I just got dumped.
Yes, I feel sad and awful, and Thursday night I did all I could do to cope: I got dressed up, went downtown and forced all my guy friends to tell me how pretty I am.
But I’m not so worried about the actual breakup as its terrible timing. With finals around the corner, I’m one midterm away in most classes from making the grades I want … or not. Add to that the stress of looking for a job in a recessionary economy, and I need to do all I can to speed through the anxious crying part of this breakup. I simply don’t have time to wallow.
In an effort to take a proactive stake in my emotions, I did something I’ve never done before — I started exploring the University’s mental health resources, which brought me to www.cmhc.utexas.edu, the Counseling and Mental Health Center’s Web site.
I used to think there was something about counseling that was too self-indulgent. After all, there are billions of people all over the world with real problems, like starvation, abuse and deaths of loved ones, and here I am with the privilege of whining to a shrink about my love life. But the fact is, the University provides incredible resources for dealing with all students’ issues, ranging from suicide concerns to stress. Not utilizing these resources in times of need is foolish, since we already pay for them through student fees.
For the past few days, I’ve been practicing muscle relaxation by listening to online audio through the CMHC’s MindBody Lab. I sit on my bedroom floor while a woman — in the most soothing voice I’ve ever heard — instructs me to take slow, deep breaths and let go of my tension. She then describes how I should sit and walks me through relaxing each part of my body, from head to toes. At the end of the 10-minute session, I really do feel at ease.
For those who want to venture outside their homes, inside the physical lab on the fifth floor of the Student Services Building is a self-guided relaxation room where students can practice stress management exercises and mediation techniques on their own, as well as — coolest of all — check out biofeedback equipment to monitor changes in stress levels.
The electronic equipment is sensitive enough to detect changes in your body you wouldn’t be aware of without the equipment, so you can monitor the physical effects of stress and relaxation techniques.
The center also offers group counseling, with more than 20 specialized groups ranging from grief and loss counseling to romantic relationship counseling to test anxiety counseling. Among the other helpful things the center offers includes a 24-hour telephone counseling hotline (512-471-CALL) that any student can call 365 days of the year, individual, short-term counseling and links to cheap massages in and around Austin.
Getting dumped is not a pleasant experience. But luckily the University, the supportive friend it is, is here for me no matter how small or large my problem.
Terrell is a finance senior.
