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Self help for students who are in need

This page is under development. In the interim we suggest that you read what is here now then click on SelfHelp and look at the general help it could be what you need now. What ever your problem there is help available of many different kinds and perhaps more for students than some other vulnerable groups. You can get some for nothing and this web site gives away at least some information that can help. Some help has to be paid for and you can appreciate that if you have a great need and it is valuable then it may be worth paying to fulfil it. After all if you need a drink you buy one, or you persuade someone to buy one for you. Even if you are short of money you may get more by spending some of what you have or can borrow if what you get makes you money and you should avoid gambling as much as you can, though we all run risks every moment we breath and if you have to cross a busy road to get to college you know you will have to decide the best course of action to get you there.

Problem Scenarios (Solutions)

When you look at this list realise that "though there are many ways to need help, a few solutions may answer many needs". For this long list the best help at the end of the day will be you changing the way you think, and acting in a way that gets you what you most need taking a long term view even of urgent or critical situations. See our general help if you haven't checked it out yet.

Worried anxious or concerned about

  1. Keeping up with studies

  2. Exam results

  3. Relationships (friends, parents, enemies, teachers)

  4. Money

  5. Security

  6. Meeting your high standards, expectations, needs

  7. Meeting someone else's high standards, expectations, needs

Wanting more

  1. Rest/sleep

  2. Peace

  3. Fun

  4. Happiness

  5. Satisfaction

  6. Confidence

  7. Friends

  8. Money

  9. Food/drink

Unhappy about

  1. Size, weight, appearance

  2. Habits, addictions

  3. Accommodation

  4. Course

  5. Performance

  6. Direction

  7. Career

  8. Life

Feeling

  1. Depressed

  2. Miserable

  3. Angry

  4. Irritated or agitated

Solutions

General help for students

If you are desparate you can ring Childline or the Samaritons. If you can't afford the phone call go to Hospital Casualty or even a Police Station or ring 999. They are required by law to protect your life, though we can't promise they will automatically understand you unless you are able to say "I am in fear for my life, please help me!"

If you are a little more composed and can think about alternatives, and after all you are reading this page arn't you. And you did get to this point some how, so you realise help can make a difference to you.

People are a good source of help though not always easy to get. Read on even if it seems obvious it may be just worth remembering the alternatives do exist.

  1. Most colleges have people who are already paid to help you. They may be called counsellors or have other titles, they may advertise in your department, your hall or college or you may have to go to the students union to find out about them. As they are often free at point of delivery you should consider them if you are short of cash and expect quite reasonably that they may be busy or difficult to get hold of. Be persistent if you need help. They will understand your need.

  2. You may have people you can trust at home, where you study or somewhere else. If you talk to them it may be helpful if only helping you to find ways of understanding and explaining what your problem is. Sometimes they can give you material things you desparately need, sometimes they may have some good advice, sometimes they can only listen, and sometimes because of their own problems they can't even cope with that so if you don't immedietely get the reception you need, be patient, explain how you feel, even if it is their fault you are in this state don't bother saying it. If you explain how you feel most people will feel some responsibility for trying to help in some way, make it easy for them by letting them decide their responsibilities.

  3. Charities, - These often do a good job and sometimes in difficult circumstances. They may advertise in your union or elsewhere or may have been contracted by the college to help out.

  4. Churches or equivalent religious groups may help in some way and often they can find help for you. You may feel this ties you to them and most of them would be pleased if you valued their help. You can retain your independent spiritual line even if they apply pressure, you are in control of what you choose to believe. Whether you believe literally in the identical god or spirit doesn't matter except in the rarest of cases. All religions value life and helping others, though some people do lose their way and become intoxicated with their own particular way of believing and forget that no two people see anything identically the same way because we all have had a different experience of life.

  5. People in the street, pub, park..... don't knock it if you are really in need. Just talking to a person on a park seat might give you some ideas you wished you had had before. The good Samariton in the bible story was a real hero.

  6. Professional services like us. These people make a living out of helping others. They should be suitably helpful after all you will at some point be paying them.

Media

You can buy CD's, tapes, downloads of trances for range of different needs. We don't have our own products in this area yet, though we will at some point, and your feedback on what you most need would help us to create the right ones for students.

Information

The media all involve providing you with information. On the internet you can do many searches to help you find information that will be valuable to you. Think what you need and search. Unfortunately even if you have the information you may still need help of some kind to act upon it, though we strongly suggest you do act in some way to continue to make progress after all you decided to read this page didn't you!

State of mind

If you are really struggling to make progress then it is ok to get help, go for a walk, change the way you are breathing. Anything like that will change your state of mind at least for a while. Charles Dickens often suffered badly from depression and he overcame his bad mood to the extent possible by going for long walks. When you are thinking more clearly decide what you want to do. Therapists like ourselves can enable you to create better thinking habits that will have you thinking in ways that will be more helpful. We take you through processes that change the way you think about things so that when in the past a particular trigger would send you off into a bad state, in future it could be used to trigger some positive action that would help your situation. We can get you past the emotional baggage of the past that may be limiting your progress. If you want to know more then give us a call. We are a private service and there is a cost. We can do some work with groups and this can significantly reduce the cost of further personal work, so if you have a group of students who want for example to all give up smoking, then we could take the group at a modest rate per person and at a much lower than normal price give each person the final individualised work to ensure that it really works well.

Study habits

If you want to improve your study skills and at the same time manage your stress levels, we will be running some courses to help with this. Look at the advert.

If you want professional help now then ring 0845 644 1098 for a discussion without commitment.

This advice will continue to develop and you will appreciate with so many scenarios to deal with that it may take some time.

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