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Every single minute of every single day I feel like I’m walking around with a massive jug of scalding hot water balanced on my head. I’m afraid to spill a little tiny bit of that water because the whole jug will start to fall and burn the people around me.
The quick answer: It depends. It depends on the struggle. The enormity of this question paired with the spectrum of mental health issues, possibilities and struggles, makes this answer near impossible to tackle in a mere 1,000 words. My experiences as an A Place to Talk (APTT) trainer, QPR-certified member, Sexual Assault Resource Unit (SARU) hotline respondent, psychology major and hospice volunteer will hopefully prove useful, though. I am going to break all the rules here and give advice (which is usually the worst thing you can do in supporting someone struggling with mental health).
Ask anyone who knows me well and they’ll tell you that I love to talk, even to people I’ve just met. But I wasn’t always like this. Up until about my first year of high school, I was shy and stayed quiet around people who I didn’t know well enough.
Forgiveness is a complicated thing. It is touted as the one path to inner peace. Bitter people are never happy; angry people are never at peace. Accepting this was hard for me, because I am angry, and I am bitter, and I don’t think I want to let go of that. I think my anger is what drives me, and some may say that is no way to live your life, but I think it has been the only way to live mine.
I usually don’t like to tell people I’m dating about my struggles with mental health for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s something that I’ve learned to cope with mostly on my own. With obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention-deficit Disorder (ADD), difficulties mostly pop up on a brief, day-to-day basis, and I’ve adapted to handling small anxiety flare-ups and focus issues without too much help (though there is no downplaying the amount of help from family and friends I needed in order to get to this place of daily comfort with my disorders).
The question of what causes mental illnesses and disorders has been debated by doctors, researchers and psychologists for decades.
Ancient civilizations thought mental health disorders were the work of the gods — piss one of them off? Here’s a mental illness. Today scientists understand these disorders much better, and the Mood Disorders Center at Hopkins is continuing to bring more knowledge to the table.
As students at Hopkins, we are all residents of Baltimore City. It is easy to forget this when we talk about mental health at Hopkins, an indisputably academically stressful environment, yet a privileged population. In some neighborhoods in Baltimore, mental health stems from deep-rooted issues of segregation, poverty and socioeconomic disparities.
Sometimes it helps to set everything down and stare into space for a few minutes. If I’m at home, I like to open the window, sit on my bed and focus on something aesthetically pleasing in my room, like my succulent, Luna. I’d listen to something instrumental to slow down my heart rate and breathing: Studio Ghibli soundtracks, Hilary Hahn’s Bach recordings, Schumann and the “Peaceful Piano” playlist on Spotify are always helpful. Afterward, I always feel more grounded, alert and focused.
People often say that love makes you do crazy things. During the winter break of my freshman year — still sad about the end of my first high school relationship — those crazy things included watching clips of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on loop, crying in bed for hours and rereading old messages late at night. Needless to say, I was not the most fun person to be around.
In high school, I was an arts kid. Theater, orchestra, choir — you name it, I did it. I also took classes in poetry and did a lot of that. To me, journalism seemed like another creative outlet that I hadn’t explored yet, and like any eager college freshman, I was itching to join new clubs the second I stepped foot on campus.
There are over 400 student groups at Hopkins, many of which will be at the Student Involvement Fair on Sept. 7. We’ve highlighted a small selection here.
As a new member of the Blue Jay nest, it is important for you and your new friends to spread your wings and fly beyond Homewood Campus.
You’ve no doubt noticed the interconnected buildings behind the Beach, one older and shorter, the other newer and sleek. They’re empty now but they won’t be for long. These are MSE and Brody. If you’re a typical Hopkins student, they’ll become your second home.
Roommates. A quintessential part of the College Experience™. Who your roommate is can have a big impact on the rest of your life — I mean you are living with this person for a year in pretty tight quarters. So if you don’t want to end up hating the person you’re living with two months into the semester, keep reading for roommate do’s and don’t’s.
Among the go-to questions that you’re bound to be asked, not only as a freshman but throughout your years at Hopkins, are the ever-daunting “What’s your major?” or “What are you interested in?”
Julia Pacitti, Senior
When I’m in Baltimore, I say I’m from Texas. When I’m not in Baltimore, I say I’m from Baltimore. Texas is a good place to be from, not a good place to be.