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The Problem with “Good Vibes Only”

September 28, 2020 in Be Positive

Positive thinking can be powerful. Not only does it have a beneficial effect on mental health, but studies have also shown that there are positive physical effects too when it comes to conditions such as heart disease. Besides that, positive thinking can improve your mindset, the energy you feel and give off, and how others react to you.

That’s probably why you may have seen an influx of posts, tweets, and people in general trying to encourage positive thinking. Phrases such as “good vibes only,” “choose happiness,” and “smile more” have all become popular, showing up on t-shirts, coffee mugs, and signs to put on your bedroom door. Spreading positivity, for lack of a better word, is positive, especially in a climate where most adolescents feel that mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety are the biggest problems within their generation.

But here’s the thing. Encouraging only positive thinking can cause people to think that in order to be accepted, they have to push away the negative things that are bothering them and pretend that they don’t exist. If someone is going through a hard time, they simply have to “choose happiness,” change their mindset, and everything will be okay. However, if people realistically cannot do this, they can feel worse about themselves because they’re not doing positive thinking “correctly.” And while it’s good to be optimistic, one study found that only thinking positively tricks the brain that what you ultimately want has already been achieved, therefore, you’re less likely to put effort into things. 

It’s important to find a balance in how you think and perceive the events and people around you. Only negative thinking is incredibly harmful, and only positive thinking is both impossible and can make you feel guilty (which ironically can lead to more negative thinking). One approach you can take is “mental contrasting.” Here, you first take a few minutes thinking of something you want, it happening, and how that makes you feel. After, you take a few minutes to think of the obstacles that can occur. This encourages those doing the activity to realize that the things we want aren’t guaranteed, but achievable. 

It’s totally fine to want good vibes around you and to try and surround yourself with people that give off warm, friendly energy. But what’s also important to remember is that acknowledging and feeling those negative emotions give you the opportunity to know where you need to introduce positive thinking. It’s also important to remember that both negative and positive thinking have a relationship with each other. It’s like self-care: it’s good to do positive things for yourself, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of ignoring the bad when the bad can actually be used as a supportive tool too.

What do you think about how positivity is displayed on products and on social media? Do you think a balance between positive and negative thinking is possible? How so?

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YA Books about Mental Health

September 25, 2020 in LINKS

We often use fictional novels as a means of escaping, to explore new worlds and living the lives of characters as a means of getting away from our own. And although fictional books are just that, fiction, stories are almost always reflective of things going on in reality. And although novels give us an opportunity to escape, we may find ourselves becoming attached to characters who share our backgrounds and experiences, and we may find ourselves learning more about who we are through them.

If you’re an avid reader, trying to get back into or even start reading, or have reading more as one of your quarantine goals, we wanted to highlight a few sources that have lists of young adult novels that either have a main character coping with their mental health, or have mental illness has one of the main themes of the story. These cover topics such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, OCD, suicide, and grief. The books on these lists are diverse as well, showing that mental illness can affect anyone, regardless of sex, gender, race, and sexuality.

Please keep an eye out for any trigger and content warnings. Some novels may be heavier than others with their topics.

21 YA Books To Read During Mental Health Awareness Month

YA Books Featuring Characters with Mental Illness

10 YA Fiction Books by Black Authors

Once you find a book that you like, we encourage you to rent them from your local library if you are unable to purchase them! Apps such as Libby are great tools to download ebooks from your local library if you don’t feel comfortable or are unable to physically visit.

Do you like to read? What kinds of books are you drawn to? Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction? Do you have any book recommendations about mental health?

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Tapping into a Little Nostalgia

September 21, 2020 in Be Positive

While it’s always fun going down memory lane, you’re probably finding yourself reminiscing about the past and the “good times” a lot more than usual lately. 

Whether it be 10, 5, or even just one year ago, nostalgia and thinking about good things that have happened to you in the past can have a positive effect, including on your mood and even possibly on your mental health. Studies have even found that when people look back on old memories, they’re not just reminiscing about the event themselves, but they can feel proud of themselves for seeing what important parts of their personality stuck through with them, or they might feel pride in seeing how far they’ve come.

It can be really easy to stay stuck in memory lane however, especially now. Nostalgia, while having a positive effect on your mood, is ultimately bittersweet, and getting too caught up in old memories can have you stick in that “bitter” side. You might be frustrated that you can no longer do certain activities, or you might be regretful that you didn’t say or do something during that time. At the very least, you might find yourself getting sad and experiencing a sense of loss. Like most things, you want to find a balance when looking back at fond memories.

So while it’s impossible to recreate the events in the past that created those happy memories for you, you can still use nostalgia as a tool to help elevate your mood when you find yourself feeling down. Some of those reasons are obvious: you might have been in an entirely different state or country, or you are too old to do something you did when you were a child.

