the independent news magazine issue 34
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The Independent News Magazine Issue 34TRANSCRIPT
TheIndependentFort Lewis College News Magazine
Issue 34
DREAMS DISCOVERED
SPIRITUAL, DRUG- INDUCED AND JUST
PLAIN NORMAL
FINDING RELAXATION THROUGH YOGA
The BODY, MIND, and SLEEP Issue
theindyonline.com
March 2012
FREE
STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH
THE NON-TRAD SERIES: ARE
NON-TRADS GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP?
YOUR Bed?What’s in
Indy Editors & Staff
Kaitie MartinezEditor in Chief Business Director
Marketing/PR Director
Events Coordinator
Financial Manager
Associate Editor in Chief
Creative Director
Art Director
News Editor
Online/Broadcast Manager
Haley Pruitt
Meagan Cunha
Jordan Alexander
Julian Martinez
Lacey Kae Shuster
Ali Bryson
JR Starns
Steph Cook
Lucas Hess
BUSINESSAmanda PeningtonCourtney Ragle Troy Sliter
Emily Fagerberg Assistant Financial Manager
Bre Pascuzzo Assistant Events Coordinator
COPY EDITING
Ali Bryson Chief Copy Editor
Emily Griffin Copy Editor
DESIGNGraeme JohnstonJennessa Pitka Erica Saurey Zoey Sturm
ONLINE/BROADCAST Morgan BoamanChris BraunTawney Summers
PHOTOGRAPHY Allie JohnsonAdam MohsinHana Mohsin
REPORTING Mitchell FraserJimi GilesAyla QuinnReid Tulley
“Love is a human experience, not a political statement.” -Anne Hathaway
“If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.” -Albert Einstein
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” -David Brinkley
“It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.” -Agnes Repplier
“What is a soul? It’s like electricity- we don’t really know what it is but it’s a force that can light up a room.” -Ray Charles
“That’s a wonderful side effect of leather pants: when you pee yourself in them, they’re more forgiving than jeans.” -Slash
“You can’t beat death but you can beat death in life, sometimes.” -Charles Bukowski
“The dude abides.” -The Big Lebowski
“Good copy can’t be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You’ve got to believe in the product.” -David Ogilvy
“A man who views the world the same at fifty as he does at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.” -Muhammad Ali
Cover Photo byLucas Hess
page 2 the independent news magazine
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Check online for Student Profiles and Horoscopes!
“Stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire, motivate, challenge. They help us understand. They imprint a picture on our minds.
Want to make a point or raise an issue? Tell a story.” -Janet Litherland
Dear Indy Readers,
When I was a little girl, I fell in love with the power and magic of storytelling. Storytelling has and always will be an intrinsic part of human nature. It comes in many forms: visual, written, oral. Some stories are short and succinct while others are long and complicated. Some stories are only ever told once while others are im-mediately treasured and told again and again, evolving and adapting over time. Some stories never get to be told at all. Stories can be true, made-up, or be a combination of both. The most special part of storytelling, in my opinion, is the journey that we take as we experience a story unfold, each experience being unique to a single individual. Stories have many different functions. They unveil truths and let us dabble in our wildest dreams, teach us lessons and depict for us the complexities of the human experience, make us laugh and make us cry, force us to question ourselves and our choices as well as question the world around us. Here at The Independent, we are storytellers in our own right. In our stories, we seek out the truth. We hope to tell stories that are relevant, newsworthy, and have not been covered before. And when topics have been covered by other news media already, we try to look at topics from fresh perspectives and new angles. We hope that by telling you our stories we make readers more informed and well-rounded in-dividuals. We hope that our stories teach you something new, entertain you, or prod you to dig into a subject further. Our staff strives to provide you with a variety of ways to enjoy these stories: in articles, graphics, columns, photographs, and infographics in print as well as videos, short articles, and features online. We encourage you, beg you in fact, to tell us YOUR stories so that we can better tell ours. Please contact Steph Cook with story ideas. Her contact information is listed in the box below. As always, we thank you for your support and readership and hope that we can continue to be a part of your storytelling journey. Remember, everyone has a story worth telling. Best Wishes,
Meagan Cunha Independent News Organization Creative Director
from the editor’s desk Meagan Cunha
CONTENTS
Dreams Discovered Story by Ayla Quinn
Student Profiles Profiles by Reid Tulley The Non-Trad Series: Are Non-Trads Getting Enough Sleep? Story by Jimi Giles
Finding Relaxation through Yoga Story by Mitchell Fraser
What’s in Your Bed? Story by Ayla Quinn
Spiritual, Drug-Induced and Just Plain Normal Story by Reid Tulley
Student Mental HealthStory by Dylan Wooden special to the Indy
4
5
12
6
8
10
Got something to say?We want to hear from you!
