Some days I have what seems to be a haze fall over me. It’s like I’m seeing through a bit of a fog and, sometimes, like the things I’m experiencing aren’t actually happening to me, but to someone else, and I’m only getting an echo of what they would be feeling. I can’t settle in to any one task, and my concentration levels are practically nil. Continue reading MEWD: Haze
Category: Student Support
MEWD: Counselling & Psychology
If you’ve ever danced with depression, or any other type of mental illness, chances are that at some point or another someone has recommended seeking counselling, or seeing a psychologist to you.
This can be a super daunting thing, for anyone, at anything, for any reason. Particularly if you’ve never been to one before. Continue reading MEWD: Counselling & Psychology
MEWD: Hard Days
Some days are just harder than others.
Some days I’m fine. I can get out of bed, get dressed, leave the house, do the things I need to do, and that’s great.
Other days are a struggle. Continue reading MEWD: Hard Days
MEWD: Motivation
Motivation is something that I really struggle with. Or rather, my motivation is one of the things that depression has stolen from me.
This is super unhelpful in all walks of life; Amelia has highlighted how important motivation is. I find it particularly hard when it comes to University since, as we all know, Uni is all about self-driven study. No one is standing over our shoulders telling us we need to attend every class, or when we need to start our assignments or study for our tests. If we don’t want to go to our lectures or our tutorials, we don’t go.
MEWD: Sleep
When it comes to sleeping, I’ve never been one of those people who can hit the sack and be off in the land of nod in no time flat. I toss and turn, and reposition myself about a thousand times before I manage to get to sleep. This is something that is exacerbated when I’m in a period of depression.
Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you the importance of getting a good night’s sleep — it’s right up there with the ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’ advice (another helpful tidbit that I’m not good at following). Not sleeping well and being overly tired can lead to being less productive and somewhat grumpy, which can lead to stressing that you’re being unproductive/grumpy, which can lead to a poor night’s sleep. And so the cycle continues. Continue reading MEWD: Sleep
My Exploits with Depression (MEWD): An Introduction
Depression is hard.
Like, really freaking hard.
Also? It sucks.
I have been attempting to write a post like this for the last seven months. I have written, and re-written, and scrapped countless drafts — all in my head, of course. As you can see, none of that practice has helped me to become particularly eloquent!
I have depression. In case you weren’t sure. In my case, it also currently comes with a (not-so) healthy side dose of anxiety.
Here are some facts about depression and anxiety in Australia:
- Approximately 1 in 6 people will experience depression at some stage throughout their lifetime
- About 1 in 4 will experience anxiety
- Anxiety is the most common mental condition in the country
- It’s estimated that 45 per cent of the nation will experience a mental health condition in their lifetime.
(Information courtesy of Beyond Blue: http://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts)
I am part of that 45 per cent. Have been since I was about sixteen. I didn’t realise it at the time; I thought I was just being a stroppy teenager with glandular fever. Retrospectively, however, I can see that it was much more than just your average teenage angst.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to be all ‘woe is me’ here, nor am I trying to be an attention seeker. Studying (living) with depression and/or anxiety is hard, and for those of you who also struggle with these demons, I’m just trying to say ‘Hey, you’re not alone.’ That’s all.
Everyone experiences these things differently. For me, it comes in bouts and stages. Like I said, it started when I was about sixteen, but it hasn’t been constant. It comes and goes, along with the stressors and triggers in my life. This latest bout has hit me pretty badly, and has seriously affected my studies. It’s also the first time I’ve had anxiety along with the depression, so that’s been another learning curve for me.
Lucky for me (and everyone studying at FedUni) the lecturers and support teams we have here are invaluable, and have helped me struggle though last semester, and begin limping into this one. I’ve had help from my schools undergraduate coordinator, the Student Advisory Service, and the Disability Liaison team, to name a few. All of them have been fantastic, and understanding, and they have put things in place that did help, and will continue to help me throughout my time studying here.
I think I’ll leave this post here for now, as I’m not really sure where I’m going with all this rambling. All going well, I’m hoping to write a few posts on my exploits with depression (or MEWD. Because that sounds like a cute noise a little kitty would make), just to give people some sort of insight into what depression can be like. Or something like that.
-Emma
Week One Nerves
Helloooooooo!
