Episode 2: Mental Health Resources and Coping Skills

Hello, and welcome back to the Mind Matters podcast. My name is Grace, and today we will be talking about some of the resources and coping skills that can be used to combat mental health struggles. Joining me today will be two special guests who work with college students every day at Bellarmine University. To start, can you please tell me a little bit about who you are and what you do at Bellarmine? Sure. So my name is Dr. Marlena Bragg. I'm a licensed psychologist. I am the Associate Director for Clinical Services here at Bellarmine. Let's see, I started at Bellarmine in January of 2020, so right before the pandemic. So I've been here for four years and have seen a lot of changes in my time here. I think things are generally back to normal-ish or a new normal after the pandemic. Prior to that, I worked at the women's prison out in Pee Wee Valley, the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women. I worked there for six years, and that was my first job out of internship after I got my doctorate. Wow. So I was the Program Administrator for a co-occurring treatment disorder program. Cool. What do you feel are some of the most common stressors or challenges that college students experience? Well, the number one reason students reach out to services is anxiety, but the stressors that lead to people reaching out, or just in general, are varied. I would say some of the major ones are just adjustment to being an adult. That's a huge stressor in itself, and for some students, they have an easier process in launching into adulthood than others, because maybe they have the supports around them. But sometimes there's conflict with family about stepping into adulthood, or maybe they've been thrust into adulthood long ago, and so they don't have the people behind them to kind of help back them up. Financial stressors are huge within that, too. Some students, while they may have college paid for in some form or fashion, they have other finances, or maybe they're helping take care of their families in some way. If we look at how that kind of fans out, time management with all of the responsibilities is a huge stressor. First of all, a lot of people come to college and don't have great time management skills in general. You know, in high school, generally things are kind of planned out for you. In college, the pro and a con is that you have to manage your own time. Some people flourish, some people don't, and it takes a lot of trial and error sometimes or practice to get that right. Other stressors are relationships. So you come to college a lot of times not knowing many people, or even if you do know people, those relationships change and are varied. So I think those are some major stressors. In just this time period of life, if we're looking at traditional college age students, some of those developmental things that we're looking at, like building relationships and maybe finding a romantic partner, those are stressors, as well as finding out still who you are. So a lot of students are still forming their relationship with their spirituality or they're figuring out their sexual orientation or gender identity. So there's lots of different kind of concerns that come up that can be really stressful. They can be beautiful stresses, but also stressors nonetheless. Can you talk a little bit about the counseling center and what they have to offer therapy and kind of beyond therapy, as well? Sure. So I see us as sort of like the little clinic and the primary care physician all in one. So when people reach out, they can reach out just as a consultation. It doesn't even have to be like an intake appointment. They can just call us and ask us questions about what we do have. So we do consultation. We can also do that intake appointment where we kind of help the person game plan their mental health for the semester. So that may mean starting in therapy with us, or maybe it's attending a group or coming to a workshop that we have going. Right now we have some mental health advocates. It's a fancy name for our interns, our senior undergraduate interns. And they're doing some workshops. Maybe we would refer a student to that. Or possibly they need an outside referral. Maybe they know of a really great group in the community that somebody could benefit from. Or maybe they really need medication. We do psych testing here, as well. And so sometimes psychological assessment can be a good starting point for people. And depending on what that is, if it's something like ADHD, learning disability, or autism testing, we would refer them out. But other types of testing we can do here. So that's another option for services that we have. And then we do a lot of referrals, internal referrals. So if somebody comes in and they're struggling, and it sounds much more like academics, we might refer them to the Student Success Center. Maybe there's specific things that they could get from that space, in addition with maybe some support here. I wanted to kind of focus specifically on coping skills. So what would you say would be the best strategies that you could use to cope with stress or anxiety? Yeah. So the best defense against any mental health concern or condition is just basic self-care stuff. So that's where I start out with people for coping skills. Sometimes a self-care strategy can just be a coping skill. So for like anxiety or stress, that can really impact our sleep. And so we might take it all the way back to the basics of checking out what's going on with our sleep. Because