The Coursefindr Guide To Student Wellbeing
Being a student isn’t easy – all of that studying, generally living off your own budget for the first time and having a sudden and enormous amount of independence all sounds great, and it is, but it has its consequences. One of the main ones, generally, will be your health. When there’s so much else to worry about, your health tends to go out of the window when you’re a student if you’re not careful. This, obviously, is a bad thing. Not just because it’s generally bad to be unhealthy, an unhealthy lifestyle may well threaten your degree to a greater or lesser extent – maybe you’ll be more susceptible to illness, or maybe a bad diet will be damaging to your attention span. Whatever, it doesn’t really matter. Point is, it’s always good to stay healthy, but it’s not always easy. This article should, hopefully, help steer you in the right direction.
Food
Food is, of course, the number one priority as far as most people’s health is concerned. We all know how easy it is to lapse into takeaways and microwave meals every night – they fill you up and save you a lot of time right? Very true, but if you sacrifice what you eat in favour of what you study, suddenly studying won’t be as easy as it once was. And generally it’s not very easy anyway. It seems we’ve hit a bit of a catch-22. Decide for yourself, but generally 20 minutes of good, hard, concentrated study is much better than 40 minutes of eating takeaway pizza and half-reading a textbook.
So, what should you be eating instead? Sadly, most student budgets don’t allow for the proper “brain food” that’s so popular at the moment like oily fish, spinach and other incredibly healthy and horrifically expensive ingredients. Fortunately, there’s a decent compromise to be made – buy, cook and eat vegetables that are good for you but not too expensive, like mushrooms or peppers, and lay off the pasta and go for rice instead – it’s tastier anyway, and is much, much better for your body and your brain. Ginger, garlic and chillies are all incredibly good for both the body and brain too – think of them as cheat codes towards a healthier lifestyle.
We know this is all pretty obvious stuff, but you’d be surprised how many people fall into the painful trap of microwave meals – either out of (entirely forgivable) laziness or just because they’re incredibly busy. Fight the temptation! It’ll work out much better for you in the end.
Mental Health
Mental health is all too often ignored as a damaging aspect in students’ studies and it really, really shouldn’t be. University is hard. There’s a lot of stuff going on – first and foremost there is, of course, that desperate struggle to do the best you can academically, but all too often other stuff tends to get tied in as well. Relationships are made and ended at university at an incredible rate, and it often doesn’t lead to entirely satisfying or healthy consequences. Don’t try to steer away from all that stuff (of course), you’re at university to have a bit of fun, too; but don’t let it get to you too much if something goes wrong, either. It happens. Sorry
We’re going to sound like that horrifying, awful aunt people read about now, but if your mental well-being is suffering, help will be easily available through your university and privately through the NHS as well. It’s not fair on yourself to let your degree suffer because you don’t want to talk to someone about a problem for whatever reason.
Drugs
Don’t get too excited – we’re talking about all the drugs that a student might take here, from caffeine to nicotine to alcohol to MDMA. It happens, people try stuff. Just be careful. Again, we know we’re sounding like that awful aunt, which we really hate sounding like, but in this case there’s a lot of truth to it.
Caffeine’s not great for you. Nicotine’s worse. Booze, again, is pretty bad; and the harder stuff will eventually screw you up pretty badly. The high times come with a down side. Be careful, think before you do anything, and take it easy! You’ve got at least three years to have fun with – you don’t have to spend all of it experimenting all over the place. Besides, it’s the degree you’re after, right? Focus on that first, look to the other stuff (if at all) later.
Finance
Financial matters are absolutely an issue of wellbeing – particularly if they become an issue. Your finances need to be well organised and well handled. Be sensible with the money you have and don’t spend it all in the first week of Fresher’s – it goes easily, believe us. You’ll need it after Fresher’s week for food and stuff. If, however, you do run into some financial troubles for whatever reason, the university can help and lend you some money temporarily until you get your finances in order. This is, however, a last resort – it’s much better to get some extra cash from another source if you have one.
If you find yourself running low on cash often, it’s a great idea to set up a student account with your bank and request a student overdraft facility. Generally, this allows you to go into your overdraft and not get charged for it until you’ve finished your course. Again, though, it’s better to get extra cash from another source instead of ending up in debt to your bank, even if you don’t need to pay them back for a few years.
Again, caution is the most important thing here – write out a realistic budget before you start university, and follow it as best you can. There’s ways to get out of running out of money, but it’s much better to not run out in the first place.
Trust Your Professors
Generally, your lecture staff will be more than happy to help you with any specific problem you have in your course – don’t spend a week working yourself up into a fury/depression because you can’t answer a question set by a professor. Go in and ask them! It’s their job to help you and they will. Remember you’re paying a lot of money to be at university, and you should squeeze every last bit of your money’s worth out of the university and the staff. Having said that, don’t visit your lecturer every time you can’t do a question after thinking about it for five minutes. Go over your lecture notes, check a book or two and then go to your lecturer. Then nobody can blame you for not trying.
Medical Matters
If you have any kind of disability or health issue, you should let the university know as soon as you register. Additionally, it’s a good idea to let somebody on your course know; particularly if there’s even a slight chance you’ll need emergency treatment at any point during your course. There are staff trained in first aid and medical matters at every university, and most universities are designed to be as accessible as possible – nobody wants to miss out on what could be the brightest and best, simply because they don’t have a wheelchair ramp.
Make sure to register with a GP near your university accommodation. Chances are you’ll never need to see them, but it’s best to make sure that when you do need to see a GP you don’t need to go through the tedious process of registration then. Believe us, it’s a lot more hassle to sign up for a doctor when you actually need them than it is when you don’t.
Drop-in Services
Most universities offer some form of drop-in service where students can talk about their problems frankly, openly and confidentially. Everyone needs advice and support occasionally, and oddly sometimes it’s much better to talk to someone you don’t know than someone you do. It’s weird how that works, but it does. Remember that your university has their students’ health as an enormous priority, and you will receive as much support and help as is necessary. There will always be someone whose door is open if you ever feel like you need to just have a chat about something.
Finally
University is hard work, and the massive transition into university life can be incredibly difficult for a lot of people. Be careful, watch what you eat, make sure money doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket, don’t go overboard with the booze, and remember that if you ever need any help or support from anyone, there will be someone there who will listen and help you in any way they can. And, most importantly, have fun! University’s hard, but the trials and tribulations are worth it in the end.