Ep. 57 Managing the Transition from High School to College
Moving away from home, starting college and suddenly having to manage your own time, responsibilities and relationships can be exciting. It can also bring new pressures, stressors and mental health challenges.
Paige Goble returns to Shining Light on Shadows a year after joining us as a high school senior. Now a freshman at William & Mary, Paige joins me and Dawn Neuburg to talk about her senior year, leaving home and how she prepared for one of the biggest transitions of her life.
Paige joins us for Episode 57 of Shining Light on Shadows: A Candid Conversation About Mental Health, “Managing the Transition from High School to College,” Thursday, September 24 at 7pm ET / 6pm CT / 4pm PT.
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Paige Goble, "Navigating Life’s Changes Takes Management, Not Magic"
In her new blog post, “Navigating Life’s Changes Takes Management, Not Magic,” Paige reflects on what she has learned about recognizing cycles in her mental health rather than searching for a way to make difficult thoughts and experiences simply disappear. For Paige, that has included learning to live with OCD and understanding some of the fears that contributed to suicidal ideation earlier in her life.
When Paige joined us last year, she talked candidly about struggling with her mental health during high school and becoming an advocate for herself and other students. Senior year was different. She told us during our planning conversation that it was the year when “all the pieces fell together,” allowing her to spend more time enjoying her friends and the experiences that came with her final year of high school.
Going away to college presented a new challenge. Much of Paige’s therapy leading up to the move focused on preparing for the transition, and some of her fears returned during her first week. She responded by relying on strategies she had already put in place: breaking responsibilities into small, attainable tasks, exercising, joining clubs, building a new community and staying connected with her parents. Rather than waiting for difficult feelings to disappear, she began putting into practice the idea at the heart of her blog post: management, not magic.
We’ll also look at how differently people experience the transition to college. Dawn will share some of her own complicated college experience, along with what she learned years later when her daughter moved away to school. I’ll talk about almost the opposite experience: immediately immersing myself in college life, taking on far too many activities and nearly being forced to leave school after my first semester — an experience I now view differently through the lens of my ADHD diagnosis.
There is no single “right” way to make the transition from high school to college. Paige’s experience gives us an opportunity to talk about preparation, independence, homesickness, academic pressure, finding community and recognizing when the tools we’ve developed to manage our mental health are actually working.
September is Suicide Prevention Month. Paige, Dawn and I have all experienced suicidal ideation, and we’ll talk about that as one part of a much larger conversation about managing mental health through change.
Programming Notes
Marina Perry joined me and Dawn for Episode 56, “Invisible Scars: PTSD, Grief and Life After a Dog Attack.”
Marina was a college athlete when she survived a violent dog attack that left permanent physical injuries. We talked about the PTSD, anxiety, disrupted sleep and grief that continued long after the attack — and how Marina and Dawn recognized similarities in the mental health effects of very different traumatic experiences.
October is ADHD Awareness Month. Kirby McNulty-Hansen, a coach with Calibrate ADHD, will join us for Episode 58.
I have been participating in coaching sessions for the past two years. We’ll discuss how ADHD can present in adults, and I’ll share some of the ways I’ve learned to use ChatGPT to help stay on top of my work.
Join us Thursday, October 8 at 7 p.m. ET. We’ll share links for the show closer to the episode.
Background
Dawn and I launched this twice-a-month show to help reduce the stigma associated with mental health. Thank you for being part of our community.
We are proud to be in Year 3 of the show. If you are interested in being a guest on the show or know someone who might be interested, please let us know. We’re looking for people who would be willing to share their story, advocates and people who work in the field of mental health.
We hope you can watch the show and share your own thoughts in the comments.
Resources / Relevant Links
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Helpline
800-950-6264 Or text "HelpLine" to 6264; nami.org
Mental Health America Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org; mhanational.org Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) National Sexual Assault Hotline 800-656-HOPE (4673); rainn.org
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