In March, the World Health Organization released a report showing that the incidence of anxiety and depression increased by 25% globally in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the regions with the worst mental health deterioration tend to have the worst outbreaks. Due to the high infection rate, people's social interactions are limited. The study showed that young people, especially those aged 20 to 24, are more psychologically affected than older people, and that this group is at disproportionate risk of suicide and self-harm.
A few days ago, several young people in closed campuses told Occasional Healing about their different degrees of anxiety. Among them, some are worried about the progress of research that has been delayed because they can't do experiments; some are in insomnia and have a lot of hair loss; some people are not interested in things they used to like.
Under the COVID-19 pandemic, what are the factors that have trapped young people in Chinese universities and colleges into psychological difficulties? Why do young people experience such high mental health risks? Now, what psychological support means can we learn from?
Occasionally, Cure invites a psychology professional who has worked in counseling centers at many Chinese and foreign universities for nearly a decade, cooperating with many universities in China, and has many years of research experience in psychological counseling. Finally, let's hear her opinion and suggestions.
Isolated for more than 50 days without bathing, the body has grown a lot of rashes
Oral archives
When: April 28, 2022
Name: Zhang Jixiang
Age: 20 years old
Status: Student of Changchun University
The outbreak in Jilin Province began in mid-March. On March 11, our school, like many colleges and universities in Jilin Province, was sealed, and students could only stay in their dormitories and could not leave their apartments.
In late March, students on the floor where our dormitories were located began to be transported away in batches. At that time, the teacher told us to bring our bedding, luggage and valuables, but did not tell us what was going on and where we were going.
I heard privately that it was because of a positive case on our floor that we, as close contacts, were going to quarantine at the Fang Cabin Hospital. We asked the teacher and the person in charge for verification, and the answer was that we had not received relevant news, so let us not panic.
But transshipment is indeed taking place. I was transferred to Changchun Xinglongshan Fanggang Hospital on March 24, and on the first day of xinglongshan Fanggang Hospital, I was not given a nucleic acid test. The next day, I began to have symptoms of fever and muscle soreness, but I didn't particularly care, thinking it was no big deal.
It wasn't until the fourth day that we did a unified nucleic acid test, and my result was positive. In this way, I was inexplicably infected with new crown pneumonia. Later, I thought that it was possible that the infection was during the closure of the dormitory, and after the incubation period, it eventually occurred in the square cabin hospital. Of course, this is only a speculation.
When I learned that I had tested positive for nucleic acid, I immediately reported the results. Then, a staff member asked me what the symptoms were, and I actually felt pretty much better at that time. Apart from no appetite, there was no discomfort in my body. So, the staff sent me Ban Lan Root and Lian Hua Qing Plague.
At Xinglongshan Fanggang Hospital, I did nearly 10 nucleic acids, the last few were "double collection and double test" nucleic acid testing, and the result was one yin and one yang.
Staff at a cabin hospital in Changchun on April 2, staff at sanitize
Image source: IC photo
After about two weeks at Xinglongshan Fanggang Hospital, on April 7, as a positive patient, I was transferred to another Fanggang Hospital, Karen Fanggang Hospital in Jiutai District, Changchun City. The Karen Square Cabin Hospital looks like a huge factory building, with beds and beds next to each other, and many people live together.
At Karen Cabin Hospital, there are new patients arriving every day. There are three meals a day and a bathroom, but it can only be simply washed, not bathed.
The discharge criteria at Karen Cabin Hospital are three consecutive nucleic acid tests negative. I've had it all at once. From April 8, nucleic acid tests were done for three consecutive days and the results were negative. By April 13, I was discharged from the hospital.
Before I was discharged from the hospital, I asked our counselor how to fill in the address we received back. The counselor asked me to fill out the school's eight apartments. This is not my original dormitory, and later I learned through the chat between my classmates that our original dormitory building has already lived in other students, and now there are still classmates who are isolated in the teaching building and live in the classroom. We don't know exactly how this was arranged.
