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Gosh, there goes another layer of hopefulness in the goodness of humanity.
Still, knowledge is power -- and that makes the presence of cry rooms in colleges even more disturbing to me. Who is trapping whom. What ramifications does this have on our society that seems increasingly to lend itself to victimhood?
My brain hurts, but I thank you for the awakening.
One person's victimhood might be another person's empathy. Acknowledging mental health and a need for space and comfort isn't necessarily a weakness.
Well, it does make one wonder why they don't simply have counselors available for stressed out students? Cheaper to have an unmonitored cry room, I guess. I still think relaxation rooms are the way to go. I'll bet L.A. City Hall got rid of theirs, though. I wonder if there is a way to find out... (my tenure there was back in 1972-1974).
Well, it does make one wonder why they don't simply have counselors available for stressed out students? Cheaper to have an unmonitored cry room, I guess. I still think relaxation rooms are the way to go. I'll bet L.A. City Hall got rid of theirs, though. I wonder if there is a way to find out... (my tenure there was back in 1972-1974).
College counselors are understaffed and overworked. There are plenty of other resources available on campus and online for students now that there weren't 10 years ago. My daughter saw the college counselor a few times (but they don't do regular appointments). They could not prescribe an antidepressant, so she spent a lot of time trying to get an appointment with a local psychiatrist but because she was uninsurable (pre-Obamacare, preexisting condition) none would see her without it, even paying cash. She slipped through the cracks.
Things are so much better these days. Kids can get support in lots of places and the stigma is disappearing. Although from this thread it looks like some are determined to hang onto the "bootstraps" attitude and think college kids should just suck it up and just not have mental illness.
College counselors are understaffed and overworked. There are plenty of resources available online for students. My daughter saw the college counselor a few times (but they don't do regular appointments). They could not prescribe an antidepressant, so she spent a lot of time trying to get an appointment with a local psychiatrist but because she was uninsurable (pre-Obamacare, preexisting condition) none would see her without it, even paying cash. She slipped through the cracks.
And that's an issue with a lot of mental health--people who are already vulnerable and at their wit's end often don't have the mental energy to deal with all the red tape necessary to get the help they need.
There was a point during the pandemic and lots of health issues I had that made me want to talk to a counselor a few times. Couldn't find one. Waiting list months long. I no longer feel the need, but could have used it back then, like many people could have as well.
I think there will always be some degree of stigma about mental illness because a lot of people have a need to look down on other people, now more than ever. Mental or emotional problems in others is one way to be able to do that.
You will always run into people who aren't kind. If you can't handle it, you are in bad shape. That's why coddling is harmful to teenagers and young adults. Coddling is cruel because it doesn't prepare them for the real world.
And in reality, we seem to have a lot more nasty people (there's a thread on this). There are more people who are self-absorbed and don't follow norms of behavior. So its even worse if you don't prepare them for it.
There's a real world and there's a fantasy world with cry rooms.
You're making too big a deal out of cry rooms. They were for stressed students to take a 10 minute break while studying for finals in the library. If I am having an especially stressful day at work I sometimes go into the bathroom at work and just lean against the door and breathe for a few minutes. That's what a cry room is for. Cry room is just the name they gave it. It doesn't mean they are coddled, they are under a lot of stress during finals. The healthy way to handle stress is to learn ways to decompress, and that may mean going off by yourself for a few minutes to breathe, journal, whatever. It is much better than trying to buck up and hold it all in.
And I don't see how carrying stuffed animals is evidence of coddling, either.
They know what the real world is like and what people are like, unless they were never allowed out of the house. And they certainly see plenty of video evidence to know there are lots of unkind people in the world.
I feel like you're just generation-bashing with no substance behind the argument.
You're making too big a deal out of cry rooms. They were for stressed students to take a 10 minute break while studying for finals in the library. If I am having an especially stressful day at work I sometimes go into the bathroom at work and just lean against the door and breathe for a few minutes. That's what a cry room is for. No one is going in there and bawling. It doesn't mean they are coddled, they are under a lot of stress during finals.
And I don't see how carrying stuffed animals is evidence of coddling, either.
They know what the real world is like and what people are like, unless they were never allowed out of the house. And they certainly see plenty of video evidence to know there are lots of unkind people in the world.
I feel like you're just generation-bashing with no substance behind the argument.
Oh yeah, working in the corporate world I can't tell you how many times in 30+ years I would hide in a bathroom stall with my feet up just to get away from the stress and madness for a few minutes.
Oh yeah, working in the corporate world I can't tell you how many times in 30+ years I would hide in a bathroom stall with my feet up just to get away from the stress and madness for a few minutes.
In nice weather, I sometimes go sit in my car on my break too. One of the reasons I always have sun shades in the windshield is privacy!
Maybe I'm missing your point, but isn't this the purpose of the (so-called and actually non-existent) cry rooms? A place to go and compose and relax yourself in private?
I wonder if people would have a different reaction if they were called "meditation rooms" (as at my daughter's office) or "relaxation rooms" (as at my most recent workplace.)
After I wrote it occurred I don't know exactly what a "cry room" is. Think it might have helped to ask. LOL
Sometimes I don't explain and depend on others to make the leap. I know we don't all think alike.
But my point there was that we don't always know how to act about our feelings when we enter the adult world. Are there other distressed people in the crying room? I hope the crying rooms don't include acting out emotions but rather have people there to educate about healthy expression of emotion including place and time. Not every adult space is going to have a crying room.
This comes to mind because many mental health units have a singular common area and I've often been concerned about the patients' potential effect on each other's mental health. Irony. But it can work both ways. This could also be an issue of crying rooms.
I included a couple of examples of poor choices I made as a college student and early in my working life. Does that clarify?
"For work I believe I was taught you aren't there to deal with personal issues when you're getting paid so you postpone the tears until you've got the time and space to say, "Now I'm going to have a good cry."
I do remember in my twenties throwing my apron on the floor and saying, I quit!" In my thirties I went into an unused office, swore and threw my clipboard across the room loud enough for the whole floor to hear me. It didn't take long to see the occupational disadvantages of that behavior. Or the sense of helplessness."
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