We encourage reader participation through our perspectives
section. Submit letters, cartoons, or anything else you’d like to
see in print to Editor in Chief Kaitie Martinez at
[email protected] or News Editor Steph Cook at
Note: The Independent reserves the right to edit submissions
as necessary or deny publication.
News tip? Contact Steph Cook at
For any other inquiries, contact Kaitie Martinez at
theindyonline.com page 3
7
People in this culture have a difficult time analyzing dreams because they are based upon a metaphorical language, said Janine Fitzgerald, associate professor of Sociology.
“Rationality is highly, highly prioritized in this culture, and dreams are not rational, they are metaphorical,” Fitzgerald said.
Being obsessed with the idea of fact versus fiction alters people’s ability to be able to understand the metaphors that are apparent in dreams, she said.
“One of the things about understanding dreams is that you have to admit you have an unconscious that is driving you,” she said.
The psychoanalyst Carl Jung started looking at dreams and how they related to people’s unconscious, she said.
Jung and Sigmund Freud made the argument that most of people’s experience occurs in the unconscious state of mind, she said.
The conscious state of mind compared to the full mind is like the size of the tip of the nose compared to the rest of the body, she said.
“We dream for half of our lives,” said Julian Misliuc, a participant of the dream circles. “I think that there’s more to dreams than we give them credit for.”
To start understanding dreams people must identify what is grinding on them regarding the dynamics of their day-to-day life, Fitzgerald said.
“This is the hardest thing, because most of us do not know what is going on in our lives,” she said.
That is why participating in the dream group was such a great experience, Misliuc said.
“As time progresses we move deeper into ourselves and begin exploring aspects of ourselves that we have hidden from the world,” he said.
An individual could be dreaming about a variety of situations that are occurring, Fitzgerald said.
“You may be dreaming about something that could be grinding at you in the future, and you don’t really know because you haven’t got there yet,” she said.
In the dream circle groups, people talk about how their dreams relate to the experiences and situations happening in their lives, Misliuc said.
“The beautiful thing about sitting in dream group is that as we get to know each other better,” he said, “each individual sees something in my dreams that I did not.”
Dreams are based upon symbols, not signs, Fitzgerald said. To figure out what the meaning of the symbol is, one must identify the associations that are related to the symbol, she said.
When analyzing dreams by looking at symbols, it is important to remember that one will probably not find the absolute truth, she said.
“Often, when we think about understanding, we tend to think in terms of mastery,” she said.
Because of a lack of humility when approaching dreams, the true meaning is hard to find, she said.
“We have to approach dreams from a much more humble place,” Fitzgerald said.
It is ultimately about opening oneself up to his or her wisdom, she said.
“For me, rather than understanding dreams, it is more about just acknowledging their value,” Misliuc said.
There might be new ways to understand dreams on another level.
New technology allows for observation of the brain during dream cycles, Fitzgerald said.
An individual will go from a deep sleep to rapid eye movement sleep where dreaming happens, she said.
“When our body gets rested enough we move into REM sleep which drains us of energy,” she said.
A chemical hormone is released in the body that paralyzes us while we are dreaming, she explains.
“So we don’t go run off a cliff or fight a dragon,” she said.Studies show that if the brain is not allowed to
reach REM sleep and interruptions continue to happen, people start to go crazy over a short amount of time, she said.
“Dreaming has some physiological evolutionary meaning for life,” she said.
