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Interpersonal Therapy

April 11, 2017 in Educate Yourself

We don’t live our lives in a bubble. Whether we want to or not we have to live with each other and this can affect our day-to-day experiences.

Interpersonal therapy, or IPT, is a type of psychotherapy that has been shown to be effective for depression and anxiety in adolescents.

IPT helps us deal with our relationships with others. For adolescents important relationships include ones with parents, friends, and sometimes romantic partners. When you are depressed or anxious you might carry emotions that push you to communicate negatively with someone else. In turn that person communicates negatively with you and it can lead to problem, which often can end up making you feel worse. (Like snapping back at your mom, “Fine!” when she asks how school was on a day that didn’t go so well. She then gives you the silent treatment later that night when you try to tell her about a friend who is being distant. Now you’re even more frustrated – you can’t talk to your mom, you can’t talk to your friend. What’s going on?) This can go round and round in circles and may cause you to have even worse symptoms. IPT helps you learn skills to express your real emotions so that you can effectively communicate with someone else. It also teaches you to understand how your behavior can affect someone else.

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Photo Credit: MartialArtsNomad.com via Compfight cc

You might have someone in your life who you feel like doesn’t listen or care or talk to you in the way you want. However, it’s important to realize how your actions affect that person too. Our emotions can build off of one another. IPT helps us identify what emotions we feel when we interact with someone and how these emotions affect our interactions. By recognizing what is going on we can make better decisions about how we want to communicate with each other. (Saying: “Hey mom – I’m sorry, but I need some alone time and then I’ll come back out and talk to you in 30 minutes. Thanks, I appreciate you asking though.”)

Have you tried IPT? How’d it go?

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Using Behavioral Methods to Manage Your Depression

April 7, 2017 in LINKS

Often times when a person is depressed they may feel tired, as well as have a lack of motivation and energy. These changes in mood often times lead a person who is depressed to not carry out their daily tasks, activities, and responsibilities. All of these responsibilities at home, school, or work can begin to pile up. This can cause you to feel overwhelmed, creating an increased feeling of guilt, uselessness, and failure. This can become a cycle that increases the depressed mood and further lowers motivation. Increasing your activity levels can help you to feel better, be less tired, and think more clearly. Positive experiences can help alleviate some of the depressed feelings and mood. 100_7053

The Behavioral Strategies for Managing Depression Module provides a list of 185 ideas about pleasurable activities that someone could do such as thinking about planning a day’s activities, exercising, or going ice skating, roller skating/blading. When you are feeling depressed, you have to plan fun and enjoyable activities into your life.  The module has a worksheet for you to follow to help you track your activities and rate your depression, pleasant feelings, and sense of achievement before and after the activity. It also has a weekly schedule to help plan out daily responsibilities and pleasurable activities.

You should start slow by adding just a few small activities a week.  Then slowly increase the amount of activities over time. It might seem hard in the beginning, however, setting reasonable goals for yourself is important so it won’t feel like too much too soon. Choosing to perform tasks that give you a sense of achievement or mastery will help you feel like you are starting to regain control over your life. Once you have a sense of achievement it may encourage you to do more.

What are some fun and pleasurable activities you do to help fight depression and increase your mood?

 

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A Few Tips and Tricks to Using Social Media with Depression and Anxiety

April 6, 2017 in Social Media Guide

Photo Credit: Visual Content Flickr via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: Visual Content Flickr via Compfight cc

 

Symptoms of depression and/or anxiety can be made worse by using social media. In recent blog posts, we have talked about some of the ways social media can bring out negative emotions in people. Social media content can make people feel jealous of one another. Comparing the number of likes you get to that boy who sits next to you in class doesn’t do anything to build positivity. People tend to show their “best self” on social media. But the truth of the matter is everyone has their own, unique struggles, even that girl who’s always posting hilarious, creative stuff. For today’s post, we wanted to share a few tips and tricks to using social media when you’re feeling depressed or anxious.

