Blog Archive

Emotional Health at University

Posted by HIM on Tuesday November 22nd, 2011

I had the dubious luxury of living at home through the early years of my undergraduate. While it grounded me to some degree and eased some of the financial burden, it didn't insulate me from the stress of taking 6 or 7 courses a term. It was a heavy load which often had me working on projects until I knew that if I didn't leave soon, I wouldn't make the last bus home. I did make it home every now and again while my parents were awake, but they knew the last thing I'd want to talk about was how school was going. The problem was, there were times when this limited discussion to the amount of rain we were getting and other weather phenomena.
I always thought my friends were lucky living in residence, especially the gay ones. For the first time in their lives they had the freedom to live out their big gay life, without the scrutiny or the rules of their parents. However they too were not immune to the effects of stress.
It's a fairly familiar tale for university students these days. Unfortunately, less familiar are the tales of these students speaking about the real implications of their 3 hours of sleep a night. When you compound this with loss of resilience factors like familiar surroundings and support systems or the inherent minority stress of being gay; the promise of the ivory tower becomes increasingly bleak. This was the situation explored by Macleans in a recent article on mental health and stigma at universities.
Towards the end of the article the author lists "signs of concern" including things like feelings of hopelessness, neglect of personal care, or regular crying - although I would have regularly cried too if someone questioned my neglect of personal care. If you are depressed or suspect someone you care about is, many universities have emotional support programs. Additionally HIM offers Counselling and Peer Support specifically for gay guys who are struggling with some aspect of their lives. By offering these programs explicitly to gay guys, HIM hopes that these guys will be more willing to speak about their emotional well being so that they can get the most out of not only their post-secondary education, but also the rest of their lives.

Written by Keith R.