SOVA Blog

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Curating a Personally Positive Social Media Experience

November 19, 2020 in Social Media Guide

While it’s impossible to tell everyone that you’re following on any of your social media platforms what they should be posting, it can sometimes be tempting to. This is true now more than ever: there are common themes of the kinds of posts that you’ve likely seen on your feeds, and while some are more helpful than others, it can get overwhelming, stress-inducing, and quite frankly, just not the type of content that you want to see right now.

Whether it’s the constant news updates, reminders to keep busy, the reminders to not be busy, or personal posts about how COVID-19 is affecting them, being online can feel like too much is happening at once. This is especially true now that you’re more likely on social media more often than you usually are during your regular routine. 

There are little things that you can do to help yourself though. Even with this increased social media use, it can be hard to cut back since there are limited things you can do at home. Regardless of how often you’re using social media, you should still be able to have as pleasant and healthy experience when online.

For example, if you’re on Twitter, you can turn off retweets from certain accounts if you’re uncomfortable with the content they’re sharing for any reason. Sometimes, deleting one app entirely, even for just a day, can help calm you too. Some websites let you mute certain words so that content containing them won’t appear, and others can completely hide accounts that you don’t want to see.

Whatever it is, you still have some control in having a positive social media experience, despite the chaos and size of it all. Hopefully taking a few of these steps can alleviate the stress that can come with constantly being on and repeatedly seeing the same upsetting things.

Have you taken any measures to change your feeds to make them more positive to you? Have you found yourself doing this recently? What do you do to give yourself the best social media experience for yourself?

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Video Games about Mental Health

November 13, 2020 in LINKS

More often than not, people have a negative view of video games and its relationship with mental health. Video games are often associated with addiction and seen as a poor coping mechanism. Those who play violent video games tend to be more likely to show depressive symptoms too.

You’re also not very likely to associate the games themselves as a way to learn about mental health. However, there have been more games released lately that want to tackle stigma and normalize discussions about mental health. These could be characters who are coping with their mental health issues, or the game itself uses mental health as a narrative tool. This article highlights a few games that have a focus on mental health, including Sea of Solitude and Stardew Valley. We hope that this article can give you some inspiration for some games if you’re curious about video games, already play them, or just want to see what other outlets are out there for both coping and learning.

Do you play video games? Are there any you found that talk about mental health and illness in any way?

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Overanalyzing Emotions in Text

November 12, 2020 in Social Media Guide

Recently, we talked about lashing out online and the effects it can have to other people that you’re interacting with on social media. We mentioned that since social media is mostly text, it can be hard for the person you’re talking to to fully understand how you’re feeling, and your words can feel even harsher without a face behind it. This week, we wanted to talk about being on the other side.

Let’s face it. We’ve all overanalyzed text messages from crushes, coworkers, friends, family, and even strangers. What does it mean if someone is using just one emoji? Is it normal for them to constantly end sentences with periods? Is the way that someone talks to you exclusive just to you or does it seem like they’re that cold with everyone? Wait, this person only responded to your text with two words, or even worse, just a “thumbs up” reaction. Does that mean they want to stop talking to you? Are you being annoying?

Clearly, it’s incredibly easy to spiral and snowball based off of one text, no matter how close you are to the person. Those with anxiety and depression, specifically with social anxiety, are also more likely to fall into this pattern of thinking, blaming themselves and thinking that the way people act is a direct reaction to what they specifically are doing and saying. 

We wanted to share a couple of tips with you about how to recognize that text never paints the whole picture of a conversation, and is much less a representation of your relationship with someone. First off, remember that everyone has their own style of texting. There is no standard way of texting to get a message across, and things like personality, age, and the amount of time someone even spends online can affect how they communicate. Just because someone doesn’t use acronyms and types in perfect grammar doesn’t mean they’re mad at you or don’t consider themselves close to you, but might be used to typing that way because of their job, for example.

