Rebuilding The Psych of Justice Seymour

By: Justice Seymour

Stress, anxiety, depression, what more can (or should) a college kid ask for? In the days of facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat, etc, we, as a society, are the most connected we have ever been. Problem is, we are also the most isolated. Never feeling like we need to leave our rooms or actually have to go out and do things. That’s all well and good, that’s just how today is. But, with stress, anxiety, or depression, college folks, especially, need to unwind. Why do you think they party so much? Did you think we were just young folks given too much freedom and too low self control? (You’re not wrong.) No! It’s because shit’s hard. Take away partying. Take away drugs. Take away alcohol. How on Earth does one cure the mind without mind altering substances? This is how I (try) to do it.

SEPARATE TRUTH FROM CONJECTURE

S.A.D. (Stress, Anxiety, and Depression) is powered by your mind’s ability to think, and then over think, and eventually snowballs into a far bigger problem than it actually is. What I try to do is separate the things I’ve built up in my head from the things I actually KNOW. Things that nobody could deny. Things that are true. Never saddle your worries on things you don’t know. If you don’t know something, find out. If you can’t find out right away, don’t think about it.

BABY STEPS

If you know me or read my very profane article “Stressed Out With Me” (Can be found on Facebook! Check it out!) then you already know about this. What I try to do is take all my tasks and chop them up into small little pieces. Then I focus on trying to do those things. Need to take a shower after you wake up? How about you get out of bed, walk over to the dresser or closet, find a shirt, find pants, go to the bathroom, get into the shower, turn the knobs, find the right temp, etc. It keeps my mind on focusing on what I’m doing, what I need to do, in that moment. It keeps your mind from wondering. Probably helps with schoolwork as well.

TALK TO SOMEONE (you nerd)

I know. It’s cliche. It sounds like the purest form of bullshit. But like I said earlier, we are the most and least connected of all time. Building interpersonal relationships, having people to confide in, actually knowing that at least one person on this planet is listening to you and cares about you. I speak from experience, it’s better than typing something up and posting it on the internet in the hopes that you get however many likes or shares or anything that somehow validates the things you did or felt at a certain moment in time. So yeah, the writer is telling you to stop writing and start saying. Embrace your problems so that you can better understand them, and you can beat them. You got this, you’ve always had this, you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.