In my original dormitory, there were many personal belongings that I did not have time to pack, because when I left the school to go to the cabin hospital, I did not tell us that there would be someone else in the dormitory. I don't know how these personal items are now and how they are disposed of.
After being discharged from the hospital, I was sent to eight apartments and moved into an eight-person dormitory. The other seven classmates were also students who turned from yang to yin. From April 13 to now, we have done antigen tests as required every day, and the test results are negative. During this period, we also did two nucleic acid tests, each time with an interval of seven days, and the results were also negative.
At present, we have already passed the medical isolation and observation period, and the health code is also a green code, but it is still sealed. Not only are we, the students who have turned from yang to yin, but other students who have not been infected have also been banned from the dormitory since the middle of March to the present.
Our student apartment, as well as the students who have been living here for more than forty days, are the first people to turn from yang to yin, and they have not been able to go out until now.
These days, every day, new classmates live in eight apartments. The information I learned was that the eight apartments were specially prepared for students who turned from yang to yin.
It is currently a mixed male and female dwelling. We were on the first floor, and there were girls living there. We were not allowed to leave the dormitory except to go to the public toilet on the floor. At present, we have received a notice from the teacher that the May Day holiday has been cancelled, and the mid-term examination week has also been cancelled, and they have been changed to online classes.
However, even if it is an online course, we also face many restrictions. First of all, the textbook was not carried with me, and secondly, when I was in the cabin hospital, the network was very bad, especially caton. After returning to school, the network is slightly better, but there are also some teachers who are very stuck in the network, which affects the effect of the class.
On April 30, Jilin Province resumed the operation of some passenger buses
Image source: IC Photo
Because I can only stay in the dormitory, I can't go to the bathhouse, some students have not bathed for more than 50 days, I have not taken a bath for 51 days since March 11, and there are many rashes on the body, which is very uncomfortable.
Moreover, when I originally left the school to go to the fang cabin hospital, because the notice was vague and unclear, and I did not expect to be isolated for such a long time, I did not bring a change of clothes, and this set of clothes on my body was worn for more than a month, and it had already hairballs. I still have a lot of necessities that I left in my original bedroom.
I am usually a fitness enthusiast, and after the school was closed, I have been exercising with my bare hands and doing push-ups and the like. But since being transferred to Karen Cabin Hospital, where there are so many positive patients, I don't dare to exercise, and I haven't exercised since then, and my heart is very itchy.
We have also reflected to the school these difficulties we are currently experiencing, and the answer is "stick to it" and "everyone is the same".
Recently, some colleges and universities in Jilin have advanced the time for summer vacation. I thought since we were taking classes online, could we also be like other colleges and universities and let us go home? Or when can it be unsealed? Because we have been isolated for such a long time, we can't bear it in our hearts. We asked the counselor, but the counselor said that he had not been notified at the moment.
I was a student from another province, my hometown was thousands of miles away, and my family was worried about me. From March 11 to now, for a total of more than fifty days, I have been in a state of isolation, after several twists and turns, from leaving the school to go to the cabin hospital, to confirming the new crown pneumonia, to transferring to another cabin hospital, and then returning to the student apartment from the yang to the yin, so tossed down, feeling physically and mentally exhausted. I thought that I would soon see the dawn of unsealing, but as a result, I still don't know when this kind of day of being sealed in the dormitory building will be a head.
My parents were also worried about me and asked me about the situation every day, but there was nothing they could do.
More than fifty days of isolation, no contact with the outside world, the disruption of normal life order, coupled with this sense of uncertainty about the future, made me feel anxious. I was originally a person who was easy to think about, and after getting the new crown pneumonia, I have always been worried about whether I will be discriminated against, excluded, and whether others will treat us normally. After turning to yin, I was also worried about whether I would regain my yang, so the quality of sleep was very poor, and I often couldn't sleep at night, and I lost my hair a lot.
