The College Chronicles Episode One: How to Deal with Mental Health

In this first episode of The Col­lege Chron­i­cles, I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to inter­view Syd­ney Gagnon, a cur­rent sopho­more plan­ning to study soci­ol­o­gy and jour­nal­ism, and Eva Burch­field, a cur­rent senior study­ing actu­ar­i­al sci­ence. Syd­ney is an intern for the pod­cast called Holis­tic Huskies where she facil­i­tates an open con­ver­sa­tion about var­i­ous men­tal health strug­gles that col­lege stu­dents may face in their careers. Eva Burch­field is the Men­tal Health and Well­be­ing coor­di­na­tor for my soror­i­ty, Alpha Omi­cron Pi, where she remains avail­able for sup­port in any way that the sis­ter of Alpha Omi­cron Pi may need. In talk­ing with both Syd­ney and Eva, I was able to learn about dif­fer­ent ways that stu­dents in col­lege can deal with and talk about var­i­ous men­tal health strug­gles. In this pod­cast, both Syd­ney and Eva give pow­er­ful tes­ti­monies about their per­son­al strug­gles and why they choose to give back to the com­mu­ni­ty in such an impact­ful way. Lis­ten to the pod­cast below to hear more about their stories!

Tran­script:

Emi­ly Markelon:

Hi, I’m Emi­ly Markelon, and this is The Col­lege Chronicles. 

Col­lege. The best four years of your life, right?  That’s true for some peo­ple, but many stu­dents also strug­gle with men­tal health prob­lems through­out their aca­d­e­m­ic careers.  I’ve had anx­i­ety for as long as I can remem­ber. In com­ing to col­lege for the first time, many of my strug­gles with anx­i­ety became more intense. I strug­gled with com­par­i­son, bal­anc­ing my school work, bal­anc­ing my social life, you name it. 

I’m a dou­ble major here at UConn, and I’m also involved in many extracur­ric­u­lars and clubs, includ­ing my soror­i­ty Alpha Omi­cron Pi, Her Cam­pus, and the First Year Expe­ri­ence Pro­gram. But being involved in many things means that I must learn how to bal­ance all my respon­si­bil­i­ties. In this episode of Col­lege Chron­i­cles, come along with me as I take you through a day in my life and tell you about the dif­fer­ent ways that I bal­ance my men­tal health and my busy col­lege lifestyle.

*music*

My first class of the day is jour­nal­ism news writ­ing. This class is very writ­ing inten­sive, so I need to be present both phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly so I can get the most out of it and per­form to the best of my abil­i­ties on the var­i­ous essays through­out the semes­ter. Being able to clear my head with some fresh air helps me to make sure I am in the best mind­set possible. 

From this class, I head straight to my Nat­ur­al Resources class, which hap­pens to be across cam­pus. Although the walk is far, being able to walk out­side between my class­es helps me to give my brain a break before my next class. 

After my sec­ond class, I have a break for about two hours for lunch. Dur­ing this time, I usu­al­ly try to avoid doing home­work to make sure that I give my brain a rest before my last two class­es in the after­noon. I take this time to talk with friends, go on a walk around cam­pus, or just head back to my apart­ment to recharge.

How­ev­er, these mind­ful­ness meth­ods might not work for every­one. Thank­ful­ly, I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to talk with two stu­dents from UConn. First­ly, Syd­ney Gagnon is a cur­rent sopho­more here at UConn, plan­ning to study soci­ol­o­gy and jour­nal­ism. She’s also an intern for a pod­cast called Holis­tic Huskies. This pod­cast, run through Stu­dent Health and Well­ness at UConn, is a plat­form where stu­dents like Syd­ney can share their expe­ri­ences with men­tal health.

