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Creative Arts Therapy Feature: Bibliotherapy

June 18, 2019 in Educate Yourself

Do you enjoy the arts? Have you ever wanted to see how getting creative can help you mentally? This feature is just one in a series of entries exploring the different types of creative arts therapy. You can learn more about other outlets here!

The truth is, reading can be difficult. You may not have the time to settle down with a book to read, or you may get so overwhelmed with all the options that you don’t know where to start. jessica-fadel-431249-unsplashReading can also sound like a burden and a commitment, and it can be hard to pay attention to what you’re trying to read, especially given all the kinds of distractions surrounding you (see: your phone).

This is particularly true for adolescents. According to a 2018 survey, 1 in 3 teenagers have admitted to not reading a book for pleasure in a year. It may not seem appealing if you associate reading with the dry assignments you have to do for school, and it can feel so much easier to simply spend your free time on a device – the same survey found a relationship between the decrease of adolescents reading and an increase in technology use, for example.

If you do read leisurely, you may already know that it is a genuinely relaxing activity. There are benefits to reading to support mental health that include relaxation, improved sleep patterns, and increased brain activity. That can be taken a step further though in the form of bibliotherapy.

Bibliotherapy is a method that uses books (both nonfiction and fiction) to help people address issues that they are dealing with. In bibliotherapy, you meet with an expert, explain what difficulties and struggles you’re going through, and they’ll prescribe you some books to read that they think might help that you can read on your own at your convenience.

aziz-acharki-277346-unsplashBibliotherapy doesn’t necessarily have to mean that you have to read books just about mental health in order to understand why you feel the way you do. Most books used are usually novels: fiction gives us the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and increase our empathy not just towards the character, but with others. A study has also shown that when people read about another’s experience (in this case, with a fictional character), their brains react in a way as if they’re going through the same things themselves. The topics can be about anything, with stories not just about adolescent characters coping with mental health issues, but potential origins of stress, like their identity, homelessness, or chronic illness.milo-milk-1252512-unsplash

You may have experienced this already in the books you’ve read for yourself, or even ones you’ve read for school. We find ourselves connecting with certain characters and stories because of the way we relate to them; bibliotherapy takes that to another level in helping you discover which books can help and using said books as a driving tool to help you communicate with your therapist, your friends, or other loved ones to have them understand how you’re feeling. They don’t even have to be “realistic” stories either – you may relate to the stories and struggles about any kind of character, whether it be in a wizard in a fantasy world, a bounty hunter in space, or a teenager living in historical times.

There still needs to be more research done on bibliotherapy as a practice since it isn’t widely used, but it shows that reading isn’t just a way to unwind, but also a way to help you address what you’re going through via other’s stories.

Would you consider trying bibliotherapy? Have you read any books that have helped you with your mental health? What kinds of characters or stories have you related with?

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Weekend Reads: Finding Pride

June 14, 2019 in LINKS

fireworks-788799_1920Pride Month is pretty self-explanatory. Though pride isn’t limited to just these thirty days, June gives those who identify as queer and/or a member of the LGBT+ community a time to celebrate how far they’ve come with their rights, work towards a better future for themselves, and just have fun being who they are.

More often than not, the discussion surrounding LGBT+ issues, particularly for LGBT+ youth, can be bleak, with higher rates of negative mental health issues specifically. That’s why Pride Month is so important, sending a message that though things can be really difficult, there are others just like you and your identity is something to celebrate.

alexandre-godreau-524782-unsplashTo remind members of the LGBT+ community, allies, and those who are still learning about the significance of pride about the power of the positivity occurring this month, we’ve pulled a couple of lists and articles featuring  queer youth pride:

Several teen-centric online publications such as Seventeen and Teen Vogue have features where they interviewed teenagers and young adults at previous pride festivals and asked them what the word means to them. At a time where figuring out who your are and what your identity is almost always in question (and can potentially put your safety in jeopardy), attending your first Pride can provide both comfort and reassurance, and of course, some fun, as these teens describe in these articles.

open-book-2268948_1920Brightly – an organization that provides resources and lists to make finding children and YA books a bit easier – has a thorough list of fictional LGBT+ YA novels. These are novels that don’t just have queer protagonists, but have their own stories that go beyond just navigating their identity and beyond having their identity define them. Vulture also has a list of LGBT+ YA novels, but includes older novels as well, even ones dating back to the 80s.

It can feel like a cliche, but ultimately, now is the time to remember that it gets better.

