Blog

Top 10 Holiday Harm Reduction Tips: Reducing Your Risk!

Posted on Monday, November 25th, 2019

The holiday season can be a joyous and celebratory time! When academics finish, you have more time for reconnecting with family and friends! Student Support Services is here to help you stay safe with harm reduction tips!

You did it! You’ve gotten through your semester, and you may be headed home for the holidays, or hanging out around Ottawa. Follow these harm reduction tips to celebrate safely!

1. If you’re going out, remember to eat and hydrate well!
Food in your stomach helps prevent rapid intoxication and hydrating ensures that you stay safer and feel better—both while you’re out and while recovering the next day.

2. Be prepared!
Whether you’re home alone or heading out this holiday season, make a plan to stay safe:

  • Set a limit on how many drinks you’re planning to have, and space the drinks out over a period of time rather than consuming all of your alcohol at once.
  • Make an exit plan: know how and when you plan to leave.
  • Plan to have substance-free days.
  • Charge your phone before leaving so that you can call friends or family in case of an emergency.

3. Heading to a holiday party? Don’t drive your sleigh (or car) tonight!
Stay on the nice list by handing over the reins to a sober friend, OC Transpo, Uber, Lyft, or a taxi.

 

4. Consent is everything!
When the lights are turned way down low, or you’re standing under the mistletoe, remember, consent is essential every time you hook up. Learn more about consent here!

5. Don’t mix your substances, including caffeine!
If you’re heading out this holiday season, stick with one substance at a time.

6. Measure your drinks to know exactly how much you’re consuming.
Do you know how much one standard drink is? Learn more from Ottawa Public Health.

 

7. Choose the least harmful method of use.
For example, when it comes to cannabis, eating cannabis or using a vaporizer or smoking a joint (with a rolled-up cardboard filter) is safer than using a bong and some pipes. If you use other substances, injecting a drug carries more risk than smoking, snorting or swallowing it. (If you do inject drugs, avoid the neck area.)

8. If you experience distress, please seek help.

Algonquin College Student Distress Helpline
613.727.4723 ext. 7300
Call during regular business hours to be immediately connected to Algonquin College’s Student Support Services.

Connex Ontario
1.866.531.2600
24/7 health services information for addiction, mental health, and problem gambling.

For additional resources, please see our Crisis Supports.

9. Staying sober this holiday season, or know someone who is?
The AC Umbrella Project shares relapse prevention tips for getting through the next few weeks. View all 5 tips here.

10. Thinking of quitting smoking or cutting back?

Algonquin College is a smoke-free campus. Check out these Clean Air resources to help you quit or cut back on smoking!

Looking for additional resources? Check out the Umbrella Project and Project Lighthouse for more available in-person and online supports.

From the Umbrella Project, Project Lighthouse, and the Student Support Services team, have a safe and happy holiday season!

 

Tip of the Iceberg: How to Deal with Test Anxiety

Posted on Wednesday, October 30th, 2019

 

Most students feel anxious before an exam or a test. If you get so nervous that it interferes with your performance, then you might suffer from test anxiety. You’re not alone! This is a pretty common issue, and fortunately, you can learn strategies to reduce it.

You may have Test Anxiety if you:

  1. Blank during an exam.
  2. Have trouble sleeping before a test, or strong feelings of dread.
  3. Start to panic if other students finish earlier.
  4. Tend to do much better on homework assignments than on exams.
  5. Either procrastinate or over-prepare.
  6. Know the material much better than the test grade indicates or remember the right answers after the exam is over.
  7. Have difficulty concentrating or organizing your thoughts.
  8. Get headaches, nausea, excessive sweating, rapid heartbeat, or shortness of breath right before or during an exam.
  9. Get very worried about what the professor will think of you, or what will happen, if you fail.

Don’t psych yourself out!

 

  1. Pay attention to your thoughts.
  2. Identify those that increase anxiety, such as: ‘I know I’ll fail’; ‘Everyone will think I’m stupid’; ‘I’m going to panic in front of everyone and be so embarrassed’.
  3. Replace them with more realistic thoughts, such as: ‘I’ll do the best I can’; ‘Doing badly doesn’t reflect on me as a person’; ‘I’ve done well on other tests in the past, I can handle this’.

Before the Exam

During the Exam

  • Start by reading the directions, then review the entire exam, then review the directions again.
  • Organize your time well; jot down approx. how much time to spend on each section. Monitor if you are rushing or getting behind.
  • Answer the easiest questions first.
  • Visualize yourself getting the exam back with a good grade, or visualize a relaxing scene to help calm down.
  • Practice controlled breathing until you feel calmer, for up to 4 minutes: breathe in slowly and deeply for 4 seconds, hold the breath for 2 seconds, then breathe out for 8 seconds.

Need More Support?

Good luck!

– Eliza Brown, Counsellor at Algonquin College.

How to Organize Your Life with Bullet Journaling

Posted on Monday, October 21st, 2019

Do you often find yourself losing track of your to-do lists, find it hard to plan ahead, or generally want to be more organized? If so, we’d say you’re like most people. Luckily, we’ve found a flexible, customizable solution: the Bullet Journal. Read more >