{"id":2600,"date":"2020-04-17T01:38:27","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T01:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=2600"},"modified":"2020-09-12T12:51:44","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T16:51:44","slug":"covid-19-is-making-anxious-students-more-anxious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2020\/04\/covid-19-is-making-anxious-students-more-anxious\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Makes Anxious Students More Anxious"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before the coronavirus became a pandemic, Sarah Farr experienced mild anxiety. She would shake, sweat, and slightly panic about things like completing homework on time or being late to work.<\/p>\n

Now that the<\/span> danger of COVID-19<\/span><\/a> has become more real, <\/span>Farr\u2019s symptoms have become more intense. Along with more frequent shaking and sweating, she now has stomach pain.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes I would not sleep good at night because my stomach would hurt and the reason my stomach would hurt is because I don\u2019t want to go to work,\u201d said the 25-year-old special education major. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go to work because it\u2019s scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the coronavirus takes its toll on the nation, it is making the anxiety of some Hunter College students worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have two parents who have underlying medical conditions and I don\u2019t want to bring a virus home to them,\u201d said Farr, who is also a recreational aid at a nursing home.<\/p>\n

\"Now
Now that Farr is taking extra precautions, she wears a full protective gear (on right) over her former work uniform. Photos Courtesy of Sarah Farr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Farr, like many other healthcare workers, was expected to help combat the virus. So, she transitioned from working part-time to full-time. However, because of that change, she is also concerned about how COVID-19 will affect her academics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t have a lot of time on my hands. I feel like I\u2019m being rushed,\u201d said Farr, who manages her anxiety by thinking of other things when her symptoms arise due to anxiety-inducing thoughts.<\/p>\n

Hhu, another special education major at Hunter, says that COVID-19 has made her anxious about being productive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always have this anxious feeling that I have to play catch up,\u201d said Hhu, who is going by her middle name because she is concerned that revealing her mental health status could compromise her future employment. Now that COVID-19 has awarded her some free time, she signed up for more volunteer hours and classes to stay ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are starting to see that side where I might look like I\u2019m doing a lot but I\u2019m doing it out of fear of falling behind,\u201d said Hhu, who taps her leg when she feels nervous. \u201cBut then I realize that I bit off more than I can chew and I have side effects like nightmares or spotting.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he is not currently experiencing any side effects due to COVID-19, senior Hayden Shannon, who was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder in his early 20s, expects them at some point in the near future. He says that his anxiety is not situational but results from a combination of stressors over time.<\/p>\n

\"Hayden
Hayden Shannon doing work at Hunter College. Photo Courtesy of Hayden Shannon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI would expect in the next month that I\u2019ll receive backlash from this time,\u201d said the 29-year-old history major, who experiences shortness of breath, vertigo and lightheadedness due to anxiety. Shannon says he manages the anxiety through breathing techniques, talking himself out of the situation, and in extreme cases, medication.<\/p>\n

For students who are facing difficulties related to the pandemic, the staff of Hunter\u2019s Counseling and Wellness Services is offering a <\/span>virtual discussion group<\/span><\/a> that will work on positive coping strategies and problem-solving.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that this is a challenging time for Hunter students,\u201d said Martin Pino, director of <\/span>Counseling and Wellness Services<\/span><\/a> at Hunter College, who expressed that what students are feeling at this time is normal. \u201cStudents are facing multiple psychological stressors, struggling with anxiety, as well as feelings of worry, isolation, and grief.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

This group will be offered Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 1 to 2 pm on WebEx, from April 16 to May 27. The office\u2019s other usual counseling services will still be available remotely.<\/p>\n

As for the nursing home recreational aid and student, Sarah Farr, she says that she is optimistic about the situation and that the coronavirus is just something she will have to get past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have hope that I\u2019ll be OK because this isn\u2019t the first time I\u2019ve had work during my studies but COVID-19 has added another element to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students who already deal with anxiety find COVID-19 is making their situation worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":2602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[280,18,61,283,285,263,15,184,281,282,289,13,14,116,166,284,40,288,287,286,290],"class_list":["post-2600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-anxiety","tag-city-university-of-new-york","tag-college","tag-coronavirus","tag-counseling","tag-covid-19","tag-cuny","tag-cuny-hunter-college","tag-healthcare","tag-healthcare-workers","tag-homework","tag-hunter","tag-hunter-college","tag-hunter-news","tag-hunterstudents","tag-pandemic","tag-students","tag-symptoms","tag-virus","tag-wellness","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2600"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2618,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions\/2618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}