Students Relieve Stress Through Crafting

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Photo: Adrian Hurd

UW-Milwaukee students filled the Fireside Lounge in the union to do arts and crafts and learn about stress management. Adrian Hurd reports.

Samir Murray, a UW-Milwaukee biology student, was sitting quietly by himself at a round table inside the Fireside Lounge in the Union. He took a red crayon and started coloring a mandala that was provided by the Arts and Crafts Center.

As Murray was coloring, members of Campus Cares demonstrated how to create a mosaic out of different materials. They put colorful ceramic plates into a pillowcase and loudly smashed it on the ground, breaking the plates into tiny pieces. They snapped old CD’s into small shards and gently placed all the fragments into a clear epoxy mold. 

“I’m just trying to take some self-care for myself at the end of this semester,” Murray said. “Things have been pretty crazy lately so I figured I would take a second to just breathe and enjoy breaking plates or making mosaics.”

The center teamed up this week with Campus Cares to put on an event called “Crafting for Self-Care” for students to practice stress-management. About 35% of UWM students said that stress has affected their academic performance, according to a 2018 study by Norris Health Center. Stress was the number one factor in the study that affected academic performance, followed by anxiety and depression. 

Murray was meticulously placing beads and buttons into his mold as a Campus Cares member handed out pamphlets to each of the tables. The pamphlets contained lists of resources that are available to students who have mental health concerns. Murray came to the event to decompress from his busy schedule. 

Rowen Aqel also attended the event. She was making a coaster out of the epoxy molds. She said she doesn’t experience anxiety herself, but she can understand why some people do. She is a medical student and is a few years older than some of the undergraduates. 

“I can see that the generation that’s about ten years younger than me, I can feel that they have problems with anxiety,” Aqel said. “I do believe that one of the biggest factors in this is social media.”

About 28% of UWM students received a lower grade, dropped a course or delayed their research because of anxiety, according to the study. The research showed that this percentage of UWM students affected by anxiety is common amongst students nation wide. 

“Social media is exposing each and every person’s life, and when people see others, they feel less confident about themselves, and they feel like they are achieving less,” Aqel said. 

More social media use was associated with more anxiety symptoms and higher odds of having an anxiety disorder, according to the Journal of Affective Disorders. 

Campus Cares hosts many similar events, like Sleep 101, to inform students about the different resources available to help them with mental health issues. UWM has been making an effort to promote mental wellness with student involvement groups like Campus Cares and the Norris Health Center. These resources help students like Rowen Aqel and Samir Murray.

“It’s okay to work on yourself because like every day you wake up and brush your teeth and work on yourself physically, but it’s good and important to work on yourself mentally too,” Murray said.