Everyone’s way of typing can always change too. Depending on what sites we go on and which people we talk to, our ways of typing and texting can always adapt. If you have a friend who often uses emojis and see that they’re using them less frequently, you might think that they’re mad at you and being cold because there isn’t a cute smiley or animal accompanying their message. Maybe they feel like they don’t like using emojis anymore, or someone else told them to cut it back, and in fact, they might be feeling self-conscious about how they type.

There are tons of other reasons to help us feel better if we think someone is mad at us over text. These include remembering that something else could be affecting the person, which in turn affects how they’re interacting with us, and reminding ourselves that our brains often go to the worst-case scenario, so we should tell ourselves that the person isn’t mad at us, but is talking to us with good intentions.

Have you ever gotten upset because of a message someone sent to you? What is your texting style like?

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TikTok as a Mental Health Resource?

November 5, 2020 in Social Media Guide

TikTok is unavoidable these days. The content on the app varies widely and probably includes almost anything you can imagine. There are viral dance routines, comedy, people sharing interesting stories, a woman who packs cute lunches for her kids, and we think all of us have seen the man skateboarding to Fleetwood Mac while drinking cranberry juice.

But the platform has also become a place for learning. The #LearnOnTikTok initiative has brought about a new type of creator- an educator. While educational videos may be nothing new for the Internet, the delivery method of quick, short videos that make their way to someone’s For You Page certainly is. The content of these education videos also vary, but an emerging area is mental health and therapy.

While there is plenty of amateur advice, there are several doctors, psychologists, social workers, and other mental health professionals offering their expertise (for free!) to millions of people. Professionals are able to reach a large audience and often answer questions directly from viewers.

Opening up the conversation on such a popular platform gives the opportunity to break down the stigma around mental health. Because of the way the app chooses videos to show on the For You Page, users can see a video that has 10 million views or 10 views. This gives anyone the potential to go viral and promotes a sense of authenticity that is unique to the platform.

While TikTok can be a great resource and effective support does not need to come only from clinicians, it is important to understand that anybody can post on the app freely. If you are interested in this type of content, check out this article for some great information about mental health awareness creators on TikTok.

Do you have a TikTok? What kinds of videos show up on your For You Page? Have you learned anything on TikTok, especially about mental health?

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Election Stress

November 3, 2020 in Educate Yourself

Listen. We know today is incredibly stressful. Even in a year of local and world events that not just lean, but completely skew on the negative side, the election today feels like the season finale of what many consider to be the worst year ever.

If you feel like you’re particularly on edge today, you’re not alone. Almost 70% of adults – regardless of political opinion – say that the country’s presidential election is a significant source of stress, and almost 80% are worried about the future of the country. This is even higher than the number of people who reported that they were stressed about the election and the state of the country in 2016, which created something called “Post-Election Stress Disorder.” Primary care visits numbers increased before November 2016 to seek treatment for depression, and there was a general spike in anxiety.

So we get it. Everything is tense, and you may find yourself doomscrolling, gluing your eyes to any and every screen, and letting your anxiety and worry build up, despite wanting to do everything to avoid going online. And given, well, everything, that has happened in 2020, you may feel like your stress, anxiety, depression, and fear are all being pulled in hundreds of different directions. Most of us are still doing everything indoors, school and work are almost all virtual, and we are still either coping with cancelled events and/or are preparing to cope with future cancelled ones, like the upcoming holiday season.

We don’t want this to be a reminder of just how bad things are, however. Instead, we hope this post is a way of telling you that you aren’t alone, and the Extra Bad feelings you may be going through today are completely understandable. Many outlets have given resources and advice about how to deal with election stress today and over the next few weeks, from the obvious, like avoiding social media, to the practical, like reaching out to your therapist or support system if you feel yourself getting overwhelmed. Focus on what you can control, like the amount of time you spend on apps and on watching TV, and try to distract yourself with things that will keep you busy, whether it be work, watching movies, going for a run, or indulging in your favorite hobbies.

