Faculty, staff and students who are feeling overwhelmed by the terrorist attacks are taking advantage of crisis hotlines open to them.

Margaret Van Ginkel, coordinator for hotlines for the ISU Extension, said the stress hotline has seen an increase in calls from 25 a day to more than 100.

“Since Tuesday, we have been taking a lot of stress calls about the tragedies,” she said. “We’ve been talking to teens and college students about their fears of possibly going to war.”

However, since Tuesday the ISU Student Counseling Service hasn’t seen any students yet, said Dr. Terry Mason, director of the Student Counseling Service.

“Normally after a tragedy like this people are shocked and aren’t ready to talk,” he said.

If students are experiencing depression, guilt or anxiety that is hindering their studies, Mason said he recommends they come in and talk to a professional counselor. If students see this in their friends, he said he hopes they tell them about the counseling service.

Today’s observance of the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance near the Campanile at noon will be a good opportunity for students to release some of their emotions, Mason said.

In reaction to Tuesday’s events, some students may be angry, he said. Those students need to release their emotions positively, and not in a negative way, he said.

“Times like this, we all have to pull together,” Mason said. “We should be careful about making overgeneralizations of students who are from countries that may be involved.”

Many people who have called the ISU Extension hotline are calling feeling a sense of helplessness and guilt, Van Ginkel said. A man called saying he had just moved here from New York, she said.

“He said he would have been in the middle of it all,” she said. “The man questioned why his life was spared.”

Teachers, professors and parents also are calling, Van Ginkel said. Professors are asking how they should approach the issue to their students, she said.

“We tell them they need to talk to their students, but they shouldn’t spend more than a class period on it and then move on,” she said.

When individuals call the stress hotline, the counselors are there to listen and take time to reassure them, Van Ginkel said. She said counselors recommend people get on with their regular routines.

The ISU Extension line also is taking emergency management information for people who have services or supplies they want to donate, Van Ginkel said.

Sandra McJimsey, director for the Richmond Center for Community Mental Health, 125 S. Third St., said their lines are open around the clock. The lines have been busy, but their counselors are not overwhelmed, she said.

Individuals who need help, “need to have the courage to pick up the phone and get help,” McJimsey said. “It’s healthier to acknowledge your fears and anxieties and start getting the help in dealing with them.”

Counselors are telling callers they need to go ahead and keep some balance in their lives, McJimsey said. If a caller has been directly affected by the tragedies, then they need to get help, she said. Otherwise, she said people need to get on with their lives and their daily routines.

Counselors on call

– The ISU Student Counseling Service is open for any students needing assistance. The Student Counseling Service is located on the third floor of the Student Services Building. The center can be reached at 515-294-5056. Hours are back to normal. After 8 p.m., students should call the Richmond Center Hotline at 232-5811 or the Dean of Students Office, 231-6483.

– ISU employees who need assistance can contact the Richmond Center at 232-5811 (Ames) or 1-800-830-7009 (outside Ames or after hours).

– The Iowa Concern Hotline, operated by ISU Extension, has stress counselors available 24 hours a day; phone 1-800-447-1985 (for the hearing-impaired, 1-800-735-2942).