Mental health problems of studying abroad can not be ignored.
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Mental health problems can not be ignored when studying abroad.
"I just want to shut myself in the room, the door is closed, the curtains are closed, and the lights are turned off, so that I am trapped in the darkness. I feel moldy, just like a mushroom. " Xiao L (a pseudonym) said.
Shortly after coming to study in England, Nie Bo found that something was wrong with his friend Xiao L. "At first, he just felt in a bad mood and wanted to close himself up. Later, the situation became more and more serious. He began to have self-harm behavior, and his hands were covered with teeth marks that he had bitten hard. He also had the impulse to commit suicide and wanted to jump off the balcony. "
According to Nie Bo, the signs of depression of Xiao L did not begin until he came to Britain. There have been psychological problems in Xiao L’s family, and his childhood growth experience has made him more sensitive and anxious than his peers. When I was in China, I often felt extremely depressed, but he never went to see a psychiatrist, and his family didn’t take his depression seriously. He only attributed these symptoms to "bad temper" or "bad mood". When he arrived in England, under the pressure of his studies, his symptoms of depression began to appear frequently and get worse, which seriously affected his studies and daily life. In those days when his illness was the most serious, his good friend Nie Bo stayed with him all the time.
Nie Bo, who just graduated from University College London with a Ph.D., studied psychology during his undergraduate and master’s degrees, and had an internship experience in a psychological counseling center. The professional education background made him immediately realize that Xiao L’s condition belongs to the category of depression, which also enabled him to give effective help to his friends.
"I put away all the sharp objects in his house and made him promise not to do stupid things. If he can’t control what he wants to do to hurt himself, he must give me a call first. This is a method that the teacher taught at school before: to establish some kind of connection with the suicidal visitor and let him know that there are still people missing him in the world, which is like the last straw. Many people with depression make the last phone call before committing suicide. In fact, they are asking for help, hoping that someone will pull them back. This phone call is a distress signal. Some psychologists believe that many suicides are carried out after the failure of the’ last call for help’. So I agreed with him that you can call me no matter how late. " In an interview with China Youth Daily and Zhongqing Online reporter, Nie Bo said, "I contacted his parents at the first time, then contacted the psychological support institution of the school with him, and accompanied him to see a doctor. General practitioners under the British health care system have basic psychological diagnosis and treatment ability. At that time, the general practitioner saw that his condition was serious, and immediately contacted the professional team responsible for dealing with suicide/psychological crisis, and gave us a 24-hour manned psychological assistance hotline. The team responsible for psychological intervention contacted us within 24 hours. Through telephone calls and interviews, they assessed the urgency of Xiao L’s situation and formulated a rescue plan. "
The impact of external environmental changes and cultural differences increases the incidence of mental illness.
Dr Ricardo Tejero, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, told China Youth Daily and Zhongqing Online reporter: "Mental illness is a family hereditary disease to a large extent, which is largely determined by genes. For a teenager with a family history of mental illness, unless he has been well protected, his family atmosphere is harmonious and he is not bullied at school, it is difficult to ensure that he will not get sick. The incidence of mental illness among international students is very high, and many cases are caused by psychological pressure caused by changes in the external environment and cultural differences. "
Weng Laiyi, who is studying for a doctorate at Oxford University, has also experienced a very autistic psychological low tide. He told the reporter of China Youth Daily and Zhongqing Online: "At that time, my mood fluctuated, but I didn’t know how to deal with it, and I didn’t realize that it was a mental health problem. Oxford University is a very stressful place, and there is an elitism here. Everyone agrees that it is normal to be stressed. In such a big environment, you will not realize that stress needs to be dealt with, and you will ignore the handling of stress. But then we found that some students around us became very wrong, and gradually realized that this problem needs to be solved. "
From the examples of classmates around him, Nie Bo found that the factors that induce foreign students to have psychological problems can be roughly classified into three categories: first, academic pressure; The second is the relationship with parents; The third is the relationship with lovers. Among them, academic stress is the most common. "As an international student, I have to adapt to a new environment in all aspects. Language itself is a big challenge. There may be some incomprehensible situations in class, and there may be language barriers when communicating with students around. It may be better if there are other students from China around, and the pressure is even greater if they are isolated. In this case, anxiety may occur and become withdrawn and autistic, thus further inducing depression. "
Contradictions with family and poor communication are also common problems for international students. "Because of the distance and time difference, communication with family members is prone to problems. For some problems we encounter abroad, parents can only give suggestions based on the domestic environment and their own life experience, but these suggestions are often not applicable to the actual situation abroad. We will feel that our parents are bossing around, and parents will complain that we are disobedient. Over time, the gap will get deeper and deeper, and it is easy to quarrel when communicating. "
In addition, lovelorn is also an important factor that causes mood swings. "Most international students, especially master’s and doctoral students, are adults, and their emotions are very important in their daily lives. However, the uncertainty in the future makes their emotional variables very large, so the situation of lovelorn sometimes happens." Nie Bo said.