Do you identify as queer? How do you feel about Pride Month?

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The Toll of Activism Online

June 13, 2019 in Social Media Guide

social-media-640543_1920Participating in causes to help make a difference and support the underprivileged can be an incredibly rewarding experience. Social media has made activism that much easier too – think of the hashtags and fundraisers people post about or how simple it is to repost other people’s posts on your story about important issues and how to get more information about the topic. Social media can also help you learn about issues that you may have not heard of otherwise (think of the current situations in Sudan and Hong Kong, for example), and just exposure to campaigns can lead to a significant increase in support of the people being affected.

henry-be-239191-unsplashThis accessibility is incredibly helpful and can still make a difference, even if it’s just providing the smallest bit of support, but it can also be taxing and overwhelming. Self-care and maintaining one’s mental health has become an important topic for activists, especially since the subject matter is most likely going to be painful on some level. Even if social media puts you in a physical safe space to talk about these issues, you can still feel a secondhand effect (known as compassion fatigue) and can lead to burnout. People who participate in activism online are more likely to have a tendency to gravitate towards issues that are related to their identity (i.e. their race, gender, or religion), and having that personal connection can lead to heightened anxiety and depression effects.

Just the exposure to these issues on social media can have an effect on your mental health, even if you’re not participating in online activism. There might be guilty feelings involved because you aren’t doing anything, and some of the wording on some of the posts can almost feel accusatory if you don’t get involved, which can further those feelings of guilt. Looking at posts can not just be upsetting, but can also make you angry and the bad things going on, and you can feel overwhelmed thinking about how nothing you do will be enough.

Both participating in and witnessing online activism can be hard and triggering, especially for people of color and other marginalized groups. It can be follow-1277026_1920tough figuring out how much you want to and can support, and sometimes you might really care about an effort, but it can hit too close to home or be too mentally exhausting for you to get involved in. Your level of comfort with what you engage in online – activism or not – is for you alone to understand and defend, whether it’s on deciding who you want to follow or if you need filters on posts.. Whether the social justice content is too triggering or it’s something you make sure to talk about and participate in, your mental health should be one of your top priorities.

Do you participate in activism on social media? What causes do you post about? Are there times where this feels overwhelming for you? If so, what do you do?

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How Mental Health Affects Second-Generation Adolescents

June 12, 2019 in Educate Yourself

The demographics in the United States have shifted significantly. The Pew Research Center reported that there were 44.4 million immigrants living in the country in 2017, making up 13.6% of boy-1300401_1280the total population. The increase in the immigrant population in the United States also means an increase in second-generation Americans – those who are born in the United States to immigrant parents (some people may also refer to these people as first-generation Americans, however).  The number of second-generation immigrants was nearly as much back in 2013 at 36 million, making up 12% of the population.

Immigrants bring much of their culture with them when the come to a new country. This is what makes America a melting pot: immigrants bring their food, traditions, and their languages with them, just to name a few things. It’s a way for them to keep their ties to their home country (after all, it’s what they grew up with), but it’s also a way for them to introduce something new to Americans, as well as connecting their children with their home culture.

ronny-sison-1138972-unsplashImmigrants also bring their cultural norms and beliefs with them too. For example, Asians (one of the largest groups of immigrants) and Asian-American adolescents underutilize mental health services. This has been linked to the strong stigma against mental health that resonates in the Asian community (most Asian immigrant parents interviewed in one study felt that adolescents don’t seek counseling because of the “shame” of having a mental illness and the effect it can have on their education and career).

Another study looked into mental health trends in both Asians and Latinx people (the other largest group of American immigrants). While there didn’t seem to be any significant increases in risks or diagnoses among the immigrants themselves, second-generation immigrants were more likely to have higher rates of substance use disorders.

There are several reasons why second-generation Americans have trouble seeking help for their mental health or even identifying it and acknowledging that it’s there in the first place. There’s the cultural clash that can occur with being raised in a culture and environment that’s different than your parents (which is jordan-whitfield-112404-unsplashharder in adolescents where you can feel like you’re constantly questioning your identity), and then there’s also immigrant guilt. This is the feeling that children of immigrants can have where they feel like they have to fight through or ignore their struggles because of the risks and sacrifices their parents made to come here. They may feel like what they’re going through is not as difficult as what their parents went through, or that they have to succeed to prove that their parents’ move was worth making.

bus-43991_1280External barriers also play a role. Second-generation Americans may have difficulty accessing mental health care because of their worry that their clinician won’t understand their culture, the costs of going to treatment, and not having accessible transportation to get there.

