Coping with stress – The Concordian

Helping students feel safe while dealing with their mental health

The Access Centre for Students with Disabilities offers workshops to give students the tools they deserve on their journey

On Sept. 19, the Access Center for Student with Disabilities (ACSD) held the third part of their Coping with Anxiety online workshop, focusing on our thoughts and how to build a healthier relationship with them. The workshops are a four-part series offered to students registered in the ACSD.

Moire Stevenson, the lead for disability accommodations at the ACSD, started doing these workshops at the university last year to help students with severe anxiety.

She explained that a lot of students suffer from double down anxiety. This phenomenon happens when something triggers one’s anxiety and they start experiencing physical symptoms such as a racing heartbeat, heavy breathing, sweaty palms and weakness in the body. They then ask themselves why they’re getting anxious in the first place. The trigger, the physical response and the questioning topple on top of each other, causing double down anxiety.

While the compilation of factors happening at once may be scary, Stevenson reassured students that anxiety itself doesn’t need to be scary.

“I think it’s really important for people to understand, especially if they’re struggling with [double down anxiety], that anxiety is natural and it protects us. So, that first trigger when the anxiety goes up, that’s supposed to happen,” Stevenson said. “It’s how we interpret all of that that starts to create more and more anxiety and we go from a functional level of anxiety to a less functional level of anxiety.”

Students begin the workshop by understanding the basics of anxiety and mindfulness: the present moment. Stevenson explains that the level and impact that anxiety has on students can influence change in their own life to remind them they are safe.

“What I’m really trying to do is to give tools and skills that we can continue to use for life.” Stevenson said.

“One of the main things I wanted to tackle going in is that sensation of not being able to do something because of the anxiety,” Stevenson said. “When I started here at the Access Center, that was something that concerned me, because I know we have a very high population of students with anxiety. I wanted to see, what is something I can do that will help these students not further feed that loop.”

Stevenson plans to restart this series for the Winter semester as a recurring workshop.

All students are welcome to the weekly drum circles in the Multi-Faith and Spirituality Centre.

The Multi-Faith and Spirituality Centre is home to weekly community drum circles. Irene Feher, a Concordia University music professor, and Dylan Gitalis, who is learning facilitation techniques from a program with Music for People, both lead the event. Feher teaches voice, and joined the Drum Circle last year. The ultimate goal of these weekly music jams is to combat stress and isolation, and to build community.

“I believe so strongly in the power of music to enrich lives in so many ways,” Feher said. “Drumming grounds us, connects us, and the physical activity [is good for the body]. I feel the physical, emotional, cognitive and social benefits of drumming.”

Every Monday from 6 to 7 p.m., students from all programs are welcome to this event.

Although the event takes place in the Multi-Faith and Spirituality Centre, Feher said that the drum sessions are secular.

“We use the universal language of music, and don’t practice any particular style,” said Feher.

Feher continued that they don’t necessarily drum in Indigenous or African style, although the students are using African drums.

Feher explained that students attending the event use the “rhythm of community,” and the drumming styles emerge spontaneously, with the moment.

“I want us to reflect the mosaic at Concordia, this wonderful community we have of people from different religions and backgrounds,” said Feher.

The event usually garners around 10 to 12 students, but the room has the capacity for about 20 people.

Using drum circles as a therapeutic form of stress-relief has been studied before. One 2010 research paper published in the Canadian Journal of Music Therapy found that more than half of drum circle participants – who were all young adults in school – reported that their drum circle group helped the participants with stress, anger and lack of motivation. The same study found that some of the participants reported “therapeutic gains” in terms of their self-confidence and self-esteem.

“It’s an opportunity for students to come together, release their stress, have fun, and create sound in the moment,” said Feher. Feher explained that drum circles and music have been used for thousands of years to foster community.

When students engage in this activity, they eventually reach a state of flow, as Feher explained. Also known as “being in the zone,” when someone reaches that stage, they are extremely focussed on what they’re doing, and are no longer thinking about their everyday stresses.

“When you are completely engaged and immersed in an activity you enjoy, you become completely engaged in the present moment, and time slips away,” said Feher.

Feher explained when one is in a state of flow with a group of people, a connection is created between all of them; from there, students become freer to try different rhythms.

No previous experience in music is required in order to participate in the activity. There is no registration and the event is completely free. The weekly drum circles will be running until April 6, 2020.

Graphic by Salomé Blain