For those who are 18 and over, please remember to vote if you haven’t already. For those who can’t vote, we hope that you’re able to help where you can and remember that you have so much more control over your and your country’s future than you think, even if it feels like you can’t do anything about it now.

How are you feeling today? Do you have any advice or are doing anything for yourself to cope with the election and media coverage over the next week or so?

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The Catharsis of Venting

November 2, 2020 in Be Positive

Sometimes we all feel the need to “vent” and air our frustrations to someone who will listen. Oftentimes, the goal of venting is not necessarily to find solutions, but to know someone hears and understands your frustrations.

Holding stress, anger, sadness, or anxiety inside can be emotionally draining and make anyone feel overwhelmed. Getting a chance to verbalize those feelings to someone who cares can make all the difference for someone’s ability to cope. The person who vents often gets a sense of relief or catharsis (the relief someone gets from sharing emotion) after getting some time to express themselves, especially if the source of frustration is a result of feeling unheard.

Everyone has their own reasons to vent: some may just want to have someone to ramble at, while others may actively seek advice and feedback. Make sure to let the person you’re talking to know how you want them to listen. For example, if you’re venting at your parent and they try to jump in and come up with solutions when you don’t want them to, it can actually make you more stressed and frustrated, and can end up affecting both of you negatively.

When venting is done in a healthy way, there are even benefits to the listener, too! For example, it gives the listener a chance to connect and offer support to the one venting, which promotes closeness and bonding. The listener can also provide insight and a unique perspective after they have had the opportunity to hear about a problem.

Expressing our emotions is healthy and everyone needs to feel like someone is listening.

If you are interested in learning more about how venting can help, click here to read more.

When do you feel like you just need to vent? How do you like the listener to respond when you’re venting? How do you feel when someone is venting to you?

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An App to Consider: Mango Health

October 30, 2020 in LINKS

Although we mentioned it in our list of medication reminders recently, we wanted to use this week to specifically focus on the free app, Mango Health. You can check out more about why apps can be useful for taking medication and developing other habits for your help here, but we specifically wanted to focus on Mango Health because of its simplicity and how easy it is to use and understand.

Although one of the primary functions of the app is to remind you to take your medication, Mango Health wants you – as the title suggests – to be at your best overall health! These include adding habits and adjusting them so they are realistic goals that suit you best personally. Many of the habits they give you the option to add have a lot to do with mental health too, including tracking blood pressure, drinking water, and adding a step goal. There is even an option to add a habit that lets you enter your mood up to six times a day or up to 14 times a week.

As far as the medication reminders themselves go, Mango Health will also give you information about the medications that you’re taking, including side effects, how they might interact and affect other medications, and how things like food and alcohol can affect its effectiveness.

You can check out the website here.

Do you use an app to track healthy habits and/or your medication?

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Keeping Your Emotions in Check

October 29, 2020 in Social Media Guide

The Internet is both a blessing and a curse. It gives us access to any information from any part of the world, allows us to talk and develop relationships with people we may have otherwise never encountered offline, and is always, always available.

This constant access and ability to talk to anyone has its perks, but it also has the very high chances of us encountering people and information that will affect us negatively. Being able to go online whenever we want also means that we may encounter this when our emotions are already high, we’re already feeling vulnerable, or are experiencing the intense negative effects of mental illness, so when we run into people and things that we don’t like, our chances of acting out and engaging in negative interactions can increase. Most of our interactions on social media are text-based, so we don’t realize just how much our words can affect others when we lash out at them, because texting and typing is so much more difficult to interpret than face-to-face interaction. It can feel harsher, colder, and so much more meaner than we already feel, and we can’t delete or take back the things we send once they’re online. 

As we all know now, it’s impossible to avoid going online, especially this year. While difficult, it was still easier to go off the grid and take breaks before classes and work were all online. It was easier to put our phones on “do not disturb” when we just didn’t have the energy to talk to anyone, but this year, our only way of talking to people is over the phone and online. And in a year of bad and stressful news that constantly has us doomscrolling and refreshing, our likelihood of snapping is even higher.

