Author Archive: Stephanie Salazar

Everyday Health: The United States of Stress 2018

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The University of Michigan’s Arline T. Geronimus, Sc.D., and Shervin Assari, M.D., contributed to an Everyday Health story about stress in the United States. The research shows that “chronic stress is a national epidemic for all genders and ages.” Geronimus is a professor in the U-M School of Public Health, while Assari is a research assistant professor in the U-M Department of Psychiatry, which houses the U-M Depression Center. Below is an excerpt.

Stress on steroids. That’s how life feels for many Americans today. Consider senseless shootings, a nasty political climate, catastrophic weather, increasing suicide rates. Factor in close-to-home stressors such as caring for a loved one; parenting a learning-disabled, autistic, depressed, or anxious child; managing your own chronic condition or addiction; looking for a job. Now layer in everyday annoyances — traffic, train delays, a nasty coworker, a long supermarket line after an even longer day. No wonder we feel overloaded, overwhelmed, out of control, and unsafe.

Chronic stress zaps brainpower by damaging neural pathways and skewing judgment. It compromises the immune system. It taxes the heart, kidneys, liver, and brain.

Stress in the modern world is a constant. When stress doesn’t let up and is paired with the feeling that we have little to no control over the circumstances that are creating it, that’s called chronic stress. Over and over again, the research points to one key fact: Prolonged or unremitting stress exacts a stunningly toxic toll on the body, brain, mind, and soul. Its ongoing assault wears us down, measurably aging — or “weathering” — our insides, for some of us much more than others. Chronic stress zaps brainpower by damaging neural pathways and skewing judgment. It compromises the immune system. It taxes the heart, kidneys, liver, and brain.

But does living in the world today mean that no matter what we do, we’re doomed to swim in a sea of stress and its ill effects, including anxiety, meltdowns, and panic attacks? Or could it be that everything we thought we knew about stress and how to manage or alleviate it is outdated or outright wrong? Maybe it’s time for everyone to get on the same page when it comes to stress.

Everyday Health’s United States of Stress special report surveyed 6,700 Americans nationwide [download survey data], ages 18 to 64, cutting a wide swath across demographic groups, gender, and health conditions to find out what stresses us and how we cope. Our survey panels were chosen to closely mimic the geographic distribution of the U.S. population. (Our respondent distributions won’t match up directly with Census percentages because we phrased our questions about demographics, such as race/ethnicity, differently, with survey participants selecting as many identifiers as applied — including “other” — from a list.) Then, we invited some of the nation’s top “stress response” thinkers to weigh in on the survey data and offer insights.

Even our expert panelists — among them some of the nation’s top researchers — say they’ve been genuinely surprised about the extent of harm wrought by chronic stress and the lack of attention paid to it.

Read the rest of the story on everydayhealth.com.

ESPN: A football family and a sportswriter, bound by grief

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We share an excerpt from an ESPN.com story about a writer, Ivan Maisel, and the family of Tyler Hilinski, Washington State’s quarterback who died by suicide in January 2018. The Maisel and Hilinski families both experienced the heartbreak of losing a family member to suicide.

By Ivan Maisel

I came of age in the wake of Woodward and Bernstein, when young journalists were taught to be as neutral as the painted highway stripe. After nearly four decades as a sportswriter, I have learned to negotiate a middle ground between my training and my life experience. Some stories demand more of the latter.

Mark and Kym Hilinski started a foundation in their son Tyler’s memory, Hilinski’s Hope, to fund mental health programs for Division I athletes. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

I understood that the moment I read last January that Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski ended his life. He was a college junior, 21 years old, the second of three children, hundreds of miles away from home.

Almost three years earlier, my son Max ended his life. He was a college junior, the second of three children, 21 years old, hundreds of miles away from home.

Like a winemaker trying to create a structured red, how much of the skin you leave in the juice changes the color and character of the final product. I’ve got a lot of skin in this one.

