Breaking the Stigma

Members of the U-Belong Student Campaign team write about the link between low mood and loneliness … and how you can break the cycle. 

- Anonymous

We hear of low social battery, low energy, and how common mental health challenges are, but sometimes it is too normalised … to the point where we ‘normalise’ it in unhealthy ways. At times, this can lead us to avoid engaging with information that help us understand how we are feeling and things we can do to feel better. Learning to manage emotions and behaviours linked with the challenges and circumstances of university can drastically change your mindset and quality of life.  

Winter Blues

Different factors can affect low mood. For example, seasonal depression affects 1 in 3 people every year in the UK. The start of the academic year often coincides with darker, colder, and wetter days. Living with these cold weather conditions, we are more likely to be trapped within our emotions at home and have feelings of exhaustion, drainage and tiredness; sometimes for no reason at all. This can also contribute to feelings of loneliness and not feeling a part of a community because of feeling stuck in your own mind. Talking with a loved one, social support, and gradual exposure to social situations can help break this cycle and combat loneliness caused by these feelings.   

Managing Stress

We often have cycles and days we’re not ‘feeling it’ as a lot of people like to express it - meaning ‘I’m not in the mood and I’m too stressed out to even focus on one thing.’ And that’s okay. Find out what works for you. This might be creating a list of 2 things you want to get done by the end of the week. This can feel easier than setting yourself lists of tasks per day to complete. The trick here is to create a less overwhelming mind.   

 

Focus on the Positives 

Building happiness around and within us can help us feel better about the negatives in our lives. Writing can help to empty our minds. And remember, we are our biggest critics. You may be good at a specific recipe and being a good friend, but we tend to outweigh our strengths with the negatives - not being good at another recipe. It is not that it’s a negative, it’s a challenge yet to be overcome. And sometimes we don’t need to overcome it. We’re only human and as adults it’s important to constantly go through very slow and then very fast stages of life.  

This blog was written as part of the U-Belong campaign to combat loneliness and isolation at university. To find out more, visit their website. You can also find support at Student Space.

Written anonymously for UBelong and the Student Minds Blog.