we know if we're not getting enough quality sleep or enough quantity of sleep, we're going to have struggles with anxiety. It's just like that cyclical kind of thing. And we're also going to be more vulnerable to those strong emotions. So we're going to work on that. We're also going to work on eating. Sometimes our stress and anxiety can get in the way of our eating habits and our eating patterns. You know, if we think about being anxious, everything is all tight, right? And it's hard to eat sometimes when we're feeling that way. So we're going to work on that as well. So those are the two foundational pieces I always coach people through or assess with people. And then from there, mindfulness and other relaxation techniques are really helpful for things like stress and anxiety, in a sense of unplugging a little bit and centering in on what's going on in my body. And that can happen in, it can be like a formal meditation. But it could just be taking five minutes to myself just to do some kind of coloring. That can be meditative. Or maybe I'm really into my spirituality and religion, so maybe that's some contemplative prayer. Maybe I really enjoy moving my body. And so that could be as I'm walking across campus, like today's a sunny day, maybe I walk across campus and just kind of feel the sun beating on my body and what that feels like. So trying to take some time out in your day to be reflective or just to take a time out is really important in battling stress and anxiety. I would say the other thing, our thinking is huge. And so oftentimes when we're having anxious thinking, it's a lot of I can't do this, this is too much, it's too hard. And so really being aware of our thinking and challenging our thoughts. It could be using positive affirmation or it could just be kind of making more neutral statements to kind of challenge some of those beliefs that are popping up when we're really anxious. Are there any websites or apps that you would particularly recommend for like any of that stuff? Sure. So Daylio is a really good app. That's a mood tracking app. Mind Shift is another one that is really great for anxiety. And then I do a lot, well this will go into some other disorders or concerns, but I really like positive psychology. It's .com, maybe .org, but they have a ton of different resources for people to use. And in there it talks a lot about like there's a page for cognitive distortions and there's a page for coping with social anxiety. So there's lots of different ones. And I really like selfcompassion.org and that one gets into more of the self-esteem piece that could be bumping into anxiety or depression or even eating concerns. And so there's definitely lots of great things within those websites. What would you recommend for coping with depression or suicidal ideation? Sure. So with depression, I kind of break it down a little bit to see what areas the person is struggling with. So for example, if they're struggling with that withdrawal and social isolation or lack of motivation, we're probably going to need to start with some behavioral activation, which is a fancy way of saying let's just get moving. So we might identify what things are they able to do? You know, is the depression so bad that maybe they're not showering? We probably need to break it down way to the basics and give ourselves credit just for the activities of daily living we're able to do. Maybe if, you know, they're having more mild to moderate symptoms, so maybe they are showering, they're eating, they're getting to class sometime, we probably want to look at what areas they want to bolster. And so a lot of times I think of our government's eight dimensions of wellness that we talk about a lot and try to look at what other areas could help really boost them. So maybe there's been a disconnection with social wellness. So when's the last time you've hung out with a friend? When's the last time you've gotten lunch with a friend? That's something you used to do. Maybe we can't do it every day, but can we do it one time this week? And really kind of challenge ourselves to connect in those ways. And then oftentimes as you're pointing out, suicidal ideation can be a part of depression. And so for that, if somebody's struggling with suicidal ideation, I would really encourage them to reach out for some professional support. That may mean, you know, connecting with an RA, connecting with a friend, connecting with a professor to get here. But at that point we probably really need to connect with a professional who can help us assess where we're at and what skills are going to be the most beneficial in keeping us safe. And so here we would help them create a safety plan that identifies what are the triggers. We break it down to cognitive, behavioral, and our feelings. So that way we kind of know what to do when we're feeling these ways or these things are happening. But if somebody's not willing to come in, we definitely want to arm them with some crisis resources. So like 988, which is a new suicide prevention and lifeline. And then the counseling center's number. So if they're not willing to meet with us, they can still call and maybe have a crisis session. And if we're not here, they can press 2 and connect with an on-call crisis counselor. Is the on-call crisis counselor like someone that's on campus? No, they are not on campus. It is a service that we have that they're connected with our system so they know who the people are on campus and who some of their supports are. Okay. So like for instance, if you needed to just sit