Let's Talk UNLV

Unknown Speaker 0:05
Welcome to Let's Talk UNLV Student Wellness takeover. Well, what? 91.5k u MB. We're your co host, Dr. Tanya crab and Karen gene child. Today we have Rami plusone. Hello. And we'll be speaking about stress. Let's talk about stress baby. Talk about stress.

Unknown Speaker 0:29
Okay, where we know Weston to song, a little bit about stress management. Stress appears in many forms, it can show up as work related stress, or school related stress friends and family related stress, identity related stress and multiple other different stress presentations. Stress is also naturally occurring and common. It's how we deal with stress that makes or breaks us. Today, we have Remy by Sione With us to discuss stress management. So welcome ramie.

Unknown Speaker 0:59
Hello. Thank you for having me. Of course, of

Unknown Speaker 1:02
course happy to have you. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?

Unknown Speaker 1:06
Yep. So I am Rami Bastiani. I'm currently a doctoral intern at UNLV caps. That's Counseling and Student Counseling and Psychological Services. I am just completed my doctoral degree just graduated a few weeks ago. I'll be starting as a full time staff member in August that caps I'll be staying

Unknown Speaker 1:26
Wow. Okay. So what exactly is stress? Can you tell us a little bit more about it? Yep.

Unknown Speaker 1:33
So stress is your mind and body's response or reaction to a real or imagined threat event or change. So something occurs in your life, whether academically, you know, you have a test coming up, and it's the way we respond to that specific event. Typically stress is, well, we might get into it, but it there's healthy and unhealthy stress.

Unknown Speaker 1:54
Okay. So what's so bad about being stressed?

Unknown Speaker 1:58
being stressed in itself isn't so bad. It's how we handle that stress. In a way, having some amount of stress is healthy in the sense that it motivates us, it drives us to work on whatever it is that we have to work on. But it's when the stress becomes too overwhelming. And we don't know how to manage and cope with it. That's when it can become more problematic and impact this negatively.

Unknown Speaker 2:21
So understandable.

Unknown Speaker 2:22
I know it's a really long list, you know, it being the Apocalypse Now. But what are some of the things that you think what says no, Minnesota is the stresses that students might be facing at this particular time.

Unknown Speaker 2:34
So like you said, it's a very long list. So some things that are that we've seen, at least that caps are coping with the pandemic slash returning back to in person services. With the fluctuation of like COVID rates, there's obviously some stress related to to preventing, catching COVID or potentially, you know, going out into the world than the typical academic kind of stressors, whether it's taking too many courses, time management, exams, not doing as well as you thought. And then in your personal life, family concerns, work concerns, work stressors, relationships, as well, whether it is personal or romantic relationships. And then throw in kind of more personal things such as, like, if you have your own health concerns that you're worried about, or like health concerns about pets, things like that, really, anything can be an event that can cause stress.

Unknown Speaker 3:25
You know, as you mentioned, that I'm thinking about some house stressors can also be unique to certain populations. I imagine that with everything happening in the world, there's racial stress, this restaurant LGBTQ identity, I imagine that for anyone whose family members might be in an area that's unsafe, there's some of that stress as well. So I'm glad that you mentioned that stress just shows up can show up for just about anybody, like no one is exempt from feeling stressed out. So what would that look like? Like how would I know if I'm stressed.

Unknown Speaker 3:57
So really, the first thing is, you know, there's physical symptoms of the stress and then there's more of like the emotional slash mental symptoms, we'll start with the physical symptoms. So physically, you might feel very different than your normal self, you might be more exhausted, you might feel less motivated, you might feel you might have you know, changes to your eating habits, sleeping habits, you might be sleeping less or more, eating less or more, for example, but physically, you'll feel very different, you might feel drained, you might feel like you might have feelings of guilt and you know, really many different things that are outside of kind of like your normal sense of self, but then mentally as well. You might feel just very overwhelmed feel like you might have like kind of this catastrophizing kind of effect where you feel like you know, if your stressor is a school related thing, feeling like you're not going to pass it or there just isn't enough time to prepare for whatever it is this thing is. So I think it shows up very differently depending on what it is and for each individual as well.

