Jen Reid shoved open her door with a sigh of relief and shuffled her feet as she entered her KSU apartment. Anyone could see that she was tired, rundown, burnt out. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were sloppy. Yet somehow she had made it through another day. With her school work piling up and work calling all the time she was happy to have some peace. A moment for a breath, but that soon ended when her cell phone buzzed. She took the shiny, green phone out of her jean pocket and checked the screen.

It was her friend Jessica Colvin sending a text asking Reid to hang out with her. “I wish I could have gone, but I had a mountain of homework and a paper due the next day,” sighed Reid. Reid told her friend that she couldn’t come over, like she had many times in the past few weeks, and went to her room to begin that paper that was due the next day.

This is just one of many situations that Reid, and other students, has to face when they go to a big university; having to choose between friends, getting school work done, or getting enough sleep at night. “There is a lot of pressure from family and school. Pressure to meet what is expected of me,” says Reid bending over to reach for a bead to add to her crafty, hemp necklace. Reid kept moving around; bending to grab a bead and leaning back to add it to her necklace.

“Students that come in can look tired and unkempt,” says Carrie Jones, the Office Manager of Kennesaw State University’s Psychiatry and Social Services at House 53, “Many come in crying. Some come in thinking it’s depression or anxiety and not realizing it’s just stress.”

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines stress as, “…a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation.” For many people stress comes from many different places or means different things.

Take KSU senior student, Jessica Feltman. She defines stress as: “too much on my plate and not enough time to do it.” For Reid it is about grades and the people around her, “When I get my grades I see them as a reflection of who I am. There is also a problem when I have a conflict with my friends or family.”

There is the joke that we all here when we first start college: “You have three choices: Social Life, Grades, or Sleep. Pick two.” We there are struggles to being a student; having to juggle money, grades, meeting people, and trying to just keep going wares us down. When you are down everything you juggle comes crashing down making life seem worse than what it really is.

“Academics, money and relationships,” were the three things that Jones said that most students talk about when they come to House 53. When you add more credit hours on top of job(s), family, and other responsibilities, you are adding a unicycle being chased by a tiger to your juggling act. And the pins are on fire.

“When I am having a panic attack I feel like there has been a temporary shutdown of my brain. I know people around me are speaking English. I should understand them. But I don’t. I don’t understand what they are saying to me,” says Reid struggling to add a new knot to her necklace.

There are many things that students can do in order to distress from a long week with classes or dealing with people in general.

“I love making hemp necklaces. Crafting in general, really. I hang out with friends and my roommates more after I organize myself,” said Reid tying the last knot to her necklace and adding glue to the end. It is great being able to structure everything and organize life so that you can have breathing room. However that sometimes doesn’t do it for all students. They need someone to talk to.

That is where House 53 comes in. “KSU has provided mental health services for 6 years. We have always shared space with the medical side until a year ago when we moved to house 53 due to our rapid growth,” says Jones. She went on to say, “We have 6 licensed providers, one lab technician and 3 administrators. Our licensed providers include 2 LCSW’s (Licensed Clinical Social Worker), 2 Psychiatrists and 2 Clinical Nurse Specialist in Psychology.”

If you, or anyone you know, need someone to talk to call House 53 on Campus Loop Road at 678-797-2018, e-mail them at psychandsocialsvc@kennesaw.edu, or just walk in and make an appointment.