Ali Luciani, arts & living editor and Ava Mumaw, asst. arts & living editor

September is Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Awareness Month, bringing attention to the mental health challenges college students face and the resources available to support them. At Berry College, administrators and counselors emphasize the importance of recognizing warning signs, supporting peers and knowing when to seek help. College students may face a multitude of mental health challenges, and Berry students are no exception. Students have a plethora of professional resources that are available for their support.

Casey Dexter, vice president for student affairs, said anxiety and depression are the most common mental health concerns among college students.

“We certainly see kind of the full spectrum of mental health disorders [when] supporting students,” Dexter said. “In supporting students, whether that’s with things like OCD or more specific within the umbrella of anxiety disorders in terms of panic disorders, specific phobia, prevalence to anxiety           and depression.”

College can be a formative period for students as they navigate an increased level of independence, new relationships, academic responsibilities and living away from home.

“The college environment, living in a residential community, navigating new personal relationships, roommate relationships, and power dynamics with faculty members and LifeWorks supervisors, they’re all kind of smashing together at the same time which makes it a really formative period,” Dexter said. “If [someone’s] going to have mental health challenges, they are likely to appear during this  influential period.”

Gabrielle Roes (18C), ministry director and mental health counselor in the Chaplain’s Office and Berry alumna, said how the most meaningful part of her current role at Berry is how she is able to encourage students going through a tough time, instill hope in those who may view things as hopeless, and to give students the strength to achieve things they did not believe they  could achieve.

As a Berry College alumna, Roes understands how students may have work academics, extracurriculars and scholarship requirements that may increase the stress on a student.

Dysfunctional stress can also impact how students take care of themselves.

“Stress is adaptive,” Dexter said. “When it is no longer adaptive that’s where you’ve got to assess: is it leading to dysfunction in your life in that where you’re not able to show up for the relationships in the way that you need to.”

Whitney Gates, assistant director of counseling, highlights the importance of self care during this period and its influence on a student’s mental health.

Key factors include quality of sleep, nutrition and hydration. According to Gates, not enough sleep and low blood sugar that goes through large spikes throughout the day ­— which can happen when skipping meals — makes it a lot harder for a person to regulate their emotions.

Gates said movement can produce natural chemicals that help in regulating stress, all which leave a positive impact on mental health.

“Movement helps [release] endorphins,” Gates said. “It also helps with neurotransmitters like dopamine, morphine, phenylephrine, serotonin, all those types of things.”

Gates said proper hydration is another major influence on mental health.

 “When you are dehydrated, you start to lose cognitive ability,” Gates said. “[You’re] dehydrated the moment that you feel thirsty.”

Gates said mental health awareness is important because many students may struggle without openly discussing what they are experiencing.

One reason for this can be the stigma surrounding mental health can makes difficult for students to reach out for help.

“There are a lot of stigmas, and we’ve come a long way, but it’s still sometimes embarrassing or hard to talk about,” Gates said. “So, when we feel embarrassed, or we feel shame, that’s when we don’t reach out for help and that can lead to something as severe as suicide instead of getting  any treatment.”

Recognizing when a friend may be struggling is another part of mental health awareness.

Roes said students should pay attention to major changes in a person’s behavior, habits and involvement in activities they once enjoyed

“I say it’s sort of like a warning,” Roes said. “If all of a sudden they are not as engaged with things that they used to really love doing, all of a sudden their hygiene changes, their sleep really changes, their eating really changes, their weight changes, it’s just like any sort of dramatic shift.”

Roes said one sign alone does not necessarily mean that a person is experiencing a mental health crisis. If a friend is exhibiting many of these symptoms, students should reach out and ask if they’re doing okay.

“It’s the combination of things that kind of maybe communicate something might be going on,” Roes said. “If you [see] a multitude of things that’s when you need to ask the question.”

Gates said students can learn how to respond to these situations through Question, Persuade, Answer (QPR), a suicide prevention training offered on campus. The training teaches participants how to recognize warning signs, ask questions and connect individuals with appropriate resources.

“QPR stands for question, persuade answer,” Gates said. “It is our suicide prevention programming that we do on this campus, it’s actually one of the biggest prevention campaigns nationwide.”

Gates said the training is provided to students, faculty, staff, groups of resident assistants and student-athlete leaders.

“It’s like a bystander intervention,” Gates said. “I teach QPR to students, and then I do it with faculty and staff. Some of the student groups can be some of the psychology classes, nursing students, the RA’s and a lot of the student-athlete leaders have to go through it.”

Roes said students do not need to have the perfect script when approaching a friend who may be struggling. Instead, they can begin by asking questions, listening and helping the person connect with support.

“It’s a very human interaction, so I think it’s hard to have a perfect script,” Roes said. “Asking questions is the best thing. Get a sense of what are they thinking about, what are they feeling. I think we have a lot of intuition as human beings, so if you get a sense that this person is really struggling help them get support, especially if they’re contemplating dying.”

Similar to how one would contact 911 during a medical emergency, students can call or text  988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, if they are experiencing a mental health crisis. Roes said students can also offer to accompany a friend to the Counseling Center or help them connect with other resources, depending on the situation.

In terms of day to day management, students may also find the practices of prayer and/or meditation to be beneficial for their mental health. More specifically, Roes notes how these actions can be grounding.

“I think it regulates your nervous system,” Roes said. “It connects you with something bigger than yourself and probably brings your head up.”

The Chaplain’s Office, including both the College Chaplain Reverend Jonathan Huggins and Roes, are available for pastoral counseling meetings. These meetings can be booked on the Berry College Office of the Chaplain website and offer a nonjudgemental, confidential space for students to be listened to and engage in prayer if they wish.

Students may feel alone in their struggles and scared of judgement, causing them to become hesitant to talk with others about the things they have been struggling with, or feeling as though they are placing a burden on another’s shoulders by reaching out.

 Yet, those who work in counseling at Berry are not only uniquely trained to listen to these struggles and to provide help, but are happy to do so.

“The hallmark of Berry, I think, is the community aspect of that and that is across the board,” Dexter said. “The reason that people are here and work here and the reason that students chose to be here, I think is for that community, whether it’s in the classroom, whether it’s in student hours, whether it’s in the residence halls, the dining hall, etc. People are here for that and and you know are eager for that and kind of hungry for that.”

If you or a loved one is currently facing difficulties regarding mental health, or is contemplating suicide, know that you are not alone and the staff here at Berry are ready to provide as much support as possible. You can schedule a counseling appointment by calling 706.236.2259 or going to the office located in the Ladd Center. Or, you can schedule a pastoral counseling session via the Chaplain’s Office website. In times of a mental health crisis, you can contact the 988 number via phone call or text message.