For some gloom, despair, and agony are the companions of late. Yet, it’s a new academic year and hope is fired up. Many of us are enthused with the fire of devotion to new learning and hoped-for, meaningful careers. Even the woods seem aflame with color, and the time of harvest is at hand. Maybe the brightness and hope of the season makes that despair for some more apparent, more hopeless. For whatever reason, far too many people suffer from significant depression, from bipolar despair, and suicide. In Arkansas, among people in the 15 to 34-year-old age bracket (which includes the overwhelming majority of you, our UAMS students), suicide is the second leading cause of death. In addition, the overall suicide rate in Arkansas is slightly more than double that of the homicide rate.* Suicide is a significant public health issue for us as medical professionals and for us as stressed, driven, self-demanding individuals.

In the Student Success Center and among the staff of Student Wellness, we are concerned with your academic and personal well-being, and we would wish that no one of you despair to the point of considering suicide. Certainly we wish that you not engage in planning such an outcome, and even more that you not act toward that end. Knowing some of the common danger signs (indicators) is a first step:

• Mental health factors such as major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder.
• A person’s previous history including-
  • The experience of childhood adversities.Previous experiences of suicidal behaviors (suicidal ideation in the past or previous suicide attempts).
  • A family history of suicide.
• The experience of recent stressful events (especially when multiple stressors are present).
• Substance abuse behaviors.
• The absence of significant social support.

If you find yourself experiencing these kinds of symptoms, particularly if you are experiencing more than one or if your experience of even one symptom is intense and overwhelming, recognize the signs and take steps to seek out help. Student Wellness is an invaluable resource, available to UAMS students and spouses. Their services are also confidential and do not become a part of your official UAMS medical record. See the text boxes for contact information on this and other resources.

For some of us, the danger is not our own health, but that of friends, family, or colleagues. We may serve that role of significant social support for another. Pay attention and assist your struggling colleague.

Listen to, encourage, notice.

We are in this university together; we walk through this life together. As John Donne, the English poet, observed, “The death of any person diminishes me.” We are not islands unto ourselves, but each a part of the mainland. If you see fellow-students who are struggling, reach out and help them get the help they need. Suicide has been described as a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Without making light of the darknesses that some of us face, a new, better dawn can lie ahead. Let us help ourselves, and let us help each other. I have found meaningful the reminder from the song by REM,

“Sometimes everything is wrong
Now it’s time to sing along
When your day is night alone (hold on)
(Hold on) if you feel like letting go (hold on)
If you think you’ve had too much
Of this life
Well, hang on”

“Everybody Hurts” by Bill Berry, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Michael Mills, Warner/Chappell Music, inc., on the REM album Automatic for the People, https://www.remhq.com/music/automatic-for-the-people/.

* See the “Suicide Prevention” webpage at the Arkansas Department of Health, https://www.healthy.arkansas.gov/programs-services/topics/suicide-prevention.

Know what?  Sometimes I don’t feel so good.  I’m sad.   I’m lonely.    I’m angry.    Other days I feel great!  I’m happy .  I’m giddy .  I’m hopeful.  I’m guessing that many of us around here are like me—more comfortable with our intellect than we are with our emotions.  Feelings are for poets and mystics and such; they are not the stuff of science and careful reasoning.  It’s not so easy to put into words what and how we are feeling.  Maybe that’s part of the popularity of emojis.  We can depict visually how we feel more easily than we can name our emotions.  Indeed, these diminutive symbols have quickly become favorite additions to our notes, so much so that there is now a “World Emoji Day,” July 17, 2019.[1]  How do you intend to celebrate?

Emojis began in Japan and started with the emoticons designed from creative combinations of existing type characters: 🙂 and ;-(  and so forth.  Coders soon created the take-offs from the smiley face: .  Shingetaka Kurit in 1999 created the first of these, and his original 176 emoji are now part of the permanent collection at the New York Museum of Modern Art.  Could we say that there is an art to representing our emotions?  As you probably know, today there are all manner of  emojis, and there have been intentional efforts to represent men, women, children, seniors, turbaned folk, people of color, all varieties of the human range of identity and emotion.  In 2015, tears of joy, was named the Oxford Dictionary “word of the year.”  Wired.com calls emojis, “a lingua franca for the digital age.”  In addition, the same article notes that emojis were “. . . designed to add emotional nuance to otherwise flat text.”[2]

We in the medical sciences ignore our own emotional component to our detriment.  We humans are reasoning, sapient beings (homo sapiens).  We are also emotive beings, and full healthiness includes “emotional intelligence.”  We do feel, and we need to develop our ability to recognize our emotions and to integrate them into a balanced physical, mental, and emotional whole.  Be well, then.  Think well and deeply.  Act well.  Feel well and deeply.  You will be the better for it.  While you’re at it, celebrate World Emoji Day this July 17.

[1] This date was chosen because the calendar emoji highlights July 17.

[2] The information and quotes in this paragraph are largely drawn from Arielle Pardes, “The Wired Guide to Emoji.” https://www.wired.com/story/guide-emoji/.