Unknown Speaker 4:54
Can you help us understand the catastrophe? I don't even know if I

Unknown Speaker 4:58
catastrophizing. Yeah Yeah. So essentially, it's kind of like the word says catastrophe. So a minor thing might happen, you might find out you come into class and you took a pop quiz and you know, maybe you got to see on it. catastrophizing, you'll take that see and pretty much make it much bigger than it is saying, you know, now that I got to see I'm not gonna pass, I might lose my scholarship might go on academic probation, whatever the case is. So it's just really taking something that's more minor and making it much bigger maximizing it to bigger than what it actually is. Why does that sound

Unknown Speaker 5:29
like grad school though? Like, oh, no, I gotta be they're gonna put me out of the program. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, so it's like, like Rami said, it's when there's something that's one incident that suddenly becomes generalized for everything. Right? You know, it could be I made a mistake with a friend, they're gonna stop speaking to me. I was late for work, I'm gonna get fired. Yeah, you know, there's a, there's a road between lateness and firing. Now, if you've, if this has been your occurrence, like day to day, like

Unknown Speaker 6:06
you've been late 20 times.

Unknown Speaker 6:10
But that one time. So and you've been a good worker this whole other time, but that one thing is going to cause your whole world to collapse, for sure. Upon You. So um, thank you for that. Thank you for talking about some of the ways that we see stress. So you know, I'm a fan of the Hulk, right?

Unknown Speaker 6:27
Yep. That's wake it up.

Unknown Speaker 6:32
And you know, that I love using comics to talk about stuff. So it's funny that you mentioned the physical and the emotional signs of stress, how does one know, when the stress is getting to a point where it's unmanageable? You know, I am, I'm tired, yes. But, you know, I still get up and go to school and go to work. So how, what's the dividing line between this is healthy stress, and Oh, my word, my life is falling apart. Now.

Unknown Speaker 7:01
I would say, kind of that line, it's a very thin line, I would say it's more manageable when you feel like you are able to prepare and overcome that event that is causing you stress, if you have an exam, and you know, you start studying two weeks ahead of time, and you kind of split it up, you might feel the stress increasing going up to that event to the test, but you feel much more prepared to leading up to it, I would say when it becomes unmanageable, is when you feel like you cannot accomplish any steps to try to prepare or alleviate that stressor. So like you mentioned, if you feel like you're gonna get fired from work, and you feel like it's out of your control, and that can be something that's much more unmanageable,

Unknown Speaker 7:38
right? So can you talk about how stress is different from say, anxiety, depression or PTSD.

Unknown Speaker 7:45
So I would say stress is kind of the trigger that could lead to that. So stress can happen from like we mentioned every day, kind of occurrences and events, anxiety, depression, PTSD, PTSD is obviously you know, you're going went through a traumatic experiences that can cause you stress, but when it reaches a certain level of symptomology, becomes, like a more clinical diagnosis. But same thing with anxiety and depression. Your level of stress could lead to anxiety in terms of feeling like, there's this threat that's occurring, or that's going to occur that may not always be there, and may not be as obviously like as rational or as a logical threat. But I would say stress in itself is an occurrence that everybody experiences when it gets to certain symptomology or, you know, it impacts kind of all aspects of your life, in a more consistent continuous basis is when it can kind of go into more of the Diag diagnostic side of it. Interesting.

Unknown Speaker 8:42
So it sounds like you know, stress was like this gauge. Everyone's needle moves, in terms of stress, but when you're in the red, when you're always, always in the Yep, so stress sounds a little bit like paralyzing overwhelming, like, it's sort of collapsing your universe, in a sense. So it's not that so you know, me and my metaphors. So if you were swimming, you might be a tired swimmer, but you can make it to the shore. But if stress comes to the point where it's too overwhelming, there's danger of not making it to the other side. Yep. And that's when these other things can happen. Yep. Okay, yep.