Because of this deep con­nec­tion with men­tal health and well being, I knew that Syd­ney would be able to give me advice on how she deals with her men­tal health.  I real­ly like to kind of just clear my head by going out­side. I think that nature is like a pret­ty reli­able heal­er. Or if you’re hav­ing like an over­whelm­ing day or if you’ve had a rough week or a rough month, I think sneak­ing in some time out­side to just kind of clear your head and sep­a­rate your­self from all of your stres­sors, work, school, fam­i­ly, what­ev­er it may be.

Syd­ney Gagnon: 

I think if you just take some time, get some fresh air, go for a walk, or Even like read a book out­side, I think just like being not inside can def­i­nite­ly like help a lot. And anoth­er thing that I do in addi­tion to that is I like to lis­ten to music a lot and I think that if you lis­ten to the right genre then it will def­i­nite­ly like cater to your feel­ings and I think you can get some relief from that. Some­times I like to lis­ten to music that’s from child­hood so it’s like nos­tal­gic and kind of brings me back to a sim­pler time and after that I’m able to like refresh and kind of just lev­el my head. 

Emi­ly Markelon: 

I also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to sit down and talk with Eva Birch­field, a cur­rent senior actu­ar­i­al stu­dent here at UConn. She is the men­tal health and well being coor­di­na­tor for my soror­i­ty Alpha Omi­cron Pi. 

Eva Burch­field: 

What I love about this posi­tion is there’s a lot of free­dom for me to do what I want to do. And so one of the things I like to do is I send dai­ly affir­ma­tions in a group chat called Pos­i­tive Pan­das because our ani­mal is a pan­da. So I have that where I send dif­fer­ent affir­ma­tions and just fun quotes to moti­vate all of the girls. Anoth­er thing I like to do, I try to do once a semes­ter is just like a lit­tle goodie. 

So last semes­ter I made a men­tal health good­ie bag. It had dif­fer­ent stick­ers, face masks. A lit­tle toy, you know, just dif­fer­ent things to cheer up the girls. And then this semes­ter I hand­ed out cro­cheted flow­ers and the way that I did that was I put out a form and I said to please fill it out and write down either one good thing you did for your­self this past week for men­tal health or some­thing you did for some­one else. And all, I got a lot of peo­ple to par­tic­i­pate. Almost 50 girls filled out the form, which was real­ly cool. And then I was able to pass out the dif­fer­ent cro­cheted flow­ers and it seemed to real­ly make peo­ple hap­py, which is my goal. So that was awesome. 

Emi­ly Markelon: 

One of my main ques­tions for Syd­ney and Eva. Why do they, as busy col­lege stu­dents, take time out of their day to be advo­cates for men­tal health? 

Syd­ney Gagnon:

One of my main val­ues as a col­lege stu­dent is learn­ing about men­tal health and find­ing ways to break the stig­ma of talk­ing about men­tal health. And Holis­tic Huskies is kind of exact­ly what that is. We have guests who want to share their sto­ries about their men­tal health and any­thing that, you know, ties in with how their men­tal health is as a stu­dent, as a fac­ul­ty mem­ber. So we kind of like to facil­i­tate an open con­ver­sa­tion about it, and that’s some­thing that I think is real­ly impor­tant to every­one. I feel like it’s a top­ic that has a lot of stig­ma around it, and some­times it’s hard to be able to open up about it and seek sup­port. One of the main things that I want­ed to do when I applied was to make sure that every­one has a voice about what they’re strug­gling with and kind of just mak­ing it less of what seems to feel like for peo­ple a bur­den. A lot of peo­ple don’t real­ly think they need to reach out to peo­ple for men­tal health, but our pod­cast kind of likes to encour­age that and make it, you know, a health­i­er thing to do.

Emi­ly Markelon:

Eva shared a more per­son­al sto­ry about why men­tal health advo­ca­cy is impor­tant to her.