REM sleep is very important because eight to 10 dream cycles happen a night, she said.
Even when dreams are not remembered, they are constantly occurring, she said.
Fitzgerald finds it interesting when students who want their dreams analyzed approach her by saying, ‘I had the weirdest dream!’, she said.
“This is the interesting thing about dreams, they are a language that has volume and nuance,” Fitzgerald said.
If the dream has an underlying important message that needs to come across, then subconsciously the volume will be turned up and one will remember the dream, she said.
“I believe that dreams give you a narration,” Fitzgerald said. Dreams provide a sequence of events that assist a person to remember, she said.
“We tend to get hung up on the narration,” she said. “I think that the narration is simply a tool to help us remember the symbols.”
“We have these feelings, and dreams put a language to those feelings,” Fitzgerald said.
Dreams DiscoveredWhy the ol’ ‘one size fits all’ saying doesn’t apply in dream analysis
“To start understanding dreams people must identify what is grinding on them regarding the dynamics of their day-to-day life,” Fitzgerald said.
Story by Ayla Quinn
Photo by Adam MohsinGraphics by Jennessa Pitkapage 4 the independent news magazine
Photo Illustration by Adam Mohsinand Jennessa Pitka
STUDENT PROFILES
Editor’s Note: Students for this section are chosen at random by the Indy staff.
Age: 22 Major: BiochemistryStatus: Senior Jesse Gordon-Blake, a 22-year-old senior, is studying biochemistry and enjoys spending his time making his own music. As a DJ, Gordon-Blake has been creating his own music for three years and pulls his inspiration from all genres of music, he said. “I try to combine genres in order to create something new and unique—something that is not the norm,” he said. When asked what he would describe his music as Gordon-Blake replied, “glitch-dub-break-step-bass music,” which pays homage to his interest in diverse genres of music. Because biochemistry is a demanding major, Gordon-Blake tends to divide his time between school and music, he said. After four years of taking advantage of the party scene at FLC, Gordon-Blake has decided to stop drinking for the busy semester ahead of him, as school is much easier with a clear mind, he said. He loves meeting new people and helping people through problems, an attribute that is easily identifiable through his four years working in the computer labs around campus. “I love meeting new people, talking to people and helping people, and I am down to chill,” he said.
Age: 19Major: Adventure Education Status: Freshman A native of Mumbai, India, Aranka Hoosien is a 19-year-old freshman at Fort Lewis College studying adventure education. While Hoosien enjoys spending time skiing and climbing, she also loves spending time with other international students. Hoosien traveled to FLC to become a student of adventure education and finds the discipline to be fun and interesting, she said. She enjoys studying wilderness therapy and aspires to bring her training back to India to teach her fellow people how to use the outdoors to enlighten their lives and have fun. Recently, Hoosien started climbing in some of the bouldering areas around Durango, such as Turtle Lake, and has enjoyed the hard work and physical challenge climbing provides, she said. After spending much of her first semester of school skiing at Durango Mountain Resort, Hoosien now considers herself a decent skier who still has much to learn about the sport, she said. While being outdoors is her favorite activity, Hoosien also enjoys reading and exploring the culinary delights that Durango has to offer, she said.