Everyone needs love and affirmation.
Nie Bo told the China Youth Daily and Zhongqing Online reporter that in order to solve the mental health problems of students in school in time, all universities in Britain are equipped with consultants or teams to provide psychological support. The members of the institutions are roughly composed of two parts, one is the teacher of the psychology department of the school, and the other is the professional psychological consultant who cooperates with the school. When students find that their psychology is abnormal, they can ask for help from our professional counselors and contact psychological aid agencies for help.
Weng Laiyi’s Oxford University also has such a psychological assistance institution, which is a psychological counseling center set up by the school. Weng Laiyi told China Youth Daily and Zhongqing Online reporter that the psychological counseling service provided by the Psychological Counseling Center of Oxford University aims to evaluate and guide students’ mental health to prevent mental health problems from deepening. The center has medical consultants and psychologists, but the psychological counseling service it provides does not belong to the category of clinical psychological counseling and psychotherapy. When the teachers in the counseling center find that a student’s condition cannot be alleviated by psychological counseling, but may need clinical psychotherapy and drug intervention, they will hand over the student’s medical records to a more professional psychological and medical department for further diagnosis and evaluation according to the students’ wishes.
Lou Qi from the Department of Plant Science of Oxford University told the China Youth Daily and Zhongqing Online reporter that the psychological counseling service organization has also set up a "Peer Support and Mutual Assistance Program" to recruit volunteers from students and provide them with relevant training, so that they can also participate in the psychological counseling team and help students in need.
Lou Qi is a volunteer in the Peer Support and Mutual Assistance Program. Before becoming a volunteer, she went through a semester-long training, and spent two afternoons every week to participate in group training with other volunteers. Training is interactive, mainly through scenario simulation training to enable volunteers to better understand and deal with various emotions and master communication skills. For example, we need to know what kind of emotions ordinary people will have under certain circumstances, how we should deal with these emotions, how to ask questions to each other, and what role and posture we should communicate and communicate with.
Lou Qi said that in fact, the school doesn’t want students who are volunteers to take on too many responsibilities. Volunteers play more of a role as a bridge to connect students with psychological problems with professional psychological counselors. Like other volunteers, she works in a small classroom for one hour to one and a half hours every week. The time and place of "sitting in class" will be sent to all students by email. "If some students need psychological help, they can come directly to this classroom to find me. Of course, they can also go directly to the school psychological counseling center to find a professional psychological counseling teacher."
Lou Qi has been working in the Peer Support and Mutual Assistance Program for two semesters. During this period, she found that most students in China are reserved, especially those with psychological barriers, and basically do not take the initiative to talk about their psychological problems with others. Through the information provided by the educational administration teacher and the information learned from other students, she will learn that a classmate may have an emotional situation, and then take the initiative to send an email to the other party to make an appointment to chat. "Every student here has great academic pressure, which is caused by the big environment. When the schoolwork pressure is too great, or when it is found that there is a certain gap between reality and expectation, some people may have escape psychology, become depressed and unwilling to socialize, and will fall into a vicious circle over time. In fact, everyone needs love and affirmation, because in a place full of competition and pressure, lack of love and affirmation can easily lead to self-denial emotions. Therefore, I will try my best to encourage and affirm each other in communication. "
Lou Qi has helped two students with psychological problems. She will take the initiative to contact each other, ask about each other’s recent situation from time to time, and silently give some hints and guidance to each other to help them relieve pressure. "When they are willing to chat with you, they must be in a good state. At this time, we must seize the opportunity to talk to them more and encourage them to feel care and affirmation. When we find that the condition is serious and can’t be handled, we must reflect it to the professional psychological teacher. "
Cultural and language problems make it difficult for China students to get corresponding psychological support.
