Krysten Lippold felt sad and upset and she didn't know what to do.
"I don't want to use the word 'depressed,' but I had no one to turn to," the freshman interior design major said. "I just felt disoriented; I didn't know where to get help."
Then two weeks ago, Lippold contracted strep throat.
"I couldn't go home because I had classes and I had to work," Lippold said. "My friends couldn't help because they don't live in the same building. I just felt alone."
What Lippold didn't know was that her illness could have been linked to loneliness, something many college students, especially freshmen, experience.
James Haley, a psychology intern at Counseling and Psychology Services, said emotional feelings such as loneliness can lead to physical health problems.
"I think sometimes people are a little bit more willing to accept that a problem is physically related rather than some sort of emotional problem or something that's a little less concrete," Haley said. "Sometimes, actual physicians from the health center have referred students they are concerned about."
Haley said students who struggle with loneliness are balancing classes, work and studying, but have difficulties finding social time or connecting with other students.
"Classes are the primary focus, of course, but social connections and involvement, for the majority of people, are equally important," he said. "Without that social aspect, students can certainly experience physical health problems."
Haley said he knows a graduate student who came down with shingles - something unusual for a person in their 20s - after becoming so focused on school work and research. The doctor told the student that the illness can happen sometimes in people who have been especially tired or stressed for a long period of time.
"The student was not feeding their need for social connection or regular social interaction," Haley said. "They were lacking some kind of outlet to release some of that tension."
Luckily for Lippold, she was able to return to her hometown of Omaha for the weekend before her condition worsened.
For students who are homesick or lonely, Haley recommends exploring student involvement opportunities and making connections with fellow students in classes or at work. More than anything, he encouraged students to remember other students are feeling some of the same emotions.
For those still struggling with loneliness, Haley and his peers at CAPS are in the process of establishing a group in which students can discuss problems they have with connecting.
"The group focuses on inner difficulties and relationship problems, which would encompass loneliness along with other difficulties," he said.
Haley said it's important for students who are homesick or lonely to talk to someone as soon as the feelings appear.
"Like a lot of things dealing with physical health, it's best to address it while it's still a (smaller) problem," he said. "Think of loneliness as the beginning of a flu. You need to take care of it rather than ignore it before it escalates into something that's more difficult to take care of."
katiebriggs@dailynebraskan.com
