by: Isis, Meredith, and Bill
As writing tutors, our job is to help everyone improve their writing skills, build their confidence, and achieve their goals in writing. Writers with mental illnesses, in particular, might find it especially difficult to get started on a draft, work through a draft, or complete a draft on time. Our job is to offer these writers a helping hand and a listening ear, and make sure their needs are being met during their appointment with us. In this blog post, we will be discussing three mental illnesses — depression, anxiety, and ADHD — as well as offering insight into how we can assist our own staff members who may also be suffering from a mental illness.
Depression
Major Depressive Disorder is a mood altering psychological disorder. This means it is a mental illness affecting one’s emotions and general well-being. The subtypes of the illness include: Type A, depression with anxiety; Type B acute depression; Type C Reaction to childhood trauma; Type D separation stress; Type E Postpartum depression; Type F, late life depression; Type G, psychotic depression; Type H, atypical depression; Type I, bipolar depression; and Type J, depression as secondary to substance abuse or other mental illness (Lichtenberg & Belmaker, 2010). Symptoms are rooted in prolonged periods of sadness, far beyond what is considered normal, human emotion. Depression can thus express itself in low self-esteem, irregular sleeping patterns, loss of appetite, low energy, and even self harm.
Depression can, perhaps unsurprisingly, manifest itself as a learning disability. This is because it can impair cognitive functioning, and cause a student to feel overwhelmed by an assignment (Dual Diagnosis, 2018). It can also manifest itself in causing difficulty focusing, and memory loss. In my experience, I have personally noticed memory related issues in witnessing a family member with depression. Furthermore, low self-esteem can cause a student to feel learning new things is pointless, and thus slowing their desire to learn new things or seek out help for doing so. A survey of students found that seventeen and a half percent claim that depression or depressive symptoms negatively impacted their academic performance (Anglesey & McBride, 2019). We can see this study in action when witnessing students with depression recognize how it manifests as a learning disability; they are aware of what is happening to the but may still struggle.
Because writing centers are there to assist any and all student who may enter, it naturally follows then that such tutors should develop strategies for tutees with depression, whether they know if a student is depressed or not. Most of these strategies are rooted in the concept of listening. “Listening to shelter” is one strategy described by Anglesey and McBride in their article, “Caring for Students with Disabilities: (Re)defining Welcome as a Culture of Listening.” They define it as “the safekeeping of the ideas of another, or a willingness to provide shelter, even if only temporarily, to the ideas of another” (2015). We can think of this then as using our listening to and interaction with the writer to make the writer feel more comfortable with us, and validated in their ideas. It is similar to Babcock’s notion of “active listening,” which seeks to truly engage with a writer rather than to just listen as a way to think of what your response will be.
It is also important to utilize non-verbal listening cues to help validate a writer (Emerson, 2018). This includes nodding, smiling, and eye contact, although some of these might be more difficult to communicate through Zoom. Listening is also important if a writer is expressing depression related anxiety to you. Sarah Emerson is a tutor with depression and social anxiety and she’s explained that she feels more validated when she is allowed to express her feelings without interruption. Especially problematic are phrases like “it’s okay, just be happy,” which can be well intentioned, yet condescending. Most importantly, they misunderstand how depression functions. This does not mean, however, it is not important to still offer encouragement to a writer.
Writer’s Anxiety
Writer’s anxiety is defined as “Feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure when faced with a writing task.” (Green, 2017) Writer’s anxiety is situational, meaning you could have it about one writing assignment but feel completely fine when faced with a different one. Some possible triggers of writers anxiety could be:
- adjusting to a new form of writing,
- working with a limited amount of time or unstructured time,
- outside/ unrelated issues in a writer’s life,
- feeling like an assignment is detached from your academic or life goals,
- working on an assignment for a critical or demanding reader,
- remembering past critiques on writing, and
- stressing over grades or a writer having high standards for themselves.
These stresses and triggers can often results in a writer continually postponing starting an assignment. This, in turn, leads to even more anxiety over the resulting time constraint. When you are in an appointment where a writer is experiencing writer’s anxiety, there are a few strategies you can do to ease some of this anxiety. These strategies include:
- identifying and acknowledging a writer’s strengths,
- confronting writer’s unrealistic standards for themselves and their paper,
- encouraging them to think about positive past writing experiences,
- building rapport, and
- encouraging them to make another appointment with you again if the appointment was helpful.
If a writer with anxiety is encountering a new writing style, help them learn about it as much as you can and find examples to help solidify it in their mind and boost their confidence. If they are unclear on the assignment, encourage them to talk to their professor, ask lots of questions, and go through the assignment sheet, highlighting important parts. If the writer feels especially stressed, encourage them to communicate that to their professor so they can possibly work out an extension or agreement of some sort.
If they are stuck in a certain part of the writing process, encourage them to try new writing strategies such as:
- a free write,
- making an outline,
- setting goals with small rewards, or
- breaking up the assignment to make it seem less intimidating.
You may be thinking, “these sound like something you should do in any appointment,” and if you are, you would be completely right. These strategies could be transferable to any of your appointments, but they are especially important to practice when working with a writer struggling with writer’s anxiety.
