SOVA Blog

by Moderator ★

Finding a Therapist Who Relates to You

February 19, 2021 in LINKS

The mental health profession, unfortunately, lacks diversity. The American Psychological Association found that 86% of practitioners are white, with other races making up less than 5% each. In a nation that continues to not just get more diverse, but is also becoming more open in talking about mental health, it’s important for people of color to not just find, but have access to therapists who look like them (you can read more about the topic here).

But just because there aren’t that many therapists of color doesn’t mean that none exist whatsoever. Ayana was designed for this purpose. Founded by Eric Coly, Ayana is an app that allows minorities to get matched with therapists based on the latter’s experiences and identities. Ayana is not just limited to racially diverse therapists too, planning on covering therapists’ experiences and identities based on sexual orientation, class, gender identity, and ability. And because it can be hard to even have access to any therapist who seems like the best fit for you, Ayana gives the option for texting, calling, and video calling and addresses transportation, mobility, and scheduling challenges for those seeking help, which is especially useful now during lockdown. 

We wanted to give you a chance to put this on your radar if you’re a minority and feel that finding a therapist that shares your identities and relates to your culture is best for you. 

Do you identify as a minority? Do you consider your identity when looking, or when you were looking for a therapist? How do you think having a therapist who relates to your experiences can help you?

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by Moderator ★

Overanalyzing Social Media Posts

February 18, 2021 in Social Media Guide

Earlier this week, we mentioned the Britney Spears documentary that has sent social media in a frenzy. As we mentioned in our Monday post, many have used the documentary to reflect about how the culture at the time vilified, sexualized, and mocked a celebrity in her late teens and early 20s to the point that it likely contributed to the mental health issues that became the center of her celebrity status.

This time frame – the early 2000s – was when social media was starting to truly take off, giving people the ability to talk to whoever, about whatever, whenever. Many young people – especially young women – were coming of age during this time, and it was the norm to make fun of nearly everything about them, including mental health issues, especially because many thought it wouldn’t get back to the people being gossiped about. 

While this has changed significantly in just the past 15-20 years, particularly because of the changing conversations and stigmas around mental health, there is still a long way to go. Although everyone – celebrities included – have been open about their experiences and receive a lot of support, they can still be the subject of cruel jokes.

There is also a newer issue that has been coming up, and has been highlighted in response to the Britney documentary. Now that celebrities are on social media too, fans can have the tendency to analyze, nitpick and use posts as clues to come up with what they think is a larger narrative about what that celebrity is going through. For Britney, two fans even started a podcast where they would analyze and dissect every part of the singer’s social media page in an effort to put “puzzle pieces” together about her situation and wellbeing.

This is not just limited to celebrities however. Despite good intentions, we may have the tendency to look deeply into others’ social media posts for “hidden clues.” For the average person, this has a tendency to happen when content of theirs, especially about their wellbeing, goes viral. You may have also experienced this as well, especially if you find yourself with followers or friends you know who are aware of mental health issues you are experiencing. It’s understandable and okay to be more passive in expressing poor mental health, doing so in a way to subtly get out there that you want someone to reach out and help but are afraid of being too upfront, but some people reading yours and others’ content can take this too far.

As a reminder, social media is not a place where everyone’s profile is a mystery to solve. Although the intention may be good and we are all looking out for each other, it’s easy to get caught up and overthink, overanalyze, and overstep in other’s privacy. People may use social media as an outlet for their mental health, and some are more open than others about what they want to reveal, but personal lives are just that, personal.

Has anyone reached out to you because of something you posted on social media? Has anyone ever crossed your boundaries or assumed things based off of your social media posts?

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by Moderator ★

The Weight of Your Own Words

February 15, 2021 in Be Positive

If you’ve been on social media at all these past couple of weeks, you have most likely come across at least one person talking about the “Britney documentary.” Earlier this month, the New York Times released a documentary on Hulu about Britney Spears’ current situation and provides some background as to why she is there. For those who haven’t seen the documentary, Framing Britney Spears discusses how one of the biggest popstars in history has been in a legal battle with her father due to the conservator relationship they have. For the past few years, her father has been acting as her guardian, legally allowed to make all of her decisions for her because of her mental health.

