The assignments are piling up, the weather is getting colder, and you still have to pay rent by the end of the month. Stressful isn’t it? On top of that, being away from home gets more rough as the holidays approach. We international students know this all too well.
It would be unsurprising if your mental health ended up getting worse as a result, and you would also not be the only international student in this situation. But how do we manage it?
Mental Health Issues Are Quite Common In Newcomers
Many international students in Canada struggle with mental health issues ranging from stress, anxiety, or even depression. It makes sense. After all, moving to a new country and leaving friends and family behind is an enormous change. Add to that the fact that if you are an international student, you have to maintain your Student Status, and probably balance a part-time job as well to afford living here. That is if you have found a job that works with your schedule.
Honestly, it would be more surprising to find an international student whose mental health isn’t affected by any of these factors.
The Resources May Be “Free”, But Also Limited
So things are bad. But, International students have free access to their school’s Health and Wellness offices and are also required to have Health Insurance, so we should have easy access to therapy, right?
Wrong.
It can be hard to access mental health services that focus on the specific mental issues you may experience. Health and Wellness departments in universities are understaffed compared to the number of students, both domestic and international, attending the institution. Additionally, most of the services are often are advertised as delving into basic or short-term help to students. So, you may not be able to correctly identify the source and solutions to the mental struggles you are experiencing.
In addition, the Health Insurance that international students purchase before starting school only covers a very limited amount of sessions with a professional. That is if we can even find a place that accepts our insurance. Additionally, navigating the healthcare system in a new country just adds to our growing stress.
Hence, we international students are left with declining mental health and a lack of resources to properly navigate it. Or are we?
Surviving and Thriving in Canada
Fortunately, Workright’s new e-learning course, “Surviving and Thriving in Canada”, offers the perfect middle ground between your school’s counselling services and one-on-one counseling sessions with a professional.
The course has been designed by Psychotherapist Donna Marshall who understands, from past personal experience, the hardships of living abroad and trying to acclimate to a new country. As a result, it aims to give international students the skills to succeed personally and professionally in Canada.
The course consists of two modules, with each of them being divided into several mini-courses. Every mini-course is taught and designed by a professional in the subject matter that is being explored in each of the sections. This gives you a more complete service that you can access from the comfort of your home and tackle at your own pace instead of having to carve out time off your schedule to go to a physical location to see a therapist.
Helping You Understand And Manage Your Mental Health
The first module specifically focuses on helping you understand and manage some of the most common mental health issues you may be experiencing after moving to Canada. It contains six mini-courses, each giving a complete breakdown of its topic, its causes, effects, and how to manage them.
Depression and The Many Ways It Manifests
The first mini-course tackles depression. This is a common issue among international students, but it can manifest in different ways depending on the person. Hence, the course gives detailed explanations of the most common, yet varied ways that depression can look like to help you better identify the specific effects it may be having on you. The mini-course also deconstructs some of the stereotypes associated with depression and provides you with multiple possible ways to manage and treat it.
With depression often appearing in combination, or as the result of other mental health issues, the course additionally gives you an overview of some common co-diagnoses that occur with depression. It also emphasizes the importance of recognizing when to seek one-on-one professional help to manage your depression, especially if it’s manifesting as a symptom of physical conditions.
Helping You Manage Your Anxiety, Or Help A Friend Manage Theirs
The second topic in the module is anxiety and likewise, it explains some of its possible sources and ways in which it can manifest in you. The mini-course gives a wide array of ways to both prevent and manage the different ways in which anxiety appears. It is particularly helpful in offering ways in which you may be able to help someone close who’s dealing with anxiety symptoms. After all, anxiety is highly common among not just newcomers to Canada, Even if you don’t experience anxiety, someone close to you may still experience symptoms of it.
Sleeping And Why It’s Important
Sleep Problems are caused by multiple reasons and stressors in our lives. They can be the result of each mental health issue covered by this module, and they can also exacerbate each of those issues even further. Considering how often international students are affected by these mental health issues, it’s no surprise to know that sleep problems are also common among us. This topic is highlighted within the first module. This small course tackles understanding the various factors that may be contributing to your sleep problems so that you are able to properly tackle them. The mini-course additionally addresses sleep disorders and recognizing insomnia.
It also cautions against bad sleeping habits and understanding the importance of sleep. Multiple times newcomers, especially students, willingly choose to sacrifice sleep in order to finish our assignments or pick up extra shifts at work. I have certainly done so throughout my time studying in Canada. Thus, this mini-course highlights the dangers of losing sleep to encourage us to not skip out on it. It naturally also offers a lot of tips and habits that, if followed consistently and are made a top priority, can improve our sleeping problems.
Stress In Our Professional Lives
Everybody feels stress and there are many factors in an international student’s life that cause it. Be it the constant study permit changes, looking for a job, or balancing all of our responsibilities, stress might just be the most common mental health issue among us international students. This mini-course breaks down what stress is and what can be causing it, particularly in the Canadian workplace, which many of us are still not completely used to.
It also explores the types of stress and the impact that it can have on us. As we mentioned before, losing sleep is a possible result of stress, but that is only one of the diverse ways in which stress can be affecting us. Therefore, this topic is explored in great detail and the mini-course provides advice on practicing and applying mindfulness to successfully manage your stress.
Boundaries And Improving Your Relationships
Having left your family and friends to move to Canada can be very isolating. You can definitely forge new relationships here, but social boundaries and mannerisms can be so different from our home countries that making new friends can even be more difficult.
Luckily, this course goes into detail explaining boundaries and their importance in your life. It gives you the skills to understand others’ boundaries as well as how and when to set your own and as a result, forge and improve your relationships with others.
The Importance of Food In Your Mental Health
Aside from sleep, one of the biggest things we sacrifice amidst the stress of studying and paying our bills is food. The final part of the first module highlights the importance of food in your life and how bad eating habits can contribute to your mental health’s decline, particularly in depression and anxiety. The mini-course further explains how different nutrients can be affecting your mental health for better or worse and gives you some combinations to improve it.
Don’t Just Survive. Thrive in Canada
The second module has a higher emphasis on helping you with your professional journey in Canada. While not directly delving into mental health, this module does extensively provide you with the soft skills necessary to deal with two of the biggest sources of stress we international students face: Securing a Job and Understanding Canadian Work Culture. With this module, your professional Canadian journey will be taken to the next level.
Learn More about Surviving And Thriving In Canada at https://workright.ca/fromafar/
Get The Course Now And Access The Resources Your Mental Health Deserves here.
(Use the coupon code YorkU50 anytime between today and December 10th for a 50% discount)