The number of second-generation Americans continues to grow as the country becomes larger and more diverse. It’s necessary to address these barriers and stigma that specifically affects this population as they grow up and not only enter adolescence but navigate their place in adulthood too.

Are you the child of immigrants? How do you think this affects your view on mental health? Do you feel comfortable talking to your parents about what you’re going through?  What are their beliefs on mental health?

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Affirmations

June 10, 2019 in Be Positive

taylor-smith-605201-unsplashWhile they may seem cheesy at first, affirmations can be pretty powerful. Self-affirmations are sayings that people say aloud with confidence about things that they are trying to believe in. By saying these frequently, out loud, and with assurance and confidence, it can help people believe in the very things that there are saying, making it come true.

It’s simple: find a phrase that you think is something you either need to hear or would feel really happy hearing from a loved one. From there, say it aloud whenever. It can be as a part of your morning routine while fixing up your hair, or something you quietly say out loud to yourself before doing an activity that may stress you out.

There are tons of affirmations available online. Some are common phrases too – you may have heard of people saying “I am good enough” or “I can do this.” You don’t have to stick to these though. Affirmations are meant to just for you and the things you want to believe in, and a way to fake it until you make it.

Do you have any affirmations? What are some that you say to yourself?

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Podcasts about Mental Health

June 7, 2019 in LINKS

microphone-307365_1280Podcasts are everywhere these days. You can find any podcast about any topic imaginable, story retellings, or completely fictional podcasts that are the 21st century versions of the old kinds of radio shows that were popular back in the 50s. You can learn a new skill or find more information about decades-old crime stories, or even just listen to a few people talk about nothing significant and just what’s been going on in their lives.

It shouldn’t be a surprise then that there are definitely podcasts available that candidly discuss mental health. Even these can be hard to navigate though; sometimes you may not feel like you’re the right demographic or what the people are talking about is something you can really relate to.

We tried to find a few podcasts about mental health that keep young adults and adolescents as one of their main audiences – check them out below!

The Bright Sessions Possibly one of the most popular podcasts, The Bright Sessions is a fictional audio drama about a psychologist’s sessions with her patients (with a bit of a twist). One blogging ambassador has previously recommended and talked about this podcast – check it out here!

This is Normal This podcasts gives the average, everyday young adult the microphone. Each episode has a different young adult talk about their challenges and struggles with mental health, offering advice and their experiences to remind listeners that they’re not going through their problems alone.

Teen Health Matters While the focus of this podcast isn’t specifically on mental health per se, it was still designed to be an educational tool for adolescents on all sorts of health matters. There are several episodes that relate to mental health (there’s one about dealing with back to school stress, social media and body image, and depression), but others may be of use as well (for example, there’s even one talking about managing money as a teenager). Professionals and doctors who are experts on these topics come into provide as much information as possible.

Do you listen to podcasts? If so, do you listen to any that focus on mental health? Share any of your recommendations!

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Have You Ever Airdropped a Meme?

June 6, 2019 in Social Media Guide

Another day, another viral trend. You may have recently heard of or participated in AirDropping images to strangers around you whenever you’re in public.

Image-1 (1)For those who may not know, AirDropping is a feature on Apple products that allows users to easily share images and files with other Apple users nearby without needing to attach them in a text or email. All you need is to be relatively physically close, have your Bluetooth or WiFi on, and with a simple tap, you can send whatever you want to whoever also has AirDrop on.

This may sound strange if it’s not something you haven’t heard of or have never participated in. It can be a bit of a game though, with someone sending you a meme, you sending a similar one back, and suddenly there’s an exchange going on to see who has the most powerful, yet silly image. You can also compete with others around you to see how many of these chains you can get going on at once. At its best, it can be reassuring – people can sometimes AirDrop positive images and things about self-love, or they aim to AirDrop content that they hope will make the other person laugh.  It’s a way to socialize on a minimal, harmless level with your peers around you and can be a fun thing to do to kill time while waiting for an event to start.

