Mental Health during a Pandemic

On October 15, Eunice Lehmacher joined us for our weekly Wednesday night meal. As we finished up dinner, she began a discussion related to coping with stress, anxiety, and depression during the pandemic. From her years of experience in mental health counseling, Eunice shared with us three concepts that are helpful when approaching mental health: antennas, warning lights, and superpowers! 

Right now, many of us have our “antennas” fully extended, and we seem to pick up on everyone else’s stress and emotions. Eunice reminded us that it’s an important part of self-care to retract our antennas and focus on our own feelings. During times where we may be dealing with negative emotions or qualities, it can be hard to see the positive parts of ourselves revealed in weakness. But the truth is that we all have superpowers! For example, someone who struggles with perfectionism could choose to view this as being gifted with attention to detail. Finally, we talked about how our bodies are a lot like cars. Before we break down, we have plenty of warning lights; we just have to learn to recognize and address them. ​

Everyone in the group had an experience to share or a contribution to make to the discussion. College students often struggle with their mental health, so discussions like these are helpful in keeping our spirits up through difficult circumstances.