Health advocates help students de-stress for finals

By Tamika Robinson
Feature Editor

With finals nearing and stress mounting, the staff of the Wellness Center has prepared activities to help students relax and do their best on final exams.

On Dec. 10-12, massages and a Stress Free Zone will be provided for students in the Wellness Center.
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Angel Weisbrod, director of Student Health Services, is in charge of the activities, along with the Health Advocates. Weisbrod said that during this time “students oftentimes neglect themselves. They don’t sleep, they don’t eat, they don’t work out if they have been doing that already, and they wind up wearing their bodies down.” The massages and Stress Free Zone during finals, she said, are “just to give (students) a little time to sit down, take a deep breath, relax, pay attention to their bodies with a massage, and kind of re-collect themselves so they can focus better.”

Weisbrod said sometimes students resort to bad alternatives for relieving stress during finals, like giving up daily routines, skipping on sleep, eating unhealthy food and drinking alcohol or energy drinks. All of this, she said, is hard on the body psychologically.

Junior Health Advocate Hillary Stenzel agreed. “I think a lot of times when people get stressed, they get to the point of either over-frustration, where they just give up and decide ‘I’m not going to do this,’ or they can go to the extreme of saying ‘I’m not going to sleep,’” she said.

If in need of a little study break, students should visit the Wellness Center during this time. “I think the biggest benefit of it is just having students know that there is somewhere to go if they get to the point where they are like ‘Okay, I’m stressed! Where do I go now?’” said Stenzel. “Everyone is in the same situation, everyone is stressed, so if you just take that second and come and join the activities for a little bit, I think that will help.”

Appointments will need to be made in advance for the massages, but students can still check in on those days for last-minute availabilities. Relaxation CDs and other relaxing activities will also be on hand for students.