by Jason Meier
It was my rallying cry. If a victim needs something, help them. Sort out the forms and receipts and paperwork later. If you’re alive and have a roof, you sit in a place of privilege. It’s your duty as a human to help those who have lost everything. Help people first. It became a mantra which would drive my reactions during any times of crisis. Continue reading
In honor of our ongoing series of community posts for Mental Health Awareness Month, we spoke with Kristen Abell about how this effort got started with the help of Stacy Oliver-Sikorski & Sue Caulfield as well as why we need to keep fighting the mental health stigma. Connect with her on Twitter, and at her blog! Many thanks to Kristen for taking some time out to chat with us!
Podcast posted at the Student Affairs Collective on May 27, 2014.
by Monica Fochtman
I drew this picture of myself in spring 2007 when I was a full-time doctoral student. It was part of an assignment for our qualitative research methods class. I remember being excited to draw this picture because I thought that my fellow graduate students’ self-portraits would look similar, and I looked forward to kvetching about grad school life when we shared them in our small groups. At the time, my other roles included: mother, wife, part-time graduate assistant, and daughter and sister to a far-away family that was in crisis. These roles were obviously weighing heavily on me and my psyche. Clearly the person in this photo was not well. I was not well. Continue reading
by Annie Greaney
Even before I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety, I found peace in music. Through this organized and sometimes unexplainable noise I am able to find silence. Even though I have started therapy, nothing has yet to compare to listening and expressing myself through music, especially when I find myself becoming un-grounded. Continue reading
by Jessa Carpenter
Somewhere along the way, life gets complicated. When I look back at my early teens and the amount of anxiety I felt about my hair, boys, social events, grades, boys, my weight, and OMG BOYS, I laugh at how easy I unknowingly had it. Even in the years since then I have been incredibly lucky. Continue reading
by Joe Ginese
“Wow, great job finishing the race! How are your legs?”
“Hey, you look tired. You feeling okay?”
“How are you today?”
Raise your hand if you have ever had someone ask you one of those three questions.
Now raise your hand if your first instinct when asked those questions is to default to how you are physically feeling.
by Deb Schmidt-Rogers
Have you ever had a conversation with a parent that left you shaking your head? I have had plenty, and for a long time the ones that really got me were the ones where parents would tell me, “I think they really need to stay at (insert your college name here) to be successful.” I, as the college administrator, had phoned them in the hopes that they would drop everything and get to campus as quickly as they could, because their student was disintegrating in front of my eyes. I don’t make these calls whimsically. But. They. Didn’t. But. They. Wouldn’t. I now know it was because they couldn’t. Continue reading
by Tiffany Dyer
I’ve struggled with mental health my whole life, as far back as middle school where a teacher actually recommended I see a doctor for depression. I saw a medical doctor who ran a blood test and said I didn’t have it. I had no idea what depression was. I can’t remember going to more than three or four therapy sessions at a time and haven’t ever been able to find a therapist who is upfront with me or that I trust. Continue reading
by Amma Marfo
Today was the first day this week I felt at ease in the office. Before this morning the pace of the coming month was revealing itself, and meetings stacked on top of meetings caught up with me. And in keeping with my goal of expressing vulnerability, I can admit that I had an anxiety attack on Tuesday afternoon. I know how to ride them out now and what I have to do to make sure I come out of it okay, but it happened. Continue reading
by Shane Cadden
I believe prioritizing and practicing an authentic ethic of care with students and staff makes me professionally successful because it makes me credible. I’ve always been the advocate for being your true self and the person who has appropriate but authentic dialogue around the question, “How are you, really?” I never thought that enhancing this authentic dialogue could have resulted from a crisis that happened to me. That is what happened one particular summer during the Housing and Residence Life training craze when I nearly died from a pulmonary embolism (PE), a blood clot in my lung.