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Supporting Our Valued Adolescents: A place to learn, share your strength, be positive, and grow.

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by Moderator ★

TikTok and Mental Health: What’s the Connection?

March 1, 2024 in Educate Yourself, LINKS, Social Media Guide

When the topic of social media comes up in conversation, everyone has a differing opinion. Some people spend countless hours on their accounts while others only have social media accounts to keep in touch with family. Regardless of how we feel about it, social media is here to stay. In recent years one social media platform that has made headlines is TikTok. TikTok has become a popular platform for people of all ages and varying careers, there is content for everyone.

If you use TikTok frequently you have most likely stumbled across a video with a caption reading something along the lines of “Do you have these symptoms? Then you may have (diagnosis).” Often these videos will list very common traits that are not medically abnormal on their own, and if not causing significant distress are harmless. This leads to self-diagnosis, which can be both helpful, and in some cases harmful.

Self-diagnosis vs. Clinical-diagnosis

Defined by the American Psychological Association, a clinical-diagnosis is the process of identifying the nature of a disorder by examining the client’s medical past, identifying symptom patterns, and by using assessment tools. A self-diagnosis occurs when we come to the conclusion that we have a certain diagnosis without any confirmation from a medical professional. The diagnosis may be well-researched and could even be correct, but it has not been confirmed by a diagnosing professional.

Receiving a clinical diagnosis is not always easy. There are many barriers to receiving mental health care from lack of insurance to lack of transportation or lack of parental support. For some teens, a self-diagnosis is the only way to receive some sort of explanation for the way they are feeling and guidance on how to cope. With 84% of the mental health information presented on TikTok being misleading, it’s important to know how to find trustworthy information when mental healthcare is not accessible to you.

Finding Accurate Information

When you are watching a video or reading an article, ask yourself, what are the credentials of the person sharing this information? Are they a licensed mental health professional, or are they a peer sharing their experience? If they are a peer, are they sharing where they received the information they are sharing? If you are looking for trustworthy information, websites such as the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the American Psychiatric Association, and Mental Health America are all reliable sources. Most importantly, share your thoughts and the information you find with a trusted adult. Whether that is a parent, a school guidance counselor, a teacher or another safe adult, building a support system as you navigate your mental health journey is important.

When mental health information is presented to you on social media, how do you know if it is trustworthy?

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by Moderator ★

Angela Davis sitting on a black chair

Radical Self-Care: What We Can Learn From Activist Angela Davis

February 23, 2024 in Educate Yourself, LINKS

Presently the term self-care is thrown around a lot. In many academic and employment settings we are told self-care is important, and we are encouraged to prioritize our mental health. However, we are not always supported past that initial conversation. When you think of self-care, what do you picture? Perhaps in your own life you like to unwind by taking a bath, or losing yourself in a video game or a good book. These activities are great, however, self-care is so much more than that. Self-care is a radical act for many as they learn to put their needs, emotions, and well-being first.

You may have heard the name Angela Davis pop up over the past years. As an activist for Black lives and education for decades, she is familiar with the toll that not just activism, but living as a Black woman can have mentally and physically on a person. We wanted to include the video below where she talks about radical self-care and why it’s so important to be able to prioritize ourselves. She specifically talks about how this is important for those who participate in activism (and can be prone to burnout because of how heavy the content can be as well as taking care of others) and those from marginalized groups who have historically been told that they do not matter.

Check it out below!

What are some ways you can practice radical self-care in your life?

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Seizing the Awkward

February 20, 2024 in LINKS

Starting a conversation can be difficult. Sometimes – especially when you’re close to someone – it can feel like the easiest thing in the world. All sorts of conversations can begin simply by sharing a meme, tagging someone in something that reminds you of them, or even just by saying “what’s up?”

Some topics are harder to approach than others, however. One obvious example is talking about mental health. While adolescents today acknowledge that mental illness is a major problem among their generation, many still hold a stigma which may prevent them from wanting to talk about it with anyone. They may also be afraid of being judged or afraid that if they tell someone, that person will tell someone else and the trust will be broken.

That’s where Seize the Awkward comes in. The website knows that trying to talk to anyone, including those you care for, about mental health and illness is hard, and they’re here to help. The website specifically focuses on how to approach someone else if you think that they are going through a difficult time, and is there to help give you the tips on how to get that conversation started.

