October 10th was Indigenous Peoples Day 2022. Here some links to find mental health resources for indigenous communities and read/watch stories from indigenous youth
IndigiLOVE Campaign – We R Native This resource is created by native youth for native youth. They cover a variety of topics, including mental health, and feature poems and visual art created by native youth.
Love is Respect is a project dedicated to providing resources on navigating relationships and ending dating violence. This site includes the StrongHearts Native Helpline
Have you heard of these resources before? Feel free to share your favorite Indigenous authors, creators, and advocates below
Self-care has become a term that always pops up when talking about mental health and wellness. The most common image is that of meditating, taking a bath, or doing a face mask. And while this is great, self-care is so much more than that. While these moments of nurture are helpful, 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 nameAngela Davis pop up over the past years. As an activist for Black lives and education for decades, she well knows the toll that not just activism, but living as a Black woman can have mentally and physically. 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 and do what we need to do to make sure that we’re okay. She specifically talks about 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!
How do you practice self-care? Is self-care something that’s important to you?What do you think of radical self-care?
Quite often, the first piece of advice we receive when trying to change our sleeping habits and to get a better night’s sleep is to put our phone (and all other types of screens and technology) away. Experts recommend that adolescents get at least 8-10 hours of sleep a night, and to ensure staying asleep, to avoid screen time at least 30 minutes to 1 hour before you plan to call it a night.
There are plenty of reasons to explain why you should avoid your phone, computer, tablets, and TVs before bed: the bright light keeps you alert and makes you less tired (but more tired in the morning), REM sleep (where memories are processed and has ties to problem-solving skills) is decreased, and of course, using screens delays sleep as a whole because you’re engaging with content in some way.
But like all habits, distancing yourself from your phone before bed is easier said than done. For a generation of youths that communicate online as much as, if not more, communicating face-to-face, putting phones away, along with the conversations, social media platforms, and friends that come with it, can be nerve wracking.
We’ve talked about FOMO and social media breaks before. Because technology and social media is so crucial to how many youths communicate today, it’s easy to feel like anything could happen and that you can miss something important without your phone for just a few seconds, an hour before sleeping, and even longer than that. Not having your phone charging next to you means that you might miss a conversation in a group chat, an email, or even a notification about something you don’t care about at all. The excitement of social media, regardless of what the content is, and just the fact that there is always content to see, makes us want to stay on and makes us afraid that we’ll miss something important, even if it’s most likely not.
If you’re trying to get a better night’s sleep but are having a hard time parting from your phone to do so, just know that all that content will also be there in the morning. Most of the time, there isn’t anything groundbreaking that requires us to stay up expecting an alert at 1AM. Putting your phone away right before bed can also be the first step to take if you want to distance yourself from how much you use and rely on social media as a whole.
If anything, keeping your phone away may make it easier to get out of bed! If you use your phone for your alarm and have it far away from you, you have to get out of it to turn it off, instead of pressing snooze a bunch of times and/or staying in bed scrolling aimlessly on your phone, just like you did the night before, giving you a less groggy and grumpy start to the day.
Do you have trouble sleeping at night? Where do you keep your phone when you’re getting ready for bed? Have you ever considered keeping your phone away before bed? If you have, or do keep it away, has it made any difference in your sleep?
There are many ways that you can be funny. Maybe you have a preference for puns (or you might think they’re a pun-ishment), or you may think that having a monotone, dry sense of humor is the way to go.
You may have heard of self-deprecating humor before too. It shows up all the time on sitcoms and stand-up specials, and you may have even used it yourself. The best way to describe self-deprecating humor is by watching Chandler from Friends. While he makes sarcastic, sometimes subtly mean comments towards others, he mostly directs them towards himself.
Self-deprecating humor is a form of self-awareness, but the person using that humor only points out what they think are negative things or things they don’t like about themselves, but says it aloud in a funny, joking way. You can joke about something you don’t like about yourself physically, something about your personality, or it can even be as straightforward as sarcastically saying something like, “Anyone else in this room hate themselves too?”
Using self-deprecating humor isn’t new, but log onto websites like twitter and tiktok and it can feel like those types of jokes are everywhere (think of any meme with a trash can and people referring to it as their home, for example). Not only does social media allow us to make self-deprecating posts, but liking and retweeting them allows us to participate in self-deprecating humor on a larger,public platform.
