Identifying Students that Need Assistance

The Student in Poor Contact with Reality

These students have difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality, the dream from the waking state.  They may frighten or alarm others because of their behaviors.  However, they are not generally dangerous and tend to be very frightened and overwhelmed.  In broad terms, their symptoms may include:

• Illogical, confused or irrational thinking
• Incongruent or inappropriate emotional responses
• Bizarre, disturbing behavior
• Seeing, hearing or feeling things that others do not see, hear or feel (hallucinations)
• Elaborate reports of being persecuted, of being loved by another person, or of having a great but unrecognized talent or discovery (delusions)

Do:

• Activate the Crisis Intervention Team by contacting Student Health Center (x. 4606), the Counseling & Special Programs office (x. 4572), or Campus Police (x. 4444)
• Respond with warmth, kindness and firm reasoning.
• Remove extra stimulation from the environment (e.g., turn off the radio, step outside of a noisy classroom).
• Acknowledge your concerns, state that you can see that the student needs help.
• Acknowledge the student’s feelings or fears without supporting the misperceptions (e.g., “I understand you think someone is following you, but I don’t see anyone and I believe you are safe.”).
• Focus on the “here and now.”  Ask for specific information about the student’s awareness of time, place and destination.
• Speak to their healthy side.  It is OK to laugh and joke when appropriate.

Don’t:

• Argue to try to convince them of the irrationality of their thinking.  This commonly produces a stronger defense of their false perceptions.
• Play along (e.g., “Oh yeah, I hear the voices, too.”).
• Encourage further discussion of the delusional processes.
• Demand, command, or order.
• Expect customary emotional responses.