However, keeping something nearby to remind yourself of things that make you happy may help spark those memories, and you might even find ways of recreating them in a new way. You can change the background of your phone and/or your computer to a place you really enjoyed visiting, or you can keep a physical object like a concert ticket in a clear case on your phone. To recreate the feelings of the former, you can watch a movie that has the same or similar setting of that place, and with the latter, you can see if the artist whose concert you attended has any recordings online and watch it virtually with the friends you attended the concert with (in fact, many artists have been giving “quarantine performances” lately). 

Whatever memories make you happy, we hope that you can explore them in a way that makes you happy, and we hope that you can even find a way to mimic them in some way today!

What are some of your favorite memories? How do you feel when you look back on them? Do you consider yourself a nostalgic person?

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An Online Guide to Medications

September 18, 2020 in LINKS

A few of the medications featured on Young Minds

The idea of taking antidepressants or any other medication to support your mental health can sound intimidating and almost scary at first. You might have a ton of questions about which is the most effective for you, how they might affect you, the potential side effects, or even just how to pronounce the names.

YoungMinds, an organization based in the UK to educate and support young people about mental health, has a specific section dedicated to helping youths understand the different kinds of medications that can be offered to treat mental illness. If you’ve recently been prescribed to use medication, or are thinking that you may need to start one, we hope this website can give you additional information and advice about the process. This includes how to get started, how to make sure to stick with it, and what to do if you feel like you’re worried about becoming addicted to the medication. There’s also a 50+ term glossary to explain mental health and scientific terms that are associated with treatment. 

There are currently 30 types of medication listed on the website. They cover medications treating issues such as insomnia, anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia, just to name a few. Each medication includes the type it is (such as an antipsychotic or an SSRI), other names that it’s referred to, what it can be used for, and the form and dosage that it’s often prescribed as. Each entry also includes a young person’s story about their experience with taking it!

As listed on the website, please speak with your doctor if you are seriously considering starting or changing your medication if you feel like you found one that might help you on this website. YoungMinds is not a medical organization and is not giving professional medical advice.

Do you take medication to treat your mental health? If so, how did you learn about it? What do you wish you knew about taking medication for mental illnesses?

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When did You Get Your First Phone?

September 17, 2020 in Social Media Guide

It’s difficult to truly disconnect from technology today. Even if you take a break from your phone, lock up your tablet to let it collect dust, or haven’t watched a show on an actual TV in months, screens are still everywhere. There’s electronic billboards, signs with pleasant robotic voices that dictate when the next bus or train is about to arrive, and TVs in stores displaying fashion shows, music videos, and anything else related to the content that they’re selling.

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Young people today have never really known a time without technology, much less the Internet. Some phones were able to have access to the Internet in the 90s and early 2000s on Blackberrys and similar phones, as well as PDAs, which were around since the 80s until very recently. Studies today say that Generation Z didn’t have any time in their life without the Internet, so as a result, they’ve always been connected.

Because they’re constantly surrounded by technology, younger generations understand how to use and navigate much easier than adults. The average age that a child receives their first smartphone was 10 back in 2016, and is likely to be around the same, if not lower, today. About half (45%) of kids who had a cell phone between the ages of 10-12 had a service plan, meaning that they weren’t just limited to WiFi and could access the Internet anywhere. Some kids are even getting their first smartphones as young as 7.

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Like the argument about whether students should be allowed to have their phones in school, there may be some positives for parents to give their child a smartphone earlier: some of the reasons listed include being able to get a hold of their kid, giving their kid the ability to access them whenever, and to help the child get more familiar with technology. Parents also mention that having a smartphone means that they can track their child’s location too.

However, there have been studies and reports on the effects of screen time on children. This includes an effect on their mental health: although the effects are greater in teenagers, toddlers and children were seen to also be negatively impacted by spending multiple hours a day on screens. These effects of less curiosity, lower emotional stability, and lower self-control were seen in kids as young as two, which can lead to mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. And although this didn’t seem to have strong of an effect on younger kids because of the type of screens being used (watching shows on TV and tablets versus smartphones), giving younger kids smartphones at an earlier age may put them at the same risk of mental illness that teenagers are vulnerable to because of constantly being connected to their phones.

Everyone has their own reasons for deciding when and why they received or gave their kids cell phones at a certain age, but it’s important to weigh both the pros and cons, especially when it can play a major role in the kid’s well-being.

How old were you when you first got your phone? Was it a smartphone? Do you think getting one earlier or later would have made a huge difference?

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Creating a Positive Transition this Fall

September 14, 2020 in Be Positive

As we enter the sixth month of quarantine, you might be feeling stale, exhausted, stressed, and most likely all of the above. At this point, transition is almost a point of everyday routine, with the new information about the virus and corresponding regulations coming in and workplaces and schools constantly shifting how they go about things. Even this past month, the transition of going back to school may have felt like just another thing to get used to adjusting to for you.

