mental health
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How Unsinkable is Changing the Conversation Around Mental Health
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For many students, university can feel like a constant balancing act. Academics, social life, future uncertainty, and everything in between. While conversations around mental health have become more common, many still struggle in silence, unsure of where to turn, or how to begin opening up. Unsinkable is a platform that helps Canadians tell their mental health stories, creating spaces where these stories have become a lifeline for others. For Hailey Hechtman, Executive Director of Unsinkable, storytelling is where that process can begin.…
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Keeping mental health in mind during the winter
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For many, January is marked by an increase in stress and burnout. While the academic demands and “new year new me” energy can be daunting, the season’s colder weather can also exacerbate feelings of isolation, fatigue and anxiety. Although we’ve touched on seasonal depression in past issues, it’s crucial to consider how the intersection…
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Editor’s Note: Fall-ing back in time
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According to the Canadian Psychological Association, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), makes up 10 per cent of all reported cases of depression in Canada. This disorder is believed to be influenced by lack of sunlight. As the “fall back” in November causes us to adjust our schedules and arrive home after the sun has set, it’s…
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Mitigating the impact of burnout culture
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Burnout is the soft white underbelly beneath today’s fast-paced and demanding world, affecting individuals across various professions and lifestyles, but what is it really? Recently, there has been a growing recognition of the challenges that individuals face both in the workplace and in their personal lives. Women often fall victim to unique circumstances. I interviewed…
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The problem with self-diagnosing yourself
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During my psychology course, my professor began the lesson with a cautionary tale of the phenomenon “medical school disease”, when students use the textbook to self-diagnose. Self-diagnosis is partially inevitable; we naturally resonate with that which reflects our personal experiences – but to what extent? We fall for confirmation bias, receiving search results based on…
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Schools across Ontario call for mental health support
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According to a survey conducted by advocacy group People for Education, 91 per cent of schools in Ontario expressed a need for further support in mental health programming for students. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, the province’s elementary teachers’ union, expressed concerns similar to those elaborated in the survey, going so far as to…
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Winter blues and the Wellness Centre
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This winter season, programs and services provided by the Laurier Wellness Centre can help students combat the winter blues. The winter blues, also known as seasonal affective disorder or seasonal depression, affects around 15 per cent of Canadians. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, “The winter blues are a wave of low emotions that…
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The effects of 2000’s diet culture lingers today
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Almost every magazine cover in the 2000s showed thin models with bold fonts cheering on the next fad diet that will guarantee the fastest way to lose weight. How to get a celebrity body, the perfect beach body and the revenge body. Diet culture had women tangled in its fingers. A notable and notorious force…
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Outside the binary of doom-scrolling and oblivion
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The mid-50-year-olds in my life always say that they doom scroll as soon as they wake up in the morning. It’s a habit that they also recognize the need to stop. From burning forests and wars, to shootings and political drama, the sadness and tensions of the world are inescapable for them. Simultaneously, my inherent…
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Unpacking Trauma and Mental Health
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As human beings, we go through life experiencing everything as a blur. One of the fascinating parts of humanity is looking into how certain negative and traumatic experiences can impact someone’s health and their lives without their direct knowledge. Although trauma is a nuanced and complicated word that can entail a wide range of definitions,…
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The Tie That Binds WLU Since 1926
Serving the Waterloo campus, The Cord seeks to provide students with relevant, up to date stories. We’re always interested in having more volunteer writers, photographers and graphic designers.