Eva Burch­field: 

My biggest inspi­ra­tion, one of my biggest inspi­ra­tions is def­i­nite­ly my dad. He’s been sober for 13 years now and he had his own strug­gles with men­tal health. He had anx­i­ety and depres­sion and the way that he dealt with that was self med­ica­tion, which of course is real­ly sad and he had an addic­tion and so that was­n’t. Obvi­ous­ly the right way to do it but at the time like I had men­tioned ear­li­er there was a big stig­ma against men­tal health and going to ther­a­py and so he was like I don’t real­ly know what these feel­ings are so let me do this because I feel bet­ter when I take this pill or I drink this alco­hol. And so, he learned so much from that expe­ri­ence and he was actu­al­ly a politi­cian back in this time for my state and he actu­al­ly — dur­ing this time of his addic­tion and just we were strug­gling a lit­tle bit for mon­ey as a fam­i­ly — and so he accept­ed a bribe for like a land zone and so he went away to fed­er­al prison in Maryland. 

And as much as obvi­ous­ly that was a sad time my fam­i­ly and I we all say it was the best thing that could have ever hap­pened for us because when he went away he got sober he start­ed work­ing out he was very over­weight and he like start­ed work­ing out and he’s just He’s been sober 13 years, he’s my biggest inspiration. 

And he, he’s taught me every­thing I know about the tools in my tool belt and just want­i­ng to help peo­ple and the way that he reach­es out for peo­ple to help them with their sobri­ety, like, I feel like my pur­pose in life is to reach out for peo­ple to help with men­tal health. And so that’s some­thing that is real­ly impor­tant to me, both inside of my like lit­tle duty in AOPI, but also just with my friends, a lot of my friends at school, I’ve helped get into con­tact with dif­fer­ent ther­a­pists, whether that be through their insur­ance or through UConn and just try­ing dif­fer­ent tools in our tool belt.

Emi­ly Markelon: 

Although Eva explains see­ing her father go through a lot when she was grow­ing up, she her­self is no stranger to men­tal health struggles. 

Eva Burch­field: 

Start­ing for me, real­ly the begin­ning of the pan­dem­ic is when I first was in touch with the fact that I def­i­nite­ly had anx­i­ety. But the biggest strug­gle that I went through was not this sum­mer, but last sum­mer. And I found myself in a real­ly dark place with my anx­i­ety. The way that my anx­i­ety often man­i­fests itself through is like guilt. So I like go down this rab­bit hole in my mind and I come up with all these dif­fer­ent things and like I pick myself apart. And so I dug myself a real­ly deep hole last sum­mer and I was real­ly struggling. 

It was hard for me to even leave like my bed. Like I want to like stay in bed because it was like the com­fort of being in bed, but I was so anx­ious that I could­n’t just sit there. So I had to get up and it was just, it was a tough sum­mer, but I had the sup­port of my par­ents, which I’m very for­tu­nate that I’m very close with them. But, um, also my friends, my boyfriend. 

But what helped me the most was going to ther­a­py and just talk­ing through those feel­ings and learn­ing that I’m not alone, which is some­thing that I often felt was like, there’s no way any­one else feels like this. Like, I know peo­ple have anx­i­ety, but to have it feel so debil­i­tat­ing, like, there’s no way any­one else feels this way, when in real­i­ty, unfor­tu­nate­ly, I’m not alone, but it’s, it’s com­fort­ing, of course, to know that you’re not alone. Not that I want peo­ple to feel that way, of course. 

But, um, yeah, it was a real­ly tough sum­mer for me, but what I learned through that sum­mer is it’s impor­tant to talk through and heal the thoughts that you’re hav­ing and those feel­ings. I also learned, at least for me per­son­al­ly, that I can’t go down a rab­bit hole and keep dig­ging and dig­ging and dig­ging at some­thing that I already talked through. It’s okay, and I have to learn that it’s okay to make mis­takes. And sure, there’s things that I remem­ber from five years ago that I’m like, oh my god, I’m this awful per­son. But It’s okay to, you know, ask for­give­ness, talk through it, and when peo­ple for­give me, I have to learn that, okay, it’s okay, I’m for­giv­en, it’s just learn­ing that it’s okay to make mis­takes, and that as long as you’re learn­ing through those mis­takes, and you’re work­ing to be bet­ter, then So be it. 