However, quarantine started right as spring (a time of transition and change) had begun, and six months later, quarantine continues this week as fall begins soon, another time of transition and change.

Now, while spring is usually of time of rebirth, growth, and warmth, the transition with this year’s spring felt like anything but that. With the weather starting to get cooler and fall officially beginning next week, we hope that this upcoming “official” transition can be one that can be approached with some sort of positivity and excitement. 

For example, you may be excited about putting your summer clothes away and starting to take out the baggy sweaters and jackets you own. What is your favorite piece of fall clothing? You may want to organize your closet in a way that highlights your favorite things. You may enjoy the fall aesthetics, like Halloween-themed decor and pumpkin spiced and flavored food. If you’re able to, you can indulge in buying some fall decor for your place, room, or work area to add a positive change to where you spend most of your time.

And although things are going to be a little different with what you can do activity-wise, the colder temperatures means that you’re less likely to worry about FOMO when seeing people outside doing activities. Staying in is already encouraged for safety, and the colder weather means that more people are going to stay in. Although continuing to spend an increased amount of time can be difficult, you can use this changing time to possibly shake up your routine or explore hobbies you haven’t gotten around to starting. 

Overall, we hope that the upcoming change in season can be a welcome, more positive one, especially since a lot of the changes we’ve been experiencing this year have felt less so. 

What is your favorite season? How do you feel about fall? Is there something you want to differently in the upcoming months?

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Asian American Mental Health Resources

September 11, 2020 in LINKS

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This week, we wanted to highlight how mental health affects Asian Americans. Asian American teen girls have the highest rates of depressive symptoms of any ethnic and gender group, Southeast Asian Americans experience high stress due to the threat of deportations, and Asian adolescents who face racial discrimination are more likely to experience depressive symptoms. Given the increase in anti-Asian racism due to COVID, these depressive symptoms may have likely increased as well.

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Culture also plays a big role. Many AAPI are first or second generation immigrants, and by coming from cultures that have strong stigmas against mental health – or don’t believe that mental illness exists at all – it can confuse Asian Americans teenagers growing up in an environment that still stigmatizes mental health, but still acknowledges it and is having a conversation about it. These teens may have been told by their family that mental illness isn’t real, and showing symptoms is a weakness and can easily be changed by working harder and having a stronger sense of self-will.

We wanted to share a few resources that may help those who identify as AAPI navigate their mental health in a space that specifically relates to them and the issues that they go through as AAPI. If you or someone you know identifies as an AAPI, you can check these out, but don’t feel like you’re limited to just these resources.

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Asian American Psychological Association The AAPA was founded back in 1972 and aims to educate and provide resources for AAPI on topics specifically for the community. They have several divisions because it’s so large, including a Division of Students and those with multiple heritages. Their resource page includes a lot of links, including some for LGBT AAPI.

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Psychology Today The website is already a great tool to help find therapists in your area and includes many features and filters to help you find someone who is best for you. One of these features includes being able to choose minority therapists. The link sends you to find an Asian therapist, and some minorities have found that talking to someone who also represents them makes them more comfortable.

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Personal Essays Organizations and research can be a great place for support, but sometimes the best resources are listening and reading about those who’ve experienced what you have experienced too. It’s almost looking like into a mirror, where your reflection speaks to you about things that you couldn’t quite put into words, or say things that you haven’t been able to say aloud. You can check out a few here.

Do you identify as AAPI? What are your experiences like with mental health and how those in your community perceive it? Do you have any resources you want to share that you’ve tried?

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Meme-ing About the Worst Year Ever

September 10, 2020 in COVID-19, Social Media Guide

Memes, quite honestly, can be a great coping mechanism. Using humor as a way to deal with terrible things going on allow us to find some sort of happiness among the sea of bad, and using humor and memes online can help disrupt doomscrolling. Many have found that memes can serve as a bonding activity in a way, allowing all of us who have been affected by negative things to share a laugh and make us feel less alone.  Studies have even found that those with mental illnesses are more likely to enjoy memes and find that it helps them with their symptoms.

And if any time needs humor and memes to help make a really hard situation to feel the slightest bit lighter, it’s 2020. You’ve probably come across some sort of meme about every single terrible thing that has happened this year, from the dramatic “well what else does 2020 have in store for us” and to the purely chaotic images that best describe what it’s like to live through this year. There’s the “mentally, I’m here” meme and the memes about participating about endless, torturous Zoom calls. 

If you were on the Internet and social media back in 2016, this may all seem familiar. Like 2020, 2016 was also regarded as “the worst year ever,” and the year itself became its own meme. Like 2020, 2016 had its own string of important, mostly negative, world events that you couldn’t avoid encountering on social media, and it felt that the only way to deal with what felt like constant bad news was to joke about it. 

