Opera Budaya Provides Mental Health Awareness Session for New Students

Jatinangor, West Java – reported from lldikti.kemdikbud.go.id based on a survey conducted by pdskji.org in 2020 responded by 4010 respondents, it is concluded that the 17-29 years old age group claimed to have the most psychological-related concerns. From this survey, it is also inferred that students are a big part of the group. To shed light on this issue, Unpad’s Faculty of Cultural Sciences emphasizes the importance of self-management and self-regulation for students. Self-regulation is the ability to exercise full control over one’s emotions and behavior. There are still, indeed, many students who are constantly holed up in their assignments, organizational activities, and other demands from people around them that they disregard their own mental health. If enough awareness is allocated to the importance of mental health, the skill of being able to self-regulate will certainly be of great help in carrying out our obligations as students.

New students’ mental health issues start with continuously fostering a negative mindset. For new students, mental health also plays an important role in adapting to various new environments as they come across various new things, from socializing to learning methods that are much different from when they were high school students. The abundance of new experiences sometimes leads new students to become disoriented and eventually triggers negative thoughts to emerge. Deriving from this negative mindset, new students tend to feel that they have chosen the wrong major, which in turn causes stress, even though it is completely normal to feel this way as the beginning of college is a time to adapt and get used to new surroundings.

There are many ways to shift a negative mindset into a positive mindset, including:

Preparing well-thought-out plans. Thorough planning will help new students in determining the right goals, and will also help new students in avoiding uncertainty and unnecessary things.
Getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep is proven to cause negative thoughts and emotional vulnerability. Adequate sleep is necessary to boost mental and emotional resilience so that one is not prone to negative thoughts.
Setting time aside for yourself. Taking your studies seriously is indeed consequential but making sure enough time is allocated for yourself is also as important.

Writer: Faculty of Cultural Sciences’ Opera Budaya Team
Translator: Dhia Anaulva Putri