Recent cases of bullying, violence and suicide committed by students in Indonesia have caused concern and sadness. This has also become a hot topic of public discussion. In the last half year (June-July 2023) data from POLRI states that there were 640 suicides recorded. The same period in the previous year recorded 486 cases. This means that Indonesia experienced a 31.7% increase in suicides with a peak increase in June 2023. Meanwhile, the Indonesian Suicide Association states that Indonesia has a suicide emergency with an increase of 303% since 2020. This is happen by various factors; including adaptation, genetics, family, friendship, lifestyle, social, and various other factors. These factors can affect students positively or negatively. However, there are still many students who do not realize the positive and negative impacts of these factors so that they forget about their mental health.. They forget to focus on their mental health because they only focus on assignments, organizations, class schedules, and demands received from people around them in their self-interpretation. Good self-regulation in learning will help students to meet the demands they face. Self-regulation is a person’s ability to control their emotions and behavior in any situation independently.

Mental health problems in Indonesia today are still very high, especially among adolescents. Students are part of adolescents. In this period, they still have unstable emotions and do not have a good ability to solve existing problems. In addition, the existence of the ego I as part of self-discovery is one of the factors that is responsible for mental health problems among adolescents. Because of the pretext of self-discovery, adolescents often do not consider the risks of the choices they make in finding who I am and showing their identity. Adolescence is a time when they often experience stress, especially at certain events in their lives. Adolescents are considered as a vulnerable group to experience mental disorders. Therefore, adolescents need to get more attention because they are the country’s assets and the next generation of the nation.

Mental health has a very important role for new students to adapt to their new college environment. Of course, life on campus and school is much different. New students will find a very diverse range of associations and will find different learning methods compared to school days. Therefore, new students are indirectly required to be able to adapt to their new environment. In addition to new students, old students also experience several impacts caused by online lectures, especially for students who participate in organizations. With the existence of online lectures, there will automatically be more lecture assignments. And now, they need to readjust to a learning model that requires their presence in class. Of course, this will also take up energy, emotions, energy, and requires balanced self-management.

Unfortunately, many students do not care about their mental health. Students are still at an age that does not have the ability to control emotions. Sometimes there are even students who do not have the ability to solve problems due to habits brought from home or parenting patterns that make adolescents dependent. In line with the characteristics of generation-Z, it is easy to get what they want as part of an instant and modern lifestyle. So that the pattern of behaving patiently, waiting for the process and accepting what happens as part of learning in life becomes a big PR among generation Z. In this regard, students need good mental health to be able to control emotions and solve every problem they face. One way to maintain mental health is to maintain a lifestyle. It is necessary to maintain adequate diet, sleep patterns, and exercise. What is equally important is to maintain self-management patterns in dealing with the crises and problems of daily life as part of the process of growing like a physical body that needs intake and nutrition. Likewise with the condition of the soul, it also requires nutritious intake in order to grow with a mindset with a healthy personality. Because mental health is as important as physical health.

            In addition, in the midst of many assignments and participating in various organizations, students often experience difficulties in time and self-management. Often just because of the tasks and many activities make students actually feel heavy going through the day which then ends in despair and finally starts to withdraw, feel the problem is never finished, to experience anxiety and end up with shortcuts ranging from thinking about suicide ideas, attempting suicide, to deciding to commit suicide. Actually, people who commit suicide do not want to eliminate their lives but want to solve their problems. He feels that by ending his life, his life problems will also end. The surrounding environment is also very influential on student mental health. Therefore, students need to create a positive environment and relationships. Supportive and caring relationships will make students feel at peace so that they will maintain their mental health. Being a student must be resilient and independent. Care for each other and increase empathy for each other. This will create a good environment for mental health. Especially for those who live in boarding houses far from relatives, of course this will be additional ammunition for the growth of a healthy soul.

Data released by LDP MCCC PP Muhammadiyah (Psychosocial Support Services Muhammadiyah Covid-19 Command Centre) from the period March 2020 – August 2021 states that from around 865 cases that entered and conducted online consultations, there were around 170 cases with suicidal ideation and 56 of them had made suicide attempts including foreigners who were students at one of the universities in Indonesia. The latest data released by WHO during the COVID-19 pandemic, shows a significant increase in cases of mental health disorders in a number of countries. According to data from the official WHO website, they conducted a survey in 130 countries. As a result, there is an adverse impact of Covid-19 on access to mental health services. The WHO survey results stated that more than 60% reported disruption of mental health services for vulnerable people, including children and adolescents (70%); older adults (70%), and women who need antenatal or postnatal services (61%). About 75% of countries reported at least some disruption in schools (78%), and workplace mental health services (75%). How this becomes our homework together to care more, to do something for ourselves and our families and others around us who are also our shared responsibility. We also have a shared responsibility to reduce the increasingly alarming number of suicides. Especially as part of the PT community in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, we are in a suicide-prone area, which certainly needs to be an alarm for us to jointly prevent suicide.

Let’s holding hands together. As we know the impact that changes of mental health impact, it is important to be aware of them. Some of these tips may help to reduce mental health problems both individually and in groups.

In maintaining mental health we need resilience. Resilience is our resistance to stress. There are 4 keys to maintaining our resilience, namely Iam, “I have, I can and I do”.

1. I AM means that we understand, we understand what our strengths and weaknesses are, we know our strengths and weaknesses, we understand that if something happens to me like this then that means what I need to do. Those who are strong in I Am will be able to manage their problems with their own strengths. But sometimes, we feel that we have too many heavy problems at the same time, so we need other supports to help us survive. Then we need the second key to resilience which is I HAVE.
2. I HAVE means in a spiritual approach, know which things we can control and which we cannot. Knowing this and always leaning on the Almighty makes the heart calmer. But sometimes when we are depressed by problems, we need a real person we can see and communicate with face to face in a language we understand. So, I have can be interpreted as a support system; family, friends, community or lecturers and people around us who can provide support and accept our condition, always present when we need it. If in certain conditions we need something deeper and more serious, then the support system can be interpreted as a professional.
3. Next is I CAN; I can be a motivation that we need to get us excited. It is like our guide to achieving our future, which can be in the form of hopes, dreams and aspirations to move forward. We need to have hopes and dreams in our mind to make us feel that we will always be excited about tomorrow. However, I can is not enough because dreams and aspirations must be done, so the fourth key to resilience is I DO.
4. I DO is doing something for each of our hopes and dreams. As a student who dreams of graduating on time, with a certain amount of GPA, of course requires action or implementation. So, the implementation can be in the form of; going to college, attending lectures well and doing assignments and taking exams to the maximum as part of an effort to grow and nourish the soul. One of the other things that can be done is to maintain our physical health with regular exercise, try to do exercise every day according to the needs of each body. Exercising is proven to reduce the amount of cortisol hormone which triggers stress in the body.
   It is important for all of us to realize that being a strong and mentally healthy for student is absolutely necessary. Because students are the guardian of the nation in the future of Indonesia. It is in their hands that the progress of this nation in the future will entrusted. It’s time to care for each other and increase empathy. With some of the above methods, it is hoped that it can help to maintain the condition of students’ mental health.