Lou Qi told China Youth Daily and Zhongqing Online reporter that there are 500 or 600 students’ psychological support volunteers in Oxford University, but there are only 3 students’ volunteers in China, which is very low compared with the number of China students with about 1,200 students. Oxford University Psychological Counseling Center found that not only the proportion of volunteers in China is extremely low, but also the proportion of international students in China who use psychological counseling services is very low. In this regard, the person in charge of the psychological counseling center of Oxford University also expressed great doubts. "Why don’t China students use psychological counseling services? Is it because they are in good psychological condition, or are there other situations?"
After noticing that he and his classmates had mental health problems to a lesser or heavier degree, Weng Laiyi and the members of the "Yishan" Chinese students’ public welfare association founded by China students from Oxford University decided that Yishan would come forward to prepare a long-term "mental health care project" for the mental health problems of China students from Oxford University. At first, they consulted the questionnaire on mental health of British charity organizations, and designed a Chinese psychological questionnaire for China students in Oxford University, with the aim of understanding the understanding, attitude and needs of China students on mental health. After collecting and summarizing 120 questionnaires, the members of Yishan believe that the reason why China students seldom seek psychological help on their own initiative may be because: firstly, they lack understanding of the basic knowledge of mental health problems such as depression; Secondly, I am worried about the form of psychological consultation, and I feel uncomfortable talking to strangers about psychological and emotional problems; Thirdly, because the school psychological support service only has English options, there may be some language barriers.
So Weng Laiyi had an exchange with the Oxford University Psychological Counseling Center on behalf of Yishan, hoping that the Oxford University Psychological Counseling Center could recruit more China students to join their "Peer Support and Mutual Assistance Program" volunteer team, which would not only increase the total number of volunteers, but also increase the number of Chinese-speaking students in the volunteer group. "In this way, when a China student needs psychological help, he can choose volunteers who serve in Chinese to communicate in his mother tongue. Because the communication wording of psychological counseling is inherently subtle, if it is to be converted into English, it may be an extra burden for students who seek help. "
The Psychological Counseling Center of Oxford University expressed great interest in the proposal of "Yi Shan". Through these 120 questionnaires, the Psychological Counseling Center also confirmed their guess-it may be because of some cultural and linguistic differences that the psychological support needs of China students have not been met.
Weng Laiyi told reporters that after several times of communication and consultation, the Psychological Counseling Center of Oxford University has agreed to Yishan’s suggestion and will cooperate with Yishan to try to recruit more China students to join the volunteer group of the Peer Support and Mutual Assistance Program. At the same time, "Yishan" will also strengthen the publicity on mental health among China students through a series of measures, such as holding lectures on the popularization of mental health knowledge and stress-reducing social activities. The original intention of "Yishan" in the "Mental Health Care Project" is to make China students realize the importance of mental health problems and adjust their mental state to fully enjoy the opportunities and challenges brought by college life. For students who still have spare capacity, "Yishan" encourages them to participate in the volunteer work of the "Peer Support and Mutual Assistance Program" to help students in need.
After a period of treatment and drug testing, Xiao L’s psychologist finally found an antidepressant suitable for Xiao L. However, because the treatment of depression requires psychological counseling and drugs at the same time, Xiao L can’t communicate with the psychologist in depth in English. Although drugs have played a certain role in controlling his symptoms, the overall curative effect is still not satisfactory. Therefore, the school approved a semester’s sick leave for Xiao L and asked him to return to China for treatment first. After returning to China, Xiao L continued to take drugs while conducting psychological counseling. After half a year, his condition improved significantly. A teacher in Xiao L’s major comforted and encouraged him very understandingly. "Don’t worry, take your time. Don’t think that depression is an easy disease to cure, and it may take longer than you expected. " The teacher happened to have suffered from depression, and continued to treat it for 10 years, and finally defeated depression. The teacher said, "As long as they take medicine on time according to the doctor’s instructions, patients with depression can also carry out normal social activities and realize their social functions like ordinary people."
China Youth Daily Zhongqing Online Reporter Xia Wei Source: China Youth Daily