Clarissa Green: Hi! My name is Dr. Clarissa Green and I am a
psychologist that works at the Moorpark College
Student Health Center. Today I'm going to be talking
you through a few strategies to survive finals
during this really unsettling time that we've all
been facing. I know you're at a lot of your
professors have asked me to record a little
something to help guide you through this time. And
I am going to be starting today by discussing some of
the mental health concerns that we've been
seeing from students during this global pandemic.
I'm going to cover some some tips for surviving finals
while we're facing social distancing. I know it
sounds like they'll slowly be easing restrictions
but it looks like until finals are over we still
will be committed to social distancing. And I'll
end today with when and where to seek help. So to
begin reviewing some of the mental health concerns
that either I've been reading about or that I've
heard from students or that I've been experiencing
so you may notice that some of these concerns
you've been experiencing as well and others you
may not. But just going to review some of
these themes with you. So this has been a big one.
Reduced motivation and feeling less
motivated is actually been largely impacted by
this pandemic. We aren't around our friends,
fellow students, co-workers... We're really in a state of
exploration. It really is hard to stay motivated
with your school work. So you may have noticed
that all the days are kind of blending together and
you feel less motivated when it comes to school
and your academics. So that is something I've been
hearing a lot about. As well as feelings of
loneliness. It's been really hard not being able to
see friends or just even be around people at a
coffee shop or seeing people walk around campus.
It's really this sense of isolation. In addition to
this isolation increased anxiety has also been a
major trend right now.
This idea that you had to face this big shift to
online classes some of you may have really liked--
and some of you less so. But there's this global panic
that's been going on. All these events are
canceled. You're at home with family. And I know for
some individuals like hanging out with family has
been a good thing; with others not so much. And so
that's been really stressful. And also you know
there are many people that have lost jobs. Their
parents have lost jobs and facing economic
struggles. So all of this contributes to our
frequent worries that we may be experiencing an
increased level anxiety. So it's something if
you're experiencing these things this is
something that's been felt by a lot of others
during this time.
In addition I feel like this goes hand-in-hand
with the motivation problems as problems
concentrating. A lot of people don't know that
problems concentrating are core symptoms of
anxiety and depression. This doesn't mean if you're
having problems concentrating that you have anxiety or
depression but it does mean that you're having a
shift in mood. And during this pandemic so many
students have been talking about having
difficulties concentrating, feeling engaged, not
being able to ask questions in class or turn to a
classmate for support. And it's really just been
hard to attend to your work even though you're
wanting to get stuff done. So again something that
we've been seeing.
This meme cracked me up. But yes I'm hearing a lot
about a lack of privacy that students are facing
and not just students but families more broadly as
everyone used to have a lot more private time,
alone time. And now it's like family is always
around. Families may be violating boundaries and
just walking straight through the door into your
room. And it's really hard to kind of set some
time to work on your studies or even complete your
finals during this time.
And last, I wanted to spend some time talking
about this idea of grief during this global
pandemic that we've been facing is a lot of us
have been mourning the lives that we used to have.
Whether it's spending time with friends or hiking
on a trail that's now currently closed,
an internship that we want to have and we can't have it.
If we wanted to walk during graduation that's
no longer possible. There's all these big life events
that we can't participate in. Weddings being put on
hold. And it's been a grieving process. And I know
grief is something that we usually use that term
when we're discussing someone who's died in our
lives and grieving them. But we can also
grieve important experiences that are no longer
there for us. Somebody knows that you've you've
kind of been a little sad about all these big
changes. Again that is completely normal and a
hard thing that a lot of people have been
experiencing. Also this this idea of grief is
very different if you have lost someone during
this semester. A lot of people have suffered loss
of a grandparent or someone else during this time
that's a loved one. And what's strange about this
time of grieving someone that you love is that
people can't congregate for funerals. And that's a
big part of the healing process and a big part of
closure, being able to celebrate this person's
memories even being able to get support from
others that are there. The ceremony is a
big part of the grieving process. So some people
have been delaying funerals. Others have been
conducting them virtually and finding a sense of
closure through that. But there has been a lot of
grief lately during this really hard time. So we
are going through all these hard things. We are
dealing with all this frustration that we're
feeling about these things. We're bummed out about
these things, stressed about these things. And so I
wanted to walk you through eight tips to help you
get through finals because you are almost there!
