hipcilTALKS on Mental Health

Video Transcription.

hipcilTALKS on Mental Health,
by Meaghan Velten.

hi my name my name is Megan and
I’m here on behalf of heightened Independence
in Progress (hip) to give a hip talk about mental health
especially as it pertains to college students
now as college students you are known offices when it
comes to stressors there are a lot of
things that could derail your mental
health over the course of a year or
maybe a semester for instance if it’s
midterms or finals that’s different than
if it’s the beginning of the semester if
you are having interpersonal problems
like if you’re having friendship
problems romantic relationship problems
or family issues that could also be
things that affect you and those are
external factors there are also internal
factors things that affect you and you
alone and are based on you or you alone
and both things are really important to
think about when we think about stress
and when we think about mental health
because both are components that go into
the state of your mental health now when
I say external versus internal
what am I talking about well for
internal factors those are things that
you are affecting for yourself so this
could look like do you take medication
if you are are you taking it regularly
are you sleeping regularly what’s your
sleep pattern looking like are you
drinking enough water are you uh getting
enough sunlight which is also really
important and things that you can
control within yourself those are what I
talk about when I talk about internal
factors there are also external factors
and these things can be broken into
necessary and not necessary which isn’t
the same thing as unimportant
necessary might be you have a midterm
coming up and you have a project that
you have to turn in for that midterm
that’s something that you absolutely
need to do that’s going to further your
college education that’s something that
you have to turn in unnecessary maybe
you were thinking about an argument you
had with a friend it’s not unimportant
but it’s not the same thing as having to
turn in that midterm so you move past
these things differently if it’s
something that’s important if it’s
something that’s necessary then you
would go about making a plan for it so
that could look like making a timetable
for yourself and trying to keep yourself
on a timely schedule it could look like
asking for external validation like a
tutoring center if you’re unsure about
where to go or if you’re not sure if the
paper you’re turning in makes a lot of
sense you could go to a tutoring center
there are resources for you on your
college campus that you can access for
instance through the office of
specialized services that would be an
excellent place to start if you had a
question about something that related to
your schooling or even your own health
and then there’s
through the other half let’s say an
argument with a friend and that’s
something that’s going through your mind
and that’s something that’s stressing
you it is important to move past it in a
way that is beneficial for you you could
look like forgiving forgetting uh
reworking rewarding readdressing and
just in general trying to make the best
of a situation that maybe isn’t the most ideal
and those are both very important skills to have now
is it important to make healthy habits
of course it’s important to make healthy
habits but that’s sort of a general term
that people use and maybe it’s difficult
to get started with because you’re not
really sure where to start well it could
look like a lot of different things
depending on your life and your schedule
and what you need you could start by
setting your alarm 15 minutes earlier so
you’re more alert by the time you get to
class this could look like keeping track
of what you’re eating to make sure that
you’re hitting all of the major food
groups and eating as healthily as
possible because feeding your body
is very important for your mental health
if you eat the wrong things if you eat
less if you eat too much it could affect
your mental health
even though it doesn’t seem like those
things are necessarily connected it can
be very important and it could also look
like saying no to being invited out if
you’re exhausted or you’re over peopled
or if you have something important that
you need to get done
sometimes saying no is one of the most
important things we can do for our
Mental Health
so what are some productive habits you
could make out of all of this that will
increase your mental health and affect
the way positively that you address stressors
um you anything that adds structure ease
and productivity to your day could be
considered a healthy habit and it could
be timing sleep it could also be making
sure that you are doing coursework in a
way that makes the most sense for you
because different writing styles and
different note-taking skills work best
for different people while some people
like color coding and highlighting
different vocab or whatever with
different colors some people work better
with flashcards or some people work
better with copying their notes over by
hand so that they have a better
understanding of it really when it comes
to your mental health and when it comes
to Stress Management the most important
thing you can do is know yourself know
your limits know what’s important to you
know what’s an important takeaway for
you and really sticking to
those sorts of habits and those
gravitating towards those sorts of
positive people but of course overall
the most important thing possible for
your mental health is to be kind to
yourself
to forgive yourself to understand that
you are a work in progress putting too
much stress on yourself is a stress
factor into itself and can affect your
mental health and can affect your
ability to do your schooling it’s very
important that you remember
being kind to yourself first and
everything else follows after