McGill Counselling Services is currently experiencing an unprecedented wait period of five to six weeks for appointments. While all students can be seen during intake–the first visit–follow-up appointments are being delayed by over a month.

 “We can’t take a lot of second or follow-up appointments for about six weeks now and that’s never happened before,” said Director of Counselling Services Ted Baker.

In the past, the wait time for a follow-up appointment was usually two to three weeks.

“We’ve even added more hours and still have that wait period, so that’s very different from other years,” said Evelyn Rodinos, a psychologist with McGill Counselling Services.

Counselling Services believes that the stress from exams may be contributing to the influx of patients.

At this time of year, Baker said, “all those academic obligations are kind of like the icing on the cake.” He said the added stress of exams, on top of other issues that students might be struggling with, such as financial, family, or relationship stress, can increase student anxiety.

Many students are seeking help with regards to “preventing exam stress, school stress, feeling overwhelmed,” Rodinos said, adding that increased stress might be partly due to the personality types of students who choose to attend McGill.

“I think that the students selected to come here to McGill are high achievers and expect enormous amounts from themselves,” she added. “There’s a lot demanded of them academically; there’s a lot of self-imposed stressed as well to perform well.”

Traditionally, one may think that it’s the students with poor study skills that are prone to stress, but Rodinos thinks that, instead, it’s the perfectionists.

“They can’t just do well, they have to excel. Their worthiness is dependent on their marks,” she said.

“Because of the exceptional quality of McGill students I think that [exams] can be very, very difficult for people who really feel somehow they’re failing even though objectively they may be doing quite well,” Baker added.

Guillaume de Langre, a U2 political science and international development studies student, said that he is “a bit anxious” about exams, because he knows he has to make up marks lost during midterms.

Seyoung Choe, a U2 student in East Asian studies, said that even though her finals are during the last week of exams, it’s still stressful because it’s “the last day of school on the upcoming week, [and] I feel that everything is rushing here and there.”

When students are stressed about school and exams, they “stop exercising, are using caffeine, stop socializing and everything’s focused on their work,” Rodinos said.

But this is exactly the opposite of what stressed students should be doing. Rodinos emphasized the importance of prioritizing self-care when trying to reduce stress and its symptoms.

“Sleep is a non-negotiable item,” she said. “I sound like everybody’s mother, but basically, eat, sleep, exercise and have some social contact so it’s not just studying.”

Rodinos added that maintaining these good lifestyle habits should make studying more effective.

“I love to take the time to bake … or to even watch a short movie,” Choe said. But she added that her “sleeping habits do change during exam period because I tend to work until late at night.”

When students are stressed, they become sleep deprived, cannot creatively problem solve, cannot write papers, concentrate or focus properly. Baker said the physical symptoms include insomnia, irritability, upset stomachs, headaches and increased levels of depression.

“At this time of year the doctors [in the McGill Health Services] are seeing a lot of psychosomatic stress responses like upsetting of stomachs, headaches, insomnia…but I think [these] have a stress basis to them or are aggravated by stress,” Baker said.

 Therefore, he feels that it’s important for students to know how to recognize symptoms and learn how to manage their stress.

One positive aspect of the huge numbers of students coming to Counselling Services, Rodinos said, is that they may be “understanding that maybe there’s another way of managing without having to suffer.”