So it is week one. First week of classes for Semester One 2015. For some of you, this may be your first week of uni classes ever. For others, you may have been to uni a while back and are just restarting after a time away from study. And for all continuing students, you will be starting again after a break over Christmas and summer (unless you did summer subjects).
I started my first lecture this week at 9am on Monday morning. I have been studying at FedUni for five years now, and am just starting my sixth year here. Yep, I’ve been here a while. Even with all that time I have spent here, I still found myself terrified and anxious over the weekend thinking about classes starting on Monday. Will I make friends? Will I be able to keep up with the content? Am I going to be able to finally master time management skills and not leave my assignments to the last minute this year? All these questions were spinning around my head, making it impossible for me to fall asleep easily on Sunday night.
I woke up exhausted on Monday morning. Minimal sleep from stress mixed with anxiety over starting classes again meant that I could barely get myself out of bed for that first-thing-Monday-morning-lecture. But I dragged myself out of my warm, comfy doona castle, got ready and headed to uni, and eventually found the lecture theatre my class was in (because I still get lost sometimes even after five years).
And you know what? I loved it. My lecture was really interesting and full of information I hadn’t known before. I found myself back in the learning state of mind and was ready to do whatever I had to in order to do the best I could in my study. My anxiety was gone and now I am all ready and raring to continue with all that I can cram into my mind.
Basically, the moral of this story (because what’s a story without a moral) is this: everyone is terrified. Most people feel like they don’t belong at some point or another, and that there has been a mistake and they shouldn’t be here. Even those of us who have been here for a while still experience that dread and uncertainty about themselves and their ability to be a university student. That doesn’t mean that your horrible feeling of dread is never going away and you will be stuck with it forever. Hopefully that will not happen. But if it doesn’t, be aware that you are not the only one, and there are people who can help.
Counselling
The counselors here can help with just about anything, and they’re pretty awesome people to boot. Appointments are free for any FedUni student, and they’re available at Mt Helen, Gippsland, SMB and Horsham. You can find more information at federation.edu.au/counselling
ASK
The ASK service runs from 10 to 2, Monday to Thursday, and is there for any question you might have. It’s staffed by experienced students, and if they can’t answer your question, they can point you where you need to go. They specialise in answering questions around academic skills like essay writing, referencing and time management. You can also get in touch with the ASK service in a massive range of ways:
- In the Library at Mt Helen or Gippsland
- By phone on 5327 6422
- By email at ask.sal@federation.edu.au
- By Facebook message at facebook.com/feduniask
- By filling out an online form here
You can find out more at federation.edu.au/ask
More Resources
Academic support: federation.edu.au/studentfutures
Other support services: http://federation.edu.au/current-students/assistance-support-and-services/student-support-services
So just remember that there are services there for you, and we all get stressed and confused! All the best and welcome back.
-Tegan
YourTutor
Helloooooooo my lovely little kittens!
Miss me? I bet you did. Today I am going to tell you all about a fairly wonderful little thing called yourtutor.
Firstly, if you do not know about yourtutor, then you have been missing out. But given we are down to the extremely sharp and horribly pointy end of the year, it may just be the best time for you to get on it.
Yourtutor is a tutoring service. Basically. BUT it is online. AND it is free for FedUni students. PLUS it is accessible late at night when all your tutors and lecturers have drifted off into a deep slumber, or are out drinking wine and partying to their heart’s content. Whatever it is those crazy kids do that means they don’t reply to our emails right when we need them the most — an hour before the assignment is due at midnight, or the night before your early morning exam. So that’s when yourtutor becomes the greatest friend a uni student could ever have.
They are accessible from 3pm-11pm every day of the week except Saturday (because they need to party and sleep sometimes too, friends), and you do not even need to put on pants or get out of bed to talk to them. Yep, sounds pretty great, right? Well, it is.
Yourtutor is made up of experienced tutors, who can help with anything from maths and science to English and grammar. They will help you with research, topic analysis, study tips, basically anything study related that you need help with. You can even upload your assignments for them to have a look over and give you some help. Yes, they are that good.
To access yourtutor you will find a banner on the home page of Moodle. You can find more information and a short video clip about it here.