Aranka Hoosien
Photos courtesy of Aranka Hoosien
Profiles by Reid Tulley
Photo Not Available
indyonline.com page 5
Photo Not Available
Jesse Gordon-Blake
Non-traditional students refer to those over the age of 25, and with the age usually come additional out-of-classroom commitments. Do these commitments, however, interfere with a “normal” sleep pattern? To investigate, the Indy asked two Fort Lewis College counselors to discuss the impact of sleep and possible remedies for students not receiving the adequate amount, and interviewed two non-trads in regard to their sleep habits and responsibilities outside of school. Sleep is the body’s way of recharging, resetting, and rejuvenating for the next day, said Amy Podolsky, a counselor at FLC’s counseling center. During sleep, the brain is still active, synthesizing information from the day, creating memories, and repairing the body, she said. “The recommended amount is seven to nine hours of sleep,” said Katie Sparks, a counselor, tutor coordinator, and advisor at FLC’s Program for Academic Advancement. When a person is sleep deprived, he or she is not as capable emotionally or physically, Podolsky said. Fine motor skills, memory, attention, as well as the ability to carry out tasks effectively and correctly are all affected, she said. An ideal environment for sleeping is one that is quiet, dark, and cool, Sparks said. A bed should be a place of sleeping rather than waking, so if a person is tossing and turning, he or she should get up and do something else, she said. If a student is having trouble sleeping, he or she should avoid watching TV from bed, as well as caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and exercise before bedtime, Sparks said. “So I mention to students how people use sleep deprivation as torture,” Sparks said. “As a prisoner of war, or different circumstances, sleep deprivation is used to break a person down. Of course there’s always someone who can do okay on five hours or six hours. I’m sure there are anomalies to every situation.” More traditional students seek counsel at PAA regarding sleep issues, Sparks said. “I think also, older people know their boundaries and their limits,” she said. “It’s our own responsibility to take care of these
things, and I think for some people who can’t sleep, it’s important to see a doctor.” Cody Montoya, 27, an engineering major affiliated with Engineers Without Borders, also works about 25 hours a week at Stoneage, an engineering firm. Montoya said he receives about five to six hours of sleep each night, and, as an avid coffee drinker, he consumes about three to four cups per day, he said. “I drink a lot of coffee,” Montoya said. If his schedule would allow, he would want more sleep, he said.“Sometimes when you get tired you can’t really think too straight,” Montoya said. Clarence Smith, 37, a fifth-year non-trad studying international business and international political economy, balances being a single father among a myriad of responsibilities. He’s vice president of Father’s Voices, a board which helps Native American men obtain the essence of fatherhood; volunteers at the Southern Ute jail; interns with the World Trade Center in Denver and holds sweat lodges, a Native American prayer and purification ceremony, he said. On top of that, Smith has been on the Dean’s list since the beginning of his FLC career, he said. “I’m so tired right now,” he said. “I didn’t get to bed until two last night and woke up at six this morning.” “Four to five seems to be the average for me,” Smith said. “Once in a great while, I’ll do caffeine, but it’s not a practice of mine, because I’m caffeine sensitive,” he said. Smith notices a lot of non-trads who seem to work hard on little sleep, he said. “With nontraditional students, I think I see more focus in their studies and in their life,” he said. “Because we’ve gone through the ‘20-year-old year old mindset,’ you know what I mean, or the ‘-year-old old mindset’ where they’re partying hard and living fast. Every now and then we’ll see a non-traditional student that tries to revive that experience, but it usually doesn’t last long.”
The Non-Trad Series: a series of stories and columns on non-traditional students at Fort Lewis College
Are Non-Trads Getting Enough Sleep?Interviews by Jimi Giles
Sleep is the body’s way of recharging, resetting, and rejuvenating for the next day, said Amy Podolsky, a counselor at FLC’s counseling center.
Photos by Ali Johnson and Hana Mohsin (from left to right) Katie Sparks, Clarence Smith and Amy Podolsky
page 6 the independent news magazine
Story by Mitchell Fraser
Photo Illustration by Allie Johnson Durango resident, Steve Ilg is a Yoga Guru
Students around the world and residents of Durango alike continue to discover the positive, natural power and overall energy that yoga can have on their minds, bodies, and souls.
Durango has numerous options to twist, bend, mold and stretch the body. With places like Sunrise Yoga, Rock Lounge, Durango Sports Club, Desert Nomad Yoga, Martha Evers, and Lotus Oasis Retreats, as well as personal yoga training opportunities, people are finding their Zen in all corners of town.
Sophia Scott, a Colorado native who is presently studying yoga abroad in Spain, has plenty of experience with yoga’s purpose for the individual.
“Not only can yoga help us physically, but it’s also a state of mind,” Scott said. “Yoga helps us strip away the things that try to misrepresent us, like the emotions, sensations, desires, achievements and failures of daily life.”
Yoga also leads to a greater understanding of oneself, she said.
