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Stop, Breathe, Think from your Computer

August 23, 2019 in LINKS

Stop Breathe and Think Meditations

We’ve talked about the app Stop, Breathe, and Think before. It’s a clean, straightforward app designed for mindfulness and gives you a variety of meditation options that are customized depending on your mood. 

Apps like SBT are the go-to methods nowadays to access meditations – they’re easily accessible from your phone, which you’re most likely already on, and they’re compact and easy to understand. But what about the times you’re not on your phone? What if your phone doesn’t have enough space to download a new app, or you simply don’t want your home screen to be cluttered with yet another app that you think you’re most likely going to neglect?

One of the meditations: forgiving yourself

SBT’s website also has a feature where you can access meditations. It’s obviously not the same as the app itself; for example, you can’t choose how you’re feeling and have the site pick the best meditation for you, but their meditation page has almost 20 different types for you to choose from. Most are about 6 minutes long, but they can range from a couple of minutes to almost 10.

You can take a few minutes to do a body scan to check in with yourself at that current moment, or learn how to “think like a lion” by being aware of your surroundings, but focusing on the bigger picture. There are meditations to help you remember the good and positive things that are happening as well as ones to ground you when things are changing.

If you need a few minutes to take a break from an assignment on your computer or just want to explore some new meditation activities, it might be worth trying out SBT’s meditation page.

Have you ever tried meditation? Do you use technology to help? What kind of exercises have you done?

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The Neuroscience Behind Using Instagram

August 22, 2019 in Social Media Guide

Using social media can feel like a mindless activity. Most of the time, we’re opening apps and scrolling as if on instinct, and before we know it, it’s been an hour of alternating between apps and retaining absolutely nothing about what you just saw and who you interacted with. Using social media is a way for our minds to go on autopilot, spending time on your phone to kill time in line, in class, and when you’re lying down to put off going to bed.

But here’s the thing: our minds are always busy and doing something, including when we’re using social media. We’re processing the images we see and storing away information we read (or even glance at) into our working and possibly long-term memory. We’re interpreting interactions we have with others (whether they be through DMs or likes) and our minds tell us to refresh constantly in the hopes that a new post will interest us.

One study looked at the brains of young women between the ages of 18 to 35 to see how they reacted when they were specifically on Instagram. Although it’s one of the most popular social media platforms regardless of how people identify (it’s the second-most popular one among adolescents), 60% of users on the app are females under the age of 34. 

This study found that posts about beauty and fitness (think of influencers and lifestyle/wellness themed accounts) decreased how the user rated their own attractiveness, which also had a correlation with those experiencing anxiety and depressive symptoms. Women – young girls especially – have had a long history with feeling pressured to meet beauty standards. However, ads and images of the “ideal” woman were once limited to billboards and magazines – now, they’re everywhere when you open your favorite app. This can also have more damaging effects on self-esteem on women of color too: African-American girls have a higher rate of smartphone use, but beauty standards often idealize looking white.

The number of likes can also trick our brains into valuing posts that are more popular than those that aren’t. Instagram may be rolling out a new update that hides likes and we may talk about how in the end, likes don’t matter, but our brains are more likely to automatically think its better, no matter what it’s about. 

Essentially, our brains prefer and are heavily impacted by really popular, influencer-type posts on Instagram. This isn’t really news, but what it does tell us is that our brain is processing and retaining a lot of information when we’re lying there and scrolling on Instagram. Is there a way to tell our brains that we shouldn’t be caring about the number of likes on our post and to fight back against those thoughts telling us that we’re ugly when we see beauty posts? It’s possible. You can also limit who you follow just to accounts of people that you actually know or keep the number of influencers that you follow to a minimum. Your brain may process the images and likes in a negative way, but it also has the power to give you control about what you want to see on your feed and can also fight back against those negative feelings.

What are your thought processes when you’re watching YouTube videos or looking at Instagram posts? What kinds of accounts do you follow? Do you think the kind of content you choose to have on your feed can influence how you feel about yourself?