We’ll be talking about how social media played a role in Britney’s mental health in the 2000s and how social media has been responding to young celebrities’ mental health, but we wanted to use today to focus on self-love, self-respect, and doing your best to hold onto the positive things you feel about yourself despite everyone around you trying to say otherwise. Britney really started gaining popularity when she was 17 and at the peak of her career until she was about 24. The entire time, she was criticized, talked down on, and insulted, most often by adults a lot older than her. Despite this, she was confident, stood her ground as best as she could, and did what she wanted because it made her happy.

It’s nearly impossible not to take to heart what others – and especially adults – negatively say about you. As human beings, we want to be liked by others and accepted, especially when you’re an adolescent and young adult. Because of this, we worry about what others think of us and deeply care for the approval of others, both of which are even more intense for those with anxiety and/or depression. But at the end of the day, it’s how you feel about yourself that truly matters most, and self-acceptance is much more important than needing to be accepted by others. 

While everything about Britney’s experiences are extreme – after all, she was a celebrity, constantly in the limelight, and the negative effects on her mental health was not just fueled by the media, but analyzed and made fun of by them – those who have seen the documentary have been pointing out how what people say about a young person can have immense, negative effects.

Taking the time to remember the positive things about you can’t prevent you from the harsh words of others, but it can still serve as a shield from the truly awful effects of what other people say about you. The truths you accept about yourself don’t just have to be negative, because realistically, there are plenty of positive things that are factually true about you too.

It’s not a bad thing to take pride in yourself and brag about yourself, especially since it can help protect you from the negativity of others too.

What are things that you like about yourself? Do you care about what others think about you? How do you try to avoid taking them to heart?

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by Moderator ★

Podcasts about Black Mental Health

February 12, 2021 in LINKS

Podcasts are everywhere these days, and that’s a good thing! Especially now, when stay-at-home orders are still in place and social distancing is still encouraged, podcasts can provide some sort of substitute for the busy background noise and conversations that you may be used to in your schools, a coffee shop, or large public places like malls. They can be educational and informative, explore topics you never even thought of before, and most of the time, have at least the smallest amount of much-needed humor. 

We wanted to highlight a few podcasts that focus on Black mental health. Some are hosted by Black therapists with professional experience, while others are hosted by those spreading awareness and sharing their own or other’s experiences. 

Therapy for Black Girls

Fireflies Unite

Celeste the Therapist

Black Mental Health Podcast

The Friend Zone

For those who aren’t Black, we invite you to listen to an episode from NPR’s 1A podcast that discusses the collective trauma Black Americans may experience due to past and current events. It doesn’t just give an explanation as to how mental health affects Black Americans differently, but also provides some suggestions about helping with coping.

You can check out this episode here.

Do you listen to podcasts? Have you ever listened to an episode or even a whole podcast dedicated to mental health? What benefits do you see in podcasts?

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Who Do You Interact with on Social Media?

February 11, 2021 in Social Media Guide

Obviously, social media is a form of communication. However, compared to our offline lives, where we’re likely not talking to more than a few people at a time, being on social media can feel like yelling out to the whole entire world, where your words can be seen by anyone, everyone, and with many of whom have the ability to respond.

Of course, this isn’t the case for everyone, depending on which platform you’re using, whether you’re public or private, or if you have selected lists of friends who can view your content. These tactics are all ideal ways to have as much of a positive social media experience as possible, but we want to take a step back for those accounts and times that you want to speak on a more public platform.

For those with more public accounts, it’s easy to engage with, well, everyone. You may find yourself in the comment section of TikToks or YouTube, or in the replies of Twitter threads or popular Instagram posts. You may even be initiating the public discussion by tweeting on your public account or putting up a discussion question on an Instagram story.

Social media can be a great outlet for those with social anxiety, giving those with it a space to talk more candidly and without worry about things like interpreting people’s reactions in real time. However, while public accounts can be beneficial to meet others without the pressure of having to respond right away or worrying that they’re judging you in that moment, it can also be harmful, because it can make you vulnerable to hate and troll comments, as well as tempting you to respond to hate comments on other people’s posts. The more you engage with negative interactions online, the more likely you are to feel anxious about how these interactions go, and you may end up internalizing some of the hurtful things that are said towards you, even by complete strangers.

