WEDNESDAY
OCTOBER 27, 2010
Maintaining a positive relationship
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...When bedbugs bite!!
A NEW HEALTHY LIVING GUIDE FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS
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Houston we have a problem:
I am stressed out SEEMA D. SAIGAL, M.A. | COUNSELING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES If you are like most UH students, you have to juggle classes, jobs, family, friends, finances, your significant other, extracurricular activities, and more. At the end of the day, you may be left wondering, “If only my body didn’t need sleep!” When you do finally get to bed, you may find yourself going through lists in your head, rehearsing all the things you have to do tomorrow. And just when you are crossing things off that to-do list and starting to feel a sense of accomplishment, it seems like new things get piled onto your plate and you are right back to feeling stressed and overwhelmed. If this sounds all too familiar, you may be experiencing chronic stress. There are many kinds of stress: situational, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Situational stressors arise from concrete external factors, PHOTOS.COM
STRESS MGMT continues on page 7
Academics over alcohol GAYLYN GADDY MAURER, MA | UH WELLNESS
We’ve got good news about the choices of University of Houston Students – they continue to make healthy ones! Every year on our campus-wide survey we ask our students about the self-protective behaviors they engage in related to alcohol. The self-protective behavior identified by them most often is related to their goal to achieve: they intentionally make academics a priority over alcohol. Among those that choose to make academics a priority, ninety-one percent (91%) report a semester Grade Point Average of 3.0 or higher! Now that is definitely a healthy choice that pays off. Here’s more good news that shows what good decisions the majority of UH students are making about alcohol use:
of UH students drink 2 or fewer alcoholic drinks per 79% week in a typical week. of UH students drink 3 or fewer times a month – 77% that’s less than once a week! Although most students are making healthy choices, sometimes the pressure of college life can get overwhelming. Here are some “red flags” that someone you know might be struggling with alcohol use: • Attending class less and less • Lack of concern about class assignments and tests • Seeming more withdrawn and isolated • A change in friends • Unexplained shifts in mood • Reduction in favorite activities or student organization involvement If reading this list causes you to think about someone you are close to, we suggest contacting Counseling and Psychological Services (7130743-5454) to discuss ways to get your friends some help. You can also contact UH Wellness (713-743-5430) for additional information about alcohol use and abuse. Keep making healthy choices!
PHOTOS.COM
Negotiating condom use The heart of the matter: self-protection is self-respect BEVERLY A. MCPHAIL | WOMEN’S RESOURCE CENTER Not everyone decides to be sexually active during their college years, and there are good reasons to delay sexual activity. However, the Guttmacher Institute reports that men experience first intercourse at age 16.9, on average, and women at age 17.4. By their late teenage years, at least three-fourths of all men and women have had intercourse. The MTV Get Yourself Tested (GYT) campaign reveals that one in two sexually active young adults will get a STI by the time they are 25, and many will not even know it. Nearly half of all pregnancies to American women are unintended. Women of color are disproportionately affected by both STIs and unplanned pregnancies. Men having sex with other men account for more than half of all new HIV infections in the U.S. each year. Also, many lesbian women are unaware of their risks and fail to use dental dams. In spite of the risks, according to the National College Health Assessment Survey, only about half of male college students (47.6%) and female college students (55.2%) used a method of contraception the last
time they had vaginal intercourse. So why do young college students engage in sexually risky behavior? Many times young people graduate from high schools that teach abstinence-only sex education, where condom failure rates are often inflated as a scare tactic. (According to Guttmacher, first-year condom failure rates as a percentage of women experiencing an unintended pregnancy is 2% with perfect use and 17.4% in typical use). Sometimes when a man wants to show a woman they care about her, he will wear a condom, and yet when the woman wants to show they care about him, she will insist on not using a condom. Another irony is that many young people find it more intimate to talk about sex and contraceptive use than to actually engage in sexual activity. Also, many women are not taught to be assertive and ask for what they want or need and are more focused on pleasing their partner. Also, in a sexual relationship one person usually has more power than the other and the other person doesn’t have the power within the relationship to either ask, or insist, on condom use. Additionally, if women are prepared and have a condom in their purse, they can be
termed “a slut” instead of the more appropriate, “sexually responsible.” Some women think condom use shows they don’t trust their partner. Some ideas to combat these obstacles include: Everyone must begin to feel entitled to ask for condom use. It is your body and you have the right to say no to unprotected sex. If someone does not care enough to respect your wishes, then they don’t really care about you. Be brave and talk about contraception before you become sexually active with your partner. Make it fun. Shop together and buy condoms in fun colors and flavors. If you care about your partner, insist on condom use for his or her safety as well as your own. STIs go both ways. Some guys might say that condoms make sex less fun, but you can tell them condom use makes sex more fun if neither of you are worried about potential pregnancy or STIs. And condom use is not about trust, it is about respect. So as Aretha Franklin sings, spell out R-E-S-P-E-C-T and demand it. You deserve it! Beverly A. McPhail is Director of the Women’s Resource Center. For more information about WRC, please visit www.uh.edu/wrc.