Unknown Speaker 9:19
Using the swimmer example, you might have your, you know, swimmer you're competing prior to, you might have a level of stress of, you know, wanting to win and wanting to, to reach whatever goal it is that you're doing. But you might still be able to, like you said, compete when it gets to that more read level. Some people you know, they might kind of like shut down or panic or in the moment kind of lose focus and, you know, like, where you kind of forget what you're doing in the moment. Kind of have more of that effect.

Unknown Speaker 9:44
Okay. So when should a student reach out for more support about managing life stressors to try to get to the other side?

Unknown Speaker 9:51
I would say that's obviously very different for everyone. But once you feel that the stress is reaching a place where you need assistance, so if you've been trying different Things to alleviate that stress and you feel like it hasn't been as effective. Or maybe you feel like you don't feel confident in your ability to cope, I would say reach out probably better to do it earlier, to kind of take more of a preventative approach. But anytime that you feel like it is reaching a place that it's going to impact you more than it should, which is a different threshold for everyone. Right. But that's what you know, that's what Capps is here for and the resources are available.

Unknown Speaker 10:32
For sure, for sure.

Unknown Speaker 10:33
So, as students, we are not strangers to stress. As humans who've gone through this, I want to call it an emotional earthquake. That is been these past few years, and we're digging out, you know, and still trying to make sense of our lives. What were some of the things and this is a question for both of you that? What were some of the things that you utilize to help you to make it to the other side? How did you keep swimming in what was in my mind a tsunami? So, talk to me, what what, what were some of your key strategies for navigating all of it?

Unknown Speaker 11:17
I think for me, obviously, when COVID started things, everything was shut down. So I really had to kind of reinvent the way that I coped, just because there wasn't as many outlets but for me, it was really making sure that I got the rest that I needed sleeping, everything was remote, so I obviously had more chances to sleep. But also making sure that I did things I enjoyed, whether it was watching TV, I got caught up on a lot of different shows movies. After a few months, and I got really tired of staying in, I had a bike and I decided to finally use it. So every day, I would go and ride a couple of miles. At the time I was living in Kansas City. So when the summer it's not as hot as here, much more green. So

Unknown Speaker 11:56
those are facts of life. Yeah, that's the facts. So it

Unknown Speaker 11:59
was more bearable to ride the bike around every day and kind of get some fresh air at the time, I was also preparing for my dissertation proposal. So that was also an added level of stress. So I really needed that time to disconnect from my home slash workspace. And kind of separate myself from that. But as the pandemic went on, and things started opening up, just making sure like now being here, making sure at least on weekends, I can once a once every weekend, go out with my wife and either you know, go to dinner, do something fun or go for a walk. But just really separating myself from my work and home space. For me at least it's

Unknown Speaker 12:32
my favorite word. boundary. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 12:35
I love that word wasn't good all the time. But they got there

Unknown Speaker 12:39
to bees balance your boundaries. Those are like my favorite. So que le your secrets,

Unknown Speaker 12:47
what you said about like work work life balance, I totally agree with that when the pandemic shut everything down, and like you were working in your bedroom, it was like a lot of stress. And it's like, you know, when can you escape it, you know, you are in zoom meetings in your bed, and then you go to sleep in your bed, the stress is still there. So definitely separating that is something I totally agree with. But other ways I handled stress was just looking at examples of myself in the past. Like oftentimes we forget, like, we're in this moment. And like you said, We're catastrophic. And like, we think it's the end of the world, but then we realize, like, I've been through like several different end of the worlds and I'm still here. So how did I manage? Back then how can I manage now how can I how can I be better than, you know who I was back then who you know, having meltdowns overstressed? Like how can I you know, sit with myself and talk to myself and like, evaluate my emotions and just, you know, keep going instead of just sitting and like shutting down. That's kind of how I handle my stress.