Regardless if you have private or public accounts, you should have the intent of interacting with those that you feel like would give you a more positive experience. While it may be tempting to bite back against a rude comment on a YouTube video, consider leaving a message of support instead for the person who originally posted the video. If someone you know is leaving hateful content on your FaceBook feed, but you don’t know them too well, instead of responding, you can mute or block them. 

Social media interactions aren’t always going to be perfect, happy, or positive, but if you can take control over what you can to avoid the negative people instead of engaging with them, you’re likely to feel less anxiety about logging on and the content you’re putting up and interacting with.

Do you prefer to have public social media accounts, or do you have more locked/private ones? Who do you usually talk to on social media? If you’ve interacted with people who aren’t a part of your offline life, what have those interactions been like?

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by Moderator ★

Black Girls Smile

February 5, 2021 in LINKS

Icon Credit: Black Girls Smile

Mental health and wellbeing are universally important, but African-American girls can face unique circumstances that result in increased vulnerability to certain mental health difficulties. With this in mind, Lauren Carson created a national non-profit organization in 2008 called Black Girls Smile to promote positive mental health and educational opportunities for these girls and those who care for them.

BGS offers workshops on topics ranging from healthy relationships to positive self-image/body-image and emotional regulation to college prep. Their website gives the option to request workshops and programs for your school or group. The organization is even running a monthly Zoom book club!

A really special aspect of support given by BGS is the Charlyne McFarland Therapy Scholarship. This scholarship provides African American young women with financial support for therapy with a licensed mental health professional with unique sensitivity to race and culture. Check out the interest form for the scholarship here!

Mental health resources are not one-size-fits-all and bringing attention to the needs of marginalized groups is always a worthwhile cause.

What identities or aspects about yourself do you feel are impacted severely by your mental health difficulties?

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Being Only Human

February 1, 2021 in Be Positive

Almost anything can affect us negatively. Pretty much anything can affect us to an extreme degree, even if we don’t expect it to. It can be the major, like aspects of a relationship (friend, family, romantic, or others) that hurt you, to what feels like the minor, like unpredictable changes in routine. 

Over the years, you may have been able to pinpoint exactly what it is that triggers or upsets you, have likely developed some sort of skill to help you manage the negative emotions tied to that instance. If your sibling makes fun of you, you may have learned to laugh it off and play along instead of letting it get to you. If you take unexpected changes in your routine really poorly, you may have come up with ways to adjust and become more flexible. 

However, sometimes you may find yourself reacting the way you used to before developing these coping mechanisms, and that can lead to a whole other level of bad feelings.

Let’s take a bad grade, for example. Say you didn’t do well on a paper, and you find yourself experiencing depressive symptoms, and overall just feeling really bad about yourself. You find yourself blaming yourself for not starting earlier, or not doing one more readthrough before submitting, or get upset at yourself for messing up in a class that otherwise has gone well for you.

And when these self-blaming thoughts begin to happen, you then find yourself getting angry at yourself too. This isn’t the first bad grade that you’ve gotten, so why are you taking it so hard now? You’ve taken other bad grades really well before, and know that you’ll survive this one too, so why are you experiencing these feelings that you know are tied to your depression or anxiety? It’s easy to slip into these thoughts that you’re no longer good at your coping mechanisms or all the growth that you’ve made to combat these negative things in your life is all of a sudden going away.

In these instances, it’s important to remember that bad feelings and getting upset about things that you thought you’ve grown past are just natural feelings that occur. Growth is not a linear line, and there’s never truly an end goal where you’re cured and never going to feel those bad emotions again. Life – and the progress that you make in it – is more like a scribble than a line. Even if you feel like you’ve built a tough exterior and don’t let the negatives phase you doesn’t mean you’re completely immune to them, because ultimately, you’re a human who feels human emotions. 

What was something that bothered you a lot when you were younger that doesn’t anymore? Was there an instance where it occurred again and you ended up getting upset about it like you did when you were younger? How did you react to that?

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by Moderator ★

Mental Health Dictionaries

January 29, 2021 in LINKS

No matter where you are in your mental health journey, you’ve probably had to look up a term because you’re not quite sure what it exactly means. Mental health is just that, health, so the official medical terms for mental illnesses, medications, diagnoses, and parts of the brain that affect your emotions and mood can get overwhelming. There are also different types of treatment you can seek out and different types of therapists which can make the whole thing very confusing.

We’ve compiled a list of several glossaries for you to check out if you want quick access to any of them. You can choose which one is best for depending on which of their definitions are most relevant for you!