So seriously, if you find yourself struggling with a question that just can’t wait until tomorrow, or an assignment that needs to be looked over before you submit it, log onto yourtutor and watch them work their magic*.
-Tegan
*Not actual real magic. They have unfortunately not been to Hogwarts. Well, not that they’ve told me anyway…
General Guide to Writing & Study Skills
Helloooooo my lovely little kittens!
I’m here today to discuss with you a wonderful fun new resource we have available to help you with your writing and study skills. It is called (surprisingly) the General Guide to Writing and Study Skills! This handy little eBook/PDF is full of all sorts of hints and tips to make writing and studying that much easier.
This super handy guide contains things from adjusting to the university lifestyle, to writing different types of assessment, to avoiding plagiarism, to all manner of other exciting little tidbits to help you make it through university without being eaten by a crocodile*.
Even if you don’t feel as though you are struggling with any writing or study skills, I recommend checking out this book, as you may be surprised by what you can find. It is written in a way to try and make it as accessible to students as possible, so you don’t have to wade through *cough* stuffy *cough* academic language to try and find what you are looking for.
I feel like I am writing an advertisement here. I guess I kind of am, so maybe I should just commit to it. Let’s try that.
(read in big booming voice) Here for the first time ever, a study skills guide that is fun AND useful. Come on down and try out our General Guide to Writing and Study Skills, for the special price of $0! Yes, you heard me right folks, that is absolutely free for now and always!
Well…that felt weird. Maybe I should just stick to talking about it as I was. Basically, this is one handy piece of work. Let’s just stick with that. Have a look, check it out, and if you have any feedback or comments there is a form you can fill out to help this resource get even better. Yep. Better than it is now. That is going to be tough, given how good it already is, but we can try.
ANYWAY, the guide can be found here or by accessing the Federation University home page, and clicking students > learning and study > study skills and writing guides.
The feedback form can be accessed by following the same process, or simply by clicking here.
I hope you find this resource as useful and fun as it is intended to be, and that you enjoyed reading my (slightly insane) blog post.
– Tegan 🙂
*may or may not mention crocodiles at any point in this guide ever at all
PASS 8+ Promotion
Hello! I’m writing today to tell you all about PASS’s 8 plus promotion. If you attend 8 or more PASS sessions you go into the draw to win an awesome voucher: a voucher for Officeworks (a student’s best friend) valued at $100. This voucher could be a great help for studies next year, or maybe you’ve been saving up for a cool gadget or something and a $100 voucher to put towards that surely wouldn’t hurt. Anyways, I can’t win because I’m a PASS leader, so do me a favour and enter the draw for me. PASS really is a great program, so while you’re studying with your friends and peers, just think what amazing things you could do with that voucher!
And now for some more info on what PASS is:
PASS (peer assisted study sessions), is a program that is runs at Mt Helen, Gippsland and Horsham campuses. It aims to help undergraduate students better understand tricky concepts, make friends, and achieve overall better grades (It’s true, students really do get better grades if they attend PASS). PASS is not just for first years or those who are struggling with a subject, but for anyone who feels like they want a bit of extra time to discuss the content in a relaxed and fun way. PASS runs throughout the semester and even during SWOTVAC. It is free and is run by a student who has previously excelled in that subject, so they can help guide you and let you know if you’re on the right track.
PASS is nothing like a tutorial. You don’t have to raise your hand, there are sometimes lollies and everyone has the opportunity to input their ideas. It is also a great way to really cement information as, when students explain concepts to other students, it can help a lot (I’m pretty sure I read research for this somewhere, but I can’t find, so you don’t get an academic source to support that). It is also great for breaking down tricky terms or languages. Students are also great at finding tricks to remembering things that the whole group can benefit from (Nursing students love acronyms!).
So anyway, PASS provides the opportunity for a laid back environment where students ultimately have the power! The students can help choose what type of activities they find work best for them, so they can use study techniques that are going to benefit them the most. PASS provides the opportunity for students to discuss their ideas, play games and also have some fun!
To find out if PASS runs for your class you can simply go to the federation.edu.au/pass, check the moodle shell for your course or enquire at the ASK desk.
So what are you waiting for? Get yourselves along to PASS, a program that is going to help boost your grades, find cool ways of remembering things, have a lolly or two and — who knows — maybe even win an Officeworks voucher!
– Bec