It’s finals season. UofT needs to examine mental health infrastructure, now more than ever
Content warning: mentions of suicide
There is something about this part of the semester, the post-Reading Week, pre-exams time warp, that feels especially awful. Coupled with Daylight Savings Time shortening days so that it gets dark at 4 pm, the #Grind of the last three-ish weeks of school can really mess with me.
Maybe it’s the sense of impending doom that we, as students, collectively feel as we’re pushed into exam season. Maybe it’s the seemingly five billion papers I’m responsible for before Christmas. Maybe it’s the sudden Arctic abyss Toronto has become since Halloween. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m graduating and I’m both terrified for the future and ready to get the hell out of this institution. Maybe it’s all of the above and none of the above.
I feel like I find myself in an alternate universe time warp every year around this time—the last couple of weeks of school as the semester wraps up. Every single year in mid-November, without fail, I feel like a robot. I feel like my thoughts and actions are automated, like I’m on some kind of conveyor belt that is moving me, totally disembodied from myself, from class to the library to class to bed—and then back again. I feel as though I need to shut off the part of my brain that tells me to “slow down, take a break, do something fun” in order to deal with the stress and anxiety produced by finals season.
And while my experience isn’t universal, I know I’m not the only one that feels this way. According to a study done by the American College Health Association, 88 percent of Canadian students reported feeling overwhelmed by everything they had to do. That same study reported that 63 percent of Canadian students reported feeling hopeless at some point in the past year.
As always, although now more than ever, mental health is a pressing topic of discussion on campus. While it’s easy to poke fun at the #Grind culture at university, the immense stress that students are under, and the so-called UofTears experience, it all points to a larger mental health crisis at our school.
Despite mounting pressure by students, the administration at UofT hasn’t made any concrete changes to their mental health policies or infrastructure. Students still need to wait months for an appointment at Health and Wellness. It’s still hard to get professors to care about declining mental health when getting marks in at the end of the semester feels more important to them. It’s still hard to get adequate support from the school in any substantive form. Even after multiple student suicides on campus, even after a UTM student was handcuffed at the campus’ Health and Counselling Centre after asking for help, students aren’t given anything better than therapy puppies during the busiest and most stressful part of the semester.
UofT needs to do better. We need proactive—not reactive—mental health infrastructure. The administration at this university needs to listen to students and actually hear what we have to say and what we need.
It’s exam season, and things are only going to get more stressful for students from here. The university needs to examine their mental health policies and infrastructure. The post-Reading Week, pre-finals time warp isn’t something in which students should feel themselves irrevocably lost.
If you or someone you know is in distress, you can call:
Canada Suicide Prevention Service phone available 24/7 at 1-833-456-4566
Good 2 Talk Student Helpline at 1-866-925-5454
Ontario Mental Health Helpline at 1-866-531-2600
Gerstein Centre Crisis Line at 416-929-5200
UofT Health & Wellness Centre at 416-978-8030
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