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The right side of the bed

Though the day is filled with nothing but time, there doesn’t seem to be enough in a day. With lack of time, comes an abundance of stress. There never seems to be enough time to do everything, and being overwhelmed can lead to stress. Being stressed leads to having anxiety, and having anxiety leads to what has come to be known as “the funk.” A more accurate term for the funk might be mild depression. During this “funk,” students may feel irritable, tired and experience lack of interest.

David Delgado | The Daily Cougar

David Delgado | The Daily Cougar

My most recent encounter with “the funk” occurred while speaking to my sister on the phone. She was telling me about her past couple of weeks. It seemed to her that everything was crashing down at once. Her boss was on her case, she was having a fight with her roommate and she was scared and nervous about graduating college. I could hear the stress in her voice as she let out an exhausted sigh.

Though I was still concerned for her, I understood where she was coming from. I have been known to occasionally get in a funk. During these funks, I want to sleep more often, close myself in my room to avoid being too social and dread going to class even more than usual. While this funk usually only lasts a couple of days, it can still be off-putting to the people I care about. Everyone experiences “the funk,” and no two people have the same way to deal with it.

“I usually need an hour or so. I just need some time off and then I can go back to focusing on school,” said biomedical engineering freshman Sara Siddiq.

Julio Diaz, a finance and supply chain management junior, finds that music is the best way to fend off “the funk” — fighting “the funk” with some funk.

“I probably just get off the internet. Just close all of my windows (on the desktop), and I start playing some type of jazz or music without words, so I can just focus on what I have to do,” Diaz said.

For others, just talking to someone can get them out of their malaise and back to normal.

“Sometimes it is a simple case of venting your feelings to a relative or a friend,” said Tess Thompson of nativeremedies.com. “Sometimes sharing your experience with others who have undergone similar experiences can help a lot.”

“Being in a funk” is different than clinical depression. While symptoms are similar, “the funk” never lasts. Despite that this “funk” will subside, it still can affect a person’s everyday life.

As college students, our Jenga-like stack of daily activities can make us feel unsteady and vulnerable; although, if you set aside 30 minutes of each day to do something simple that makes you happy, it might be the best medicine you can take for not just “the funk,” but your whole outlook on life.

Though being in a funk is short term and manageable, be sure to note the frequency of these depressed moods in order to determine whether you or someone you care about should see a doctor for clinical depression.

Kelly Schafler is a print journalism sophomore and may be reached at [email protected].

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