with someone or something, they would be able to communicate with someone who could allow that to happen? Yes. They have a bunch of numbers for us and they would call those numbers and those people could connect with folks here on campus. It's worked really well so far so that's been really helpful to have. Yeah, I feel like that's kind of a resource that a lot of people don't maybe know about. So that just seemed like it would be pretty cool. It's really nice to have because these people are working second, third shift. So back when Gary and I would carry the phones, getting a 3 a.m. call and Marlena's on the line after sleeping is probably not as effective as somebody who is there and ready for that call. Yeah, that makes sense. Kind of moving on to OCD and perfectionism and compulsions and stuff like that, what would you recommend for combating those tendencies? Yeah, so perfectionism, we would definitely want to work on the thinking piece. So we want to take a look at how can we reduce sort of going to those thoughts so we recognize that they're happening and try to challenge like is this really true. So working with a therapist on like a thought log can be really beneficial for something like perfectionism. Connecting with our values can be really helpful too. So like my values in life are spending time with my family, my friends, my health and well-being and those things are being like taking a toll because I'm studying and doing work 24-7. Well, there might be a disconnection there. And so really trying to look at do I have to put forth way more effort than what I really need to or can I back down a little bit, still get what I want out of this class assignment and then connect with these other things that are within my values. That can also help our motivation, right? So if we're connecting with things that we value, we might feel like we have a lot more left in us to do the work that we have to do. With OCD and compulsions, really the gold standard is going to be exposure and response prevention treatment. But there's some things that people can do on their own, which is first recognizing that those things are present. Because I think sometimes people may see compulsions as, well this is just little quirks that I have. But when we're struggling with OCD, they're very distressing and debilitating when we can't do those things. So I think some of those pieces really should be addressed in therapy, but the milder scale of that we can absolutely do some of that work on our own. So if we recognize I'm having this obsession and it's really distressing to me, then I can maybe resist the urge to do the compulsion and kind of do my deep breathing, do some grounding, and try to move through and kind of wait that out a little bit. So it's kind of our own little mini exposure and response prevention. I hope that you all feel like you'll be able to use some of the coping skills Dr. Bragg talked about in our discussion. And also, I highly encourage anyone to go to the Counseling Center because I had a really great experience and I know that there are a lot of trained professionals there who are more than willing to help you. Switching gears to talk more about resources outside of Bellarmine and the Counseling Center, I will be speaking to an individual who works more with Campus Recreation and Wellness. To start, can you please introduce yourself and kind of talk about the work that you do for Bellarmine? My name is Emily Warner. I'm the Associate Director of Campus Wellness. For Bellarmine, I basically coordinate all the health and wellness programming for students mostly. That ranges from anywhere from, you know, stress relief programming to healthy sleep, nutrition, physical activity, substance use, so I do a lot around prevention and education. So if a student is struggling, like, in college, what resources would you, like, amend at Bellarmine? Obviously, there's the Counseling Center, but can you talk more about, like, other resources outside of the Counseling Center? Yeah. So I just wanted to make sure, like, relationships and the connections you make are so important. If you're stressed out or if you need that extra support, having those connections built already are so important. So just thinking about people that you have day-to-day interaction with. Yeah. So your faculty, you know, that is a great person to build relationships with so that if you needed that support, you can turn to them. Yeah. And that's just dependent on, you know, maybe you have a favorite faculty you're not in a class with, you could still form that relationship. Advisors, it could be, like, for you, student-athletes, turning to their coach. Yeah. I think is important. Another resource is their peers. So we have a lot of great peer leaders on campus. Mm-hmm. Anywhere from, you know, we have peer academic mentors to peer wellness educators to RAs. Yeah. So those students, you know, we train them to be able to offer that extra support for students. So being able to turn to peers is another resource. Yeah, there's staff, obviously. You know, we're not teaching classes necessarily, but we're here. Our goal, working at Bellarmine, is to support students. Yeah. So that could be anything, you know, if they need support with their stress or mental health. But we're able, we're here and able to help. Yeah, I think I touched on a lot of the ones besides, you know, the professional. Yeah. Counseling Center. Obviously, there's other, I think it's, depending on what your, who your network is, like, for instance, you know, Campus Ministry