Unknown Speaker 13:55
I love it. So you reflected on where you are you sort of tried to manage your emotions, yes. So that you can have a better or you can have a better understanding of how you're doing instead of just you know, leading into them. Yeah, exactly. Sounds wonderful. So, back to me. What are some tips that you would suggest for students on how to manage their stress?

Unknown Speaker 14:18
I would say one of the easiest things that you can do on your own is really identifying, sitting down and identifying things that you enjoy doing. Hobbies I would like to say, and really setting out time to do that. I know a lot of times when we're busy, especially as students, we tend to put the things we enjoy on the backburner because we have all these demands. But really setting aside time to practice them once a week, once every couple of days. It doesn't have to be, you know, hours at a time but if you enjoy reading, you know reading a chapter a day, taking out 1520 minutes to do that if you're someone who needs more of like fresh air, physical activity, you know, making sure that you're able to kind of go outside Get Some Fresh Air even if you need to study study outside in a new environment. Um, but really breaking up that that current routine you're in, that causes that stress and incorporating things that bring you joy and make you happy.

Unknown Speaker 15:07
Awesome. I'd love that. I love finding joy. And I also love the idea that these stress breaks don't have to take in your old day. And like, if you're getting stressed, trying to find out how not to be stressed, that's also a problem. So just taking a breather. So if you're a swimmer, for example, pausing, taking a breath before you keep swimming on, as opposed to just trying to muscle your way to the end, you don't have to stop swimming. You don't have to keep swimming to the point of exhaustion and collapse, you can take a minute and take a breath, and then reset and keep going. Yeah, I like it. I like it a lot. And

Unknown Speaker 15:45
I think also, one thing that I've noticed is, when I've worked with different students, they don't realize house, sometimes it can be very small. Making a you know, a cup of tea and reading a chapter, if you're into like coloring, you know, there's all those like Mandela books and things like that. Just something small like that, to break up that kind of monotony. And that stress can can make a big difference.

Unknown Speaker 16:07
Those are wonderful tips.

Unknown Speaker 16:10
I did want to ask both of you have a question. What are some things that you're stressed about right now? And how are you dealing with it? Or if you feel comfortable sharing, you don't have to air your business out on you know, radio, but

Unknown Speaker 16:25
have you looked outside

Unknown Speaker 16:29
the cost of everything finances.

Unknown Speaker 16:32
I mean, that's a whole nother show. That's a whole nother show. So let me start by how I manage that. Cultivate Joy, I look for joy. In every opportunity, I cultivate joy on my social media pages. So that when I open it up, it makes me happy. I try to find moments of joy, I set aside time in the morning for myself not a lot, because you know, I gotta get ready. But like, five, just five minutes to just sit and breathe. You know, I remind myself that I'm human. Yeah. And that I'm not going to do it all in one day. So I try to practice self compassion and empathy. And I tried to give myself grace and give other people grace. So but there's a lot, there's a lot happening out there. And I think I'm still swimming. I'm gonna keep swimming. You know, I might lay on the door for a moment, like, oh, girl in the movie. Oh, my God, I will get back out of swim some more.

Unknown Speaker 17:32
The lifeboat is coming. It's coming. It's coming.

Unknown Speaker 17:36
I would say for me, my level of stress has alleviated a lot. I was like I was working on my dissertation. I just finished I feel like this big weight is off my shoulders. So I would say right now I feel like relatively not as stressed. Obviously, like I mentioned finances, but I feel like I've had a big break and kind of what I've been doing the last year. So for me, it's not as timely it hasn't been as stressful recently. But I'm sure you know, once I get used to this not having as many demands like academically, I'm sure you know, different things will start stressing me out as new

Unknown Speaker 18:07
stressful find you. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 18:10
Five years away.

