Graphic by Lucas Olscamp/The Gazelle
Advice: Where to Get Care
Whether it's trouble with a long distance relationship, choosing your major or feeling like NYUAD is not the right place for you, A Word of Advice is ...
Oct 30, 2015
Whether it's trouble with a long distance relationship, choosing your major or feeling like NYUAD is not the right place for you, A Word of Advice is here to listen. Your calls for advice will be answered by a peer, with help from the Health and Wellness Center and your RAs, no matter if you are on Saadiyat campus, studying abroad or at home. Some responses will be published in a column in The Gazelle. All submissions will remain completely anonymous. Remember, advice is just an opinion and if you need a health care professional, please visit the Health and Wellness Center.
Dear Johanna, I am beginning to have small anorexic tendencies. I don't even feel hungry anymore, genuinely. I still eat, and I am trying to boost up my intake.
But I feel like I'm either on one end or the other: totally unhealthy and gaining weight, or totally unhealthy and losing it.
Of course I know that this isn't good for me, but I have no idea how to approach this problem.
First of all, you should go to the Health and Wellness Center and talk to the staff there. I say staff and not counselor specifically, because it could be a medical and not a psychological issue affecting your health. If that is the case, the doctors and nurses can help you figure that out and adjust your diet and medication accordingly .
This way or that, though, it is always good to talk to a counselor. Change in appetite can be an early sign of anxiety or depression and often treatment, like counseling or medication, for those root causes can make all the difference. If you are developing disordered eating, the Health and Wellness Center can put you in touch with a nutritionist, and together, you can work on looking at your eating habits and figuring out exactly what you need to adjust and how best to do that.
Another thing I highly recommend is training with a personal trainer. If the root cause is depression or anxiety, the added exercise will do wonders to help with that. The personal trainers can help you keep your health and weight in mind in a healthy way. While all of the trainers are amazing, kind people, there are those who are more sensitive to this subject and those who are less. There are also trainers with a large emphasis on nutrition.
I personally trained with Jamie Burns for about two years off and on. He is very good about these kinds of things. Other friends of mine who also have disordered eating have trained with him specifically or with other trainers. If you don't know who exactly to work with, you can always talk to Health and Wellness. They will coordinate with the Fitness Center and keep your identity private, if that is a concern for you. You can also talk to Marco Mladenovic, the head of the fitness center, and he can direct you to the best person for you to work with.
Finally, the Health and Wellness Center also does a once-monthly mindful eating workshop. While it is not at all directed specifically at disordered eating, it can help you find a more balanced and consistent eating habit.
The answer to how to approach this problem is don't be shy to call on those resources that are out there. The fact that you have identified this pattern for yourself is a really great start and now you can turn to the Health and Wellness Center and let them help you out.
Dear Johanna, Do students have access to gynecologist/andrologist professionals inside or outside of campus?
What to do if students need advice, treatment or medical exams (free of judgement, of course)?
Yes, students have access to gynecologist, andrologist and urologists. If something cannot be treated on campus and needs another eye, you will get a referral to a specialist. In that case, you can see a gynecologists outside of campus for routine gynecological issues, such as hormonal imbalances, recurrent yeast infections, recurrent urinary tract infections and menstrual irregularity. Same goes for an andrologist or urologist.
We have access to many specialists in the country. Make sure to go to the Health and Wellness Center first, though. Most of the time, they can help you out with anything and if not, they already have the connections to the specialists you need. A good thing to keep in mind is that there are some gynaecologists who won't do speculum exams on unmarried women. It is always smart to have your regular checkup with a doctor you are comfortable and familiar with at home. However, should something come up while you are in Abu Dhabi, you will most certainly get treatment.
As for advice, treatment and exams, you can always turn to the Health and Wellness Center. Because of the sensitivity and privacy concerns of health issues, there is a lot of misinformation floating around. I hope that this post clears up some of that, but the best way is always still to go straight to the source and talk to a doctor or nurse or counselor about what they can do for you.
As to your point about judgement, there have been instances in the past when students have encountered remarks that unsettled them and made them uncomfortable. A good thing to remember is that we all come from such different cultural backgrounds that something that is said with a warm or caring intent, might be deeply offending to you. Given the fact that it is a medical setting and that doctor's and nurses are authority figures, we can sometimes have inhibitions about correcting or calling out comments that hurt us.
Point out to your doctor or nurse what you felt was judgmental, and they will generally be very understanding of your position and can clarity their intention. The Health and Wellness Center is also under new leadership this year. If you have not met Halah Ibrahim, the executive director, you should stop by and say hello.
Rest assured, you will always get the care you need.
To submit questions for Johanna to answer, visit bit.do/awordofadvice.
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