Mini report
In Oct 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak, and the time during MCO, certain UTM student had choose to stay in college. For those who staying outside UTM were not allowed to go back to UTM for breaking the transmission chain. Students and staffs are suffering and facing stress especially student and work from home. At the same time, in conjunction with the National Counseling Month celebration, UTM Library has organized a knowledge sharing program entitled Nak Stress Ke Tidak? on October 26, 2020 (Monday). The program took place online through the Facebook of the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Library by inviting Dr. Zulfikar Bin Ahmad, Director of Counseling Center, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Dr Zulfikar emphasized that mental health problems should not be taken lightly as they can affect the health of individuals who suffer from them. Clearly, each individual needs to be sensitive to the symptoms of emotional disorders such as stress, anxiety, and depression. These emotional disturbances can lead to worse conditions if not treated and helped by people around them such as family, friends, or coworkers. Individuals facing emotional disturbances need to wake up and be advised to maintain good relationships with God, parents & family, colleagues, and the surrounding community to control stress and are not encouraged to be alone when faced with this difficult situation. In addition, stay away from practices that contradict religious teachings as they are among the factors that contribute to emotional disturbances and in turn lead to emotional stress. At the end of the program, Dr. Zulfikar welcomes UTM students and staff to contact the UTM Counseling Center for advice if needed.
Self-reflection
From the sharing session, I felt better than before, and I found a way where I could give vent to, released the stress. When studying and learning at home, I felt there was no motivation at all, we could not see friend, lecturer, we cannot enjoy the campus life well, just sitting in from the laptop all day, doing the same thing and lack of exercise. Doing all of these in a long term brought me into stress, anxiety, helpless, boring, and tired situation. The countless assignment, quiz, test, project was coming non-stop I believed I was not the only one who facing this issue. This sharing session had helped me a lot in term of releasing my stress and feeling of helpless, I felt more comfortable and much nicer than before, such a good program, I hope there will be more program to let student and staff to release their stress especially during this movement control period and pandemic situation.