There’s often an immediate intimacy among parents whose children have ended their lives. We get it. The loss of a child is an awful subject, so awful that it makes people uncomfortable. They don’t know what to say. One of the many secrets of The Club No One Wants to Join is that we love to talk about the children we’ve lost. Talking about them keeps them present.

Ivan and Max Maisel in 2004 (Courtesy Maisel Family)

But people hesitate, sometimes under the guise of protecting the feelings of the bereaved. I would say, always with a smile to smooth the delivery of the sarcasm, “You know, if you hadn’t brought Max up, I wouldn’t have been thinking of him.”

When you live with the awful every moment of every day, the awful becomes everyday. It is no longer so daunting. When someone told me I was living “a parent’s worst nightmare,” I responded, “No, you wake up from nightmares.”

The first time I called Mark Hilinski, Tyler’s father, we spoke for 1 hour, 10 minutes. “I had never talked to anybody — in my spot,” Mark said later, with a mirthless laugh. “Got emails, got letters, got cards, read a ton. … But that was the first time I had talked to anybody that kinda sat over here, and I appreciated it.”

Mark’s wife, Kym, Tyler’s mother, sounded a note of grace. “I’m actually happy that [people] can’t understand,” she said, “because I would never, ever want anyone to really understand what you and I are going through.”

Mark is a bear of a man, personable in the way that most successful salesmen are personable. He is a traditional American Dad. He responds to problems in the stereotypically American Dad way: looking to fix them. Except that this problem, the biggest that he and Kym have ever faced, can’t be fixed.

He hates that he can’t fix the problem, and he hates that he feels self-pity because he can’t fix the problem, and once you go down that rabbit hole it can be a long time before you see sunlight again.

He understands that he is not the first father to lose a son. He understands we live in a world where bad things happen. He and Kym recently attended a memorial for a 20-year-old struck by lightning.

“If you can muster it, that’ll put some perspective on you quick,” Mark said, “but it doesn’t lessen the sadness for me.”

Read the rest of the story on ESPN.com.

U-M to Host #SameHere Sit-Downs Oct. 2

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Our university is honored to have been chosen to be one of 15 universities from all over the country to host a #SameHere Sit-Down, produced by The Global Mental Health Alliance: We’re All A Little “Crazy.”

Athletes Connected will host the #SameHere Sit-Down event on Tuesday, Oct. 2 (7 p.m.) at Junge Family Champions Center. Parking is available in Lot SC5 off Kipke Drive.

Our free event will feature opportunities for candid and revealing conversations with NBA veteran and champion Derek Anderson, singer/songwriter Luke James Shaffer, and founder of the WAALC and #SameHere Movement Eric Kussin. The event will be emceed by ESPN’s Darren Rovell. This will be a combination of that conversation, and live musical entertainment. You will hear firsthand from the individuals above about the mental and emotional challenges they have encountered in their pursuit of excellence, along with a range of coping strategies they have developed in response.

This openness will be delivered through individual story-telling, panel discussion, and open dialogue between you and these special guests. The result will be a shift in culture that creates a “comforting environment” on campus where it is readily apparent that everyone faces life challenges, and asking for help, getting that help, and finding success is not only possible, but seen as a sign of strength.

No pre-registration required; email us if you have questions.

The New Gameplan: How to Transition from High School to College

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By Jevon Moore, Athletics Counseling Intern/Mental Health Outreach Coordinator

Your coach yells, “Timeout!” and the ref immediately follows with a loud blow of the whistle. Your team gathers on the sideline with the coaches for one last time.

There’s 1:48 on the clock and you get a shot of water and take a deep breath. Your coaches are all talking and pacing back and forth hoping you understand how important it is to be calm and to remember what you practiced. The whistle blows again and the other team slowly gathers back on the field.