What makes the website especially useful is the fact that everything is listed on one page, and all you have to do is scroll. The sidebar divides the page into sections, so if there’s on part you want to specifically get tips about (What are the warning signs? How do you start the conversation?), all you have to do is click it and it’ll directly send you down the page until you get there.

The website also includes advice and stories from internet personalities such as Markiplier and Liza Koshy and a button to generate conversations starters and opening lines. There are animations about the symptoms your friend may be showing to indicate that something seems to be off and worth asking about and ways to keep the conversation going afterwards.

No matter what the situation is – if you’re the subject or not – talking about mental health can be difficult and even scary. Like the website also states, it can be incredibly awkward. Many things are awkward though: asking a crush out, asking a teacher for a recommendation for something, and making appointments over the phone, for example. When it comes to approaching with and facing awkward situations, however, it’s all about remembering that these things may be uncomfortable, but they’re also important to you in a way, and you may feel much better once it’s done.

Listen to Megan Thee Stallion and other celebrities share their stores about how talking with friends about their mental health made an impact.

Check out the site here!

Have you ever felt awkward about having a conversation with someone you’re close to about mental health? Was it about yourself, them, or someone else? Have there been other topics that you feel would be awkward to talk to them about?

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Deep Breathing Exercises You Can Do Anywhere!

February 16, 2024 in Educate Yourself, LINKS

When you think about stressful situations that you face often, what comes to mind? It could be school, work, or even being around family and friends. Some of us may be easily overwhelmed by loud sounds, bright lights, or strong smells. Learning how to cope with stressors in our environment is important to maintaining our mental health. One way to regulate ourselves when we face a stressful situation is by doing breath work.

What is Breath work?

Defined by Webster’s Dictionary breath work is conscious, controlled breathing. It is often used in yoga, for relaxation, and therapeutic purposes. When you are feeling stressed, you may experience rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, and shortness of breath. In a study cited by headspace, one study conducted at Columbia University found that slow, deep breathing was able to reduce stress by slowing rapid heart rate and decreasing blood pressure. Long-term breath work was shown to decrease overall levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. Now that we know the science behind deep breathing, how can we put this skill into practice?

Breathing exercises you can try today:

Box Breathing: To practice box breathing, first visualize a square. If you want, you can draw a square and trace the outline with your finger as you breathe. To complete this exercise you are going to complete four four-counts. First, inhale for four, then hold the inhale for four, exhale for four, then hold the exhale for four. You can repeat this as many times as needed. If you would like a visual to help you complete this exercise, check out the site linked above!

4-7-8 Breathing: Another technique similar to box breathing is called 4-7-8 breathing. For this exercise, you are going to sit or lay comfortably with your back straight. You are going to inhale through your nose for a count of four, hold your breath for a count of seven, and then exhale through your mouth for a count of eight.

Alternate Nostril Breathing: For this technique, you are going to first fully exhale. Then using your right thumb cover your right nostril and breathe in through your left. After inhaling with your left nostril, close it with one of your fingers, and exhale through the right. Then repeat this technique, inhaling through the right nostril, and closing it with your right thumb before exhaling through the left. Repeat as needed.

Interested in learning more?

There are many apps on the app store to support you along your journey such as headspace, the Calm app, and Breathwrk. Not all of the features on these apps are free, but you can find many breathing exercises on headspace’s YouTube page free of charge. Check out their videos on; extended exhales, belly breathing, and many other techniques.

Do you use breathing exercises throughout the day? Which exercises work best for you?

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Mental Health Resources for Black Youth

February 13, 2024 in LINKS

It can be difficult to find resources for mental health resources that feel like they’re targeted to you. This is particularly true for minorities and underprivileged groups. Racial and ethnic minorities have less access to mental health resources and services than white people, and when they do get access, it can be of poorer quality, feeling that the treatment they receive doesn’t fully suit them or that they feel like they’re experiencing discrimination.

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African-American communities are no exception. African-American adolescents require different approaches when developing treatment, because they express their depressive symptoms differently, for a number of reasons.

The options below are just a start to what may be available online for African-Americans and African-American youth. A couple are sites dedicated to one gender, one is an app, and another is a podcast, but all of them have been created and are run by African-Americans, with the hope that seeing something created for you by someone who looks like you can have a more significant impact.

The Safe Place This is an app dedicated just for African-Americans and how they can learn more and think about their mental health. The creator, Jasmine Pierre, is a certified peer support specialist, and has the app offer a forum, statistics specifically about black mental health, and inspirational quotes. There are also self-care tips for things such as coping with police brutality, how to talk to black family members about mental health, and mental health in the black church.

