Dear Docs,

I haven’t been sleeping well lately. I’m edgy. I’ve been arguing with my friends. I find myself reading things over and over again, and yet I can’t absorb the content. I can’t believe that I’m unwilling to volunteer answers in class. For once I am the person describing myself as “overwhelmed”.

Doc, I think I’m not actually the emotionally sound, resilient being I’ve always taken for granted. I am supposed to be the one people turn to, and yet I am writing you to ask for help. Was I fooling myself? Am I in “over my head”? Why am I the anxious one, the one smothered by my responsibilities? I’ve always seemed impermeable to stress. Might you have some advice?

-Fretting Pat

Dear Fretting,

You wouldn’t be at DU if you weren’t the person you always figured you were. But listen, none of us are immune to the impact of unrelenting stress. You are certainly not alone in your ordeal. The years of University and graduate studies will remain among the most stressful you’ll ever experience.

I suspect you’ve managed life stresses in the past, and have rightfully been pleased to be among those who learn from adversity and emerge fortified by the experience. Judged against your past your current times at DU don’t seem to be much more stressful that that which you have triumphed over previously. If this sounds like you, I assure you that many students feel this way. You are not along.

The Student Health and Counseling Center can help you. The center embraces a culture of integrated mental and physical health. We will listen to you, and enlist you as a full partner in your therapy. There is little value in telling a student what we want them to do.

In contrast, thorough communication and active dialog will usually engender the therapeutic strategy which will offer the greatest reward. Any student suffering from very real stresses of DU’s highly competitive academic environment is likely to be quite gratified by the solutions we can mutually devise.

Remember, the emphasis here is on the word “mutually”, calling upon the notions of “respect” and “empathy”. We are here for you, and because of you.

Sincerely,The Docs