While cracking a joke about how your chemistry class might kill you seems innocent, there is a possibility that it could happen. Okay, maybe not kill you. But if you are truly worried about your chemistry class, you may begin to feel depressed, worthless, irritable, worried or unable to think.

“Your first year of college brings a lot of changes which can cause stress – both positive and negative stress,” Linda Roeder, director of the Student Health Center, said. “Stress is a normal part of life, but when that stress starts to interfere with your health or your ability to study and enjoy life, then it is time to seek help.”

Students are encouraged to seek help from the Student Health Center, which is located on the first floor of the Hawkins-Conard Student Center across from The Eagles Nest. While walk-ins are accepted, Roeder stressed that students should try to make appointments so that they can be attended to immediately.

“We want to be very flexible but we have to be fair to people who do schedule the appointments,” Roeder said.

The Student Health Center is flexible. Not only do they allow walk-in appointments, they also offer over the counter prescriptions right here on campus and are always willing to offer advice on the smallest problems, even something like a mosquito bite.

“No problem is too big or too small to come here for,” Roeder said. “I… encourage [students] not to go the Emergency Room…if it’s something that can wait until the next day. The charge to go to the E.R. is exorbitant to begin with and then parents aren’t happy because they have this bill. We try to educate students about….times you want to go. If you are having difficulty breathing, in severe pain, can’t get pain relief on your own, you have a high fever that you can’t bring down… yes, go to the E.R.” Roeder said.

If a student goes to the health center and the staff believes that an E.R. trip is required, someone on Safety Services’ staff will drive that student to the hospital. Another reason to go to the health

center before another doctor or hospital is because your insurance is rarely affected.

“Students can come here regardless of what insurance they have,” Roeder said. “We don’t bill their insurance for a visit; visits are free to full-time, undergraduate students. The only time we bill insurance or need a payment is if they have to have a lab test done, x-ray ordered, immunizations… pap tests and STD tests…basically anything we need to send out.”

Roeder wants students to feel comfortable coming to the health center. If a student comes in to make an appointment and doesn’t want to say what his/her problem is at the front desk, that student can be taken into a private room to discuss the problem.

“We’re very open and no one is going to surprise us with what they bring to us,” Roeder said. “It’s very important if [a student] has a concern that they come and talk to us and that they are very honest about their symptoms. We can only take care of them…if we know the full story. Sometimes I think people try to hide things because they are embarrassed or they think they are going to shock us. We would rather that they not do that; we would rather that they feel comfortable talking to us. Everything here is confidential.”

If a student has a concern or worry, it is better to go to the health center and check it out than try and wait it out.

“If they come to see us because they have a concern about pregnancy or an STD, that’s perfectly fine,” Roeder said. “That is what we are here for. It’s not going to go outside these walls and we are not going to judge them.”

The health center prescribes birth control and can treat STDs. If students want condoms, they have to purchase them at a nearby drug store.

Health information can be looked up on the health center’s website: www.ashland.edu/students/campus- life/health-services. The list includes important screening tests, public health and safety, HIV and STDs, cancer screenings, everyday health and wellness and much more.