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Students are feeling the crunch

At Cal State Long Beach’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), the volume of students seeking counseling has been increasing as finals week approaches — a time when many students feel stressed and may be developing unhealthy habits — according to campus counseling officials.

“Around finals and midterms we typically have a lot more people calling in,” said Carolyn O’Keefe, a CAPS psychologist.

Recently, CAPS has seen a spike in students seeking counseling, scheduling approximately 45 student appointments each week.

“There’s a wide range of issues: relationship difficulties (in or out), girlfriend-boyfriend issues, academic concerns, family issues, mental-health concerns, eating disorders and alcohol abuse,” said Brad Compliment, the director of CAPS.

For students, O’Keefe suggests, balance is the key. Their focus should be distributed between school and social networks. An imbalance between these can lead to feelings of isolation or stress.

“We look at social network as a support system,” O’Keefe said.

Students like Gladys Llamas, a junior psychology major, say they sometimes feel torn having to choose between their academic and social lives.

“It’s a hard decision sometimes,” she said. “Do you want to do homework? Or do you want to relax?”

On the other hand, some students may neglect their social lives to focus on family, school and work.

Yolonda Perez, a junior criminal justice major, said dividing her time between taking care of her 4-year-old son and working alone is quite difficult.

“I’m stressed, I will say, 100 percent of the time, with schoolwork, with my work, with bills, with my son,” she said.

CSULB’s commuter-campus status also may intensify alienation, Compliment said.

“Most of the time I would feel isolated because I’m never really on campus, other than [for] my classes,” Perez said.

Binge drinking is also an issue among university campuses.

Prospective college students may come to college with the perception that it is a place where everyone drinks, according to Ralph Davis, coordinator of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs (ATOD) program at CSULB.

“Students are sometimes on their own for the first time, away from their families, making their own decisions for the first times. And you do have the influence of peers –sometimes that can encourage them to drink more,” he said.

Llamas said she believes students sometimes choose which schools to attend based on their party-school reputations.

“You go to school to get focused, but you party to relax. It’s like partying is relaxing and school is stressful. But a lot of people go to school just to party,” Llamas said. “It’s kind of ridiculous to say, but that’s the truth. And that’s because society has placed that. When you’re a college student, you drink. It’s because you’re stressed out.”

Students are often told in ATOD that it is OK to not drink. Davis said he tells students to stop and think about what makes alcohol-related experiences enjoyable.

If students do decide to drink, he said, he encourages them to keep it fun but safe by setting limits.

David said some students believe alcohol will help with their problems but that, in the long run, this will most likely only compound existing problems. Students drinking because of their problems are only distracting themselves instead of finding solutions.

Perez, instead of relying on alcohol, tries to shed off stress at the gym.

“Once in a while I have a drink — I don’t think it hurts anyone,” she said. “It all depends on how many drinks you have, and in reality, depends on the person. But me personally? No, I don’t really drink.”

According to O’Keefe, eating disorders also arise as a result of stress.

“When you’re busy and you start getting stressed, you probably might eat more fast food; you skip meals and you find yourself making poor choices; or you snack when you’re stressed,” O’Keefe said. “So it’s important to keep in mind that you need to pay attention to your nutrition.”

CAPS and ATOD stress that they are available if students are concerned about their health in stressful times.

“Often times people think you have to be mentally-ill to talk to us. That’s the furthest from the truth. Anybody can benefit from talking to somebody,” Compliment said.

To contact CAPS, call 562 985-4001. To contact ATOD, located in the Student Health Services building on CSULB campus, call 562 985-2520.

To know more about this story contact [email protected].

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