After the building was closed, I was not interested in the things I liked before
Oral archives
When: April 29, 2022
Name: Luo Yu
Age: 23 years old
Status: Second-year student of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Our school was briefly closed in early March, and I remember doing two full-staff nucleic acids, both of which were negative and then unsealed. On the evening of March 12, the school was closed again, and it has been sealed until now.
Initially, it was still free to move around on campus, eating in the cafeteria and buying groceries at the small supermarket on campus. Internships and job searches are not approved for leaving the school, but if you are sick, you can go to the school for medical treatment.
On April 1, Puxi began to be sealed, and since that day, we have been sealed in the dormitory building. The policy of seeking medical treatment has also been adjusted. There is a doctor on duty in the school hospital, if you are sick, first contact the doctor to do a telephone consultation, if it is not serious, the other party will prescribe good medicine in the school hospital, send you to the dormitory building, if it is serious, you can open a false note to let you go out, but after going out, you can't get in, so it is generally not recommended to go out.
When the school began to close in mid-March, it was not allowed to call for takeaway, we basically went to the canteen to eat, the canteen will suggest that everyone pack, but also moved some seats, each table can only sit one person. After sealing the dormitory, they would send the box lunch, and we had the building manager and the floor chief, all of whom were students who signed up for volunteers, who collected and distributed them.
The dishes of the isolation meal are relatively single, such as there are always cabbages in a certain week, there are always dried beans in the next week, and it may be possible to enter those ingredients for a certain period of time, and can only be made with them all the time. Sometimes there are also problems in hygiene, and some students have eaten foreign bodies such as snails and insects. Breakfast is generally buns, soy milk, eggs, buns similar to the kind sold in convenience stores, is semi-finished products heated, everyone will be more assured.
Because there is no positive in our dormitory building, and there are bathrooms on each floor, we can currently go to the bath relatively freely. Some dormitories are only one relatively large bathroom in the whole building, and recently they are taking showers in shifts, and each dormitory is divided into different time periods, and each person has a time limit of half an hour.
At the beginning of the closure, students lined up for accounting
Image source: Courtesy of respondents
At first, I didn't expect it to be sealed for so long, thinking that it would be unblocked at the end of March and at the beginning of April at the latest. Before sealing, I bought 14 bottles of 1.5L and 2 bottles of 5L mineral water, I felt that I should not drink it all, and then I slowly found that it was not enough, I went to the hot water room to pick up boiling water, let it cool and drink again, so that the mineral water can be consumed more slowly.
I exchanged mineral water with other classmates for a little instant coffee. Before, I would drink a cup of coffee every day, and after the closure of the building, I was strictly controlled, because my own coffee was drunk very early, and it was all received by my roommate, and then my roommate's bottomed out.
The time I need coffee the most is when I have to get into work. I am a recent graduate, have entered the internship of the company I will be working for in the future, and am currently working remotely. Affected by the sealing, it is difficult for me to lift the spirit to do things, the work efficiency has been significantly reduced, and the things that could be done in the previous day may now take three or four days to complete. At this time, I really wanted to drink a cup of coffee, in fact, it was more of a psychological comfort, and I gave it some special sense of ceremony.
Coffee, milk, bread, etc., are not strictly a necessity, but for people who have been banned for a month or more, I think it is a very happy thing to be able to get a little.
For a long time, I saw a cake with a shelf life of 45 days as a thought of life. I bought it at the end of March, I had never bought this cake before and thought it wasn't tasty, but the shelves were almost empty that day and only it was left. It was the only decent sweet thing I had ever wanted to eat the day before unsealing. Then one night at a little later, I was so hungry that I couldn't eat anything else, so I ate it.
After the closure, I had a very obvious change – I was not interested in a lot of things. Before, I really liked watching movies and TV series, including some up-made videos, but now I feel bored and can't watch it at all. Reading books and listening to music, I can't calm down.
