Mental Health Supplement - Direktorat Pembinaan Kemahasiswaan (DPK) UII

Support in Overcoming Anxiety

A common issue faced by students is experiencing feelings of anxiety. In essence, occasional feelings of anxiety or nervousness are normal. If anxiety can be managed, and beneficial thought patterns can be developed, it can help students focus on positive thoughts and actions.
However, anxiety can become a problem when it causes disruptions or difficulties in academic activities and daily life. Anxiety may become problematic if it is:
1. Excessive
2. Disruptive
3. Uncontrollable
4. Significantly affecting daily life
Poorly managed anxiety can lead to:
1. Excessive worrying about things
2. Engaging in excessive ‘what-if’ questioning
3. Constantly predicting negative outcomes

Strategies to overcome anxiety:

SELF DEVELOPMENT: When worrisome thoughts begin to pile up, this strategy can help you target negative beliefs and develop helpful thought patterns.
1. Delay worries: Postpone worries to a future time and focus on what you are doing. This can help you stop or forget negative thoughts.
2. Analyze your worries: Take a step back and evaluate the problem. How important is it actually? How likely is it to happen? Will worrying help you solve it? Think about how you can redirect your energy to do something productive.
3. Control your thoughts: Actively choose to build positive and productive thoughts while simultaneously rejecting negative thoughts from arising.
4. Focus on solutions: Reframe problems as challenges yet to be solved, develop action plans, and direct your efforts towards finding solutions.
5. Value yourself: Focus on developing greater self-confidence and self-esteem. Do not evaluate your self-worth based on external measures such as judgments or opinions from others.
Attend webinars/seminars on relevant topics (organized by PIK-M Aushaf and/or UII’s Department of Student Affairs).
Participate in training sessions on relevant topics (organized by UII’s Department of Student Affairs).

Support to Improve Self-Esteem & Self-Confidence

Healthy self-esteem and self-confidence can help students lead more satisfying personal and academic lives.
Although self-esteem and self-confidence are often understood to overlap, they are actually different concepts.
Self-esteem refers to a person’s thoughts, feelings, and perceptions about themselves. Self-esteem will develop and change as a result of life experiences and interactions with others.
Healthy self-esteem is necessary to cultivate self-confidence, enabling individuals to face life’s challenges and participate in enjoyable and beneficial activities in daily life and academics.
Self-confidence is a positive attitude in which an individual feels competent or capable of developing positive judgments about themselves and their environment. This can vary depending on the situation faced. It is normal to feel confident enough in some situations and less confident in others.

Strategies to improve self-esteem and self-confidence:

Here are some things you can do to better understand your needs and build self-esteem and self-confidence:

SELF DEVELOPMENT
1. Enhancing self-esteem: Use self-development modules and other provided resources that can be downloaded to help understand and improve self-esteem.
2. Building self-confidence: Use self-development modules and other resources, then follow step-by-step approaches to assess and enhance self-confidence.
Attend webinars/seminars on relevant topics (organized by PIK-M Aushaf and/or UII’s Department of Student Affairs).
Participate in training sessions on relevant topics (organized by UII’s Department of Student Affairs).

Support to Overcome Loneliness

Loneliness is a mental and emotional state characterized by feelings of emptiness, solitude, lack of friends, isolation, and the absence of someone who understands the consequences of a mismatch between expected social relationships and the reality of interpersonal life, leading to hindered or reduced social connections.
Loneliness can cause individuals to experience feelings of sadness, anger, or helplessness. Over time, they may feel overwhelmed or anxious, question their self-worth, or believe that their situation will never improve.

One does not need to be physically isolated to feel lonely. Someone may feel lonely if they:
1. Have less social contact or fewer close relationships than desired.
2. Are separated from their support network in the social environment.
3. Experience social anxiety or find it difficult to communicate with others.

Strategies to Overcome Loneliness:

SELF DEVELOPMENT
1. Observe your thought patterns and challenge the way you view yourself: If you frequently tell yourself, “I am lonely,” your actions and behavior will automatically support that belief. Challenging these negative thought patterns can help break the cycle of loneliness. You can try:
  - Setting aside specific time each day to work through worrisome thoughts and feelings.
  - Keeping a journal to write down your daily thoughts and experiences.
2. Take time to reflect on your life, achievements, and experiences as a whole, and try to identify and reinforce more positive ways of seeing yourself. To help with this, write down possible descriptions about yourself (including “I am lonely”) and make a list of reasons that challenge each negative description you have written.
3. Avoid comparing yourself to others: Sometimes, people may have good social support but still feel lonely when comparing themselves to others who seem to have more social contacts. Reconsider the idea that you may already have plenty of quality social connections.
4. Connect with new people: Look for opportunities to meet new people on campus, online, through your hobbies and interests, or in other social situations. You may feel anxious about doing this, but it will get easier with practice. To start, try setting small social goals. You can expand your goals as you gain more confidence. You can try:
  - Greeting someone new.
  - Showing interest in others – ask questions about them or their interests.
  - Inviting a new friend out or acczpting invitations from others.
Attend webinars/seminars on relevant topics (organized by PIK-M Aushaf and/or UII’s Department of Student Affairs).
Participate in training sessions on relevant topics (organized by UII’s Department of Student Affairs).

Support to Prevent and Overcome Bullying

Bullying is when someone repeatedly attacks someone with less power, often without provocation. This can happen anywhere, including on campus, in social situations, and online.
Bullying can be:
1. Overt, such as physical intimidation, verbal insults, and threats.
2. Covert, such as passive-aggressive behavior, spreading rumors, or isolating someone.
Each action may seem small, but because bullying is repetitive and often personal, the person being bullied may feel lonely, powerless, and humiliated. Over time, the victim may experience severe and long-lasting problems such as:
1. Depression,
2. Substance abuse,
3. Decreased motivation,
4. Loneliness, and
5. Low self-confidence.
In extreme cases, a person who has been bullied may even question their desire to live. It is crucial to stop bullying at an early stage to prevent long-term harm.