“Through yoga, we learn to develop a greater awareness of our physical and psychological states,” Scott said. “With this power, we can better manage our daily thoughts, feelings and responses we have to the numerous situations we deal with every day.”
Rather than focusing on things that cause stress, like school, jobs, or relationships, yoga leads people to understand the feel-ings behind stress, she said.
“Bikram yoga” may be an option for those who want a good workout from yoga while maintaining a peaceful state of mind, Scott said.
Bikram yoga or “hot yoga” consists of a relatively regular yoga routine performed in a room with a very high tempera-ture, providing a rather sweaty environment, she said.
“Bikram is the only type of yoga I do anymore,” said Morgan Crouch, a student at San Diego State College. “If you’ve never tried it, it is the most intense yet tranquil type of workout that I’ve ever come across.”
Yoga drastically and positively impacts people by helping to center their lives, Crouch said.
Since she has started making Bikram yoga her routine, Crouch has seen her relationships, grades and many other as-pects of her life become more comfortable, she said.
Joanna Casabona, a student studying at the University of Memphis, said that without a doubt her favorite yoga position is the half shoulder stand.
“For whatever reason, in that pose, I just feel so peaceful and like nothing else in the world matters except for my happiness,” she said.
The triangle and child’s pose are also very relaxing, she said.Some positions to help the everyday yoga enthusiast wake
up are the cobra, the bridge, and warrior II, among others. The wide-ranging options that yoga offers have a little some-
thing for everyone. “I can think about things so much more clear when I’m doing yoga,”
Casabona said.To end in true fashion that would only make the flexible ti-
tans of the yoga world proud and before everyone goes on with their stressful days of work and school, say it with me, Namaste.
Lotus Oasis Retreat328 Jenkins Ranch Road Durango, CO(970) 799-8950
Ayurveda Center of Durango 1099 Main Avenue #318 Durango, CO(970) 382-8332
The Rock Lounge 1111 Camino del Rio Suite 105Durango, CO(970) 259-7625
Martha Evers 1309 E 3rd Ave #10 Durango, CO(970) 259-2031
Energy Awareness & Yoga for Kids 1309 East 3rd Avenue Durango, CO(970) 749-1926
Durango Sports Club 1600 Florida RoadDurango, CO(970) 259-2579
4-Corners Yoga 1309 E 3rd Ave #32 Durango, CO(970) 259-4794
Desert Nomad Yoga 1309 East Third AvenueDurango, CO(970) 382-7154
Sunrise Yoga 2929 Main Avenue Durango, CO(970) 259-0385
Yogadurango 1485 Florida Road #201Durango, CO(970) 946-8961
Yoga in Durango:
theindyonline.com page 7
Finding Relaxation through Yoga
The answer might cause you to lose some sleep
...You could be allergic to things in your mattress without even knowing it.“ “
Story by Ayla Quinn
Reusing mattresses in a college town is common practice because students live in dorms and rental units, said Melissa McConnell, a saleswoman at Northpoint Home Furniture.
“But personally, I would never use a used mattress,” McConnell said.
A mattress that has aged over 10 years increases in size and weight by 70 percent, Josh Walcott, a salesman at Wallace Sleep ‘n Comfort Company said.
The increase in size comes from dust mites and other parti-cles the mattress comes in contact with throughout the years, McConnell said. There is a way to avoid a dirty mattress and to keep the mattress as clean as possible, she said.
People can keep their mattresses as clean as possible by pur-chasing a mattress protector, she said.
A mattress protector will cut down on the allergens in the air that people breathe in during sleep, McConnell said.
Walcott recommends that customers purchase a bed cover when buying a new mattress.
“You just really want to protect your investment,” he said.
Mattress protectors are anti-microbial, meaning they fight against the bacteria that are unhealthy to be exposed to, McConnell said.
The element silver ion is a part of the anti-microbial mat-tress covers; this creates an environment that mold and bacte-ria do not like to live in, McConnell said.
They also protect against dust mites, she said. “Your face is next to your mattress when you sleep and
you could be allergic to things in your mattress without even knowing it,” she said.
There are multiple options for mattress protectors, such as ones that prevent against allergens, dust mites, and bed bugs, if there is further concern, Walcott said.