Which is very exciting. So the first one. This is
something that you may have heard over and over
again by your professors or popular media is that
I can't stress enough how important it is to
create a daily schedule. At first, our
schedules were really created for us by our events
that we had scheduled. So now we have to kind of
bring that structure to our lives and that will
help increase motivation. But I recommend when
you're creating a schedule to have three
categories of tasks. So goals that are related to
finals. Different chores around the house that may
be helpful for you, like cleaning your room, making your
bed. And self-care activities like going for a run,
like stretching, taking a shower. Things that help
to take care of you. And I'd really recommend as
your scheduling out your day with different
different goals related to finals
is use the chores and a self care activities as
breaks. You see a lot of students they kind of
don't choose to take breaks but they just get very
distracted and they just sit in front of their
laptop and end up scrolling on their phones. But I
recommend making these breaks meaningful to help
you feel better while you're you're trying to
either cram for exams or writing that final paper.
And I would say selecting a good workspace can
make all the difference too.
I know that I'm very guilty of having my workplace
get a little crazy and messy but it can be a world
of difference if you keep your place clean and
organized. It doesn't matter if you know the rest
of your room is crazy for wherever you're working
you need to be clean and organized to help you
feel a sense of calm. And yeah selecting
a location that makes you feel good. Whether it's by
a window, or it's on your bed...whatever feels
best for you.
And I recommend not doing the whole subject book
spread out thing. Really, take out one subject at
a time. This helps again to keep you focused on
what you're working on. But also not how you get
overly stressed with all the things that you need
to do. And a big one is keeping your phone on
silent.
Those vibrations keep us distracted. And actually
there's been research conducted that even having
your phone out on silent can reduce your ability
to concentrate and intent on the tasks that
you're performing. So it's even better if you can
turn it off or put it across the room so you're
not tempted, to keep it on silent. That's not
saying that you have to do that all day long, but
just while you're you're working on something to
to put that phone aside.
Tip number three is breaking up large assignments
into smaller assignments. Don't just say "Okay, today
I'm going to write a paper." That is way too
large of a goal to help you stay focused. So
breaking that down into larger goals. Write an
outline. Create references page. Find
references for paper. Write one page. You want to
break up that larger assignment into smaller more
manageable goals, and you want to take breaks.
These are key to help you maintain a sense of
concentration and focus and motivation. And offer yourself
small rewards when you've accomplished a goal. This
could be a run. This could be a treat that you
have saved. Like cookies. Just little things that
will make you feel excited once you accomplish
something. So that again it breaks up what can be
like a sense of monotony that can happen.
Tip number four (this is my favorite tip) is
enlisting support in getting through finals. An
example of this is have a friend study with you
virtually. In the beginning to me feel a little
weird to kind of be staring at each other while
you're working on face time. But it's a great
strategy. Just feel like you're not alone in your
both kind of working on your study goals together.
Also keep each other accountable by trading goals.
Could be with your classmates or friends or family
members just tell someone "Oh hey I'm trying to get
this done in this hour can we check in on each
other?" And so you'll kind-of feel more
accountable: "Oh I have to get this done so I can
text my friend that I've finished it."
And also setting fake progress deadlines with
one another can be a big part of that. So I highly
recommend for you to enlist some support in
tackling finals. Tip number five is to relax your
body. When we get stressed we tense our muscles.
We can even experience like an accelerated heart
rate, and stress is not good for concentration. So
taking time throughout the day to relax your body
through your favorite exercise stretching or
breathing exercise. We also have this great
mindfulness website from the Student Health Center
it's been built up with so many resources. And
also there's a lot of free apps to use that you
may already be using to experiment with different
types of relaxations like the Calm app, like
Headspace. There's a lot of different ones.
Liberate is a great app. So just check them out
and do some. I know a lot of them offer free
trials or limited access to the apps that are free.
So during finals if you haven't checked it out
already may be a great time to take a look.
Tip number 6. I know that this is one that's
really hard because there's such a temptation
during finals to restrict sleep and pull an all
nighter.
The recommended amount of sleep for college
students is 7 to 9 hours per night.
Even if you know if you restrict sleep slightly
during finals to get some things done that's
perfectly fine. But I'd really recommend against
participating in that all nighter because the lack of
sleep is associated with concentration problems
and a reduced working memory. This is hugely
problematic, especially when you're trying to take
a timed exam. I know that a lot of the exams have
been open book right now. But even with the open
book exams you have to find a lot of the content
quicker than you normally would. So it's really
important to get a little bit of sleep so that
your anxiety isn't out of control and you're able
to really focus on what's going on a little
bit during finals. And tip number seven is setting
boundaries. So to avoid having siblings or family
members or roommates interrupting study time, just
knock on their door and ask them for
uninterrupted study time. But what can be helpful
is not just leaving this open ended. It can be "'kay,
until noon, I'm going to be working on this
project. If you could just give me some time to
work quietly that would be amazing." I know it's
easier said than done to effectively set
boundaries with friends, family, and roommates but
sometimes having a conversation can be helpful.
