Your student counseling center is FREE and they literally have an "Art Room" and "Serenity Space" at USM. Use it.

This is your semi-annual reminder that you are paying for mental health services with your tuition and not using them.

Ole Miss: Student Counseling Center. Free, confidential. They do group and individual. They also have crisis appointments .

USM: Student Counseling Services. Free for currently enrolled students. They also offer one-time consultations for students living outside Mississippi to connect you with local resources .

But here's the kicker:

USM just added two things I actually want to try:

1. The Art Room – Expressive therapy, non-verbal processing, basically "paint your feelings."
2. The Serenity Space – A literal room designed for de-escalation and relaxation.

MSU: Also has free counseling. Also has crisis services. Also has group therapy.

The stigma is real. I get it. I waited until I was actively failing a class before I walked into the counseling center. But if you're reading this and you've had three weeks of "I can't get out of bed," or you're avoiding your advisor's emails, or you just feel like everyone else has it figured out and you don't—just book the intake appointment.

Also: If you're an international student on an F1 visa, ISSS at USM literally has counselors who specialize in your regulatory and cultural stress . You are not alone.

Drop your campus and your best "actually, therapy helped" story below. We need to normalize this.

THE ART ROOM!! I've been going for like a month now and it's genuinely the highlight of my week. You don't have to be "good" at art. I literally cannot draw a straight line. But there's something about just putting paint on paper when you're stressed that words can't do. My therapist there explained it as "externalizing the internal" and honestly? It works. I have a terrible painting of my anxiety as a chaotic red blob on my dorm wall now and it makes me laugh every time. 10/10 recommend.