Unknown Speaker 18:14
So I have a question. Yes. For all of us. As we navigate all of this, you know, as we come through all of this, what is something that you wish you knew about how to manage it? Like what is something you wish you knew? What is something you learned? And what is something you're still learning?

Unknown Speaker 18:39
Okay, you wish you knew?

Unknown Speaker 18:42
Yeah. But navigating life and all of the, we'll call them challenges.

Unknown Speaker 18:49
That's a good word. I wish I knew it wasn't the end of the world. And then I'm stronger than I think. When I was younger, it was really hard for me to manage my stress, because, like, how would I manage my stress, like I was just kind of, you know, teenage hormones and all that thing, you know, just angsty and just, I'm just gonna write in my journal, you know, who my mom or whatever, like, it wasn't even that serious. It really wasn't. And I really thought like, if I didn't have my life figured out, it would be like the end of me. And that would just, you know, everything would fall apart. And I would end up you know, in the worst possible scenario. And really, it was not that bad. It wasn't bad at all. It was, I mean, most of the things that I'm into right now, I kind of just stumbled my way into them. So now I'm just kind of just like living life and just watching what happens and things are working out. So I'm like, kind of in a positive light right now. And I wish I could have shown my younger self that something that I'm still learning right now. I'm kind of just to let myself I'll feel it. Now. I've been rationalizing like, oh, you know, it's not the end of the world is this this that I can do it? And then I just don't let myself feel my emotions and just like, like it is okay to be stressed. Not all stress is bad, you know, just can feel it and move on and like, yeah, that's what I'm learning right now.

Unknown Speaker 20:18
Oh, I love that so much. So the balance between recognizing that it's okay to Forrest Gump your way through life. And it's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay. And also not invalidating your own emotions or minimizing your own emotions and challenging your own voice and saying it's okay to feel hurt or sad, or all those other feelings that you know, we're okay with the the, quote unquote, good emotions. Yeah, I can feel happy, I can feel joy, sadness go away. I don't want you here. Yeah, your disappointment, suck it up and keep moving. So I think there's truth to that. Embracing all of it, the good and the bad, and recognizing you will survive it. Yes, the good. And the bad for sure, though.

Unknown Speaker 21:05
It's awesome.

Unknown Speaker 21:06
I would say for myself, one thing that I wish I knew when I was younger is that things always work itself works itself out, I feel like I would place a lot catastrophize I would place a lot of weight on things that were occurring and thinking that, you know, I won't overcome them. But looking back, like everything that has occurred, I've been able to overcome naturally. So just reminding myself that I have the tools that I need to overcome whatever the stressor is. And one thing that I'm still learning is that I don't have to be in control of everything that's going on. I'm someone who likes to be very organized and make plans and write things down and all of that, and when things don't go according to plan, it definitely bothers me more than it should. So I'm really learning how to go with the flow and being more adaptable, right, being able to adapt better, to different changes.

Unknown Speaker 21:54
I am also part of the DTM doing the most doing too much crew which is you know, my desire to control the outcome by controlling all of it so I can so yeah, who here I see? Yeah, sure. We're the same. I think the thing that younger me I, you know, I wish I could have been part of tutor to younger me is that it's gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. You know, life is always gonna have its stressors. The thing that's most important is to find support and find ways to self soothe, you know, and that, you know, catastrophizing, you know, it's not, you know, I thought that I knew catastrophe till like, 2020. Oh, my goodness, and I just want to put it out there. We survived that mess. Yeah, we're here still, we're still surviving that mess. You know, and to the point about control, like, listen, there is no place in my crystal ball that told me that was coming. I am so sorry that, you know, I, despite what I felt was my psychic ability to predict and therefore control the future. I was blindsided by all of it. But yet, and still, when push came to shove, I was able to either have the tools or find the tools. And I think that's so important. You know, you don't have to have all the tools, you can find the tools, and I'd like to think that were one of those tools. You know, it's okay, to feel stress. It's also okay to say can you help me with the stress? Yeah, you know, it's okay. To catastrophize? Well, well, let me rephrase that. If you are catastrophizing, it's okay to seek support to help you not to do it. I'm not suggesting people go out there start catastrophizing. No, don't do that. I'm just saying that doing that doesn't make you a bad person. Lots of people do that, you know, we tend to skew negative as a human species is what we do. What I am still learning is that it's okay. Sort of, like Rami said, and not being controlled. I don't have to be part of the DTM. Committee. You know, it's okay. To take a breather. Yeah. You know, like Karen said, and get in touch with my emotions and understand what my needs are around the emotions. It doesn't make me a bad human because I'm sad or disappointed or angry even. You know, so balance it to be worth balance and boundaries.

