It happens every semester. Students procrastinate, finals arrive, stress permeates the campus and Creighton’s Counseling and Psychological Services go unused. At a time when more students suffer from stress, anxiety and depression, the counseling center sees a decrease in the number of students asking for counseling.
The increase comes after students receive lower grades than they anticipated, said Dr. Michael Kelley, director of Counseling and Psychological Services.
This year will likely be the same, but taking some precautionary steps may help students prevent undue stress during finals week.
“Live a balanced life,” Kelley said. “Structure your day a bit. You have to spend either all morning, afternoon, or evening studying.”
The biggest cause of test anxiety is poor preparation, Kelley added, and most successful students avoid cramming by studying three to four hours each day outside of classes.
“I study about four hours a day. I usually feel prepared for my tests and don’t stress out too much,” said Arts & Sciences freshman Maren Hankey. “Midterms didn’t really faze me. I don’t think finals will too much either.”
The main cause of stress in a student’s life is actually his or her lifestyle, Kelley said. “If they got an extra hour of sleep at night, they’d be amazed,” Kelley said, adding that students experience less stress when they get sleep, exercise five times a week and eat healthy meals.
“I always freak out about tests and can’t sleep the night before, which is bad because then I’m tired during the test,” said Arts & Sciences freshman Kelsey Dawson. “I always feel like I haven’t studied enough and there’s going to be something on there that I won’t know, but I usually do pretty okay,”
Maintaining relationships by spending time with friends and talking with family on the phone is another important way to stay stress free, Kelley said. “If we don’t connect with those people we feel strange and lost.”
Students have witnessed these effects in their lives.
“Strained relationships with those closest to me tend to distract me a bit, and then I don’t study as well as I usually do,” Hankey said.
When good study habits and a balanced lifestyle don’t alleviate stress, Kelley said, that’s the time to schedule an appointment with Counseling and Psychological Services.
Counseling sessions last about 50 minutes, and students can schedule additional appointments as they need them. Last year, Counseling and Psychological Services saw 625 students for individual meetings, and they had about 3,400 appointments total. The most common complaints are anxiety and depression signified by sadness and a loss of motivation, Kelley said.
The services offered at the counseling center are free for students, and they can help with a variety of issues.
“You don’t have to be very distressed to use our service,” Kelley said. “We see ourselves as a help when you need a sensible adult perspective to sort things out. You articulate the problem, think about it and go about life again.”
Counseling and Psychological Services are open Mondays and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Tuesdays through Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Group sessions that focus on specific issues like body image, depression and grief are also available.
“We try to create an atmosphere where people can see what the truth is and develop a sensible way of handling that truth and see how they feel about that,” Kelley said.