Depression – College Roommates

Transcript

You get to your college dorm room and who’s the first person you meet? Your new roommate. It can be very exciting. Sometimes roommates are perfect fits best friends last forever. Sometimes it can be a little difficult. If you are in a situation where you and your roommate just aren’t getting along, it’s important to try and find common ground. Maybe talk to your RA or find another friend to be an intermediate between the two of you. Also, keep in mind you don’t need to be best friends with your roommate. You just need to be roommates. You and your roommate can come up with common ground rules that each of you will abide by in order to make the living situation bearable. If you feel like the situation with your roommate is not livable, talk to someone about potentially getting switched to a different room. Sometimes that can happen, but if it can’t work with your roommate to try and find things that he or she may want you to do and then you can in turn ask them to do certain things for you. If you feel like the situation with your roommate is getting to a point where it’s almost unresolvable, try and schedule a conversation with your roommate. Try and do it in a place that isn’t your room. Maybe on a neutral ground where both of you feel comfortable. Take turns talking so that each of you can hear each other and try to come to some sort of resolution that will help both of you feel comfortable in the space that you need to share. Some of the issues you may face with a roommate could be poor personal hygiene, loud parties at night, eating your food, taking up the common space for themselves, leaving their stuff all over the place. If you have any of these problems, it may be good to assertively communicate with your roommate. Hey, this bothers me. I was hoping we could find some sort of resolution. At the beginning of any roommate relationship where you feel there may be a little bit of tension, it could be good to set up some ground rules such as cleanliness, noise, light, all these things that really impact you personally. Sometimes personalities clash and it’s just not a good fit. If that’s the case, it may be time to talk to your RA or housing administrator.