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First Time Blogger

August 21, 2019 in Educate Yourself

As I’ve already mentioned in the title, this is my first time blogging. I have never shared my experiences in a format quite like this, so this should interesting. I feel as if I have so many stories to share and so much to say, but nobody has time to read all of that in one sitting. So… I’ll try not to ramble on for too long. Part of me hopes lots of people read this and part of me hopes nobody does. It can be really difficult putting yourself out there, but hey too late now.

Photo Credit: walloe via Compfight cc

I suppose I will start off by saying that I have struggled with depression and anxiety for as long as I can remember and I still continue to struggle. To a degree it feels like a part of who I am, and I am not quite sure how to feel about that. I could talk about my struggles with anxiety and depression all day, but I think I will focus a little more on my anxiety today since that is my main issue. My depression is touch and go, but my anxiety is here to stay. It is the only constant in my life. I’ve always worried constantly about the smallest and sometimes even the most outlandish things. When I was little I was constantly paranoid, I was afraid to be in the dark and afraid to be alone in the house. I was so afraid and my thoughts were so rapid and scattered that I often times got no sleep and would remain paralyzed in my bed. I would not move or make a sound for fear of something lurking in the dark noticing me. I know that it was foolish, and lots of children think that there are monsters under their bed, however thing continued into my teens.

Anytime I was left home alone, I would stay perfectly still and sit against the wall so I could see every angle of house. This way when someone or something would pop out at me, I could see them and run away. I never told my parents I was afraid to be home alone, because I was embarrassed. Like any teenage girl, I wanted to prove I was brave and mature enough to be home alone and take care of myself. This continued for many years, and I had constant nightmares. I would wake up in the middle of the night, if I was lucky enough to go to sleep, screaming or panting because of a crazy dream I had. Then I would be too afraid to go back to sleep, but also too embarrassed due to my age to tell anyone or ask someone to stay up with me . I felt like I had no one to turn to because I did not know anyone my age who had these problems. I just didn’t feel like I was normal and I tried to hide it. In retrospect I should have told my parents, so I could maybe get some help, but who really told their parents everything at that age?

Now I am 22 and I no longer have nightmares. I am not even sure why that is. I would like to say that I have won the battle with my anxiety or maybe sought treatment and it solved everything, but truth is, I think I just genuinely did mature. I am older now and have lived on my own away from my family, and I think maybe that was the push I needed. It forced me to face my fears, and I think I am better for it.

Now, I’d be lying if I said I am never afraid to be home alone now. Every once in a while, I am home alone and I think I hear someone in the house and I look through the house with a weapon on hang just to be sure. Yes… I know maybe I am a little dramatic, but if it I ever do run into a break-in situation, you better believe I am prepared. In my experience there is a good and a bad side to anxiety. On one hand I feel as if I am constantly being crazy and worrying too much, but on the other there isn’t a single horrible scenario that I haven’t already played out in my head. I suppose that should make me more prepared for life so, I guess we’ll see.

I hope this helps anyone out there who can maybe relate to this situation. If I make even one person out there feel like less of a freak, then this post accomplished something!

Have you ever experienced nightmares? Have you ever wanted to share what you’ve been going through but didn’t? Share your experiences below!

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Saying “No” Can Be Good

August 20, 2019 in Educate Yourself

At the end of last school year, I told myself to get involved in something I’d wanted to do the past three years: marching band.

Now, I’ve never taken a band class before. I don’t play a musical instrument (not at school, anyways). But some of my friends are very involved in band, and they often talked about the people they know (from band), the things they do (in band), and how the band director is looking for more people to sign up (for band) next year.

Well, the decision seemed obvious.

I started filling out the marching band commitment form, but what amazed me was the amount of rehearsals that I would be required to go to. Four hot weeks before school, then every week during school, plus football games. It looked overwhelming, but I pushed down the feeling instead of asking anyone for advice, and continued on.