However, others may find memes about difficult situations to be insensitive at best, and harmful and belittling human lives at their worst. Listing the high number of US deaths as a result of COVID-19 as just another thing wrong with this year dismisses their lives and how those families were impacted. Making a meme out of Breonna Taylor’s murder isn’t really calling attention anymore, but instead using a Black woman’s death for clout. And for those who have been directly affected by these issues, seeing their pain reduced to a joke can hurt them mentally and have them feel that their feelings don’t matter.

Of course, there’s no way to regulate memes online. It’s impossible. And it isn’t wrong to enjoy them and use them as a way of having some kind of stress relief during a really difficult time. But when deciding what memes to share and what you find amusing, it’s also important to take a step back and question what these memes are addressing and how they’re addressing it.

How do you feel about 2020 memes? Have you been using humor to cope this year? How have you been using social media in 2020?

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Voices of Youth

September 4, 2020 in COVID-19, LINKS

A lot of the times, it feels like people who speak for adolescents and how and why they feel the way they do…aren’t adolescents. While some of this makes sense – therapists and mental health experts for example have the background to explain why adolescents may experience the things they do – it can get frustrating seeing news stories and reports talking about what adolescents are going through without actually talking to them.

Organizations like Unicef’s Voices of Youth are starting to give platforms for young people to speak up about how they feel and their own experiences. As a global platform, it gives those between the ages of 13-24 a space to create content about whatever they want, and is even available in Spanish, Arabic, and French!

We specifically wanted to highlight a section dedicated to talking about going to school from home. Along with tips about how to protect yourself and cope with the stressors that are likely coming from going back to school during this time, the page also features short blurbs from adolescents all over the world and how they’re coping and feeling too. Hopefully, this might give you some coping tools too and make you feel less alone during this transition.

Have you returned back to school? Whether it’s virtual, in-person, or a hybrid, how have you been feeling? What are things that you would change?

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Digital Overload

September 3, 2020 in Social Media Guide

How many devices do you have? Do you have a phone, laptop, tablet, and wearable? How about an ebook reader? How many social media accounts do you have? 

If all those questions feel overwhelming, that’s because the amount of technology and social media accounts we own are. There are so many ways to be connected now, and the ways we can connect are constantly increasingly, and currently, this is out of necessity.

With most schools starting school remotely (and most workplaces continuing to be remote), your screen time has most likely skyrocketed, like, even more than it already has since the pandemic, and even before the pandemic started. The glare of the bright screens, the pressure to socialize and pay attention to important tasks all the time, and the lack of separation between work/school and home is probably getting to you, if it hasn’t already.

You may have likely heard of the negative effects of constantly being connected on electronic devices. There are the physical effects like trouble sleeping at night, but too much screen time can affect us mentally as well, like constantly making us compare ourselves to others and increased feelings of loneliness. 

Most of these studies and results come from adolescents using their devices and social media accounts for personal use, however. While there isn’t as much information about how attending school and/or work digitally can affect us, having to spend all this time online out of necessity is also going to affect us mentally. You may feel stressed to be working all the time and then feel guilty if you have to take a break, or you may find yourself comparing how school online is affecting you to what seems to be the perfect student in your online class acting as if being online is no big deal. You may find yourself frustrated and on edge at how one of your colleagues or peers is acting on video, or you may feel self-conscious from having to see your face on screen all the time. 

And if all that information feels overwhelming, that’s because it is.

So how do you manage all this technology and need to communicate online, especially when you have no choice but to constantly be online? First off, stepping away from screens is absolutely vital. Your school may have designated break times throughout the day, and while it’s tempting to go on your phone, try not to spend your time away from your computer screen focusing on a different screen. Those who work from home shouldn’t feel guilty if they need to take a few minutes away from their job and computer either. 

At least once an hour, try to get up and walk around whatever space is available near you. We also recommend that these mini-walks throughout the school and/or work day include doing something to better yourself, such as getting a glass of water in the kitchen or splashing cool water on your face. You also might want to use the mini-break to also clean up a small space around you to give you a better peace of mind. 

Realistically, we know it’s impossible to avoid your phone and/or watching TV when you’re done with work and school too (especially if you have to do homework online too). However, you might want to try designating certain times for your screen and certain times off, using the latter to possibly explore other hobbies to try! 

As we hit yet another transition as a result of COVID, we hope that you’re able to adjust and find a way to balance not just your professional and personal screen time, but the time for yourself offline too.

Has your screen time increased recently? For those back in school and doing it virtually, how have you tried to adjust? Have you been able to give yourself time offline? What recommendations do you have to taking breaks from your phone or computer?

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