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Fireflies Unite T-Kea – the woman named in the podcast’s full title of Fireflies Unite Podcast with Kea – releases episodes every Monday where she allows individuals to share their stories about mental health and the stigmas they face, especially as people of color. She is a mental health advocate dedicated to showing that mental illness can affect anyone, and is a suicide survivor.

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Therapy for Black Men The main focus of this website (run by mental health professional Vladimire Calixte) is to provide a directory for African-American men to access therapists who they can trust with offering services that will be beneficial to them. The search gives you the option to get more advanced beyond searching just by location, including therapists’ specialties, treatment options, and if they provide therapy remotely. The site also has a coach directory and a blog.

Therapy for Black Girls Dr. Joy Harden Bradford is a licensed psychologist who created this site specifically for African-American women and girls to have a resource to learn more about well-being and mental health. Like Therapy for Black Men, there’s a directory listing therapists nationwide who provide “high quality, culturally competent services” for African-American women and girls, letting you search by location and by insurance. The website also has its own weekly podcast hosted by Dr. Joy, where she talks and educates listeners about an array of mental health topics.

Do you have any recommendations? If you’re a minority, do you look for resources that are more specifically tailored for you?

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Healthy Ways to Express Your Emotions

February 9, 2024 in Be Positive, Educate Yourself, LINKS

Emotions are a part of life. Many of us experience a wide variety of emotions from joy to sadness to excitement and anger. Allowing yourself to feel different emotions without judgment is an important part of improving and maintaining your mental health. However, it is also important to express your emotions healthily. Have you ever felt like you were being misunderstood when expressing your feelings? This is a common occurrence when we are experiencing an emotion like anger or frustration. The more intense your emotions become the more difficult it is to communicate effectively, which only adds to the difficult feeling you may be experiencing. If you are feeling misunderstood by your parents, teachers, friends, or other people in your life, here are some tips to help you effectively express your emotions.

Effective Communication

Effective communication allows us to share an idea or thought with another person, and have that person understand what is being shared. Effectively expressing your emotions can help you release tension and help the people in your life understand you. We first need to identify the emotion(s) we are feeling. A helpful tool when identifying your emotions is an emotion wheel. Many of us use the same few emotions to express how we feel. Anger, for example, can be a protective emotion. Think of the last time you were angry. Why were you angry? Looking at the wheel we can see that anger may be; frustration, jealousy, the feeling of being violated or betrayed. Once you have identified why you are angry, you can explain your feelings to others.

However, at times expressing your emotions is a solo activity. You may not want to talk to someone about how you are feeling, but you still have to acknowledge the emotion to yourself. Some activities that may help you healthily express your emotions include; laughing, crying, listening to your favorite playlist, journaling, exercising, meditating, or engaging in another self-care activity. Sometimes expressing your emotions looks like screaming into a pillow until your frustration is less intense.

Validating Your Emotions

When you express your emotions it’s important to validate how you are feeling. Have you ever told yourself that you are being dramatic, or that you have no reason to feel the way you feel? Most of the time this type of self-talk does not make us feel better. One way to validate yourself is to label your emotions without judgment. Tell yourself that it is okay to feel the way you feel. For example, if you are looking forward to spending time with a friend, and that friend cancels on you, it is okay to feel sad, frustrated, or even angry. At first, your emotions may be very intense because you are disappointed, and that is okay! It is hard to express your emotions when you are telling yourself you shouldn’t feel the way you do, so try doing the opposite.

Seeking Additional Support

We are not always able to handle big feelings on our own. If you are feeling overwhelmed beyond what you can handle, reach out to a trusted friend, family member, or another trusted adult for support. If these resources are not available to you, the following resources offer real-time support to individuals in distress.

What do you do to express your emotions? Do you have any advice for teens struggling to communicate their emotions?

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Social Anxiety: The Symptoms and Potential Causes

February 2, 2024 in Be Positive, LINKS

There are lots of different kinds of anxiety. The general definition of anxiety is an unrealistic, irrational fear or worry of disabling intensity. While fear is the natural response to a serious threat to someone’s well-being, anxiety is a response to a potential threat in the future. People with anxiety can experience it in different situations and in different ways. It’s important to keep in mind that everyone experiences anxiety. When the anxiety gets to a point that it is disabling, it can then be classified as a disorder. For this post we are going to focus on a common type of anxiety: social anxiety disorder.

