Are we all truly as "fine" or "great" as we claim to be in our standardized responses to the usual greeting of "How are you?". Our inherent self-consciousness and pride usually prevent us from admitting that we are far from "fine", much less, seek professional help or counseling for our emotional and mental issues.
Moreover, the negative stigmatized image of counseling, whereby one's acquiescence to undergo counseling is taken as a sure sign of abject weakness and vulnerability, seeks to further compound the existing problem. As cliché as it might sound, it is the truth that there is no happiness without action.
The first action to take is to admit that you're currently
not happy and understand why you're
not. Doing the latter is a lot more difficult than it seems
because it is easy to be fixated on the symptoms of our unhappiness and
overlook the root of it. Herein lies the cue for our
professional counselors to step in.
 In order to examine the status of the emotional and mental well-being of the student population in NUS, as well as identifying the available services rendered by professional counselors, Hooked recently caught up with the professionals from University Health and Wellness Centre: Counseling Centre.
Located at the Alumni House, the counseling centre is a non-descript section of the UHWC, which handles the emotional and mental well-being of the student population. Contrary to popular belief, the range of services provided by the counseling centre is not constrained to one-on-one counseling sessions with troubled clients. Rather, they are mostly targeted at prevention, as opposed to cure, by offering a series of group sessions for various needs and interests, which include Personal Growth, Movie Musings and Art Works 4 U.
They have also adopted a proactive approach by sending out e-newsletters that aim to help students cope with exam week and other stressful situations in university life. Forums that celebrate mental health and the importance of diversity have also been held over the past semesters.
 As expected, the most frequently encountered problems that the Counseling Centre treats are those pertaining to academic problems such as study stress, difficulty in adjustment to university life and demands, as well as relationship issues, which might pertain to the familial, platonic or romantic kind. Those suffering from depression and anxiety disorders can also obtain help from the Counseling Centre.
One-on-one counseling is not a one time affair. Instead, it is a matter of policy for the counseling centre to see clients for up to eight times for a particular concern raised by any particular student.
The counselors help by giving emotional support, facilitating the process of healing or discovery and teaching them fundamental life skills that help the students deal with the difficulties that they may be confronted with throughout their lifetime.
It is easy to get impatient with the speed of your mental and emotional recovery, as the fragility of your emotions during your recovery phase , which leads to self-doubting your ability to cure yourself, increases the risk of you undoing the progress that you had made thus far. Hence, it is a lot easier if you have a counselor, a family member or a friend to support and encourage you throughout your entire recovery phase.
 It is almost unavoidable that one will feel down occasionally, as it is intrinsically human to be dissatisfied with ourselves, others and/or our surroundings. It is precisely because of this rationalization that causes us to trivialize the dispirited episodes in our lives as being not sufficiently monumental enough to warrant the need for professional help.
However, no matter is too trivial and professional contribution may provide insight into our personal character that we might not have had before. Admittedly though, with the appropriate lifestyle habits, most people are equipped to deal with the occasional "down" moments by themselves.
Regular sleep cycles, good time management, a few close confidantes in one's social network and appropriate nutrition are all factors that contribute to a high self-esteem and help lower the frequency of blues that one might encounter. Physical exercise also helps, since good health and fitness, as well as proper stress management habits such as avoid doing last minute work, can go a long way in creating a more carefree and satisfactory life for a person.
If you are considering to approach the Counseling Centre but are worried that your problems might become the brunt of the school's joke or at least make the rounds in the gossip network, it will be heartening to know that one of the pillars of the counseling centre professional service is confidentiality.
They guarantee strict confidentiality with all their clients, which Hooked can attest to, as they repeatedly turned down our probing questions that were aimed at obtaining some interesting trivia regarding the psychological state of the school population.
As it is evident, the Counseling Centre strives to raise the mental and emotional well-being of the student population. However, there is only so much they, or anyone for that matter, can do to really help.
The onus is often on the person himself/herself to initiate positive changes to his/her personal life such as the willingness to talk about his/her problems to a professional counselor or a loved one, in order to be happy and appreciate his/her life better.
Indeed, there is no happiness without action. HOOKED
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