ADHD and Its Symptoms
The symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD for short, are separated into two groups: Inattentive, and hyperactive/impulsive (Miller, 2018).
Inattentive symptoms:
- Difficulty following instructions,
- trouble organizing tasks, or
- being easily distracted or sidetracked.
Hyperactive/impulsive symptoms:
- Fidgeting,
- talking excessively, or
- interrupting others.
This can contribute to a slew of problems when it comes to the writing process. Susan Osborn from the Writing Center at Princeton says, “Executive functioning problems challenge a student’s ability to remember, analyze, organize, decide, prioritize, and execute a task by a deadline. These challenges make the task of writing essays especially problematic for student writers with ADHD,” (Osborn, 2020).
How to Work with These Writers
The main goal can be can create small, manageable milestones. According to Tracy Collins from Edutopia.org, “Since accomplishing a five-page essay takes a lot of time, you can chop it into smaller, easier-to-manage pieces that can be worked on in rotation. Each piece may be checked separately if time allows. Treating every issue and section as an independent task will prevent students from feeling overwhelmed as they work toward a larger goal,” (Collins, 2015).
We can also encourage they briefly write out each of their ideas onto paper, a whiteboard, a google document, etc. This will help them organize their ideas into a clean visual. From here, we can help the writer talk through each idea, and come up with ways to smoothly incorporate them into their draft.
Thirdly, we can give clear, concise instructions, try not to leave a lot of room for interpretation, and give specific, direct feedback (Collins, 2015). This will help the writer to absorb what we’re saying better, and apply our feedback more practically and efficiently to their writing.
There are many helpful strategies we can use when working with a writer with a mental illness, and though these strategies are ones that we are already trained to use with every writer, they become especially important to consider when working with a writer with mental health concerns.
It is important to be patient with writers with mental health concerns, too. We must remain professional and treat them with dignity and respect, but also treat them as a friend and peer, and allow them to build trust with us. In some cases, it might even be beneficial to let them know of a few campus resources that might help further guide them, like DePaul counseling, for example.
Mental Health of Tutors
It is important before concluding that we address tutor mental health. It is important to recognize that tutors also have mental health struggles, and strategies need to be developed for them to cope while working in such a writer-focused environment. In a survey done of 127 Writing Center tutors, done as a part of a larger study, a surprising sixty percent admitted to having symptoms of some mental health disorder. This includes forty-one percent who experienced symptoms of depression, thirty-six percent of anxiety, and fifteen percent of ADD or ADHD (Denger, Wojciehowski, & Giroux, 2015). Seventy-two percent of these tutors, however, had not disclosed their symptoms to anyone at their workplace prior to the study.
The authors of this study advise more Writing Center tutors to come forward with their mental health symptoms; they feel as if too many tutors are afraid of being seen as a burden. Tutor training sessions, which normally make no mention of mental health, could be used then as platforms for tutors to disclose whatever they feel comfortable sharing, and even gain access to resources or accommodations. The most important thing, however, for tutor mental health is to have a safe and supportive work environment. I interpreted this as a call for tutors to be empathetic to one another, and be there to help their co-workers if a crisis emerges.
References
Agnless, Leslie; McBride, Maureen (2019). “Caring for Students with Disabilities: (Re)defining Welcome as a Culture of Listening.” The Peer Review. http://thepeerreview-iwca.org/issues/redefining-welcome/caring-for-students-with-disabilities-redefining-welcome-as-a-culture-of-listening/
Collins, T. (2015, April 21). Writing Strategies for Students With ADHD. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/writing-strategies-students-with-adhd-tracy-collins
Denger, Hillary; Wojciehowski, Kylie; Giroux, Christopher. (2015). “Opening Closed Doors: A Rationale For Creating a Safe Space for Tutors Struggling with Mental Health Concerns or Illnesses.” Praxis: A Writing Center Journal. http://www.praxisuwc.com/degner-et-al-131
Dual Diagnosis Staff, (2018). “How Depression Affects Learning.” Dual Diagnosis, Foundations Recovery Network. https://dualdiagnosis.org/how-depression-affects-learning/
Emerson, Sarah. (2018). “Mental Health Awareness in the Writing Center.” College of Lake County Writing Center. https://clcwritingcenter.com/2018/09/03/mental-health-awareness-in-the-writing-center/
Writer’s Anxiety. (2017, July 13). Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psy-curious/201707/writers-anxiety
Lichtenberg, P., & Belmaker, R. (2010). Subtyping Major Depressive Disorder. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 79(3), 131-135. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48511252
Miller, C. (2018, October 23). What’s ADHD (and What’s Not) in the Classroom. Child Mind Institute. https://childmind.org/article/whats-adhd-and-whats-not-in-the-classroom/
Osborn, S. O. (2020, May 31). About Susan Osborn, Ph.D. The Writing Center of Princeton. http://writingcenterofprinceton.com/about/
UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Center. (2018, August 21). Writing Anxiety –. The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/writing-anxiety/