But how does self-deprecating humor impact your mental health? A lot of self-deprecating tweets and memes are often associated with mental illness with jokes like feeling dead inside, one’s depression and anxiety telling you two different things, wanting to die, and blaming yourself for all the bad things that have happened to your life.
Some research has shown results that having self-defeating humor can help in some aspects, like processing anger, and may improve psychological well-being and sociability. Seeing these memes may make whoever retweets or see them feel like they’re not alone and that thousands of other people feel the same way they do. The jokes about mental health can be a way of relating to others, and also is a way of you showing vulnerability and transparency about your mental health.
Most research has shown that being this openly negative about yourself – even if done in a humorous way – has a detrimental effect on your mental health and can negatively affect your professional success, however. Some people may view one using this humor as “pathetic” and having a negative presence, and saying pessimistic things about yourself out loud gives you more ammo against yourself: and you’re not just kicking yourself while you’re down internally, but externally too. While self-defeating humor is used a way of lowering expectations for others and yourself, it can also set you up for failure, because you’re openly saying that you don’t think you’re doing a great job at something and almost expecting the bad things to happen instead.
So while the memes can be funny and relatable, they can ultimately just feel sad. It could be a way of coping, but if you use it all the time, it can also act as a barrier from talking to other people because they only see the negative parts of you. Ultimately, everyone’s sense of humor is different, but when it gets to the point that everything about it is negative, it can affect not just those around you, but your own well-being and perception of yourself too.
Do you use self-deprecating humor? What do you think about people making jokes about themselves?
This video was based on a TED talk by Dr. Brené Brown. She is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent more than a decade studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame.
Have you been on both sides of the hole? Have you ever climbed down with a friend?
How did this video make you feel?
What kinds of changes did it make you want to make in your life?
Or did it remind you of something you or someone else went through?
As one of the more notable symptoms of depression, napping or sleeping for long periods of time can suck time out of the day. Naps during the day mean that the time to do other things is lost, and doing so can make you unable to sleep at night, which makes you tired the next day, and repeat. Some suggest tracking your sleep patterns in order to adjust it, but when depression factors in, it’s harder to track just when you want (or maybe don’t want) to take that inevitable nap.
The primary cause for depression naps stems from avoidance. While naps are supposed to be a refresher before going about the rest of the day (think siestas), people take depression naps to escape from the feelings and thoughts that depression causes. It’s a coping mechanism, something to do to not just pass time, but to let the brain shut up for a little.
These naps serve as an escape, but they are anything but beneficial. They can last from several, excruciatingly long minutes to almost the whole day, and with them come lethargy and a lack of desire to get up, therefore spending more time being sedentary. Sometimes, it feels like the problem can only get worse. Depression naps can also trigger anxiety, because now that some of the day is wasted, so has the opportunity to get things done. This also comes with a feeling of guilt, because the time where you could have been busy and accomplishing things was sacrificed for essentially doing nothing. Then there’s the fact that once you’ve taken a nap during the day, it’s significantly harder to fall asleep at night. A lack of a study pattern has its adverse effects as well, like on school performance, blood pressure, and appetite. Overall, depression naps can cause a snowball effect that often times enhance depressive symptoms.
While trying to avoid them is easier said than done, it’s important to not feel guilty when you find yourself falling asleep when you don’t want to. Sometimes it’s the only thing the body can bring itself to do, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only solution in an attempt to feel better.
Have you heard of Headspace? Headspace is both a website and an app that helps promote mindfulness in everyday living.
from: Headspace.com
We like Headspace because it breaks meditation and mindfulness practices down into easy to digest pieces (and there’s science behind its design)!
Sometimes it can feel very daunting to try something new like mindfulness meditation, but Headspace makes it really easy to understand the benefits and to try out something new!
The app is free, so give it a shot!
Tell us what you think. Did you like the app? Have you tried it before?
It’s impossible to be in control of our emotions all the time. After all, we’re only human, and we react to things in different ways as they happen, whether we want to or not. We may get overly excited about something we’re passionate about during a time when it’s probably not the most appropriate, or we might find ourselves getting a little too heated when someone insults someone close to us.
In moments when your mental health might not be the strongest, navigating and controlling your emotions can feel like a lost battle. It’s like you’re fighting with your mental illness to see who is in control over your brain and how you respond to things, and before you know it, you find yourself on edge and even the slightest inconvenience can have you bursting into tears.
