Interview with a Therapist

So, I am in an environmental writing class for my English degree. We have to do a semester-long project about something with the environment, and I chose to create a website talking about how nature affects mental health positively. 

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Very cool!

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I've had so much fun working on it! I'm including aspects of not only nature but also include how things going on in the world also affect our mental health such as gun violence, and I talk about specific mental disorders such as Seasonal Affective Disorder in college students. 

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I'm solely focusing on college students because I believed it would be too broad to focus this one project on all ages. I have about five questions to ask you.

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Go right ahead!

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How do you think the environment/nature affects mental health and how important do you think it is?

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I think it is one of the most important things. There are a lot of studies on this that show how being out in nature is a wonderful way to balance and maintain good mental and emotional health. It's also a way to heal. Although it won't heal someone who has schizophrenia, people with anxiety or depression for instance can feel the calming effect of nature.  

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The other reason studies show the benefits is there is such an essence of awe in nature. Nature is so much bigger than we are so it puts things in perspective. You know, if I'm struggling because I got a C on a paper, I'm worried about my grade, or I'm struggling because a friend of mine isn't being very nice to me, you go out into nature and see all this green. We shouldn't look at nature as though we're smaller than it, but as it puts things into perspective because of how large it is. It's more to say, "Look at all this that's going on around me" and we know the combination of being in nature and moving our bodies, such as someone who goes hiking, walking, running, or kayaking. We're both in nature and moving our bodies by doing those things in nature. 

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We know that what being in nature and moving does in the brain is one of the number one things that we can control that really helps with our emotional and mental health. It's also a big factor in Seasonal Affective Disorder because even when it's dark and gloomy outside or dark all the time, we are still out moving although it may not be ideal weather. We know we're still breathing fresh air and moving our bodies which is good for our serotonin and dopamine levels. I can't say enough about how powerful it is. I don't know the exact statistics of the studies but they're all out there. Nature is so powerful.

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Yeah, I've found a lot of journals from studies and it's insane to see how many people actually do study this. 

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You know, we live in an area where people are inside a lot in the winter. But, I know people in other states like Colorado and Utah and there are hard winters out there but people are outside in the middle of January just dressed differently to be outside and do things. 

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I agree, I love going outside. We live right behind a lake so I love going and walking around the lake. 

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See, yes that's a great example. That is nice!

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Yeah! So, my second question is that college students are one of the highest groups who suffer from both diagnosed and undiagnosed mental health issues. How do you think schools could better help the student body regarding mental health outlets on campus? 

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That's a really good question. Anxiety has been labeled an epidemic among high school and college students. I think that happened right before the pandemic and of course, the pandemic made it worse.

I think schools can help by one, having resources. I think many colleges do have counseling centers with counselors and therapists on staff and my guess is they need way more. I think they can help by having rec centers and ways for kids to move their bodies. I think they can help by having maybe groups for kids to connect with who have a harder time. 

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I think the culture has to change, I don't think it's just colleges. But, I think your generation has gone through this time of high school and college where somehow things got so distorted that it's like everyone is so high achieving. It's okay to be high achieving, we want everyone to do their best but it's so distorted. I work with lots of people who talk about failing and I've learned to ask, "What does that mean exactly?" There's a big difference between failing and getting a bad grade. I'm not saying it's the college's fault, but something happened in our whole culture that's really affected your generation with the thought that it's never enough. Somehow feeding that dialogue of "We want you to learn and we're here to teach you," you're not supposed to know everything. People get jobs with B's and C's. I don't know, you growing up in your generation would probably understand it more better than me by seeing the effects of it.

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Yeah, I mean that's how I used to be. I'm still hard on myself with grades but not to the point anymore where if I get a C I'm upset about it. I accept it and think "Okay I'll do better next time."

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Yeah! It's you know like I've worked hard on that and I'm sad I got a C or a B but it's not, "Oh my god I'm a huge failure." You didn't fail you got a C. 

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I also feel like a lot of kids, and the same with me, I started out college with straight A's and I kind of just expected that every semester even though that's not going to always be a reality. So, I kind of put this pressure on myself to be perfect. My parents, friends, and boyfriend would always tell me I don't need to get straight A's and that my grades are good and that's what I need to remember. 

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Yes. So that really helps. You have people in your life reminding you because otherwise, we're just feeding off the people around us. I don't think it's your generation's fault, something just culturally shifted. When I went through school we were expected to do our best, but there wasn't this same pressure of perfection that I think your generation has really had to deal with. 

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I wonder if it kind of has something to do with social media. We're seeing everyone's lives and we want to be just like them. I'm sure a lot of people think "Oh, I'm sure they got good grades and a high GPA" when in reality some of them probably didn't even go to school to get to where they're at. 

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Yeah, just always being out there with this image. I think you're right.

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My next question is whether professionally or personally, do you believe or have you seen a rise in mental health issues in terms of the rise in gun violence in the United States?

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Here's my thing. Do I see it personally? Not really, but I have to believe they're linked. Where I see it personally is there are a lot of people with high anxiety and they see that on the news and then in our area, you're afraid to go to Downtown Chicago. It creates fear and anxiety and we certainly want to respect that these things are happening and how we take care of ourselves, but we also don't want to never leave our house. But, I have no doubt that gun violence is linked to mental health. 

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I don't think it always necessarily has to be some extreme psychopathic situation. I think it's possibly the stress and the pressure and comparing ourselves on social media and thinking, "I go to school and I don't fit in with any of these kids. Look how great their lives are, I see it all on social media and I don't measure up." I think that affects suicide rates and probably affects gun violence but I think there's so much more to it. 