As we always do before discussing a disorder, it’s important to note that only a professional can diagnose individuals with mental health disorders. We want to warn against the dangers of self-diagnosis, especially relating to mental illness. If you or someone you know is experiencing some of these symptoms, it’s okay to investigate further by educating yourself on the disorder, but important to get a professional opinion before drawing any conclusions.

What is Social Anxiety Disorder?

Social anxiety is defined by the American Psychological Association as a fear of social situations where embarrassment may occur or where you may be criticized by others. Some common signs of social anxiety include:

  • Worrying excessively for days, weeks, months, etc. before an event
  • Avoiding social situations and public spaces
  • Being very critical of yourself after a social event or social interactions
  • Having an intense fear of being embarrassed
  • Shaking, sweating, and having an increased heart rate when in social situations
  • Frequent stomach aches or headaches which may cause more school absences
  • Trouble maintaining friendships

Social anxiety causes individuals to be unable to attend social situations because of the fear or anxiety. If they do attend, the fear or anxiety is difficult to tolerate. Social anxiety is more prevalent among females than males, and usually develops between the ages of 10-20 (Comer, 2014). Researchers and theorists have proposed lots of causes for social anxiety disorder. They believe that people with social anxiety disorder maintain social beliefs and expectations that work against them. These social beliefs include:

  • A negative self image (i.e. believing you are unattractive, or unfunny, not desirable.)
  • Unrealistically high standards for your behavior in social situations
  • The belief that you are “socially awkward”
  • The belief that you will not meet your standards for social interaction and as a result something bad will happen
  • Believing you have no control over feelings of anxiety that come out in social situations.

While social anxiety can cause great distress, therapy can do amazing work to help individuals manage and cope with social anxiety.

What are some of the ways you manage anxiety in social settings?

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photo of pink headphones laying on a bicolored surface of pink and aqua.

Music and Social Media

January 29, 2024 in LINKS

What are your favorite genres? Do you enjoy the stuff currently on the radio? Do you like pop, rock, rap, or any of the specific subgenres within them? Maybe you like a combination, or even all of them.

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Music is an extension of ourselves and a way to not only express, but figure out our identity. Music is especially meaningful for adolescents during a time when they’re experiencing a crucial time figuring out who they are. Studies have shown that adolescents listen to more music than any other age group and use it to help shape together their identity, since there’s often a culture and sense of style associated with different genres.

Studies have also shown that adolescents use music as a way to connect with others and make friends with those who have similar tastes, since they are likely to have other tastes in common too outside of music. Social media is one way of connecting people over their taste in music.

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Using social media to find out what your peers are listening to isn’t new: Last.fm was specifically created so that people could share what they were listening to by connecting it to their iTunes and other music sites. Of course, aspiring musicians can also use sites like Soundcloud and YouTube to post their original works, sharing it with others not just on these sites, but on other platforms too.

Nowadays, social media sites give users the option to post what music they’re listening to when they make a status (like Facebook), and some give them the choice to play a snippet of a song over their story (like Instagram). Even Spotify counts as social media: Spotify gives you the option to add friends by using your email or Facebook, and they can see what you’re listening to as you’re listening to them.

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Spotify also has a “private” listening option, so that you could listen to whatever else you want without others seeing. Both the public and private feeds on Spotify create a discussion about how people, and adolescents specifically, can manipulate what and how they listen to their music based off what others will think of them. Some might have a genre that they’re embarrassed of, or something that might not be that popular with their friends, so they might go into private mode so no one knows that they listened to it. They may only keep the regular setting on if they are listening to groups that their friends also like and contributes to the image they have created for themselves.

Picking and choosing what people see versus showing all of your music history can be similar to picking and choosing what sorts of brands adolescents want others to see them wearing and what type of photos they post on Instagram. It can be even more anxiety inducing too since adolescents listen to more music than any other age group, so it’s natural to forget that the friend feed is there as you’re listening to music, and a song might slip in that might be “judged” by someone. Some may not care, and some may not mind monitoring it. Some may even turn off this feature completely and listen to their music without others knowing when they’re doing so.

If anything, if you want to expand your taste in music outside of Spotify’s Discover Weekly, the friend feed is a great option to find some new songs.

If you use Spotify, do you have the friends on your feed? Do you look at what others are listening to, or do you think others are looking at yours? Why do you think some people judge each other’s music tastes so harshly?

