Taking care of your mental health is something that nursing majors at St. John Fisher University know well.
"Being a nursing major, I feel like there’s a lot of pressure on us to do really well, especially because its not just about how good you get grades its about what youre really retaining because you’re in charge of other peoples lives once you go into the work force," said Kaitlyn Caccamise, senior nursing student at St. John Fisher.
"We just had a lecture on anxiety and depression and we all raised our hand, the whole class struggles with it. So I think it’s something that needs to be talked about more," said Julia Crocker, a fellow senior nursing student.
Which is why they’re trying to pass what they’ve learned onto younger students.
"In high school and middle school, you can definitely relate to it too because there’s even more unknown, like you don’t know what school you want to go to and everybody’s always talking about the future," Caccamise said.
The university partnered with Compeer Rochester to teach teens how to cope with mental health struggles and let them know they aren’t alone.
"From my own experiences, talking with some of the students, we didn’t have a lot of resources growing up especially in school it was just mainly focused on academic life and there was no attention to the mental health aspect of it, so having that mental health aspect and bringing awareness to it lets the students know that they’re not on their own on this," said Gabriel Perez, lead program coordinator for Compeer Rochester.
Coping skills from everything to yoga and writing down things they are grateful for.
"We actually chose journaling as our thing, so everyone gets to take home their own journal," said Crocker. "I like to write down my thoughts, I think it kind of helps rationalize your thoughts a little bit."
"I think being outside in the sun, that's my favorite. I also like to write down my feelings and, kind of like, write down and throw it out, so it’s getting it off my chest," said Kileigh Bouyea, a senior nursing student.
And reminding themselves of the light at the end of the tunnel.
"It's really important and kind of gives you meaning to be able to look to people that are younger than you and be like, I’ve been where you are and these are things that helped me," said Caccamise.
"It's okay to feel anxious or depressed, it’s okay to feel your feelings. So you shouldn’t be discouraged or shameful of your feelings and I feel like thats really the biggest thing," Bouyea said.