You have fought your way back into the game after a slow start and the momentum has begun to shift back to your team. You know it. Your team knows it. Every individual in the stands knows it. The entire crowd stands in anticipation for an exciting finish that will end in glory or hard fought defeat.

The key to success is very similar to your path to athletic success; preparation and practice

Everyone from your mailman to your dentist is in the crowd screaming their heads off in support. Your breathing is slow but your heart is pumping with a little extra thump as you prepare for the play to begin.

A few quick memories run through your head as you find your spot. You start to remember those early mornings with the team, that diet you started, and of course that extra rep in the weight room; they all were for this moment. Will you channel all your preparation and beat back that voice in your head wondering if you have what it takes? Or do you fall victim to the moment and watch the other team dump ice on their coach’s head?

Fast forward: Now you’re in college. You’ve made it. You are miles away from everything you knew so well back home and you started a new chapter in your life. This journey you’re on and all the hard work you did while in high school has given you the opportunity to play sports in college. So why do you feel lost and confused? This is everything you wanted and dreamed about, but now that you are here something doesn’t feel right.

The coach that you were excited to work with doesn’t seem to get you. Your teammates are not as supportive and friendly as you imagined. The campus is way bigger than the pictures showed and your professors all seem to be speaking a foreign language in class. Things continue to move a little faster and before you get the chance to get comfortable with your surroundings you are hit with your first set of mid-terms. But wait, your coach is also telling you they will be testing everyone to determine your role on the team this week.  What just happened?

You quietly sit on your bed and yearn for the good old days where your support network of family, friends, coaches, and teammates all knew how to get you out of a funk. But that’s in the past and you sit alone now in a dorm with a roommate you just met a month ago and you’re not sure who to talk to. Your chest is starting to get tight and your heart is thumping like the game is on the line. There is a thick cloud of fog in your head and the more you try to think of what to do the thicker the cloud gets.

“Timeout!”

Let’s take a Zac Morris break and get a handle on the situation. If you’re aren’t aware of Zac Morris and his life-pausing “timeouts” during the show Saved by the Bell, then do yourself a favor and add that to your binge watching list on the weekend. But seriously, there are some simple ways that you can get control of your life again.

First, let’s get a feel for what’s different now that you’re playing a college sport:

  • New coaches with a range of varying coaching styles
  • New practice and training times that are a little more intense than high school
  • New teammates and personalities to navigate which make you wonder, “who can I trust?”

This is completely normal. We have all been there. As a student-athlete, we have all walked on campus as a first-year athlete with our eyes wide open going from class to practice to study hall then to bed wondering where the day went. The key to success is very similar to your path to athletic success; preparation and practice. You learn the skills, practice them for mastery, and then trust in your training.

So, let’s teach you a few skills.

It Starts with Me
Anxiety doesn’t always hit you from the side and knock you clean off your feet. It can sometimes just feel like a fog. No matter the degrees or amount of fog, take a second to recognize what is happening inside you. The key to making a big play is knowing when to make it. So take time to recognize the moments when your body is feeling weird. Jot down notes if you’re a list maker or just make a mental note. Either way, the better you get at identifying the feelings when they start, the faster and more efficient you can be at getting yourself back into prime form.

Scheduled “Worry” Time
Now that we know when we usually start worrying or have an idea of what causes our worry, let’s make time for it in our schedule. Set aside a block of time in your day to give in to the beast you have been fighting every day. See the trouble with anxiety is that it feels like a day long struggle but it’s probably only a few thoughts on repeat that keep bugging you. That’s why we set aside time to let it all pour in.

Every negative thought that exists below the surface about being a new kid on campus. Every worry you have about not being able to keep up with school or compete with your new team needs to be explored. Once you have turned the flashlight on all the areas of that dark cave, we call anxiety, then start over. Set aside ten minutes, then worry for ten minutes straight with no shortcuts or relief. Once your time is up, climb your way out of that cave and let’s spend some time outside in the sun.