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What I often wonder is if now we know more. What was happening say in my day around guns and death by guns, but it never made the news because there was half an hour of news every day. Now, in my day if someone had gone and shot up a school or supermarket, it would have made the news. 

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Yeah, I mean school shootings started with Columbine, at least the ones we know about and that was over 20 years ago. 

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Yeah, the first one that I remember was Sandy Hook. I remember being really young and hearing about it. The one that really affected me was the Aurora, Colorado Batman movie theater shooting. I still go into movie theaters kind of on edge because I was older and was able to process that one a lot more. Even if you've never been in a mass shooting, like you've never been a victim or haven't attended a college that's had one, you still have that underlying fear of "What if this happens here?" because of seeing it all over the news.

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Yes, well because it used to be we sent our kids to school or we went to school and we were safe. There may have been a mean kid who made fun of my shoes, but no one was going to shoot me. Now you kids go through lockdowns and active shooter drills, so that creates some anxiety. We had tornado drills twice a month or a fire drill, you guys go through active shooter drills which should not have to be a thing! 

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Yeah.

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So, I think that's increased anxiety for sure in young people and probably all people. I used to go to a movie and not think a thing about it. You hear all this and you still go to a grocery store or a movie, but now you think about it differently. So yes, I think it's increased our anxiety for sure. I think it would just be interesting to see mental health before the shooting of the shooters. But, do I think it's affected our culture's anxiety level? Absolutely. It's on the news all day long and it deserves to be. If a school's shot up we need to know that and we need to honor the people. It's just the images over and over and us absorbing those. You know, it's happened to schools, concerts, movies, and grocery stores. 

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It's sad. 

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It's so sad. It's always mindblowing to me that Columbine happened over 20 years ago. I think it was 22 years ago. And yet, nothing's really changed. Schools do active shooter drills now and might have metal detectors at the door but, nothing's changed around either how we help mental health or gun laws. I don't know what the answers are, but I know doing nothing won't change it. 

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I completely agree.

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And it's mindblowing to me how many schools since and nothing's changed.

Yeah.

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Now, I have two more questions. So, my next one is, studies show Seasonal Affective Disorder is high in college students due to their current stressors and the times changing in the year. Do you have any advice on how to handle the time changes for those who have been diagnosed, or undiagnosed, with SAD while also balancing the stress of school?

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I would imagine part of the reason it's higher is that college kids, and I was the same way as a college kid, is your sleep's terrible. Mine was too. I would study late at night, I'd go out, so I know that having a routine for your sleep is really hard to do at a college age because of the demands on you. I think we know this from toddlers through grandparents that adjusting to the time change is hard because we already have good sleep hygiene. You know, for example, I'm more relaxed and tired at 10 o'clock, I don't use any of my electronics after 9:30. I do something relaxing before I go to bed at 10 or 11, so I have this rhythm and routine. I remind myself that I have a pretty good sleep schedule and then continue that routine knowing that the first week of a time change is going to feel a little off. 

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I think sleep is a very big issue for college kids and mental health in general. You know, I think that sleep is terrible when you're in college and you guys are on your screens up until you fall asleep and there are all kinds of data about how the screen messes with sleep waves. So, I think it's a huge part and problem so if we don't sleep and we don't have that foundational thing that helps us manage our anxiety during the day, manage our stress. It's hard to do anything when we don't sleep. 

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So, I think that the answer is really hard for college kids to do because it's having this rhythm and routine to your sleep anyway. Again, when I was in college I didn't have good sleep either, so this isn't bashing anyone it's just hard to have that routine when you're in college. 

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Me neither, it's either 8 pm or 12 am. There's no in-between. 

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Right. My point exactly. 

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But yeah, you know maybe really getting outside and burning energy. When the time changes and we have less daylight, this weekend we'll begin to have more daylight with the time change, but even with the time change that causes a short window of daylight, it's important to try and get outside and see the sun even if it's behind some clouds. 

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I would also say to people to just say to themselves, "Okay we had a time change, it's going to be a rougher week, that's how it is." Rather than saying "Oh my gosh this is terrible," say "It sucks, it happens twice a year, and it's going to be a rough week. We can do it." More positive kind of talk. Does that make sense?

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Yes!

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Now, my last question is, what is some advice you can provide to college students struggling with mental health in general? No matter what sort of mental health issue it is. 

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I would really encourage them to talk to somebody like a therapist or a teacher. I also want to say a good friend, but I also believe college kids do great at talking to each other which is great but sometimes it's hard to not absorb each other's anxiety. So maybe also have a therapist or maybe even your aunt that you call once a week. But talk to somebody, don't keep it in. I just think that's number one. Talk to somebody, get your sleep, and exercise, we also know how we eat affects our mental health. Connecting with the right people for us is really important too. 

So, connections, eating right, sleeping, exercising, but also don't feel like you have to hide it. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Tell the trusted people like friends or adults you trust or hopefully a therapist, go to the counseling center at school. Do you think college kids are pretty good about reaching out these days? 

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I think they are. I've had a few friends confide in me about things that I never thought they would confide in me about. So I definitely think so especially because mental health is becoming wider known. Almost all of my professors basically said we can have a certain amount of mental health days if we need it. 

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Wonderful! I've heard of some high schools doing that now. 

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Yeah, and it won't count against them at all which is nice. 

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I think that's great.

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Yeah!

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Well, that was all my questions. I really appreciate you for taking the time to talk to me.

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My pleasure!