One of my own interpretations is that, like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, is it because some of the more basic physiological and safety needs have not been fully met, so these spiritual levels of pursuit will be more difficult?
The most important thing is the sense of security, our school had a positive in early April, although it is not very close to me, it is still a little disturbing. Everyone is very strange, march 12 on the school closed, it is reasonable to say that the school should be relatively safe, why is there still a positive?
Fortunately, it did not spread later, and the school has not been positive for many days. But looking at the overall situation in Shanghai, it is still difficult to feel safe enough, I will not only worry about the positive, but also worry about a series of problems such as transfer and return to school after the positive.
After the ban, the opportunity to communicate and communicate with people is greatly reduced, and some of the communication needs are transferred to the Internet, but there are many news that will make you angry and sad. It has a very big impact on my personal mood and now I would be very restrained and only look at it before going to bed at night.
During this time, I would have frequent nightmares, and I couldn't remember much about what I had, but I could clearly remember that when I got up in the morning, I was in a state of fear, and sometimes I felt that my heart was beating very fast. My roommate told me two days ago that I screamed the night before and woke them all up.
I think this anxiety and uneasiness is universal, and when we talk to roommates, we often sigh together.
At the beginning of the closure, some students spontaneously created an online document that began with the words "Here is a spiritual shelter", and the original intention of the establishment was to "reduce anxiety, share happiness, and record warmth during the closure period".
There are different sections of the documentation, some share the romance of Spring, and some recommend episodes, music, books, and so on. When you can also move around the campus, many people will take pictures of "Happy Today" and share it. For example, some people go to the lawn for a picnic and play cards, some people see a beautiful sunset while running, someone finds a magnolia flower blooming somewhere, someone meets two small butterflies on the way to pick up the courier... Under these pictures, people will also leave messages anonymously, sometimes for a long time.
I used to look at this document every day and I felt a little better. After the closure of the building, everyone uploaded fewer things, and there may be no material.
Quarantine meals for students
Image source: Courtesy of respondents
For more than a month, I have read some psychology books and open classes. Initially just out of curiosity, or to find something for yourself to do, but then found that my mood was not very good, and I tried to use what I learned to regulate.
For example, the first time I tried mindfulness therapy, I was anxious because I was very low in work efficiency, and then I watched some news, and I was more anxious, so I planned to watch some videos to relax, and I couldn't watch the video for less than 10 seconds. Later, I tried mindfulness therapy, and I was really in a calmer mood, and I was able to enter the state of work a little, but the efficiency was still very low.
Personally, it is useful for immediate anxiety and uneasiness, but being trapped in the dormitory building every day, these emotions are continuous, and this method is basically useless in the later stages.
In the middle of April, our school issued a notice, if you need to find someone to talk to, you can make an appointment with the teacher of the psychological center, the other party will build an anonymous Tencent meeting, not limited to psychological counseling, want to talk about some other can also be. I haven't tried it yet with the people around me.
I would go to the balcony every day to do some stretching and relax my body a little, and the air on the balcony was better. I would look out the window at the view, and now that the trees had grown very lush and the flowers had bloomed, the mood would have changed a little better.
I don't think, "The view outside is so good, but I can't go out." This will only add to the annoyance of oneself. I began to realize this from mid-April, when I ran out of supplies and there were more than 20,000 new confirmed and asymptomatic people in Shanghai every day. I know that there is unlikely to be a big drop in the short term, and I have to accept this situation, accept these emotions and the reality of my low work efficiency.
Now it is more of a sense of powerlessness, an uncertainty about the future, not knowing when it will be unsealed and what the conditions for unsealing are.
We graduated in June, many people will stay in Shanghai, and recently many students have been anxious, and there will not be enough time to see the house after the unblocking. My graduation trip should also be in vain, before I made a long plan, planning to go to Qinghai, Xinjiang and Tibet, each place for a few days, which points to go to every day have been arranged, the result was disrupted by the epidemic.
