day went, something that you are stressed about, something that you are worried about, and even your feelings) can be the start of a great journaling experience! Journaling is a personal coping mechanism that allows you to write what your mind is telling you, and allows you to share personal experiences. It is something that you can either share or keep to yourself as a way of expressing how you are feeling in a personal way. Writing down your feelings can help to also identify what you are struggling with the most, and help you identify key causes of stress to help find ways of relieving it!
Sleep
The most common stereotype that society has labelled teenagers with is their lack of sleep, and ever since then, the phenomenon has become increasingly prevalent in the lives of many adolescents. You may hear it every day from your parents, and even your doctors, but get ready to hear it again because here it is; “teenagers need at least 8 hours of sleep every night to function properly.” Although it may sound redundant, sleep is the key and fundamental component to coping with stress and has certainly been my foolproof way of relaxing and calming down after a stressful outing.
Despite the amount of studying you have to complete for the next day, or the Netflix show you have to watch because it is just that good, it is important to know your brain needs to relax. It is important to take a break after studying and staring at a screen all day, to sleep at night so that your body and mind can recharge for the next day and so that you can start your day off fresh. I also find sleep a good way to end a stressful day, to put everything on hold, and let your mind take a break. I have learned to set a schedule for my sleep routine, to ensure that every night I get at least eight hours of sleep (usually, ten for my personal preference) to start every day fully rested and with a new and positive mindset to help me tackle the day as my best self!
Ways to Get Help
Self-coping mechanisms and techniques often help to alleviate short-term stress, however, some people who develop severe anxiety and are potentially struggling with clinically diagnosed anxiety must seek professional help to become more mentally healthy and boost positive mental condition. If you feel like you are unable to deal with your stress or mental health disorders, I encourage you to reach out to a professional whether that be a doctor, a psychologist or your guidance counsellor to find someone willing to help because I promise, there is always a way to help you. Below are some organizations that you can reach out to if you feel like you need to access assistance:
- Kids Help Phone: 1–800–668–6868
- Anxiety Hotline: https://www.psychguides.com/guides/anxiety-hotline/
- Toronto Distress Centers: 416–408-HELP (4357)
A last word
Mental health is an increasing area of study throughout the past few years and is becoming more prevalent in society as we discover the importance of living a positive lifestyle with positive mental health. It is important to recognize that you are struggling with mental health problems and reach out to someone if necessary to support you. Staying at home, it can be hard to stay connected with friends and family, but it is important to utilize the resources available to you through technology and through local communities to help. However, there are self-coping mechanisms that many students, including myself, have found useful to reducing stress daily and are often easy activities that you can participate in from home such as exercise, journaling, and sleep! Stay tuned for next week’s Back-to-School Series blog where we talk about another essential topic to help ease the transition of returning to classrooms. Remember that you are stronger than you think and you have the strength and potential to come out the other side as the best version of yourself!
About the author: Wynter Sutchy is an incoming first-year undergraduate student at McMaster University studying Life Sciences and is from King City, ON. She is very passionate about the healthcare field and enjoys sharing her volunteering experiences through writing. She plans to pursue a career in medicine in the future and plans to explore the field of healthcare through research and volunteering throughout her undergraduate career. In her free time, you can expect her to be watching her favourite show, Greys Anatomy, teaching children how to swim, or baking some delicious desserts!
