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Dealing with Stress and Crises

Starting university brings new challenges, because the start of your studies is also the beginning of a new phase in your life. It often means moving from school to university, moving out of the parental home and perhaps starting over in an unfamiliar city. You might feel like a stranger in the new location at first and need to learn to find your way around in a new environment. Additionally, there is the subject of medicine: exciting - but also with an extensive learning workload, little free time, pressure to perform and stress. Each person processes stress in a personal way. If one or more stress factors are involved, it is quite normal that each person reacts differently to them and has different levels of resilience.

What stress factors can occur?

  • Crises during studies: Probably everyone has had to deal with problems such as exam worries, exam anxiety or concentration difficulties to varying degrees in the course of their studies.
  • The onset or worsening of one's own somatic illness.
  • The onset or worsening of one's own psychiatric illness (such as depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, eating disorder) - which can affect anyone and are very well treatable.
  • External stressful factors due to financial problems, partnership or family conflicts, and grief or loss.

We want you, our students, to cope well and safely with your studies. For us, this includes accompanying you safely over obstacles.

If you feel affected by the stress factors mentioned above, talk about them openly - with friends and family, but also with fellow students.

HHU offers support through a variety of counseling and coaching opportunities. In addition, we would like to recommend some offers by students for students of the Faculty of Medicine as contact points in this context.

MediPeer

MediPeer is a student counseling service for medical students at HHU for all issues that are burning on your mind - whether anxiety about an upcoming exam, constant pressure to perform in comparison with other students, stressful experiences during your studies, or even completely different concerns.

Open office hours: Thursdays,16:30 to 17:30, 17.1.00.08.
Email contact: MediPeer@hhu.de

Further information

Wachstumsschmerz

Medical school is exciting and can be wonderful - but it can also be stressful and difficult. Often you feel alone with your worries and have the feeling that studying is much easier for others. At Wachstumsschmerz, students talk to each other about everything that is bothering them during their studies, exchange ideas, give tips and motivate each other. Meetings take place regularly (anonymously if desired) online. Whether listening or talking, camera on or off - everything is allowed!

Contact:

Instagram: @growthpain_hhu
Email: wachstumsschmerz@fsmed.de

The Psychological Counseling Service at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf is the first point of contact for students on campus. From here, a referral can be made to diagnostic and further care agencies.

Angelika Wuttke
Dipl.-Psychologist und Psychologic Psychotherapist
Psychologic Counseling Service at HHU


Further information

How can I get off to a good start in my studies? How can I learn more motivated and effectively? Is this subject really right for me? How do I reconcile all this learning, work and studying? For these and similar questions, HHU offers various counseling and coaching services.

Further information

What can I do if I am not well for a longer period of time?

There are other knowledgeable contacts on campus who will listen to you confidentially, will be happy to advise you, and will offer help with issues such as:

  •     The onset or worsening of your own somatic illness.
  •     The onset or worsening of your own psychiatric illness (such as depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, eating disorder), which can affect anyone:n and is very treatable.

 

Nils Wiese
Pastoral advisor of the Catholic University Community (KHG)


Further Information

 

Prof. Dr. Nicola Stricker
Pastor of the Protestant Student Community (ESG)


Further informtaion and offers of the ESG

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Matthias Franz
Specialist for Psychotherapist Medicine
Specialist für Neurology und Psychiatry
Clinical Institute for Psychosomatic Medicine und Psychotherapy


Further Information and contact persons

Dipl.-Psych. Anja Kanzler
Psychologic Psychotherapist
Executive director
Psychotherapist Institute for Outpatients at HHU (PIA)

Further information

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Eva Meisenzahl-Lechner
Medical Director of the LVR Clinic Düsseldorf
Clinic und Polyclinic for Psychiatry und Psychotherapy


Special team for students of medicine

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