This evening (April 29th), we organized an online K-song event in this dormitory building, and someone even made a poster. Everyone spontaneously formed a group, any song they wanted to hear could be written, and if any students were willing to sing, they might be selected.
There have been similar events before, when some students put the stereo on the balcony so that almost everyone can hear the song of the dormitory.
There were nearly two hundred people in the group this time, and there were dozens of people online at the same time in the room of the K song software.
Although I am not interested in many things, I am willing to invest time in this activity. The essence is that there are too few opportunities to communicate with people, and I cherish such opportunities.
Sealed in the dormitory for half a month, can not return to the laboratory is the most anxious
Oral archives
When: April 28, 2022
Name: Yang Shuang
Age: 25 years old
Status: Graduate student of Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Time has passed in a flash, it has been almost two months since the school closed management, and now students still can't go to the classroom, can't go to the laboratory, but can move around the campus, run, scatter, this is OK. Convenience stores and milk tea shops on campus are open for business, but they can't eat in the store and can be ordered and taken away.
I pay attention to the epidemic situation briefing in Shanghai every day, and there is also epidemic information on the campus, and I found that there have been no new cases in our campus for more than a month, fortunately, the control is more timely.
Now my classmates and I can only do some theoretical study, and we are very anxious about not being able to do experiments, because some of our projects and research projects must be completed in the laboratory, and the current sealing control directly delays the progress of our research projects.
Fortunately, the campus has more than 4600 acres, which is the largest single campus in Shanghai universities. Spring is full of flowers, and water birds swim in the water, so that we will not be bored. I have a classmate at another nearby university, and she told me that because I was closed in the dormitory building for too long, many students were in a very bad mood, and even some of them were depressed.
In retrospect, the closure began on March 9, with the first round of nucleic acid testing on campus and the shift to online teaching. I didn't feel any warning at the time and was ready to go to the lab the next day. However, on the same day, the sudden notice was changed to online, the school could not enter and exit, and then within two days, the students were notified to isolate in the dormitory, and the "stay at home" control measures were strictly implemented, but at that time, nucleic acid testing could be done downstairs to breathe.
At that time, the news said that on March 9, our campus began to test all staff, and found 1 confirmed case and 1 asymptomatic infected person, and the campus entered the stage of comprehensive sealing and control. At the press conference at that time, it said that every effort would be made to ensure the adequate supply of materials and ingredients, the allocation of daily necessities and epidemic prevention materials, and the needs of teachers and students for daily necessities and medicines. We quarantined in the dormitory for 14 days, and then we could go out of the dormitory.
We encounter some troubles that can be solved through the life service platform on campus, such as the school has opened an epidemic prevention and control consultation hotline, online customer service and 24-hour hand-clapping service, and some students are equipped with glasses, take express delivery, need to buy daily necessities and other small problems, which can be quickly solved.
Supplies distributed by Shanghai Jiaotong University to female students
Source: Shanghai Jiaotong University official Weibo
At that time, I learned through the news that by March 20, the results of two consecutive rounds of nucleic acid tests on our Minhang campus were negative. It should be more than a month now, I have not heard of any more positive, every day everyone exchanges information in the group, if there is a positive in the dormitory building, the white should enter the building, the students should be isolated, this month did not hear that there are new positives on campus.
Sealed in the dormitory those days is still quite stuffy, fortunately the meal is very good, each meal four dishes two meat and two vegetarian, as well as fruits, including oranges, dragon fruit, mangoes have been issued, and are free, small amount of girls can not eat. The school told us that there is no problem with material security after the closed management, in addition to government supplies, many fruits and food are also donated by alumni, and the alumni of Jiaotong University are still very powerful, which makes us not encounter a shortage of materials. In addition to eating and drinking, we have also distributed tissues, disinfectant supplies, and hygiene products for girls.