Mental Health Glossary (Teen Mental Health)
Rogers Behavioral Health Glossary
Child and Adolescent Mental Health (Stanford Children’s Health)
An Anti-Glossary (Mental Health Today)

Note: It is incredibly important that you do not rely on these glossaries. If you feel like the definition of a diagnosis fits you or that the effects of a medication would benefit you, reach out to your doctor to get more information. 

Is there anything about mental health or mental illness that you’ve wanted more information about? What has stopped you from learning more about mental illness? Was it because the information was overwhelming, or were you afraid because of stigma?

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by Moderator ★

Grieving an Unfollow

January 28, 2021 in Social Media Guide

That may sound a tad overdramatic, but if you’ve ever logged onto one of your social media accounts and have seen even just one fewer follower, you likely have had a million questions begin running through your head: 

Who was it?

Was it because of a recent post? 

Was it because they were annoyed with my entire account?

Should I also unfollow them?

Are other people going to unfollow me too?

These questions are completely natural to have. But for those who have symptoms of social anxiety, these questions can feel that much more daunting and can even be debilitating as they question not just why one person stopped following them, but if others will too. This kind of snowball thinking can have them question if they need to change their content, if they should post more or less, and so on.

Even those who find themselves overanalyzing and getting caught up in an unfollow may feel that this seems a little silly. But in an age where social media is an incredibly common form of communication and way to connect with others, it’s okay to feel upset, and even worried that this is some sort of marker for your relationship with someone. Many platforms have ways to track your followers too, which doesn’t help with these anxieties.

Obviously not all unfollows are treated the same either. If you do choose to find out who unfollowed you, and it’s someone you either don’t know or barely know, it shouldn’t be an unfollow worth missing. This person’s opinion shouldn’t matter to you, because you don’t have any sort of significant relationship with them. If they’re someone you wouldn’t want to have a long conversation with online or offline, pay them no mind. If it’s someone you consider yourself closer with however, it’s really up to you to question why they might have done so. Depending on the relationship, you might feel comfortable just bluntly asking them, but you might have to be prepared to have a conversation about the content you post or about your relationship as a whole. On the other hand, it might not even be that significant and may have even been a mistake! 

Navigating relationships is always difficult and stressful, and social media adds a whole new layer to it. Overall, unfollowing, “breaking the mutual,” and a decrease in statistics should have little to no impact on you and how you view yourself, but social anxiety can make it seem much more important than it actually is. Unfollows from people you do care about can understandably make you upset, but it can lead to a conversation that may need to be had about where you two stand with each other and can come out stronger. In the end however, social media is not real life and should not define your relationships with someone, as easy as it is to believe that it is.

Have you ever unfollowed someone you’re close to? Do you keep track of your followers? Why do you think we place a huge emphasis on numbers on social media?

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by Moderator ★

Catching Up on Sleep

January 22, 2021 in LINKS

Truthfully, the chances that your sleep schedule aren’t the best are quite high. Adolescents in high school and college, despite needing a sufficient amount of sleep, do not get the recommended 8ish hours of uninterrupted sleep per night. There are tons of reasons for this: technology, caffeine, and just being too busy are just a few factors, to name a few.

Another big one is mental illness. Depression and anxiety can lead to using technology and endlessly scrolling on phones as a coping mechanisms, and mental illness symptoms can be triggered by the stress that comes with school and having too many things to do. Overall, it’s understandable why sleep hygiene is so poor in youths today.

We’ve shared a lot of the common tips to help manage sleep before, including making sure you don’t use a screen at least half an hour before bed and keeping your phone away from you, so you have to get up out of bed to turn off the alarms that you’ve set. We also wanted to share a couple of resources that have compiled some of these tips together into a checklist, so if you’re someone who likes to have a reference and likes to plan things out, these might work for you. 

Sleep Check!
Sleep Hygiene Checklist
Sleep Hygiene for Teens
Sleep Strategies and Checklists

While these might be designed for out of your age range, feel free to play around with them and adapt them into something that works for you! You can download them on your phone, print them out and keep it next to your bed, or copy and paste the tips that apply to you most and create your own checklist.

What is your sleep schedule like? Have you ever made an effort to try and change it? How often do you wake up each night? Are there any specific things that you know have affected your sleep?

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