If you are taking a final, so you're in progress
taking a final, make sure that you're in turning your
phone off, that you're closing your door. And I
recommend putting a sign on your door for family
like "Don't knock. Final in progress until 2 p.m."
Something that signals to people in your life that
you are busy. Making sure that you kind of log out
of any social media, so you're not tempted to do
that during your exam. Keep yourself fully focused
on that final.
And lastly, tip number eight is remind yourself
this is almost over. You all have less than two
weeks until the end of finals. And you can really
celebrate your success of being finished because
regardless of what you were able to complete this
semester you should feel very proud of what
has been an unprecedented time for all of us. And
so celebrate your your small successes during this
time.
And just a reminder some of these strategies
you think: "Oh my gosh it's not helpful for me at
all," and that's perfectly fine. Do what works for
you. So if there's something to take away from
this, go ahead and try it. If others don't seem so
relevant, that's fine.
If you are a little bit concerned about what
you've been feeling during this finals time there
are some ways to seek support either during the
finals, or if you want support after finals,
that's perfectly fine too. I get a lot of
questions about well when when do we seek help?
When is counseling good for me? Who is counseling
for?
I would say some broad guidelines are if you've
been feeling something, not been feeling good
about your stress for two weeks or longer, it's
usually a good time to seek some support.
Similarly, if your feelings are impacting your
social relationships like, you've been withdrawing a
lot from your school work, your family life, or your work
life. Of course when you're having thoughts of death
or suicide, it's extremely important for you to
seek help. And then lastly anytime you want us at
the health center. We want to support you for for
what you're going through: any small stressors,
large stressors during this time, because we want
you to be academically successful. Some support
options: therapy or counseling like we were
discussing is very helpful. I see feeling
comfortable with your therapist is really key. If
you feel uncomfortable with your therapist or they
don't feel like they're getting you I'd really
recommend making a switch. You have to feel
comfortable with your therapist for therapy to be
helpful and you should know that there're
different styles of therapy. Some are more
unstructured. Some are more structured, like cognitive
behavioral therapy. You kind of have to find the
right type for you. There's also medication that
can be prescribed by psychiatrist or your medical
doctor. You can make an appointment virtually with
your medical doctor if you want to have a
conversation. And a lot of psychiatrists are doing
telehealth. So if medication can be helpful
support.
And taking care of yourself like eating right.
Working out. A healthy lifestyle is really
important to support both of these options moving
forward.
As part of your student health fee on you are able
to get sessions at the Student Health Center. These sessions are free,
confidential, and don't go on your academic record.
Our services are very short term. If you're only
enrolled in classes for the spring semester we
likely only have time to see you one or two times.
left this semester, but if you're taking summer
school then you can get up to six sessions as part
of the student health fee that you've paid for. And
we're we're happy to support you. We see students
via Zoom, or phone appointments, and we use HIPAA
compliant software for our Zoom sessions. If you
are stressing financially if you're facing
homelessness or if you need a referral to local
food banks, contact financial aid they can be of
great support during this time with helping you
get connected. Because this has been a financially
very stressful period of time for a lot of
students and families. And they are here to
support you. And similarly the Samaritan Center
of Simi Valley. They also can direct you to a lot
of different resources like food banks and showers
and other types of support. So just wanted to give
you some of that information. If you're interested
in long term therapy or want some support from
your community, you can call your insurance and ask for
a list of mental health professionals. You can
call the Ventura County Behavioral Health Crisis
and Referral Line. They're available 24/7. So
that's something there for you. And the Cal Lutheran
Community Clinic offers low fee counseling as well.
So something to kind of think about as far as
resources in the community. If you're having an
emergency or your friend's having an emergency
you can call the National Suicide Prevention
Hotline, both for you if you need immediate
support. But let's say your friend is having
suicidal thoughts. You can call this line at any
time to ask for advice like how to how to handle
the situation and they'll walk you through it. And
then I also listed the crisis text line. You can
text the word "courage" to 7 4 1 7 4 1, and it's
available 24/7. What's beautiful about this
service is if your family members are in the home
and you're worried about somebody overhearing you
you can have a completely confidential
conversation with a trained support staff to give
you some recommendations about how to proceed.
And also if you're having thoughts of suicide you can
go to the emergency room. They're really prepared
to help in these mental health emergency
situations. So there's a lot of different supports
for you with if you're having those types of
thoughts as well as coming to the health center.
But these are really the place to go for emergency
services.
Thank you all for... I guess not having me, but
hearing me. I wish you the best during this finals
period of time. Us therapists at the health center
have created an Instagram, @findingcalmish so you
can go ahead and follow us there for continued
tips that are being posted by our post-doctoral
fellows on our team. I wish you all the best again
and take care.