A mattress protector is a cover that zips around the
mattress, Walcott said. The public is becoming less diligent about cleaning, said
Michael Meschke, Environmental Health Director at San Juan Basin Health Department.
“We are starting to take things for granted,” Meschke said. To avoid bed bugs, Walcott suggests going with a memory
foam mattress, he said.“Since there is nothing natural about memory foam mat-
tress, bed bugs do not like it,” Walcott said. This increase of bed bugs over the past years is found both
nationally and internationally, Meschke said. International travel can heighten the chances of getting
bed bugs, he said.“Bed bugs are less common at this altitude,” McConnell
said.Still, it might be a good idea to know how to deal
with bed bugs.Keeping a cooler environment is a way to prevent
against bed bugs, McConnell said. “An individual will see and feel bed bugs if they have
them,” McConnell said. “If your mattress looks dirty, you need to take a closer look,
you may have bugs,” Meschke said. A good way to avoid bed bugs and dust mites is to keep your
house clean, Walcott said.Keeping the bed as clean as possible can help, but since bed
bugs respect no boundaries, there is no guarantee that an out-break will not happen again, Meschke said.
Photo by Lucas Hess
Coil mattresses are more likely to contain bedbugs and other allergens than memory foam.
page 8 the independent news magazine
New mattress
10 years later
Mattresses aged more than 10 years increase in size and weight by 70%.
Coil Mattress Memory Foam
7-10 years
30 yearsMattress Life Expectancy
Gra
phic
s by
Gra
eme
John
ston
...Just because you get rid of them does not mean
they cannot come back.“ “
The frequency with which people should deep clean their mattresses can depend on the temperature they prefer to sleep in, Walcott said.
If an individual tends to sleep in warmer conditions, then Walcott recommends that they deep clean the mat-tress more often, he said.
“Also, after you are sick is a good time to clean your bed,” he said.
If bed bugs occur, a professional cleaner is required to steam clean the complex, he said.
The steps should include cleaning, steaming, completely enclosing the mattress and box spring to reduce spreading, washing all bedding in the hot-test water setting or freezing if a hot water wash is unavailable, and then treating the mattress with insecticides, he said.
To assist keeping a mattress as clean as possible, a consumer should know the recommended life of a mattress, McConnell said.
may even recommend throwing away the old bed that was infested with bed bugs and getting a new one, said Robert Boies from Wallace Sleep ‘n Comfort Company.
Along with professional exterminators, other steps are re-quired, Meschke said.
An owner or renter should remove everything from the room and treat everything in either extreme heat or extreme cold, he said.
but it is going to last longer,” McConnell said.Bedding should also be cleaned and changed as
much as possible, she said. “I think just personal cleanliness and hygiene is
important in keeping a clean mattress and bed,” she said.
“This can get really expen-sive and just because you get rid of them does not mean they cannot come back,” he said. The professional cleaners
A coil mattress expected life time is 7-10 years, where a life of a Memory Foam mattress is 20-30 years, she said.“You are paying more for a memory foam mattress
theindyonline.com page 9
page 10 the independent news magazine
Have you ever been walking and heard your name called only to turn around and find that no one was calling you? Maybe you have felt your phone vibrate in your pocket only to pull it out to find no one has called you. You might call these odd experiences a figment of your imagination but they are correctly referred to as hallucinations. “To understand what hallucination is, it is necessary to understand object recognition,” said Ava Santos, an assistant professor of psychology at Fort Lewis College. The two object recognition processes that occur in normal human cognition are a bottom-up process and a top-down process, Santos said. A bottom-up process happens when people take information from their surrounding environment and it registers on their sensory receptors, she said. Top-down processing is when people have prior knowledge that influences what they perceive, Santos said. “Expectations play a huge role in how we perceive things,” Santos said. In other words, bottom-up processing is based on new information from a person’s surroundings and top-down processing is based on what a person already knows. “Normal perception is a combination of bottom-up processing and top-down processing, “ Santos said. “You see something in the environment and then your pre-existing knowledge is telling you what you’re supposed to be seeing, and that’s where
your interpretation comes in.” Hallucinations are overactive top-down processes that result in a person perceiving something that really isn’t there, Santos said. Hallucinations may occur when all a person has is his or her expectations and there is really nothing there, she said. There are many different forms of hallucination, such as visual hallucination, auditory hallucination, and hallucination of smell and taste. One can also have tactile hallucinations, which consist of feeling something that isn’t there. Hallucinations differ from dreams because a person must be awake to experience hallucinations and a person must be asleep to experience dreams, Santos said. While hallucinations are known to occur immediately before a person falls asleep, in what is known as stage one of sleeping, dreams occur during stage five, or the rapid eye movement stage of sleep. Hallucinations are a normal part of human cognition, she said. That being said, hallucinations don’t always just happen on their own. While hallucinations are considered a normal part of human cognition and can even be attributed to something as small as sleep deprivation, ingesting certain substances can also alter people’s perception and make them more likely to have overactive top-down processing, Santos said. These substances are commonly referred to as hallucinogenic drugs and cause the user to have false perceptions of reality.