Later, I read the news and the campus official website, only to learn that for the 30,000 students closed in the dormitory every day to deliver meals is the school's staff, there are thousands of teachers to become students' food delivery staff, there are no lack of some well-known professors, experts, and even academicians also participate in the delivery of meals, they drive private cars, ride tricycles to deliver meals to our students, see these are also very touching, this is also a kind of "words and deeds" it.
In the dormitory closed can not enter the laboratory began to be a little anxious, but another aspect of the time to see more theoretical knowledge, we and the teacher are also online communication. The isolation time of 14 days in the dormitory is actually very fast, and the memory is deeper, one night between the dormitories, the boys and girls sang and sang, and the passion of energetic young people in the dormitory needed to be indulged, so it was quite interesting to roar and sing.
Now students can apply to go home, leave the school, there need to be a legitimate reason, such as going home to visit relatives, go through the procedures for going abroad, etc., some students want to go abroad, the Shanghai consulate is closed, can only go to Nanjing and other places to do, but the students who leave the school can not come back, leave can only go home, to the local neighborhood committee to confirm the acceptance. In fact, there is no problem in going home, because including undergraduates, the courses are now changed to online, and they can also be learned at home.
I am a southerner, and I also want to unseal the campus as soon as possible to go home to have a look, but in the current situation, going out of the school needs layer by layer of applications, approvals, and going home must be isolated, it is better to be more relaxed at school, do more research, and wait until the epidemic has passed.
Psychology Specialist:
The way students cope with stress is taken away one by one, less and less
Dr. Zhao Is a Licensed Psychologist in the United States, who has worked in a number of Chinese and foreign institutions for nearly a decade, cooperated with many universities in China, has many years of experience in psychological counseling-related research, clinical supervision and teaching, and has rich practice on topics such as anxiety, depression, compulsion, traumatic emergency syndrome disorder, family of origin, and eating disorders.
Occasional cures: In a report released by the United Nations in March, as well as several studies, young people and students are exposed to extremely high mental health risks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Why is this happening? Why this group?
Zhao Jinchao: One premise is that the age group of 16 to 24 years old is the stage of high incidence of mental and psychological problems. We often say that mental health problems are the "geriatric disease" of young people, for example, high incidence of hypertension after the age of 50 or 60, and mental health problems are most likely to erupt in 16 to 24 years old, and college students are at this stage.
Even if there is no epidemic, after entering the university, students will face a series of pressures, such as being free from family discipline at the same time, but also free from family protection, and need to deal with many problems independently.
The epidemic will objectively have an impact on the whole society, and to a certain extent, it is reflected in young people in this age group.
The psychological problems that are common under the epidemic, anxiety, disappointment, and the sense of uncontrollable capriciousness of many things, will also appear in students. At the same time, college students may be in a more restrictive environment, such as not being able to take a bath freely, nor can they eat more comfortably and casually, including interpersonal relationship problems, and not getting along well with classmates, which is very common in our studies, but at this time, we have to get along 24 hours a day, the mental pressure is very large, and it is easy to break out of great risk, which is also the situation we do see.
Previously, in foreign countries, we did campus surveys and used scale screenings to find that 10% to 14% of students were depressed, and 10% to 14% of students were anxious. But in recent years, many studies have shown that the number of students suffering from depression and anxiety has increased twofold by surveys in multiple countries around the world, which shows that the pressure on the student community is very high.
Occasional Cure: How should we understand this claim when studies have shown that students exhibited higher levels of depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 outbreak were associated with PTSD (Traumatic Stress Syndrome Disorder)?
Zhao Jinchao: First of all, we need to pay attention to the fact that even if there is no epidemic, under the diagnostic criteria of PTSD, the symptoms themselves are highly comorbid with depression. In the diagnostic criteria of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it is clearly stated that "80% of individuals with PTSD may have symptoms of at least one other psychiatric disorder, such as depression, bipolarity, anxiety, or substance use disorder, compared with individuals who do not have PTSD."