Now That Feels Good
We’ve just given into the worry and we want to move on with our day, but first let’s take some calming breaths to reset our mind and body. Just like at the end of a game you need a minute to relax in the locker room before facing the world and this breathing technique should give your body time to adjust. Before starting, make sure you are somewhere you can be comfortable and safe to close your eyes and relax.

Distractions during this time can throw you off and make it hard for your body to fully relax. So put the phone in airplane mode or, if that hurts too much, lay it in another room. Get comfortable and let’s take a deep breath in through our nose counting to four slowly. Hold the air in your lungs for at least 4 seconds allowing the air to fill your lungs completely. Once you get to four, breathe out slowly counting to six to empty all of the air from your chest. Continue this cycle at least four times or until you can consciously feel your body release all that negativity.

You should now be refreshed and to some degree prepared to take on your next challenge. If this isn’t the case try finding a quieter, more remote place to do your breaths. The key isn’t to rush through this, but instead to give in to it completely.

There are more coping skills and resources for dealing with anxiety here just in case this didn’t do it for you. In any case, don’t fight with this alone. There are resources available that can help you find peace, and sometimes it takes an outside voice to talk our brain into complete buy-in.

Remember, just like before the big moment when the game is on the line and everyone is watching, you took time to train and study and practice your skills. So don’t wait until your worries get out of control to test them out. Take time now, call a timeout, and make a plan. The more prepared you are for the moment the better you will perform.  

About the Author
Jevon Moore is an MSW candidate working as an intern with the Performance Psychology and Athletic Counseling team. In this role, Jevon works with the athletic counselors to assist in providing a full spectrum of care and services for student-athletes ranging from performance concerns to everyday emotional stressors. In addition to clinical care and support, Jevon consults with coaches and student-athlete support staff such as dieticians, academic counselors, doctors and trainers to ensure the most integrative care possible.

Jevon is originally from North Carolina having played football at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. As an undergraduate student he majored in Industrial Engineering focusing on systems management and cost reduction practices. Read “Passion, purpose and a love story” to learn more about Jevon’s journey in helping mental health awareness and support.

Additional Resources

Six Tools to Help Fight College Freshman Depression

Athletes Connected Get Support Page

U-M Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)

Campus Mind Works – U-M website supporting student mental health

The Choice Is Yours

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By Halle Wangler, former U-M women’s basketball student-athlete

Every single day we are faced with choices. The magnitude of these choices could be as small as choosing to eat the last slice of pizza, or as profound as deciding which career path you want to pursue. We all have choices, even when we think we do not. It is easy to get caught up in saying things like “I have to” or “I can’t”, but the truth of the matter is that we always have a choice. Even deciding not to choose is making a choice. Recognizing this and taking responsibility for our actions is paramount in making great things happen in our lives.

While we cannot change the cards that we have been dealt, it is always possible to choose how we respond to what life throws our way.

I am a quote person. I am “that friend” that always has some line of advice on deck and is ready to unleash it in any given circumstance. I have cheesy quotes, inspirational quotes, and endless amounts of food-related quotes. That said, I am going to share with you one quote that has changed my life for the better:

“The quality of your life depends on the quality of your choices”

This quote hits home for me because it perfectly articulates what I have learned from my own personal journey of spiritual growth and recovery. I have learned, more often than not, that our lives are dependent on the choices we make.

The more time I spend reflecting on the challenges, triumphs, devastation, and overwhelming joy I have experienced thus far in my life, the more apparent it is that the common denominator has always boiled down to a choice – or lack thereof – that I make. As much as I wanted to blame external factors and other people for the way my life played out, I finally came to terms with accepting the fact that the consequences of my actions fell on my shoulders. My choices mattered. Immensely.