Unknown Speaker 24:30
Like that up. Yes. Like,

Unknown Speaker 24:32
those are my favorite be words, man.

Unknown Speaker 24:36
I did want to talk about asking for help, because we've kind of touched on that a little bit. What are some ways that you know, besides caps because we'll we'll plug that but what are some ways that you can ask for help in your personal life like with your own connections?

Unknown Speaker 24:52
I think leaning on those that are closest to you. I think as humans we try to solve things on our own all the time. We feel like we don't want to bother other People are they have a lot of stuff on their plate as well, which may be true. But you might find that when you do go to others, they might come to you as well. And you can kind of build your own little support group as well within your friend, group, family group, whatever the case is, but I think it's just really being open and honest with yourself and finding comfort in talking to other people. Yeah, for sure.

Unknown Speaker 25:18
I like that. Yeah. And recognizing that struggling is not the same as failing, you know? So asking for help is actually a sign of strength. Yes. Like, you know, rather than being crushed under the weight of it, and, and finding appropriate sources that you can trust to have those conversations with, you know, if you have them in your family, if you have them in communities, that is wonderful. If you don't, it's okay to reach outward. You know, I know there's this thing around mental health that, you know, if I, if I see a therapist, that means something's wrong with you. If you see a therapist, that means that you know that you need support. Yeah, that's smart. That's Man Therapy is the highest form of self love. Yes. It is the highest form of self love. For sure. It says that I love me so much. I don't care what other people think. I'm gonna love me by taking care of me. Yeah. So I would say reach out to your support sources and also look around at what's causing you stress in your life. Take an honest inventory. You know, is it your relationship? Can you be honest about that? Yeah. I mean,

Unknown Speaker 26:20
is it your job? Oh, well, I think it's time for us to wrap I know that was abrupt.

Unknown Speaker 26:31
talking, I was all. Thank you once again, for joining us at 91.5k U N. V. I want to give the guests a chance to share was there anything else that you needed to share with us before you went?

Unknown Speaker 26:44
No, I think we can talk about blood caps for all students. We are located in the Student Recreation Wellness Center. On the third floor, all students who are taking courses are registered for classes can are eligible for free services up to 12 sessions per year. We also do offer groups as well throughout the year, different support groups and processing groups as well. And then we also do medication management if needed. And we can give resources in the community. If you need something more long term or you're looking for something closer to home or whatever the case is,

Unknown Speaker 27:16
Oh, I love that a full service plug. You've closed it out we've got now

Unknown Speaker 27:23
you can call caps at 702895362 770-289-5367. Or you can visit the caps website at unlv.edu/caps. For more information. This was let's talk UNLV Student Wellness takeover at 91.5k UMP. I'm Karen Jean Charles, and I'm Dr. Tanya Crabbe, and we'll see you next time, please.

Dr. Renee Watson 27:52
For more let's talk UNLV. Be sure to follow us on social media where you can get the latest updates on the show plus great behind the scenes content. We're on Facebook and let's talk about all the podcasts on Twitter and let's talk UNLV and Instagram and let's talk UNLV pod

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