The issue of mental health is a topic that is being discussed recently, especially among students, especially during the pandemic. The reason is that during online lectures, piles of assignments and the absence of a direct socialization room make students experience stress. For this reason, efforts are needed to manage stress so that students can avoid burn out which will lead to negative things.
This was conveyed by Dr. Fibria Indriati, M.Si Vice Dean for Education, Research, and Student Affairs, Faculty of Administrative Sciences, University of Indonesia (FIA UI) as part of the Healing Class FIA UI 2022 event with the theme Managing Stress Avoiding Burn Out on Wednesday, June 29, 2022 at noon online through the platform zoom meeting.
In this event, Reginald as a representative of Student Welfare Advocacy (Adkesma) Faculty of Administrative Sciences Faculty of Administrative Sciences (FIA UI) explained the mental health condition of UI students during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 which showed that as many as 48.9% of students experienced anxiety disorders, 55 .5% experienced symptoms of depression, 64.6% had poor sleep quality.
After the explanation, Fadhilah Amalia, M.Psi, a Clinical Psychologist who was a resource person in this Healing Class, continued the event by asking class participants to choose one of two pictures that described the condition they were feeling and playing again “Self” by Tulus to calm the participants down. can start the main event.
“Every day, of course, we as humans will face various kinds of emotions and of course disturbing thoughts. There are also some things that we may not realize disturb our minds and accumulate that cause discomfort in our minds and hearts,” said Fadhilah.
Fadhilah said that based on the definition of the American Psychological Association (APA), stress is a condition where the demand or demands are compared with the source or resources owned. Stress can also occur if something threatening or unpleasant happens to humans, either internally or externally, that causes discomfort.
“There are three types of stress according to the APA, namely acute stress, episodic acute stress, and chronic stress. Then, we will go into the definition of burnout where burnout is similar to stress. According to WHO, burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as a result of chronic stress at work that has not been successfully managed by an individual. Burnout itself is not a medical diagnosis,” she explained.
The basic difference is that burnout is related to work, organizational, academic activities, or roles such as parenting or caretaking. For students, what generally happens is academic burnout which can be seen from physical and psychological responses, tired when they want to start or in the learning process, decreased learning motivation, an urge to avoid, and having difficulty focusing.
Burnout itself can have a direct impact on three things, namely work efficiency where work motivation will decrease and lead to procrastinating tendencies, secondly it affects the quality of relationships with the closest people which can trigger conflict, and lastly, if the burnout condition is not handled properly it can have an impact on mental conditions that affect the quality of life. more serious,” she concluded.
To prevent burnout, it is necessary to have an attitude to recognize thoughts, feelings, and attitudes better. Then, practice self-care, and adopt healthier habits and work-life balance.
But it has also happened, practice breathing relaxation or meditation, if possible then communicate the problem with the relevant parties and make the right decision, and finally try to ask for support from professionals to help improve your mental condition.
Then, the event continued with a discussion session where there were several participants who asked questions and one of them asked about “What is the basic difference between burnout and anxiety disorder?”
Fadhilah answered “the main difference is that burnout is not the result of a medical diagnosis and the context is always related to a person’s role in social activities such as work, academics, and others. Burnout can also look like someone who is anxious too. However, the basic thing that makes the difference is that anxiety is a medical diagnosis and is rarely related to a person’s role in society,” she said.