It was only after I’d signed up that I told my parents about the massive commitment I’d just agreed to. They had their reservations, but they allowed me to do it since they knew I had wanted to join band for a long time. 

That’s how I wound up in the scorching August heat, holding a clarinet I had never properly learned to play. On a day when most of my peers were still enjoying their vacation, I was sweating like a dog on the football field and learning how to march.

Now, I’m not saying that you should never push yourself to do challenging things. But learning that for 40 hours a week, I would be sitting in the bleachers and watching other people march? And that I couldn’t take breaks or go in the shade or go home when I wasn’t needed? I had never learned to play the instrument I was holding, so I felt quite useless. Suddenly, I wished I was still doing my summer reading. I wished that I could have time to do other things I enjoy, like theater and choir.

I quit marching band. Even though my friends were all doing it, even though it was what I had wanted to do for years, even though the director needed people. I said no to an activity that I thought I wanted to do. And I felt really guilty about letting people down! But I apologized to them, and I told them that I just couldn’t handle it. Ultimately, my mental health is more important, and I can’t find the time to focus on me if I’m juggling school, band, and everything else.

YOUR mental health is more important, and if you find yourself involved in something you no longer want to do, then it’s okay to step back and say no, this isn’t working for me.

Best of luck,

violet42

Was there anything you’ve ever agreed to do and wish you had said ‘no’ to? When do you think it’s best or appropriate to say ‘no’ to things other people ask you to do?

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Weekend Reads: Starting College

August 16, 2019 in LINKS

To put it simply: starting college can be one of the most exciting and most stressful times in our lives. Major transitions in our lives like starting a new school, moving, and navigating and settling into your identity can be a shock to our system. It’s takes your daily routine and turns it inside-out, puts you in settings you’re not familiar with, and takes us entirely out of our comfort zone. All of this can have an impact on our mental health: being put in the unfamiliar can cause anxiety and depending on how we’re handling it, can affect our self-esteem and can cause depressive symptoms. If we don’t think we’re doing a good job handling the changes and think that the people around us are coping just fine, for example, we might blame ourselves and think we’re doing something wrong. College is one of the biggest life transitions you might be making, or have made so far. It’s a combination of starting a new school, moving, and settling into your identity, and it might be the first time you’ve had to experience doing pretty much everything independently. While you might be experiencing that independence for the first time, you aren’t alone in this change. About two-thirds of high school graduates go on to start college, and a third of those college freshmen report having a mental health disorder. Those may already have been diagnosed or may have been diagnosed while starting, but regardless, this time is a significant one that can throw our minds and bodies for a loop, and it’s not uncommon. Whether you’re already in college or have graduated and want a bit of nostalgia, are in the process of applying for college and want to get ahead, or an incoming freshman or transferring to a new school who wants advice, we hope that some of the stories listed below about people’s experiences and advice about their own freshmen year can help you wherever you need.

What I Wish I Had Known Freshman Year of College

Four College Freshmen Photograph Their First Semester

Upperclassmen Share their Awkward Stories from Freshman Year

Are you starting or will you be starting college soon? What concerns do you have? If you aren’t a freshman, what advice or stories do you have about your freshman year?

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

August 14, 2019 in Educate Yourself

joey-sforza-ZB5Cy_f8NMg-unsplashCognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is typically a highly recommended method of treating mental illnesses. From personal experience, I feel it is a very helpful method of treatment. They provide you with different methods of positive thinking and just help you work through different issues you discover in your life.

list-1882326_1280One method of positive thinking that my therapist provided that I felt was extremely helpful was a way for me to reroute my thinking to stop blaming myself for everything. For example, whenever one of my friends seemed upset I would immediately think it was my fault and I did something wrong. My therapist told me whenever I felt this way I should take a moment and list the reasons why it could be my fault and list the reasons why it may not be my fault. This was extremely difficult at first, but since I have continued to do this it has become easier and I have become happier.