So how do we avoid leaving a nasty comment on someone’s post, DM’ing someone to criticize them, or saying something that could be hurtful in the middle of an online class or meeting? There are many ways to take a step back and collect ourselves; closing your eyes, taking a couple of deep breaths, even turning off your video and muting yourself for a few seconds can give the opportunity to briefly calm down. If you’re already in a negative state and want to go on social media, ask yourself what you want to do online and what sites will help you best avoid content that you don’t want to see. These are just a couple of examples, but it’s important to keep in mind that when we’re already on edge, one single thing or comment can have us acting in a way that we might immediately regret.

Have you ever lashed out online? Have you ever been tempted to? What advice do you have for keeping your emotions in check when you encounter things you don’t like on social media?

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Trick or Treat

October 26, 2020 in Be Positive

Chances are, we’re well into your favorite time of year. Most people say that autumn is their favorite season (though other sources say people prefer spring, but both seasons are very popular), and included that, comes Halloween. There are tons of reasons to enjoy the holiday, no matter who you are. It could be all the candy, getting the chance to be creative and making costumes, or binging scary movies and finding out which ones genuinely frighten you. Even if you no longer trick-or-treat, you may also find joy in seeing kids dress up and helping give out candy.

And if we’re going to get really (candy) corn-y, your brain also does its own version of trick-or-treating. You may have heard that your mind can play “tricks” on you. This is usually done in the context of negative thinking: your brain focuses on just the bad, and makes you believe that that’s all there is. Those with symptoms of mental illnesses are likely to experience this a lot more often, and all of that negative feeling and thinking can lead to depressive episodes or anxiety attacks. It’s like your brain has created this filter that blocks out any good and only sees the bad, and usually blames you for it.

But it’s not like your brain can’t treat itself. Practicing small things like gratitude, being nostalgic, or coming up with things to look forward to can all be ways to add more positive thinking in your life. They’re reminders that good has happened before, or that you are in some control of good that can happen in the future.

Now, you can’t knock on your brain’s door and have a choice between “trick” or “treat.” It’s even more difficult to get the “treat,” or positive thought, as a result, either, especially when your brain’s tricks can be more effective. There are still ways to get that treat though. Let’s use Halloween itself as an example:

Obviously, 2020 has ruined any chances of a typical Halloween this upcoming weekend. Your brain might be making you believe that there’s nothing you can do, and you’re doomed to just being alone in your room and wondering about what could have been. Your brain might also blame itself for being in this position, making you feel guilty for any time you’ve gone out or visited someone and thinking that’s the main reason that quarantine has continued. In an effort to avoid these tricks, you can treat yourself to coming up with a new tradition for Halloween, or come up with ways to recreate old traditions indoors. You can do a photoshoot where you recreate one of your favorite childhood costumes, or challenge yourself to find the scariest movies possible. You can try baking something using your favorite Halloween candy, or put on old Halloween episodes of your favorite shows.

We hope that your brain gives you more treats than tricks, especially this week!

Do you like Halloween? What ways are you “treating” yourself for the holiday this year?

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by Moderator ★

Well Beings

October 23, 2020 in LINKS

This week, we wanted to highlight a website that uses videos and storytelling as a way for teens and young adults to be open about their mental health and well-being and how a variety of things can affect them. Well Beings uses both traditional news-style reporting and vlogs to talk about topics such as controlling one’s thoughts, using positive psychology in class, and how things like reading and music are useful coping tools. Going beyond these videos, Well Beings is also planning to virtually tour across the country, paring with local communities and public media stations to help address stigma and talk about mental health in 24 cities.

We’ve included one of their videos below to give a preview of the kind of content that they offer. 

They also held a panel this week with PBS to talk to teens about how COVID has been affecting them mentally. We’ve included this video for you to watch too!

Have you ever watched YouTube videos about mental health? What kinds of videos were these? How do you think vlogging and storytelling might help with the viewers’ mental health?

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