is a great resource for those students that they're connected with. So, yeah, I think it's just identifying who in your network that you have a connection with. That can be the extra support. And then they may be able to help you or they may be able to refer you to Professional Health Counseling Center. Yeah. Are there any specific, like, organizations in the area outside of Bellarmine that you feel could also be helpful to students if they didn't necessarily, like, want to use Bellarmine's resources? I mean, there's a lot, I think there's a lot of nonprofit organizations that, I mean, their main goal is mental health awareness. Yeah. Like, we're doing a lot with the Pete Foundation. And so their goal, their main goal is to reduce stigma around mental health. Yeah. And increase awareness around help-seeking and mental health therapies. Mm-hmm. I mean, so there's different organizations like that that a student could, you know, search out. But sometimes that can be an extra barrier because if you're not connected with anyone, it may feel intimidating to kind of reach out. Yeah. But, I mean, there are tons of professional counseling organizations, obviously. Probably going to come back to me. Yeah, I mean, online resources are awesome. I'll just be, make sure you find a credible resource. Right. Yeah, Jed is a great one. I mean, NAMI. Mm-hmm. NAMI Louisville. Yeah. They've been to a number of our events, and they're really great. And they're, they have different volunteer opportunities. Mm-hmm. So if you're interested, that's a way to connect. Yeah. As well as kind of take advantage of their other resources for support, too. Right. There's also, you know, there's American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, too. Mm-hmm. They have a Louisville chapter. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, there's different things that students can, you know, can find online or if maybe they come to campus one time that students can connect with. Yeah, I always find it hard to, like, if you don't know someone in that organization, sometimes it's intimidating to kind of reach out. Yeah. Like, to reach out when you're actually in that need. Right. For support. But, yeah, those are really great, a lot of great national organizations that have mental health as a focus, as well as suicide prevention as a focus. Yeah. Kind of speaking about students struggle a lot with burnout in college. Like, that seems to be, like, one of the most prevalent stressors. What would you recommend for combating burnout in college students? Yeah. I think burnout is important not only with college students, but when you go into your career, too. Right. So it's something kind of to be aware of, to understand, like, what it actually means to you. So, you know, feeling emotionally exhausted and not feeling a sense of accomplishment in what you're doing. Yeah. So that's kind of, if you're a college student and you've been so involved, but it's not bringing you happiness, what it used to be. Yeah. It doesn't necessarily mean that you don't like it anymore or that you're not good at it. But it means that you're just not taking care of yourself. Yeah. So you're stressed out in other areas. You may not be getting proper sleep. Yeah. You may not be properly coping, self-care. So those pieces tie into burnout. So, like, if you're stressed out in your personal relationships or something in class, it weighs on you. So when you're dealing with maybe your leadership position, you feel it. It's like you just, you can't do it anymore. And the reason is, yeah, you're stressed out, you're too stressed out. And it could be a number of things, like I said. I think it's important to kind of understand, like, when you're approaching that burnout, it could be just that you've been too stressed out, kind of understanding that. I also think, and this is important to realize, is understanding boundaries. Yeah. And understanding how to say no. Yeah. Or how to say, I can't do that right now. I'm still interested, but I can't do it right now. Yeah. You're not saying that you don't want to be a team player or you're not interested. It's just, like, you don't have the capacity right now. Right. And that's okay. So I think that is a skill that we all need to practice, including, I mean, professionals, myself. Because a lot of times people think that they want to help or they're interested in that. And so, yeah, okay, yeah, I will help with that project or I'll take that. I'll be on that committee. Right. Right. And I think for students it's easy because there's so many different opportunities to do on campus. So they're like, yeah, I'm interested in that. Sign me up. I'll do it. And then just everything is just piled on top of you. Yeah. And you have academic classes to take care of. You may be working two jobs. So just understanding how to make those boundaries is important for burnout. Yeah. And it's hard. I mean, it's really, I think it's really individual. You have to understand how to set those boundaries for yourself. I can't tell you how to. Right. I can't tell you the decisions to make or, you know, to not do this this semester. When you're really interested in the topic or something, you know. But you have to because you can only take so much. Right. There's only so much you can do in 24 hours. And if you try to do it all, you don't do it well. Right. Like you may be, you're not thriving. Right. You're just kind of, you're barely surviving in all your areas. I can't tell you enough how important it is to set boundaries. And that's