It can be extremely difficult opening up to a stranger about you life and how you’re feeling at first, but eventually you become really comfortable with this person who feels more like a friend than a stranger. It feels more that they just care and want to listen to you more than it feels you are paying for someone to care about your harli-marten-M9jrKDXOQoU-unsplashproblems, which many people who don’t go to therapy think it is.

I have had two different therapists in my life. The first time I went to therapy I didn’t feel like it was helping me, but I think that was also affected by the fact that I didn’t quite feel like I needed help at the time. I hadn’t come to terms with the fact I was struggling. However, once I accepted the fact that I wasn’t okay and went looking for help I have noticed how much better my mental health has become since I began receiving it. I have also noticed the majority of therapists will help you find a different therapist to help you if you don’t feel they are helping you. There is always help out there, but it is easier to be helped once you decide to get it not when it is being forced on you.

Do you go to therapy? Do they use CBT? Have you ever changed therapists? How did that process go?

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Can Your Hair Tell You if You have Depression?

August 13, 2019 in Educate Yourself

Cross-section of a head with a squiggle in side of the skull instead of a brain; background is sky blueThere are lots of hormones and neurotransmitters (chemicals released by neurons) that contribute to our mental health. You may have heard of dopamine and serotonin for example, which are both neurotransmitters known to contribute to a more positive mood. There’s also cortisol: this is the hormone that people often associate with stress, since it’s often released when we’re experiencing stress or going through anxious feelings. Obviously, these hormones and neurotransmitters have tons of roles and are much more complex, but they play an influential role in how we feel and react to events because of our mental health.

gray background, in the center of the image is a silhouette of a person with messy hair facing away from the viewer. The entire image is blurred to appear like fog.Researchers recently studied to see if cortisol in hair can help predict if adolescents have or are at risk for depression. The hypothesis makes sense: both really high levels of cortisol and low levels of cortisol have a relationship with mental illness and depression. Cortisol also plays a role with hair growth too and can explain why we lose our hair when we’re stressed. 

So what did the researchers find out? Well, turns out that when they tested adolescents’ hair with their answers to questionnaires about their mental health, there wasn’t much that overlapped between cortisol levels and depressive symptoms. 

While you can’t use your hair to find out or explain why your mood isn’t at its peak or why you’re so stressed, the study is one of the first that tests survey-2316468_1280cortisol effects specifically in adolescents, and one of the first that tests cortisol in the hair for a mental illness. It helps to lay the groundwork for more objective testing. Currently, depression is primarily diagnosed using a scale where people respond to questions, but items like stigma and fear can affect how people respond. This is especially true in teenagers, who are more likely to want to feel “accepted” and part of the norm, so they may answer questions that they think will help others see them that way. By doing something like testing hair for depression, the diagnosis may be more absolute and can help lead to early interventions and treatment before symptoms can potentially worsen.  

What do you think about the idea of testing hair for mental illness? What benefits can you see with physical tests like these if they can help predict depression?

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An App to Consider: Aura

August 9, 2019 in LINKS

Aura is a wellness app that’s available for both iPhones and Androids. Like other meditation and wellness apps, it provides tons of features so that you can get the experience that’s best for you.

The content provided is endless. Aura offers guided medications that can be as long or as short as you want – short for the moments that you need a break from an assignment that may be stressing you out, long for the times that you want to unwind before bed. What makes these meditations stand out, however, is that before you begin them, you can tell the app what mood you’re in, and the guided meditation will change based on that.

There are also short stories that you can listen to to distract yourself if you’re stressed and to offer a brief escape to another world. Stories are also a way to help you fall asleep so they can help with that too. The app also has various music stations with calming songs to help you relax, as well as nature sounds if you want something simpler and more natural.

The app is free and has been voted as one of Apple’s top apps. Check it out here!

How do you feel about meditation and wellness apps? Would you consider using Aura? If you do, write about your experience and tell us! 

