Text: Vanessa Batista, journalist
Writing as a way of reflecting on problems that cause psychological distress among university students. This is the starting point for the second edition of the project “Write n’ Let Go”.
Throughout the year, the team led by João Batista and Janine Martinai will be accepting applications on the project’s official website from students from all over the country who want to work on issues that cause them suffering through a fully online program.
Recent studies show that 77% of students deal with psychological distress alone and more than half know colleagues or friends who have been diagnosed with some type of mental illness during their time at university.
In an interview with UMinho I&D, the researcher from the Psychotherapy and Psychopathology Laboratory, which is part of the Psychology Research Center, explained that, during the pilot edition, they dealt with several problems, such as “anxiety, adaptation, loneliness, grief, bullying and issues related to academic performance”.
“One of the advantages of our intervention is that it truly provides a space for reflection in which the person, despite writing according to our instructions, is doing so in a personal space. I think it can also be a way of introducing, in fact, a time to stop and think, for example, about what resources I have to deal with this, given that what I’ve been doing isn’t working,” he says.
According toJanine Marinai, doctoral student of Applied Psychology at the School of Psychology, it only took two sessions out of the four proposed tasks to notice improvements, particularly in terms of ambivalence, in the first edition of “Write n’ Let Go”.
“Although we didn’t directly achieve results in terms of depression and anxiety, we were able to understand that, by doing the tasks, the person stopped ruminating, in other words, stopped thinking incessantly about a problem in an unproductive way,” he stressed.
Ambivalence is related to levels of indecision, such as wanting to be healthier, but finding more excuses that lead in the opposite direction.
It should be noted that Portugal spends around 6.6 billion euros per year on mental illness, which corresponds to 3.7% of the GDP. João Batista believes that solutions such as “Write n’ Let Go” can make a difference in prevention, which continues to be neglected in our country.
“For a long time, psychotherapy had a stigma and it continues to exist in relation to people who have a psychological disorder. This is a true battle we have on our hands. The aim is to try to help people before they reach a level of suffering where they can no longer cope on their own and which can lead to withdrawal at work. I’m not saying that our program, like others, is miraculous, but it can help with prevention”, he says.
Through questionnaires, the team conducts an initial assessment that will determine whether some of the more serious cases should be referred, given that “Write n’ Let Go” is a tool designed for students with low to moderate levels of suffering.
Applications for the project “Write n’ Let Go 2.0” are now open. The researchers aim to reach a group of 300 university students, and more than 130 have already signed up.