But while it may be lighthearted and fun for the most part, there are still several risks. For example, you have to agree to receive the files and save them to your device, but you can still what the content is when it pops up. This could potentially contain NSFW or triggering content (even if the content isn’t “frightening” itself, everyone can be sensitive to different things) and be upsetting to see, especially in public. It can even feel overwhelming and can possibly cause feelings of anxiety, especially in spaces where there are tons of people (concerts are one the most popular places where AirDropping occurs). There might be an element of social anxiety involved too, since someone you most likely don’t know is technically contacting you, and you may not know how to react, feel comfortable accepting the image, or are afraid of responding.

ooi-jiet-428957-unsplashThere are ways to avoid the activity if AirDropping isn’t for you, or think it may be a trigger for stress. For one thing, you’re not participating at all if you have an Android device. Those who have an Apple device can also disable it completely. If you use AirDrop for other things (for example, sharing photos with friends that you took of them), you can limit AirDrop to just your contacts. At the end of the day, you do have some power over your level of participation, even if it’s as simple as sending yet another Spongebob meme to one of your friends when you see them in the hallway.

Have you ever heard of AirDropping memes? Have you ever done it? What do you think of the idea?

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Mental Health Expenses

June 5, 2019 in Educate Yourself

Mental health issues among teens are a growing issue in the US. The demands for mental health services and treatment clearly exceed our nation’s supply, and the effects of this imbalance are making their mark.jp-valery-1497987-unsplash

The suicide rate among young people ages 10 to 19 increased by 56% from 2007 to 2016.  According to the CDC, suicide and suicide attempts cost the nation $70 billion in lifetime costs for medical care and lost work hours alone. Serious mental illness in the US cost $193.2 billion in losses of personal earnings in 2002, translating to a massive loss of human productivity.  Prescription opioid misuse, another epidemic associated with mental health conditions, costed $78.5 billion in 2013, including costs from health care, the criminal justice system, and lost productivity.  How do we address these issues that weigh so heavily on our nation’s economy? We target a common source of these mental health issues – children.

noah-silliman-202795-unsplashMany mental health issues begin in childhood. With the short supply of child and adolescent psychiatrists, it is easy for children to slip through the cracks of treatment and have their mental health deteriorate further in adulthood; only 40% of adolescents received treatment for major depression in 2017. It is also not uncommon for children to wait days in an ER for an opening of a hospital bed in a psychiatric unit. In Fairfax County, VA, parents often drive hours to take a bed that has opened late at night. Washington, D.C. is the only place in the US with sufficient child and adolescent psychiatrists for its population, while the rest of the country is severely lacking. This shortage isn’t without reason – psychiatry is one of the lowest-paying specialties, and new psychiatry hospital wings and treatment advances can easily fall off the priority list when compared with cutting-edge medical technologies in more competitive and glorified fields such as surgery.

As the staggering costs of mental health attract more attention to this serious public health issue, other outlets are being explored to expand mental health resources to reach the youth that need them:

  • The pediatrician work force is being called to action to manage basic mental health issues. Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued guidelines for adolescent depression in primary care, targeting youth ages 10 to 21. Educating primary care doctors in mental health is a top priority.social-media-2314696_1920
  • Nonprofit organizations also offer mental health programming when government funding falls short. Strength in Our Voices trains high school students and teachers in suicide prevention in schools in Washington, D.C. The Beautiful Minds Initiative in Florida is a collaboration among health care providers, community mental health professionals, social services, and public school systems to bring mental health care to at-risk children in Collier County. Adapting for Life, Surviving the Teens is an outreach program from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio that educates young people in junior high and high schools on drivers of suicidal behavior and ways to cope with them.

Have you ever sought help for mental health? If so, what resources did you use to get the help you need? Do you have mental health awareness programs at your school? If so, what are they like? What resources or programs did you wish were out there? Share your thoughts and experiences below!

This SOVA blog post was based off an article from Jayne O’Donnell in USA Today, “Help Hard to Find for Teens Struggling with Mental Health, Thoughts of Suicide.” To access the original post, check it out here.

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Can Mental Health Affect Cancer Care?

June 4, 2019 in Educate Yourself

daan-stevens-282446-unsplashA cancer diagnosis is not an event anyone wants to encounter. The International Agency for Research on Cancer reports that over 18 million new cancer cases were diagnosed worldwide in 2018 – nearly 10% of those were in the United States. The burden of cancer on finances, the healthcare system and human lives is huge and well documented, but a new factor is being heavily researched on its impact.

Cancer care often focuses on the physical effects of the disease, but many patients are left without access to mental health resources. This might seem like an unavoidable effect in the face of a cancer diagnosis, but it doesn’t end there. Cancer patients who experience these mental health concerns are also more likely to experience worse cancer symptoms and higher disease mortality. Sadly, mortality among cancer patients is most likely to co-occur among younger people.

