Taking a Break From Stress

by Adam Gellert

Life gets stressful. At work projects and different interactions throughout the day pile up and can lead to some serious mental fatigue and strain. This goes for students as well. In both high school and college, homework, class projects and studying for school added with possible issues outside of class such as work or family issues, can add up to a lot of mental strain for young people in today’s world.

One difference between working adults and students however, is the availability of time off to help deal with this mental strain. In most places of employment, a person has the ability to request time off, whereas students don’t have this ability. Normally if a student is feeling stressed and burned out, they would need to fake a reason to miss a day of class to avoid penalty. This can also be an issue in the workplace when a person either doesn’t have time off available or needs personal time on short notice.

With tragedies in the United States sparking a bigger focus on mental health, some states are making changes to try and address mental health for students. According to The New York Times, Oregon put a law into effect that gave students five mental health days in a three month period. In 2018, the definition of “valid excuses” to miss school was changed to include any illness, including mental as well as physical, in Utah.

Many teenagers supported the bill in Oregon. In an interview with Associated Press, one recent graduate stated that the bill was inspired by politically active students in Parkland, Florida. Another Oregon student, Derek Evans, approves of this bill due to his experiences with stress and anxiety in school.

“Dealing with anxiety throughout high school has always left me tired, exhausted up against some weeks, and the difference one day makes is honestly life-changing,” he said in an interview with Fox 12 Oregon.

Students here at Iowa Lakes deal with similar situations as well. Much like some students getting jobs while in school, many students at Iowa lakes also often have jobs. With these commitments on top of dealing with homework, studying, and other school activities, it’s fairly easy for the average student to get overwhelmed.

Sophomore Kelly Murphy is one of those students feeling the stress due to the necessity of working while in school.

“I’m currently in the middle of helping open two stores, and I basically have to because my debt is piling up so I have to pay while I’m in school,” Murphy said.

Iowa Lakes currently doesn’t have any policy to allow for a set amount of days off for mental health. However, while attendance policies may differ from class to class, the school doesn’t have a universal attendance policy, allowing for some leeway. This leeway could also lead into a source of stress however, according to executive dean of students Julie Williams.

“Iowa Lakes does not have a mandatory class attendance policy so students can choose to take a day off,” Williams said. “However, attendance is the #1 predictor of success for students in college, so our hope is that students needing time and assistance with mental health concerns will access services through our Educational Counseling department and continue to attend classes.”

Allowing students to take days off without penalty in class may just be a case of treating the symptoms instead of the cause, and may lead to abuse and further stress, Williams says.

“Generally, mental health days feel like an excuse to avoid dealing with the real issue,” Williams said. “Learning a healthy way to deal with stress would be more beneficial in the long run, and is more realistic for the career or work environment.”

This statement is supported by a study ran by the British government in 2017, which stated that 70% of employers didn’t think that anxiety, stress, and depression were reasonable excuses to miss work, according to verywellmind.com.

Williams recognizes that students deal with stress all the time, and may miss classes as a result. The cause in her experience however, is sometimes self-inflicted.

“My experience dealing with students and stress is that overly stressed students usually have made poor time management decisions, or poor social decisions,” Williams said. “An example would be deciding to binge watch a streaming service instead of doing homework or preparing for a test. Another common example is a student working too many hours at a job, then neglecting their college responsibilities. Now, too often, students compound the stress by deciding ‘since my homework isn’t done and I don’t want to feel embarrassed’, I’ll skip class. This decision increases the sense of being overwhelmed and stressed, so the stress is, in a sense, self-inflicted.”

Instead of allowing students to miss more class for whatever reasons, Williams believes in other methods of dealing with stress for students. Iowa Lakes has had activities in the past through the library and TRIO.

“The libraries and TRIO-SSS offer de-stressing activities such as a therapy dog, adult coloring pages, puzzles, and play-dough for students throughout finals week,” Williams said. “On one day at the Estherville and Emmetsburg campus, we offered the therapy dog owned by Champion State of Mind founder Amanda Olson. The libraries plan to offer similar services during the fall and spring semesters, Amanda Olson has tentatively agreed to participate as well. Our educational counseling staff offer confidential personal, career and educational counseling assistance. I hope students would utilize our campus counselors and utilize the resources provided.”

While these programs are helpful to students, there are still some who believe in having days away from class to help de-stress. Kelly Murphy still believes days off are more beneficial versus programs at the school, which sometimes aren’t effectively advertised.

“I seriously feel stressed all the time, and I feel like the school just doesn’t care,” Murphy said. “Like, well that’s your problem since you decided to come to college. If I knew more about the programs and felt they were more acknowledged or shown then maybe I would like and appreciate them. I seriously think mental health days should be implemented into classes.”

If you are having any issues dealing with stress from work, school, or just life in general, there are numerous local resources (listed below) to get help. If you need help, please reach out, don’t let any negative social stigma keep you from getting the help you need.

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES NORTHWEST IOWA COUNSELING ASSOCIATES northwestiowacounseling.com 20 West 4th Street Spencer, IA 51301 Phone: 712-262-6111

SEASON’S CENTER FOR BEHAVIORAL HEALTH seasonscenter.org Phone: (800) 242-5101 (All Locations) 201 E 11th Street, Spencer, IA 51301 ESTHERVILLE OFFICE: 826 N 8th St, Estherville, IA 51334 *located within Avera Holy Family Hospital EMMETSBURG OFFICE: 3201 1st St, Emmetsburg, IA 50536 *located within Palo Alto County Hospital SPIRIT LAKE OFFICE: 1401 Hill Avenue, Spirit Lake, IA 51360 G

GRIEF SUPPORT SERVICES GRIEF’S JOURNEY-OMAHA, NE griefsjourney.org 7811 Farnam Drive Omaha, NE 68114 Phone: 402-502-2773 Email: info@griefsjourney.org

GRIEF SUPPORT GROUP-STACIE INMAN Avera@Home Hospice, Estherville, IA Phone: 712-362-6169 Four-week program in September and April GRIEF SUPPORT GROUP Kindred Hospice, Spirit Lake, IA Circle of Care – Diane Sparks 712-336-2941 WARNER FUNERAL HOME 225 W. 3rd St., Spencer, IA 51301 Phone: 712-262-3640 Meets weekly for six weeks in the spring and fall. Contact Diane for more information.