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by Moderator ★

Peer Support: What is it, and Why Does it Matter?

January 26, 2024 in Educate Yourself, LINKS

If you are facing a challenging situation, who do you turn to? Your first instinct may be to reach out to someone with similar experience. This kind of help is called peer support. Peer support is available for people of all ages with varying needs. Youth Peer Support Workers are adolescents with a self-identified history of mental illness who use their experiences to help others. They go through specialized training that teaches them how to use their experiences to help their peers

What exactly does a Youth Peer Support Worker (YPS) do? 

  • Provides one-on-one support to help youth navigate services, supports, and ask for the help they need.
  • Hosts peer support groups and coordinates community events for young people.
  • Shares personal stories to promote recovery.
  • Connects youth to community based service and may serve as a bridge between the youth and their practitioners.
  • Fights against mental health stigma.
  • Tasks may vary from program to program!

How does Youth Peer Support help?

Peer Support is newly studied in comparison to other mental health treatments, but there is evidence that proves that it does help. There is no doubt that an adult has the experience to provide helpful advice to teens. Overall it is much easier for most teens to trust someone their age. You may feel like an adult would not understand what it is like to be a young person experiencing hardship. The teenage experience changes from one generation to the next; a peer would understand this better. Research proves that the support of a Youth Support Worker: increases social support and functioning, increases confidence, decreases depression, psychotic symptoms, and substance use, increases hope and participation in self-care, and reduces hospital visits. 

Did you know that SOVA uses the idea of peer support?

About a third of our articles are written by young people themselves and our own research has shown young people who write for SOVA seem to feel higher self-esteem and more competent and confident in themselves. This means that using your own experiences to help others may help you as well as them! If you are interested in blogging for SOVA, click on the link above.

Do you want to receive peer support services?

Start by asking your doctor, therapist, or social worker for more information. If you’re in Pittsburgh, check out UpStreet, an organization that provides free counseling to Pittsburgh adolescents and young adults between the ages of 12-24. Additionally UpStreet provides Youth Peer Support Services, which you can apply for here on their site. Young people ages 17-22 can sign up to be a Peer Support Mentor using that same link! 

Have you received Peer Support services in the past? Would you be interested in providing Peer Support services to other youth in your community?

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Do I blame myself?

January 22, 2024 in Educate Yourself

A common mindset among those who are diagnosed with mental illnesses is wondering if it’s something that they brought onto themselves. There may be guilt associated with it, like the person thinking they did something wrong or ashamed that they didn’t handle past situations well enough.

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One study looked at this in more detail, focusing specifically on adolescents and their beliefs about mental health after being diagnosed with depression. Navigating how you’re feeling and your mental health as an adolescent can be really difficult: this is a stage where you start wondering if what you’re feeling and doing is similar to what your peers are also going through. At this age, you want to fit in and if you don’t, you might think there’s something wrong with you and then you’ll be rejected as a result. This could be why experiencing mental illness symptoms can be scary, especially when you feel like you’re the only one going through them.

Researchers found three common trends when asking adolescents aged 11-17 about their diagnosis and what they think about mental health. These were confusion about why they were depressed, feeling that they were depressed as a result of rejection, victimization, and stress, and that they blamed something inside of themselves for feeling this way.

Many of these adolescents seemed to experience and feel a lot of guilt when managing their feelings about depression. This guilt had come from things like feeling like letting people down and not being good enough, which contributed to their depressive symptoms, or things like feeling guilty that they were being dramatic about something their “teenage phase.”

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Despite these feelings, however, it seemed that a lot of these adolescents wanted to understand other sources for why they were depressed – the study suggests that the self-blame and criticism adolescents place on themselves needs to be addressed, since it could be a barrier for them to seek treatment or further help.

Although it can feel like the feelings associated with depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses, are the result of something you’ve done wrong or that they’re something that no one else is experiencing, results like the ones in the study can remind you that you’re not alone. These are common beliefs when it comes to experiencing symptoms and being diagnosed, but even though these feelings are frequent, they aren’t necessarily true. It’s a difficult process to realize, but mental illness isn’t one’s fault and something they brought onto themselves, and trying to overcome that can make seeking treatment, finding help, and talking to others a little bit easier.

How did you feel when you first started experiencing symptoms? Did you feel like you needed to blame something or find a reason why you were feeling this way? Share your experiences below!

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