On February 23, 2008, the day before my 15th birthday, my mother decided to end her own life. For the next several years thereafter, I chose time and time again to use her decision as justification for the countless poor decisions that I made moving forward. “My mother” was why I chose to drink in excess and put myself in reckless and compromising situations. “My mother” was the reason behind my inability to have a healthy and stable relationship with any male counterpart, and “my mother” was the reason why I almost destroyed nearly every healthy relationship in my life that meant something.

The three choices that I make on a consistent basis to ensure that I am putting myself in the best position to combat this disease include exercise, taking my medication, and constantly checking in with my support team.

Like my mother, I too, battle bipolar disorder. While I almost wish that I could excite you with some elaborate “coming to Jesus” moment about how I overcame this and now live a life free from the grasps of my former demons, that just is not the case.

My symptoms now, though, are not nearly as debilitating as they once were, because I understand the relationship between my choices and my symptoms/mood. The reality of the situation is that this disease will never completely “go away”; I will battle it for the rest of my life. However, I’ve learned to make intentional choices on a daily basis that will keep me alive and dictate the quality of my life. The three choices that I make on a consistent basis to ensure that I am putting myself in the best position to combat this disease include exercise, taking my medication, and constantly checking in with my support team.

After finishing my athletic career and graduating from the University of Michigan, I needed to find something to fill the void of the demands of collegiate basketball. Throughout my life, basketball was my outlet, and although I could not control external situations or circumstances, I loved being in control of my effort and dedication on the court. This sense of personal commitment helped me through some of my darkest times, and gave me identity and purpose, two core components of well-being.

In order to satisfy my hunger for competition and athletics, I decided to take up running and lifting with the exact same mindset. Weekly workout routines and setting new personal athletic goals for myself have helped to fill that void and manage my anxiety and mania in a healthy way. I choose to continue exercising and working out because I know that it is not only good for my body, but also great for my mental health. Most importantly, it is something that I need in my life to stay stable. I also can give myself credit for making the choice to workout and take care of myself.

Medication was a hurdle that took me years to get over. For the longest time, I refused to take medication because I believed it was a sign of weakness. Being an athlete, I felt I was strong enough to overcome this disease without any help and was going to attack it on my own.

Nevertheless, I soon realized my game plan was not working, and in order to beat this opponent, I needed to adapt and get creative. “My zone defense was not getting the job done and so I decided that it would be best to switch to a full court trapping press”. By utilizing basketball analogies such as this, I was able to set my ego aside and stop focusing on the little battles in order to start winning the war. Every single morning, I choose to take my medication because I know that it gives me a leg up on my opponent.

The decision I made to take medication on a consistent basis was one of the hardest decisions that I have ever had to make, yet I would not have been able to accomplish and overcome the adversity I experienced without it. Every single morning, I choose to take that small white pill because I know for a fact that it will help put me in the best position to live my best life.

Lastly, the third component of my recovery approach consists of my support system. Without my family, close friends, former coaches and teammates, this battle would be much more challenging. I cannot stress enough the importance of having people in your corner who have your best interests at heart, are aware of what you go through, and who are willing to hold you accountable for your actions. Every single day I choose to be vulnerable and open up about what I am going through on any given day because I know that these individuals will be able to support me in a variety of different ways.

Despite my mother’s death and the dysfunctional neurotransmitters in my brain, I make a conscious effort each day to base my choices around the life I strive to live. Each day, I choose to not let these circumstances define me as a person, and I do this by how I live my life.

My advice to you is simple. Each day, ask yourself if the decision you are about to make will benefit your life, and if it will help reach your goals. In addition, remember that your future does not define your past, and the way you feel presently is not permanent. As long as your heart is still beating, you have a chance to turn it all around. You have a choice. Choose you.

About the Author
Halle Wangler is a Royal Oak, Michigan, native and a three-year letterwinner for the University of Michigan basketball team. She graduated from Michigan in 2016 with a marketing degree.

Additional Resources

Athletes Connected Get Support Page

Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Program

U-M Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)

Campus Mind Works – U-M website supporting student mental health