UNAIR NEWS – Student Executive Board of Faculty of Humanities 东京热 (BEM FIB UNAIR) held a student welfare webinar on Friday, May 7, 2021 via Zoom. The webinar was titled “Showing Concern to Students’ Psychological Conditions to Maximize the Distanced Learning Process”.
Difficulties during a pandemic and distanced learning sometimes force us to always think positively, in order to avoid situations that get worse. However, positive thinking “compulsion” does not always have a good impact.
As explained by Dr.聽Margarita M. Maramis, dr.聽SpKJ (K), FISCM, positive thoughts sometimes become toxic.聽“Anything that becomes toxic will poison our mental health,” she said.聽This is called聽toxic positivity, or a pressing force.
Toxic positivity聽is a great way to live your life, so you refuse to accept anything that can trigger negative emotions.聽It is considered toxic when we exaggerate the need to be happy and think positively every day all the time thus denying negative emotions.聽“Even though it sounds fun, the concept of positive thinking is not as good as it is described,” she said.
This condition (toxic positivity, ed) can affect self and others through speech.聽Examples of toxic statement are ‘whatever happens, you聽can’t聽be sad!’聽or ‘you can’t cry, you are a strong kid!’聽and many more.
The imposition of positive words keeps negative emotions hidden.聽“Finally, we聽don’t聽care about other people’s distress, basically we support it with positive words regardless of the situation,” added dr.聽Margarita.
dr. Margarita said that toxic positivity causes people to be introvert because they are lazy to tell stories, so they do not have a place to express their feelings. In more severe situations, this condition can make a person commit suicide because they feel that there is no one to support them.
“We recognize and acknowledge that various complex emotions can happen to us simultaneously and confuse us.聽If it is not responded to by聽supportive聽friends, it聽will be uncomfortable because negative feelings persist.聽So we need to listen and care and understand, that鈥檚 the point,” explained dr.聽Margarita.
Meanwhile, to overcome psychological problems for academicians, UNAIR has provided a聽help center聽which is under the Directorate of Student Affairs UNAIR.聽As one form of dissemination for the existence of a聽Help Center, Prof.聽Myrtati Dyah Artaria, Dra., MA., Ph.D as the first head of聽UNAIR聽Help Center also attended the webinar.聽“The focus is formally on students, but practically it is for all,” said Prof.聽Myrtati.
In its activities, UNAIR Help Center team will conduct counseling and mentoring. They have several psychologists and psychiatrists, including dr. Margarita.
If you want to consult with the help center team, UNAIR academics can gain access through various social media: @Help_CenterUnair (Instagram), 081615507016 (WhatsApp),聽helpcenter.airlangga@gmail.com聽聽 (e-mail), @HaCe 东京热 (facebook), and @ HelpCenterUnair (twitter).聽“All of this (service, ed) is free,” concluded Prof.聽Myrtati.
Author: Fauzia Gadis Widyanti
Editor: Khefti Al Mawalia