Spiritual, drug-induced and just plain normal
FLC psychologist says hallucinations are
a normal part of human cognition
Story by Reid TulleyPhoto Illustration by Erica Saurey & Hana Mohsin
theindyonline.com page 11
They can also be dangerous for users with mental health issues, said Susan McGinness, the director of the Counseling Center at FLC. “We look at mental health situations as being created by three things,” McGinness said. The first thing councilors consider is the individual’s genetic structure or pre-disposition to mental health issues, which can be passed along from parents, she said. The second is the experiences and trauma the individual has undergone throughout his or her life, and the third consideration is what the person has ingested, from junk food or coffee to drugs, McGinness said. The use of hallucinogenic drugs can augment an individual’s pre-disposed mental health issues as well as compound any trauma the individual has experienced in his or her life. Therefore, they can pose a serious threat to a person’s mental health, McGinness said. Whether hallucinogenic drugs are dangerous to a person depends heavily on the individual and the mental state and inherited mental conditions of that individual, he said. While there are psychological risks associated with ingesting hallucinogenic substances, there are many cultures that view these substances as religious sacraments and use them during religious ceremonies to attain spiritual enlightenment. Some cultures and religions use these substances to come into
contact with the spiritual world or to experience an authentic state of being, said David Kozak, a professor of anthropology at FLC. Ayahuasca brew is a hallucinogenic drink made by native peoples of Amazonian Columbia, who employ the drink for its divinatory and healing purposes, Kozac said. Ayahuasca is used in religious ceremonies by native South American tribes to purify the body, he said. Some of the side effects of Ayahuasca are vomiting and diarrhea, which can actually help to expel some of the common parasites found in the rain forest, he said. While hallucinations can be caused by hallucinogenic drugs, mental health issues and sleep deprivation, they are also a normal part of human cognition. “We can only know the world from what we perceive it to be,” Santos said. “To have normal human cognition you have to have some form hallucinations.”
Photos by Hana Mohsin
While hallucinations are known to occur immediately before a person falls asleep,
in what is known as stage one of sleeping, dreams occur during stage five, or the
rapid eye movement stage of sleep.Photo Illustration by Erica Saurey & Hana Mohsin
page 12 the independent news magazine
Three of the most common mental health issues facing college students are relationship problems, depression, and drug dependency and abuse.
Sleep, relationships and depression Relationship issues have been the biggest problem for students historically, said Susan McGinness, director of the Fort Lewis College counseling center. Counselors often speak with students about the dynamics of a relationship to better understand the situation, McGinness said. Typically, counselors try to find out what each party in the relationship does for the other, and whether or not both parties feel they are treated with mutual respect. Another common mental issue for FLC students, depression, can make relationships increasingly difficult, she said. McGinness’ main concern for students is a lack of sleep, she said. “If anyone doesn’t sleep for two or three nights, they’re crazy,” McGinness said. “Whatever anyone’s problems are they are worse whenever they haven’t slept.” A schedule is the best tool students can use to ensure they get plenty of sleep, she said. This means setting a set time to wake up every day, including weekends. Between school and extracurricular activities, it can be hard for students to set a schedule, but eight hours of sleep is essential for mental health, McGinness said.
