As you may know, I am currently in my first year of university. I absolutely love going to university and I feel like I have grown up so much since I started in September. However, it can have a serious affect on mental health. Wednesday (18th February) was University Mental Health Day. It is an annual event to promote mental health of staff and students of universities. It was revealed that while 1 in 4 students have a mental illness, 60% refuse to open up to their university for fear of being ridiculed.
The transition between school and university is a big change. This had a big affect on me. I am not good at coping with change, nor do many people who suffer from mental illnesses. My first semester was very different to what I thought it would be. I never thought that I would be doing the bare minimum, struggling to get enough concentration to get through lectures or constantly struggling with panic attacks but that was what happened. One thing that encouraged me to go every day, bar a couple of days when I couldn't possibly go in, was the fact that I had made friends very early. This meant that I had people to talk to in between lectures, sit beside in lectures and meant I wasn't alone if I arrived at uni early.
Exams are always a very difficult time, for those of us with mental illnesses and for those without. In the exam period that just passed, I was suffering particularly bad. I was in crisis for the fortnight when the exams were occurring. But me being me, I ploughed on and did all my exams anyway, despite knowing that by sitting the exam I was deeming myself "fit to be examined". Luckily, I did VERY well and I am really pleased with my results and proud of myself for sitting them.
One way to make exams LESS stressful (there's no way to eradicate all stress) is to PLAN! Always leave enough time to revise all the content thoroughly, so you aren't left the night before the exam trying to cram in three months of work. Last semester I didn't keep up to date with lecture notes, so when it came to the exam time, I had to basically teach myself all the information. This semester, I am so far keeping up to date with all my lecture notes, hoping that this will cause me less stress come the exams in May/June.
Opening up to my university about my mental health problems was immensely helpful to me. Before I had even started university, I contacted the Disability Service. They set things in place that help me such as having lecture slides online before the lecture, 25% extra time in exams, sitting the exam in a smaller room and I am allowed to leave lectures early/ not attend lectures if I am unwell. I also told one of my module co-ordinators about my anxiety last semester. This was because a compulsory part of the module was a presentation on a research topic. At this point, my anxiety was at a severe level and I did not feel up to standing in front of 40 people, talking about something that was rather boring with 4 other peoples marks depending on me. I was excused from having to do the oral presentation, as long as I could show that I had contributed towards the task. If I hadn't decided to be open, I would not have discovered how nice and understanding they can be.
I will write another post about this topic as it is such a big issue.
The transition between school and university is a big change. This had a big affect on me. I am not good at coping with change, nor do many people who suffer from mental illnesses. My first semester was very different to what I thought it would be. I never thought that I would be doing the bare minimum, struggling to get enough concentration to get through lectures or constantly struggling with panic attacks but that was what happened. One thing that encouraged me to go every day, bar a couple of days when I couldn't possibly go in, was the fact that I had made friends very early. This meant that I had people to talk to in between lectures, sit beside in lectures and meant I wasn't alone if I arrived at uni early.
Exams are always a very difficult time, for those of us with mental illnesses and for those without. In the exam period that just passed, I was suffering particularly bad. I was in crisis for the fortnight when the exams were occurring. But me being me, I ploughed on and did all my exams anyway, despite knowing that by sitting the exam I was deeming myself "fit to be examined". Luckily, I did VERY well and I am really pleased with my results and proud of myself for sitting them.
One way to make exams LESS stressful (there's no way to eradicate all stress) is to PLAN! Always leave enough time to revise all the content thoroughly, so you aren't left the night before the exam trying to cram in three months of work. Last semester I didn't keep up to date with lecture notes, so when it came to the exam time, I had to basically teach myself all the information. This semester, I am so far keeping up to date with all my lecture notes, hoping that this will cause me less stress come the exams in May/June.
Opening up to my university about my mental health problems was immensely helpful to me. Before I had even started university, I contacted the Disability Service. They set things in place that help me such as having lecture slides online before the lecture, 25% extra time in exams, sitting the exam in a smaller room and I am allowed to leave lectures early/ not attend lectures if I am unwell. I also told one of my module co-ordinators about my anxiety last semester. This was because a compulsory part of the module was a presentation on a research topic. At this point, my anxiety was at a severe level and I did not feel up to standing in front of 40 people, talking about something that was rather boring with 4 other peoples marks depending on me. I was excused from having to do the oral presentation, as long as I could show that I had contributed towards the task. If I hadn't decided to be open, I would not have discovered how nice and understanding they can be.
I will write another post about this topic as it is such a big issue.