So the diagnostic criteria overlap, but we'll see if the more appropriate treatment is PTSD or depression or anxiety. This is a prerequisite that is not related to the epidemic.
But the outbreak was indeed a stressful event. For stress events, there are generally three stages of psychological changes: the warning period, the resistance period and the exhaustion period.
This is what we observe among college students: in the beginning, many people are mainly anxious and confused about what is going on, and occasionally some people are happy, such as "may be unblocked soon" - this is a state of alert.
During the resistance period, there will be a lot of anger and irritability, such as "why is it not unsealed" and "say that it is good to provide some supplies, but why not", because there is anger at the incident, and it is easy for students to have friction, and the number of fights and quarrels begins to increase.
After a period of resistance, like learned helplessness, a bit of exhaustion, fatigue, and depression can be severe. I have seen a study before, the researchers in February 2020 and January 2021 respectively surveyed 300 Chinese undergraduates, found that in the second period, that is, after a period of time after the epidemic, the proportion of depression increased significantly, but there was no significant change in anxiety, we can see that it does meet the three stages of psychological stress.
Occasional Cures: Some studies of Chinese college students have pointed out that due to class closures, social isolation and lack of outdoor activity, the risk of depression and anxiety in this group is increased, what else you have observed may increase the mental health risk of this group?
Zhao Jinchao: We can talk about them one by one.
For example, in the case of sealing at home, we have encountered many such cases. Before the pandemic, a university mental health alliance committee in the United States, which had been doing mental health work for college students for many years, summarized ten common problems, including social isolation/interpersonal difficulties and the problem of the original family.
Source: Station Cool Helo
Over the past few years, we have talked a lot about the original family. Under the pressure of the epidemic, the economy of many families has been affected, and friction within the family has increased. Under the epidemic, the face-to-face interaction between students and classmates has decreased, and it is difficult to establish real intimate relationships and obtain good support.
In this case, the social isolation, interpersonal difficulties and family problems that college students already have will be more prominent.
We may encounter more extreme cases, when the family originally has a serious problem of domestic violence, sealed in the family, emotions may be more likely to have problems, triggering a state of violence, but objectively require "stay at home" and "stay out of the community", many people have nowhere to turn for help.
Including the campus cyberbullying we often refer to. Under the epidemic, students' social networking mainly relies on virtual social and network interaction, after the emergence of network bullying, the harm to the parties is very large, this is not to say that "you don't look at it is over" can be solved, the social network of the parties mainly depends on the network, there may be nowhere to go, reality and the network always need some positive affirmation voices, not standing there to cheer themselves up.
Also, many aspects of the student's perception are uncontrollable.
The small uncontrollable thing is that every day in class, eating, resting, this routine of the law is disrupted, changed to online classes, the rhythm of life is disrupted. The big uncontrollable thing is, for example, a lot of exam delays, we can see that the examination and research is becoming more and more difficult, the employment opportunities are decreasing, the admission ratio of some foreign schools is decreasing, and when the doors in front of you are gradually closed, it is easy to make people panic.
Many times, if we feel that it is our hearts that determine our own state of life - effort will have results, and if we don't work hard, there will be no results, this state will make people less likely to be anxious and depressed.
But if we find that it is more external factors that determine the state of life – no matter how much I toss and turn, how much I struggle and try, it cannot have a decisive impact on my results. There may be more traumatic reactions, such as indulgence, or excessive compulsion, excessive pursuit of the details of small things, which are all problems with our mental health.
We often psychologically explain the emergence of stress mechanisms, that is, when the various stressors exerted by the outside world are greater than our own skills in coping with stress, the pressure arises.
