Student government organized the event and the Student Veteran Organization (SVO), Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA), and Quinnipiac\u2019s new chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) all co-sponsored, with input from student health services as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cStress relief is good for everyone, but especially right now preparing for the holidays \u2026 and preparing for finals \u2026 it can be very difficult to balance the academic goals and the personal goals,\u201d said Kerry Patton, Director of Health and Wellness at Quinnipiac. \u201cManaging and learning techniques on how to take care of yourself is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patton also discussed with the audience the fact that mental illnesses are not always seen as equal to physical illnesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone\u2019s struggling with a certain medical diagnosis we tend to react to things a certain way, and if someone\u2019s struggling with a psychiatric or mental [diagnosis] it seems like it\u2019s different,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Tatyana Youssef, vice president for student experience, wanted the event to be a way to end the stigma.<\/p>\n
\u201cWherever you\u2019re at in life, mental health is real,\u201d said Youssef. \u201cIt\u2019s prevalent. It\u2019s in our society. You know, in previous generations it\u2019s always been there but it was taboo to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n
But students were ready to talk about it. They got up in front of their peers and shared personal stories about their struggles.<\/p>\n
Alex Hartman, a member of SVO and army veteran, shocked the audience with his story about his biggest failures in his life, the first being a suicide attempt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I tried to kill myself I was 16,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hartman described his method to hang himself, and his failed plan. He had tied a bed sheet to a ceiling fan, put it around his neck, and when he let go, the fan couldn\u2019t hold his weight and he fell to the ground.<\/p>\n
But it continued. Years later, in the army, Hartman made a second attempt \u2013 his \u201csecond biggest failure\u201d as he describes it. He said the barrel of his gun was in his mouth, when his friend walked through the door and asked him to go play basketball outside.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cThat was the hoop that saved my life,\u201d Hartman said.<\/p>\n
Jordan Atchley, president of SVO, also got up to speak.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out my sister was killed in a drunk driving accident I was 12 years old,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had just gotten off for Christmas break.\u201d<\/p>\n
Atchley explained that that day, he saw his parents \u201ccrumble\u201d and he felt he had to be strong for them, so he internalized all of his pain and sadness in order to support them. But then, tragedy struck his family again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a sophomore in high school, my brother had just gotten back from Iraq, and they told us that he had liver cancer,\u201d Atchley said. \u201cLittle did we know he had a year left to live. So when I was a junior in high school, I lost my brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two tragedies led him to engage in risky behavior, like racing motorcycles. He said he wasn\u2019t trying to kill himself, but he didn\u2019t think it\u2019d be such a bad thing if it happened. Then, he joined the military, which he says taught him a lot about resilience, and allowed him to redirect his emotions towards something good.<\/p>\n
Atchley is now studying to become a lawyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day I hope to change the laws that allowed the guy that killed my sister to be out of jail in three years,\u201d Atchley said. \u201cThat\u2019s the driving force behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amanda Herbert, SVO Member and Air Force veteran, spoke about the importance of noticing lifestyle changes in yourself or those close to you, as it could be a sign of depression.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve been taking more naps. You\u2019re just sleeping more in general but your sleep isn\u2019t as good, so you\u2019re sleeping more. And then you\u2019re so tired that you need that candy bar or some kind of not really nutritious snack to get you through the next hour or the next class or the next thing,\u201d Herbert said. \u201cYou start living in these one little hour time slots and forgetting that you have a body that you need to nourish so that your mind and everything else can follow through.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Patton, student health services has seen about a 33% increase in the amount of students filling out intake forms for counseling appointments. She says the top three things students come to counseling for are anxiety, depression and relationship issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s normal to feel stress every day,\u201d Patton said. \u201cSometimes stress motivates us, sometimes anxiety motivates us. These are natural feelings that you\u2019ll experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patton said the most important thing is being able to manage your stress at a healthy level so that it doesn\u2019t overwhelm you.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes you need to study a lot, you might need to prepare for a paper or an exam, but [you need] to also take that time for yourself, even if that time is ten minutes \u2026 to take care of yourself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
And while you\u2019re taking care of yourself, don\u2019t forget to do your part to help others too.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the smallest little things that you do for other people can have a huge impact,\u201d said Peter Chlebogiannis, president of Quinnipiac\u2019s chapter of NAMI. \u201cEven an extra second, an extra hello, an extra smile, an extra wave. A lot of us are going through a lot of hard stuff and the more we can be there for each other the better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jenelle Cadigan Mental health awareness was the topic of discussion this past Monday night at Mind Body Soul — the second series of the Your Voice Our Quinnipiac events. Student government organized the event and the Student Veteran Organization (SVO), Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA), and Quinnipiac\u2019s new chapter of the National Alliance on … Continue reading Quinnipiac’s discussion on mental health<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[121,123,116,122,119,113,117,124,118,115,120,114],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-quinnipiac","tag-alex-hartman","tag-amanda-herbert","tag-gender-sexuality-alliance","tag-jordan-atchley","tag-kerry-patton","tag-mental-health","tag-national-alliance-on-mental-health","tag-peter-chlebogiannis","tag-student-government","tag-student-veteran-organization","tag-tatyana-youssef","tag-your-voice-our-quinnipiac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3155,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/3155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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