By: Philip Hartman

What is self-care, anyway? I hear that word floating around a lot these days, coming from the internet and from friends. Yet I am still perplexed by the concept of “self-care”. I’m a senior at Portland State University who works part time and rarely has time to himself. Yet with the pressures of school and personal life, I feel a bit overwhelmed—as if the world is on my shoulders. Those feelings slowly creep into my life in different ways, from depression to anxiety. It can affect my grades as the term progresses, and it can impact relationships too. I try to work on getting better, but it does not seem to work.

After a few weeks of working on my self-care I decided to get up the nerve and go to PSU’S Center For Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) to get some help. I felt uneasy having to discuss what is going on in my life and that things weren’t getting any better. Yet the staff were very helpful and showed me the steps to get an appointment and talk to one of the counselors. After waiting for a few minutes I met a counselor and it wasn’t as bad like, as I had imagined it. It really helped to talk to someone. I kept going to SHAC to get help and slowly but surely I was able to ease a bit and relax more.

Life doesn’t pause for depression or anxiety, but that does not mean you have to suffer through it alone.