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How Younger Generations Meme about Therapy Online

August 8, 2019 in Social Media Guide

If there’s one benefit to Twitter, it’s the memes. Even if you don’t use the platform, you’ve probably seen screenshots of tweets on Instagram or Facebook. A recent trend in memes is an imaginary conversation that the person has with their therapist.

 

 


Most of them are on the more self-deprecating side, talking about how they’ve resigned to the negativity and bad feelings that they have and making a joke out of it to cope. While self-deprecating humor has its negative effects on your self-esteem and accepting the bad feelings that happen to you can have detrimental effects, memes on social media provide a kind of bonding moment for those sharing and contributing to it. We’re drawn to crowds and groups of people when we find something we have in common with them, which includes things like mental illness.

On the other hand, another tweet has gone viral comparing how Baby Boomers versus millennials and Gen Z approach the topic of therapy.

The tweet takes a more humorous approach when it comes to attending therapy and how younger generations are more open to talking about seeking treatment. While it’s on the more lighthearted and joking side, it shows that although older generations have a tendency to treat seeking therapy like it’s a secret and something that they’re ashamed of, adolescents and young adults are more likely to be comfortable talking about their experiences with their therapists with their peers. 

social-media-552411_1920This isn’t to imply that the stigma attached to therapy is completely gone for adolescents. While it’s still there, especially among youth with mental illnesses, the anonymity some social media platforms and the silliness of memes and viral content might make it easier to be more open without feeling like you’re being judged about going to therapy and seeking treatment. It also connects with the fact that younger generations are well aware of the mental health issues facing themselves and their peers and are more likely to talk about it.

Social media (and yes, memes) are a way of showing that the way we approach talking and being open about seeking treatment, and while they’re funny and nothing to take too seriously, it is a way of opening doors and spreading awareness about the issues that younger generations are facing when it comes to mental health. 

Have you ever used or engaged with memes about therapy or mental health? What do you think about these memes? 

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The Benefits of Teenage Friendships

August 7, 2019 in Educate Yourself

sithamshu-manoj-bik_lIl9Nco-unsplashMore often than not, we feel like we’re alone throughout middle and high school. It’s a weird feeling – we’re in the same building with all of our peers for hours five days out of the week, and social media can have us feeling connected and lonely at the same time.

Even with that feeling of being alone, middle and high school is an exciting but also stressful time to make and maintain friendships. You may gravitate towards classmates, use social media to find friends your age around the world based on your interests, or try to keep in contact with those you don’t go to school with or don’t have classes with.

It can feel almost crucial and absolutely necessary to have solid friendships when you’re a teen – adolescents have a higher desire and need to be accepted amongst peers, and the relationships around us can play an important role in who we become and interact with others as adults. Overall, teen friendships can play a vital role when it comes to your mental health, not just as a teen, but as you get older too.

rosalind-chang--Cu2Zd37ytU-unsplashStudies have shown that those who have strong connections both at home – which includes siblings – and at school when they’re teens are 66% less likely to experience mental illness or risky behavior. These risky behaviors include using drugs, misusing prescription drugs, and getting STDs. Additionally, having close friendships can help decrease stress levels and help you feel more secure and confident in adulthood.

The thing is, it can be hard finding and keeping those friendships when you’re a teen. You may get into arguments with others over the smallest things, and the reactions to them can make or break a friendship. Bullying – whether it’s in person or online – from people you consider to be friends can have a toxic effect on your self-esteem and self-worth, which can then affect how you trust others and make friends as an adult.

There are naturally a lot of benefits when it comes to friendships, but the ones we make as teenagers can have a powerful impact. This shouldn’t put pressure on you or force you to find and make important friendships, but at the very least, seeking a support system and finding those that you feel comfortable and safe around can help contribute to your development and sense of self.

How is your support system? What are or were your friendships like in high school? Do you still keep in touch with them?

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