Whåssup?

Journalist: Synne Louise Stromme

You know what? I’m gonna be completely honest with you here, things are not going too great. Mental health week just passed, and with that, I took some time to do some self-investigation. Imagine how hard i laughed at the thought of how exhausted I’ve been lately.

On the World Mental Health Day, I decided to take some time off and spend a calm night in with some friends. Ironically, my birthday was on the following day. Why is that ironic? Well, because one might think you’d get some time to take a deep breath and figure out the mess of thoughts running through your head. That was not how it went. My birthday was mostly spent in tears and tearing out hair.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m surrounded by fantastic people, I have a place to live in beautiful Norway, and I’m having a pretty good time here in Ås. But I’m so stressed out – all the time. My back is one huge knot, and my head feels heavy throughout the whole day.

Stress is actually a survival mechanism. The stress response is supposed to work as protection to stimulate action: fight or flight. Yet, stress is rarely experienced as a helping hand. It has weight. What I do know, is that stress can be managed, with time, the correct mindset, and possibly also a helping hand.

When discussing mental health, which in my case specifically related to stress, the typical response is a “solution” or some sort of quick-fix. “Just eat, sleep, and relax,” and your life will suddenly be filled with rainbows and unicorns. I don’t know about you, but that has rarely been the case for me. The same goes for the great support of “Can’t you just stop feeling sad?”

Luckily, I have a very special significant other in my life, who brought me some wise words. No solution, no tips, but rather a beautiful metaphor which gave me motivation and a wide grin:

“Imagine scaling a mountain. At the start, you’re full of energy, and there’s barely any slope. This will be fine, you think. You walk and walk, and suddenly the slope increases, significantly. Then, it steadies. The trip consists of both hard and easy climbs. After a while, the rise gets too steep and hard that you don’t think you can handle it any longer. The stress increases just as quickly as your energy dissipates. When the road gets too long, just turn around and take a look. Look how far you’ve come. See how beautiful the view is from here, and what you’ve left behind. When you’ve gotten this far, been through so much – then, maybe, the top of the mountain isn’t that much further to go?”

I don’t know whether this will motivate you as much as it motivated me, but I at least hope you consider it. UKA is now well on its way, and there’s loads of partying and fun. It’s time to let off some steam and appreciate all that you’ve done, instead of stressing over all that you haven’t done. Best of luck with whatever you do, no matter what your situation looks like <3