something I'm still practicing, too. Yeah. So don't feel bad if you're like, I can never say no. Or like, I always sign up for things to be involved in. That's okay. Yeah. It takes practice. I also think it's hard, too, because, like, as you move through life, your priorities are, like, constantly changing. Yeah. Which means that you start prioritizing other things when then other things fall to the background. And so, like, I feel like trying to manage that balance is just really challenging. Yeah, totally. I mean, yeah, like you said, your priorities shift. So, and that's okay to kind of adjust and reevaluate things. I think that's important. Yeah. To do. Definitely hard, but good. At the core of, like, the boundary setting and, like, the maintaining a good solid mental health is, like, practicing self-care. What do you think would be the most accessible for students to practice self-care? Yeah. I like to say self-care is all about you. Yeah. You really have to understand what helps you the most and really practice that for self-care. So you really have to think about what works for you and kind of just lets you just de-stress and relax, maybe something that you love. And it can be anything. Like, self-care can be anything. It could be reading a book. Yeah. Finding that thing that, at your point in time, that moment helps you to take care of yourself. And that can change. I would just think try different things out. Some people like music, so even just listening to music. Journaling. There's so many different things that you could do for self-care. Yeah. One of the things that I find hard is, like, I feel like society constantly, like, pushes you to be, like, productive all the time. And so I'm wondering if you have any suggestions for how you kind of, like, reason with yourself how you can be like, okay, like, I need this rest. This is something I have to do to care for myself and not kind of feel guilty about that. Oh, yeah. That is the society now is, like, we're designed to produce something. Yeah. You do have a sense of guilt when you, from my experience, you know, I leave work. I do have kids. So when I get home, I want to spend time with my kids. But then I'm like, if I didn't get something done at work, I'm like, oh, gosh, maybe I can do it real fast. Right. But my kids definitely call me out on it. That's good. She's like, oh, my gosh, you're working again. I'm like, oh, sorry, I didn't get this done. So it is very hard to balance that, and it goes to those boundaries, trying to be better with, like, when I do leave work, I've just got to cut it off. Like, you have to just cut it off. Yeah. But even outside of work, you know, when you're at home and I want to just relax, there is constant things that need to be done. I think for students, there's always going to be that project in class or there's always going to be that thing in their, maybe, RSO that they're dealing with. And it takes practice, being able to be like, okay, I'm just going to not do anything for, like, an hour. Yeah. Yeah, being able to be okay with just not having those tasks done, like it will always be there. Right. And that's also something, too, with work. It will always be there. Yeah. You're never going to get to a point where you're going to be done with work. Right. Yeah. So being able to, and that's just an individual kind of thing, that mindset, and just kind of ignore what society says that just because you're sitting there on the couch for 30 minutes doesn't mean you're lazy or it doesn't mean you're not a great person. Right. You know, yeah, just being able to change that mindset. Because everyone needs to relax and just take that time for themselves. Right. Because, like, you have to fill your own cup before you can, like, help other people, too. For sure. Like, you're not going to be able to be who you want to be and who you can be if you're not taking care of yourself. Yeah, especially for students that are going into those helper types of things. Yeah, yeah. So nursing, psychologists. Yeah. Teachers. Yeah. Yeah, it's just if you can't take that moment, that time, or whatever you do for yourself, yeah, it's not going to help anyone else. And trying to role model that for students in your class if you're a teacher or your clients. Yeah. Or even for your friends and family is important. Right. So trying to – if you get it figured out in college, then that's great. Then you're set up. Right. Right. But, yeah, it doesn't just end. It's still something that you practice and change as your priorities shift. Practicing self-care and finding time to practice self-care can be very challenging, especially as a student who is also involved in other things or someone who is working. But I found that in my own life, you know, I was able to feel much happier when I was taking time to rest, when I was taking time to implement self-care into my day-to-day life. And I also found that I was able and have been able to this day to approach, you know, difficult or challenging situations with more grace and become more of the person that I want to be for myself and for others. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope this episode provided you with some useful tools on how to manage your own mental health. Just a little reminder for today that you are more than enough. If you or anyone that you know is struggling, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. You can DM me on Instagram, the Counseling Center, or any resources at your school. There is also a list of resources in the description of this podcast.