This year mental health awareness was a major part of the discussions and events all around campus. On 10th October in honor of World Mental Health Awareness Day, a student-led initiative led by the Student Council, Psychology at LUMS and LUMUN organized a panel talk with mental health experts to initiate a productive conversation about mental health amongst students and to address questions regarding stress coping mechanisms. Similarly, on 9th October the LUMS community service society arranged a mental health awareness day in order to contribute towards ending the social stigma surrounding the topic. Moreover, 12th February marked the epilepsy day, on which LCSS took the Initiative to set up stress management activities in the central courtyard to help spread mental health awareness. These student led initiatives and many more proved to be extremely helpful in raising awareness and answering questions regarding stress coping mechanisms. It is due to these major steps by the LUMS community that the institution’s attitude towards mental health has changed in a positive way. The admin too, like previous years, made an effort to address such problems amongst the student body.
The LUMS website recognizes that “when students fail to succeed during the 4 years of undergraduate program, it is often due to personal problems interfering with their academic performance.” Problems such as “Depression, anxiety, procrastination, lack of motivation, stress, relationship problems and substance abuse” are recognized, by the department of counselling and psychological services at LUMS, as problems that hinder a student’s progress at the institution. To help students through these issues a qualified student counselor is available in the sports complex from 9:00 am- 5:00pm. Moreover, many instructors offer their offices as safe spaces to talk with students about their problems and struggles. While all these efforts by the admin are of immense help and are extremely valuable in creating an understanding and positive attitude around campus, much more work needs to be done on part of the administration to make LUMS an institution that approaches issues regarding mental health in the most appropriate way. Many argue that the problem, on part of the institution, stems from not recognizing the role it plays in perpetuating or even causing such issues. Examples of the universities contribution to increasing stress and anxiety amongst students include an atmosphere of increased pressure and impossible expectations. The enrollment process in itself takes a major toll on mental health as it is accompanied by extreme uncertainty and helplessness. LUMS is a university where each and every day of the semester counts, from attendance to projects, quizzes and presentations. However, despite working hard enough throughout the semester the final exams (which begin a short while after the mid-terms) can discredit the hard work of the entire semester. Hence one bad day tends to overshadow months of planning and studying. Recognizing this struggle on part of the students, the university gives a week off to the students just before the finals to give them time to prepare for the big day. However, dead week, this semester (like the semesters before) did not really serve its purpose as many students reported being expected to take quizzes, turn in essays and attend classes during this week. This semester the administration made an attempt to help the students through this hard and demanding period. They put up standees all over campus. Standees that equipped the student body with coping mechanisms to deal with the stress that the dead week and the finals brought along. One standee, in the central courtyard, read “stressed? Follow the following simple steps: slowly inhale through your nose, hold your breath for two minutes, slowly exhale through your mouth.” While such messages are a great way to recognize the stress and anxiety induced in students through the increasingly demanding atmosphere on-campus, they are only a minor step in the right direction. The reactions to this attempt by the administration varied amongst the students. Some were thankful for the effort and appreciated the thought that went behind this act, some joked about the trivial solutions proposed for highly unnerving problems, and others expressed that while the thought is absolutely necessary the solutions provided are “inconsequential”. However, one thing that everyone agreed upon was that more effort needs to be put in in order to provide our campus with a more stress free, positive and safe environment. The administration and the student body need to ensure that a cooperative and supportive attitude is maintained not just before the finals but throughout the academic year. It must be recognized that while many psychological problems stem from personal issues, a stress inductive environment adds to them and might even cause them. Therefore, an effort must be made by every individual to ensure that, all necessary actions are taken to help with, and recognition is given to, problems relating to mental health. Some students suggested that the administration should take a step towards formulating a policy to ensure that the work load put on the students, throughout the year, is only as much as they can cope with. Standees with emails and numbers of the qualified counselors, or symptoms of depression and anxiety must also be placed around campus to spread further awareness. Experts state that many students do not recognize the stress, anxiety or depression they suffer from due to a lack of awareness of the symptoms, to add to the problem, many of those who do realize the symptoms do not know how to reach out and ask for help due to the stigma and shame attached to the topic. Hence an urgent effort needs to be made, especially by the administration, to reduce the stress of impossible expectations and unmanageable workload. Similar efforts must be made to reach out to all students with regular mental health screenings along with regular talks by the counselors on stress coping mechanisms and symptoms of mental health problems.
With the year and the semester ending we must learn from past mistakes and continue with all efforts and progress made. Every step taken in the right direction is invaluable, however, this New Year we must take greater action to ensure that more major and urgent steps are taken in addressing the problems pertaining to mental health.
LUMS & Mental Health Awareness