A study by Dutch researchers at Tilburg University in the Netherlands looks into the connection between mental health issues and worsening helloquence-61189-unsplashcancer symptoms. The study found that depressed patients with various types of cancer  — the study examined lymphoma, multiple myeloma, endometrial and colorectal cancers  — are twice as likely to die than their non-depressed counterparts.

The study also included research on breast cancer patients from Dr. David Spiegel at Stanford University. According to Spiegel, “as many oncologists now view pain as a symptom to be treated, they should also consider depression a symptom to be treated to improve the quality of — and possibly extend — life.” According to Dr. Spiegel’s research, the positive effects of therapy cannot always extend a patient’s life span, but they can result in increased quality of life.

This kind of research could be especially useful in severe forms of cancer where high pain levels and short life expectancies are common. Lung cancers have been associated with “greater morbidity and higher levels of psychological distress than any other form,” according to an Australian study.

Cancers that come from environmental factors — think tobacco smoke, tanning beds with UV radiation, and minerals like asbestos — can leave patients feeling angry that they are “at fault” for their diagnosis. An evaluation of a palliative care program for mesothelioma patients, a cancer caused by asbestos, found high levels of emotional difficulties like shock of diagnosis, anxiety and depression, anger towards employers who did not alert them to the hazards of asbestos, and stress of resulting lawsuits.

michael-browning-246513-unsplashPalliative care refers to care programs that focus on relieving cancer symptoms. Mental health is becoming an important part of these plans, not only for a patient’s mental wellbeing, but also for the chances of life extension. The study, from the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, found that leaving these issues unaddressed can lead to lasting mental health issues that decrease quality of life.

Incorporating psychological resources into care programs for all kinds of cancer could have incredible effects. A 2017 paper outlines some of the hurdles to correctly treating depression in cancer patients: “Cancer care professionals tend to confuse clinical depression or anxiety disorders with normal sadness and preoccupation, with the mistaken belief that ‘it is normal to feel sad or anxious because of cancer.’” As a result, 30-40 percent of cancer patients experience undiagnosed psychological issues.

Hopefully this changes with the recent renaissance in recognizing mental health issues as legitimate conditions. Research from Psychology Today has found that cancer patients are almost twice as likely to commit suicide than the general population, 25% more likely to experience depression, and 42% more likely to have anxiety disorders. Psychological care needs to be a component of all stages of cancer care, from diagnosis to treatment and either follow-up or end-of-life care.

Do you think that mental health treatment should be incorporated into cancer treatment? Why do you think mental health care hasn’t historically been a priority in cancer treatment? Do you have any experiences that you’re comfortable with sharing?

Special thanks to Sarah Wolverton for the article. Sarah Wolverton is a Communications Specialist at Mesothelioma.com, the foremost source of asbestos and mesothelioma cancer information. Sarah delves into the world of cancer and consumer health in her work and advocates for a full asbestos ban. 

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The Act of Smiling

June 3, 2019 in Be Positive

caju-gomes-500579-unsplashYou might have heard the phrase that it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. The amount of muscles that it takes is up for debate (some places say it takes 13 to smile and 33 to frown, some say 22 to smile and 37 to frown) and it’s not really a fact – it hasn’t even been proven to be true – but the mentality remains: it’s better to smile than it is to frown, and takes less effort.

Happiness itself isn’t a choice; mental illness can make it difficult to feel positive and happy, but just the act of smiling can make a difference. Just like deep breathing or going for a walk, this action sends messages to your brain to help lift up your mood. Laughing also has the same effect, but sometimes that can feel like too much effort at times (after all, forcing laughter can feel so awkward). Choosing to smile and making yourself lift the corners of your mouth upwards activates the release of hormones like dopamine and endorphins, which can make you feel better and combat stress.

emoticon-2120024_1920Then of course, there’s the common belief that smiling is also contagious. This goes both ways: by smiling, you might inspire someone around you, whether you know them or not, to feel a little happier and smile themselves, or you can surround yourself with people who have a smiley disposition and feel the effects of being around that.

It might seem silly to try smiling at nothing, but it can be a boost of energy and positivity by using just a few muscles (13, or 22, or whatever number it is depending on who you ask).

Have you ever tried smiling without any reason? What do you think of the idea? What makes you smile?

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