It’s that time of year again when we Americans celebrate our independence.  As with so many of our celebrations, we’re probably not so healthy, and our customs are far removed from the declaration of those colonial signatories.  Our American myths tell us to be rugged individualists independent of anyone else, yet politically those colonists recognized that this was a mutually supportive endeavor.  Ben Franklin is famously credited with observing, “We must hang together, or we will surely hang separately.”

As it is with political independence, so it is with other kinds of independence: complete isolation, “dysfunctional detachment” as one psychologist calls it,[1] is not healthy for our well-being.  If you search OVID for articles on independence, you will find that this concept is an issue for older adults, for patients with impairments, and for person with limited economic resources.  In each of these cases the healthiest approach is a balance between self-reliant autonomy and recourse to social support and even assistance from other persons, institutions, and technologies.  It is clear from research that either overdependence on others or compete detachment is not productive of our mental health, our success in life, or our ability to relate to others around us.  A healthy independence requires both some autonomy on our part and some reliance on others.

When we think about the social markers of independence in our development in this culture, we will recognize that there was both a measure of our own achievement and the encouragement and training provided by others.  As youngsters a big step in our independence was toilet training in which we were guided to take care of our own “business.”  Later, driving an automobile became a sign of independence, and again we were taught and modeled, and in due time we took the wheel ourselves and practiced until skillful.  So too with our education and our career development: we have both leaned on others, and we took independent initiative on our own.

Certainly there are some common barriers to independence: lack of empowerment, coercion from others, our own attachment to the needs of others (when unhealthy it can become co-dependence as we are well-aware), and economic limitations.  We do well to recognize these barriers, to limit their influence on us and other people as much as possible, and to be realistic about their presence.

Here in the Student Success Center we want to be part of this process of your healthy independence.  We have resources and insight that can assist you toward better academic achievements.  We want to help you soar on your own independent flight of discovery.  Let us hang together in these tasks of becoming healthy, independent humans.

[1] Bornstein, Robert. Healthy Dependency: Leaning on Others without Losing Yourself. New York: Harper Collins, 2009.

Finals are over and the fall semester is coming to an end. Everyone is tired, so the Winter Break is the perfect opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to rest, recharge, and relax. Think about it – there are no impending exams or unfinished projects. The old semester is over and the new one hasn’t started yet. It’s the perfect time to focus on other important parts of your life.

Whatever plans you have for the Winter Break, make sure they include time for rest, friends, family, and activities that feed your mind, body, and spirit. Make sure you spend time with the people you may have neglected during the semester. Your family and friends can be your strongest support when your course work feels overwhelming. Make sure they know how much you appreciate them. And have fun!

Take the time to do things you enjoy. Read a book, play board or video games, draw, paint, sing, cook, or craft. These things can feel frivolous when you are to study, but they feed the creative side of your brain, and are important to your contentment. You’ve spent the semester thinking logically and analytically. Do something that requires you to be intuitive, subjective, random, and creative. Rest the left side of your brain and enjoy engaging the right side.

Finally, get some sleep! Hectic exam schedules tend to leave everyone feeling sleep-deprived, so take advantage of the opportunity to just enjoy sleeping. Do things that will help you get good sleep. Eat well, and don’t overdo the holiday goodies. Good food is important for rest. Take your time while you eat and keep your digestion happy. Make sure you are getting physical exercise too. Right now, your mind is probably exhausted, so getting enough physical exercise will help your sleep be more restful.

Make this Winter Break a real break. Rest. Relax. Enjoy.

April 15-21, 2018 could be one of the most important weeks for you this year.  The “Points of Light” organization has designated this week as National Volunteer Week.  Did you know that volunteer work, altruism, has benefits both for the giver and the recipient?  A growing body of research is indicating that appropriate emotional compassion and active benefit provided for others increases the well-being of both the recipient and the donor.  These benefits for the caregiver often include greater mental health, increased longevity, more optimal physiological functioning, deeper social engagements, and even better outcomes when facing a number of illnesses and diseases.  As part of your own general self-care while a student at UAMS, you might consider getting involved in meaningful volunteer work, altruism, along the way.

Those who have been studying the value of altruism have emphasized a few pointers:

First, the benefits accrue to the giver whose compassion does not overwhelm her or him.  Of course there is a danger in caring too much for the other at the expense of one’s own needs, and such an approach is detrimental to health.

Second, the caregiver needs both to care emotively and to act in some beneficial way toward those cared about.  To feel concern is appropriate; to act beneficially is helpful; best is the combination of the two. Also, it is better to engage in face-to-face caregiving, yet the donation of goods or money is also useful.

Third, the donation, be it goods or services or financial support, should be something that is recognized as a benefit by the recipient.

Stephen Post, who has tracked relevant research on this topic, summarizes “It’s Good to Be Good.”

Who knew?  Doing good for others is good for me.  Altruism benefits also the altruist.

As Martin Buber famously taught, the human experience is most fully human when I value both “I” and “Thou.”  To practice genuine care for someone other than myself is also, at its best, to take care of myself. And remember some of those others may very well be Pinnacle Mountain, humpback whales, or abandoned pets. There is benefit also in doing good to the nonhuman members of our planet.

My inclination is to tell you to go, be good, but it seems ludicrous to command volunteerism.  Consider spoiling yourself, then, by your altruism: caring for and doing good.