And so, from there for­ward, I became real­ly a men­tal health advo­cate to help not only myself but oth­ers and help them get the resources to feel better. 

*music*

Emi­ly Markelon: 

Under­stand­ing how to use your free time to do things that make you feel good is a learned skill. Your brain can only take so much at a time, so know­ing when to give your­self a break and do things that make you hap­py will be the most impor­tant thing for your men­tal health.  So now that I’ve tak­en my break for the day, I’m going on to my next two class­es for the day: The Envi­ron­ment and Ger­man Culture. 

There are days when your brain needs more than just a two hour long break between your class­es. That’s why it’s impor­tant to lis­ten to your brain when it needs that extra rest. Dur­ing these moments, I also sug­gest talk­ing to some­one that you trust and hav­ing those open con­ver­sa­tions to help break the stig­ma around men­tal health. 

Syd­ney Gagnon: 

I think it’s real­ly impor­tant because if we don’t have a con­ver­sa­tion about our men­tal health, then we’re kind of just left in our own head, right? And that’s some­thing that I’ve strug­gled with per­son­al­ly, and I think that’s maybe anoth­er fac­tor why I want­ed to be involved in the pod­cast, because I kind of expe­ri­enced it myself, and I know how hard it can be for oth­er people.

I think the first step to hav­ing some sort of relief, seek­ing sup­port, is to talk about it. And as long as you’re, you know, like ver­bal­iz­ing your thoughts and feel­ings, and some­times it can become more clear to you, and I think that’s some­thing that a lot of peo­ple don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly like pri­or­i­tize, but if we have more con­ver­sa­tions about it and we make it more of a norm to talk about it, then I feel like a lot more peo­ple will be more open to open­ing up and start to, you know, improve their lifestyle, improve their well being, and you know, ulti­mate­ly have a hap­pi­er experience. 

Emi­ly Markelon: 

This idea of cre­at­ing and sus­tain­ing a space where vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and trust can thrive is some­thing that Eva also empha­sized in her interview. 

Eva Burch­field:

It’s impor­tant to facil­i­tate these con­ver­sa­tions because a lot of the time, I would­n’t say as much late­ly, but a lot of the time there’s been a stig­ma around men­tal health and peo­ple not want­i­ng to get help or not even know­ing nec­es­sar­i­ly what’s wrong and not know­ing how to fix it. 

And so my, my main goal is to bring aware­ness and it’s okay to ask for help no mat­ter who you are. and what your sit­u­a­tion is and that there’s access to any­thing, even if there’s not nec­es­sar­i­ly the funds to do so, whether that be through UConn because it’s all for free. And then there’s also just like jour­nal­ing. You don’t even nec­es­sar­i­ly need a jour­nal. You can just get a piece of paper and start writ­ing. You can type it in your phone if you have a phone, just any­thing like that. And it’s just to make it acces­si­ble for every­one to help them feel a lit­tle better. 

And my num­ber one thing and some­thing that my dad always taught me was my anx­i­ety isn’t going to go away, but it’s just learn­ing how to deal with it and, you know, you know, over­come it. And it’s okay to feel a lit­tle anx­ious, but we learn how to deal with it and we could still have a good life and learn how to man­age it. 

Emi­ly Markelon:

Eva also explains that it’s impor­tant to rec­og­nize that not every­one needs the same thing when it comes to their men­tal health because every­one expe­ri­ences men­tal health strug­gles in dif­fer­ent ways. 

Eva Burch­field:

Men­tal health is some­thing that’s real­ly impor­tant to me. My main goal is to help peo­ple get help in the way that they want to and meet them where they are. So one of the resources I have is this mas­ter doc­u­ment and it has dif­fer­ent, I like to call it my tool belt. So I have dif­fer­ent tools like on my tool belt that I put in this doc­u­ment that peo­ple can utilize.