For example, with the development of the epidemic, many students can support each other at the beginning, or joke, and actively adjust, but after a period of time, the pressure continues to increase, but the skills gained continue to decrease - I could have gone to the campus, I could have done sports, I could watch flowers and grass, but these coping methods have been taken away, I can't even go out of the dormitory building, and I have fewer and fewer skills to cope.
One of the reasons we observe a lot, many students find us, is, "I can't concentrate, I always play mobile phones and games, and I always watch short videos."
We often tell our students that if you have a choice, you certainly don't want to do it. It's only because your ways of coping with stress have been taken away that you're going to hold on to them.
But in this case, students will also have a lot of self-blame, "how do I play mobile phones" and "waste time", these pressures are increasing, but there are few ways to cope, so the state is getting worse and worse.
Occasional Healing: In your realistic observations, in the context of the epidemic, what is the trend of the spiritual psychology of visiting students?
Zhao Jinchao: The first is that more and more people are reporting suicidal intentions and suicidal ideas, and the age at which they first appear suicidal thoughts is getting younger and younger. We asked students earlier, when did you first think about ending your life? Many people say that high school, or the college entrance examination is particularly stressful. Now more and more people will find that some people in junior high school or even the fifth or sixth grade of primary school have begun to have suicidal thoughts, which may not be an attempt, but students begin to have ideas in this regard, which is very worrying. There is also an increasing number of behaviors that include self-harm.
The second is that there is an increasing number of obsessive-compulsive thinking and compulsive behaviors. For example, the idea of drilling the horns, the catastrophic thinking, the black and white, "must be like this, otherwise you can't survive" and other expressions are appearing more and more. It seems that the road is getting narrower and narrower in the real environment, and the road in my brain is getting narrower and narrower.
The third is that there are more problems with various addictions, such as games, short videos, e-cigarettes and other addictive behaviors.
Also, I feel that because of the mental pressure of the whole society, the epidemic has increased social isolation, there are more and more contradictions between students, and social problems are becoming more and more prominent. Everyone is like an island.
Occasional cure: We have noticed that many colleges and universities have begun to pay attention to students' psychological problems and take some countermeasures, in practice, which operations do you perceive to be more effective?
Zhao Jinchao: The first is the help mechanism for establishing a pyramid structure. According to research, the ideal ratio is 1,000 students to a professional counseling teacher, which basically protects the vast majority of problems in the community in the cradle. But in reality, this is difficult to achieve, even abroad.
So one of the practices that I agree with is that in the shape of a ladder pyramid, that is, on a floor or in a dormitory, there is a responsible student, and if everyone has any problems, they will reflect with the teacher through him, or he will set aside a period of time to communicate with everyone.
This requires training in advance, such as what needs to be kept confidential, respecting student privacy while being able to give enough support. We found that many of our classmates were very enthusiastic and got a lot of self-actualization in their work helping people. So I do see a lot of schools doing this better.
The second is a support group, such as some schools or student organizations to set up regular spit groups for everyone.
Because everyone has common feelings in the face of current difficulties, such as resentment, and knows that many problems are difficult to solve, but students do need channels for emotional catharsis. So through these groups, everyone can vent some of the intense emotions, which is easy and effective.
Some schools have established psychological hotlines on 24-hour duty, and some also offer written counselling. This allows some students who are inconvenient to speak in the dormitory to ask for help by typing.
The fourth point is the science education of mental health. After enrolling, the school at different times in a variety of lively and interesting forms to let students understand the mental health troubles, such as anxiety, depression of the common symptoms are, what self-help methods can try to cope, if not through the form of self-help to get better, what resources can be sought inside and outside the school. This prevents problems before they occur.
(In order to protect the privacy of the interviewees, Zhang Jixiang, Luo Yu and Yang Shuang are pseudonyms in the article)
Author: Pan Wenbo, Su Weichu, Chen Yihan, Li Hualiang
Producer: Li Chen
First image source: Shanghai Jiao Tong University official Weibo
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