In addition to setting a schedule, exercising each day will help students sleep better, she said.
Drug use and dependency Drug use and dependency can cause serious side effects for students. Some signs of drug abuse and dependency are repetitive behavior, continual use of a substance, and binge use, which is the mass consumption of a substance over a small time period, said Nichole Fuller, a certified addictions counselor and contract laborer with Preferred Counseling Services in Durango. The drugs that are most often used by FLC students are alcohol and marijuana, McGinness said. Other drugs such as ecstasy, heroine, methamphetamines, and prescription drugs are in Durango, but are not widely used by students, McGinness said. Alcohol is physically addictive and marijuana is mentally addictive, said Elizabeth Brown, a certified addictions counselor for Harmony Counseling Center in Durango. “Drug and alcohol use is progressive,” Fuller said. “It increases in the number of times they are using, and the amount they are using, and this indicates tolerance.”
Photo Illustration by Hana Mohsin and Sarah Zoey Sturm
Story by Dylan Wooden Special to the Indy
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For example, if someone drinks three drinks every night for a week, and then the next week the person drinks five drinks a night, he or she is gaining a tolerance to alcohol, Fuller said. Another problem related to drug and alcohol dependency and abuse is stress, McGinness said. Stress can stem from a combination of sleep inhibition, bad grades, financial problems, and the legal consequences of getting caught. Both McGinness and Fuller said that alcohol has a worse effect on students than marijuana does. “Eighty-six percent of homicides, 70 percent of child abuse, six percent of rapes, 75 percent of domestic violence and 50 percent of emergency room trauma are alcohol related,” Brown said. Some withdrawal symptoms include uncontrollable shaking, hallucinations, swelling of appendages, or in rare occasions seizures. These symptoms are life threatening and if a person displays them he or she needs to be hospitalized immediately, Fuller said. Sleep inhibition is included in these symptoms, Fuller said. The simplest way to deal with these problems is to ask for help, McGinness said.
The counseling process Students who attend counseling sessions should be informed of the business of counseling and the processes and laws that both patients and counselors are bound to. As far as processes and laws, discretion is important in the counseling business and is taken very seriously, McGinness said. There are three circumstances in which counselors are required to relay information from a session, Fuller said. These circumstances include information dealing with suicide, homicide and abuse. If people disclose the means by which they plan to kill themselves or just disclose that they plan to kill themselves, counselors have
a duty to warn the proper personnel, Fuller said. As a counselor, Fuller would also have a duty to warn authorities, “if a person has a homicidal idealization, and a plan to do so,” she said. For example, if Fuller is in session with someone and the person announces that he or she has a gun as well as a plan to use it on him or herself or anyone else, then Fuller would have to notify the police, she said. “Lastly, if a person discloses information sexual, mental, emotional, physical, or animal abuse to themselves or others,” she would have to notify the police, Fuller said. In any of these circumstances, Fuller would notify the police or social services, she said. Both Brown and McGinness acknowledged the same three circumstances in which they would have a duty to warn someone. Payment is also an important part of the counseling process. At the counseling center, the first five sessions are free for a full- time student. After that, they cost $30 per session. For Preferred Counseling Services, no insurance is needed, but insurance is taken, Fuller said. Usually, insurance companies will pay for the first six sessions and the customer still has to pay for 20 percent of the session, Fuller said. “Counseling sessions usually run from $30 to $60 for 30 minutes with a counselor,” she said. Counseling is already a part of life for most people, McGinness said.“Everyone does counseling with themselves, with friends and family,” she said. When facing a mental issue, McGinness emphasized, the best thing to do is ask for help.“Help gives hope,” she said.
If anyone doesn’t sleep for two or three nights, they’re crazy,” McGinness said. “Whatever anyone’s problems are they are worse whenever they haven’t slept.
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Photos by Hana Mohsin
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Graphic by Sarah Zoey Sturm
Susan McGinness, director of the Counseling Center
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