So for exam­ple, there’s the link to Shaw, which is stu­dent health and well­ness, and through UConn, and that is where you can book a ther­a­py appoint­ment with a licensed ther­a­pist, which I referred many of my friends to even out­side of the soror­i­ty. It’s a great pro­gram. I also have links to just dif­fer­ent jour­nals that peo­ple can use, because jour­nal­ing often helps peo­ple with their men­tal health.

I have dif­fer­ent resources such as apps, like there’s this app where they send you dai­ly affir­ma­tions, and that’s some­thing that I real­ly enjoy because it just pops up on my home screen and it’s always chang­ing and it’s just, some of them are fun­ny, but it just, It gives you a lit­tle laugh or makes you smile and so my main goal is to just meet peo­ple where they are and real­ly try to help them do what­ev­er works for them for their men­tal health.

Emi­ly Markelon:

As I con­clud­ed my long day of class­es and my inter­views, I was left with one last ques­tion about where to go from here. What spe­cif­ic resources are avail­able to stu­dents who may need that extra support? 

Eva Burch­field: 

Like I had men­tioned, the Stu­dent Health and Well­ness at UConn is a great resource. Although I haven’t used it per­son­al­ly because I’m very for­tu­nate that I do have ther­a­pists out­side of UConn, but that’s a great resource that many of my friends have used and con­tin­ue to use.

Emi­ly Markelon: This resource is pop­u­lar among many stu­dents on cam­pus because of its acces­si­bil­i­ty and con­ve­nience. How­ev­er, Syd­ney brings a new resource to the light, a pro­gram called Let’s Talk.

Syd­ney Gagnon: 

Through Stu­dent Health and Well­ness, there is um, a pro­gram called Let’s Talk. It’s basi­cal­ly men­tal health office hours, and this is dif­fer­ent from the ser­vices in the Arjona build­ing or like actu­al clin­i­cal help that you pay for, and that’s dif­fer­ent from Let’s Talk because Let’s Talk is free.

Depend­ing on the hours of the day. There’s men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als that are avail­able to talk to stu­dents. So it’s more of like an infor­mal set­ting where you can talk to some­one and you don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly need a men­tal ill­ness to like real­ly seek that sup­port. If you need it, it’s there. 

Emi­ly Markelon: Syd­ney con­cludes by explain­ing some ini­tia­tives that she wants to imple­ment into the pod­cast as she takes a more hands-on role next semester.

Syd­ney Gagnon: This upcom­ing semes­ter, I’m going to be more like a coor­di­na­tor role, and we’re hir­ing four new interns so we have more peo­ple on the team so we can make more con­tent. So I would kind of be on like a man­age­ment side for that and mak­ing sure that every­one has the resources that they need, and if they need help then, um, I’m there. I want to def­i­nite­ly have more diverse sto­ries on the pod­cast so that oth­er peo­ple who are lis­ten­ing to the pod­cast can, you know, hear some­thing that maybe they can relate to that they haven’t heard in oth­er plat­forms before to real­ly make it a more inclu­sive envi­ron­ment. So peo­ple are more com­fort­able with talk­ing about some­thing that maybe they think that is not an issue for oth­er peo­ple, but in real­i­ty, it is. 

Emi­ly Markelon: Men­tal health is a sen­si­tive top­ic for many peo­ple, espe­cial­ly col­lege stu­dents. How­ev­er, cre­at­ing an emo­tion­al­ly vul­ner­a­ble space for peo­ple to talk about their strug­gles is essen­tial for less­en­ing the stig­ma around men­tal health.  Thank you for tun­ing in to The Col­lege Chron­i­cles. This is Emi­ly Markelon, and I’ll see you soon. 

*music*

Links to Fur­ther Research:

Stu­dent Health and Wellness

Let’s Talk

Holis­tic Huskies

I am

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