Feeling like you don’t have control, especially over your emotions and reactions can be incredibly overwhelming, but it’s not impossible to take that control back.
The Internet has a fewguides on how to control your emotions when they’re leaning on the more negative side. These include taking a deep breath and taking a moment to ground yourself before reacting to something, rewinding to see how you got to that feeling in the first place, and replacing negative thoughts with positive ones to redirect your mood.Paragraph
And remember this: although it can feel like you’re fighting your mental illness over the remote control for your brain and emotions, you have the strength to take it back. No matter what, that remote will always end up back in your hand.
Have you ever felt like you weren’t in control of your emotions? How did that feel? Do you have any advice on how to improve your mood or combating negative emotions?
Though it’s easier said than done, sometimes the best way to improve our experiences on social media is to not just change how much we’re using it, but how we talk to others and react to what we encounter online.
Now, toxic is a heavy word. If you find out that some of your social media habits are, or can be, toxic, this doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person or that you’re the direct cause of other people’s problems through social media. Toxic habits are those that, if not addressed, can reach the point of doing damage to both yourselves and others, whether they are intentionalor not. Some toxic habits regarding social media include the inability to close and instead constantly refreshing apps that include accounts that make you feel bad about yourself and cause negativity, as well as spending a significant amount of time filtering, analyzing, and downloading apps to help you curate the seemingly perfect life online. Other habits can include following – or even just checking in on – the accounts of people who have hurt you, trolls, and hateful accounts who don’t share the same opinions as you.
Toxic habits on social media can fester to the point where they can emphasize mental illness symptoms. Following accounts that promote unhealthy habits, such as extreme dieting or forcing positivity, can be triggering and guilt-inducing, and looking at troll accounts can make you angry and cause you to engage in fights and lash out. Caring too much about social media stats can make you incredibly anxious and over-analytical about actions you make both online and off, and if you feel like you’re constantly doomscrolling and can’t log off, you might end up triggering depressive symptoms and feelings of hopelessness.
As we begin the new year, you may want to reconsider how you’re using your social media accounts and if the way you engage online may possibly be toxic.
Have you ever had any toxic social media habits? Do you have any now? What would you like to do differently with how you use social media? Feel free to ask questions about how to do so and your experiences with toxicity online and how it affected youbelow
There are several reasons why people may be hesitant when it comes to opening up about mental health, and especially mental illness. Stigma still plays a large part, while others may feel that what they’re experiencing “isn’t that bad” and that others have it worse, so it’s not worth bringing up.
Similar to this, others may be afraid to open up about their mental health because they are afraid of taking up too much space in others’ lives. It’s not uncommon for those experiencing symptoms of mental illness feeling like they are a burden and that their mental illness is something that will inconvenience others around them. Some may view simply existing with mental illness as troublesome and being a negative presence around others, while others may feel that talking about their issues and what they’re going through is too selfish.
As humans however, we all crave attention and the feeling of being wanted. There’s nothing wrong – and it’s even helpful – to openly talk about what you’re going through and when your mental illness is severely impacting you. When it comes to trying to find that balance of seeking support from others and demanding too much space, keep in mind some of the following items:
If you think you’re taking up too much space, you most likely are not. Mental illness has a way of manipulating and negatively affecting your thoughts and how you see the things and people around you. While you may think that you’re being selfish and only talking about the negative things that you’re experiencing, the reality is, it’s probably not the only thing that you’re talking about with others, and definitely not the only thing others are talking about with you.
Find and trust your support system. Obviously, you don’t need to tell everyone in excruciating detail about what you’re going through, but try to find at least a couple of people who have similar mental illness experiences, are those that you can trust, and/or identify as people close to you. In moments when your mental illness seems overbearing, they can be people you can immediately contact. If you are having difficulty finding a support group, there are online spaces for those to talk about their mental illness with others in a nonjudgmental and safe space (like SOVA!).
If you don’t get a response right away, it’s most likely not because of you. Just like the human need for attention, humans also naturally center themselves and that the things that are happening around them are a result of things that they have done. If you text a friend that you’re not doing too well and they haven’t responded immediately, just remember that everyone has their own lives and are being affected and demanded by other tasks, people, and things. A response two hours later is not reflective of you; they may just be experiencing other things that are taking up their time.
Who have you talked about your mental illness with? Have you been afraid to open up about things because you think it’s selfish or burdensome?
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