 

Tips and Tricks

Avoid especially negative or stressful content

If you know that going on social media means you’re going to come across negativity, it’s best to avoid that content. This may seem obvious, but sometimes with depression and anxiety, it can be hard not to subject yourself to even more negativity.

Steer clear of heavy, intense conversations over social media

When communicating online, so much can get lost. The emotions behind the words can so easily get misinterpreted. We definitely encourage talking through your emotions before they become overwhelming, but these conversations are usually best done in-person with a trusted support. If you do feel more comfortable discussing your emotions online, using a direct message between you and your trusted, safe support is probably the most effective way to do so.

Seek out positive material on the internet

Making an effort to seek out positive material can be difficult when depressed or anxious. But it can be so worth it. Every Monday, we post positive content for a reason. The internet doesn’t have to be a negative place – there’s lots of good stuff out there. It can make a big change in mood to seek out material that is positive. Scrolling through the same old feed on social media can make symptoms worse. Finding something new and interesting can be a great first step to improving your depression and/or anxiety.

These are just a few things that can be done to positively influence your mood for the better. Social media doesn’t have to be a place that makes you feel bad. By using these few tips and tricks when symptoms are increasing, social media can be a better outlet.

Do you have any tips and tricks to using social media when feeling depressed and/or anxious? Let us know in the comments below!

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What Makes Someone A Good Member of Your Support System

April 5, 2017 in Educate Yourself

A key part to improving and getting better while dealing with a mental illness is having a support system. That’s why at SOVA (and WiseSOVA) we are trying to start and build an online community that supports each other. However, a support system can include friends and family.  But when it comes to people how do you know what makes a good support person? Psychology today wrote a great article about what makes someone a good, supportive friend. Being a good supporter to someone is broken down into 3 major components: integrity, caring, and congeniality.

Photo Credit: ohthecuteness via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: ohthecuteness via Compfight cc

Integrity

Trustworthiness – knowing you can share your thoughts and feelings with this person and they won’t talk behind your back or tell others without cause

Dependability – You can count on them to be there for you when you need them, and will support and believe in you even when you can’t believe in yourself

Being able to trust – You feel comfortable being vulnerable with this person

 Caring

Empathy – Have the ability to understand what is going on with you or/and recognize your feeling and react accordingly

Non-judgmental – Friends are to uplift you, not accept you as you are-even if it is different them

Listening Skills – close communication where you can both share intimate thoughts, feelings, and experiences

 Congeniality

Fun to be around – you have to genuinely enjoying being around this person.

These are just a few traits to look for when building your support system. The people you surround yourself can impact how you see the world. Knowing that you have supportive, caring, and trustworthy people in your corner to help you through the good and bad times is something everyone should be looking for. Reaching out for help can be difficult to do at times, but if you have a group of people surrounding you, whether in person or through an online community, that are non-judgmental, attentive and trustworthy can make life and its challenges slightly easier.

What are some traits you look for when finding supports in your life?

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Easy-to-learn Yoga Poses

April 4, 2017 in Educate Yourself

Yoga is a great way to relieve stress and negative emotions. Some people who practice yoga regularly can do some pretty cool poses. When you’re first starting out with yoga, it’s good to start with the basics. SOVA’s alum, Amie, put some awesome YouTube videos together outlining some yoga poses. If you’re looking to read more about Yoga and its benefits, here are some blog posts we’ve done.

  1. Reducing Stress with Easy Yoga
  2. When in doubt, “OM” it out
  3. Stop, Breathe, Think

Check out the videos and let us know what you think!

 

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Selena Gomez Talks About Her Mental Health

April 3, 2017 in Be Positive

Photo Credit: conceptx_design Flickr via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: conceptx_design Flickr via Compfight cc

Selena Gomez recently spoke to Vogue magazine about her experiences with mental illness and getting help. Selena is another example of a celebrity using their voice to erase the stigma about mental illness and getting treatment. The things that celebrities say have a lot of push. Their message is able to reach a huge mass of people. For Selena- or anyone for that matter- to be open about mental illness helps to normalize the experience and decrease stigma. Here are some of her quotes about mental health.

Blurbs from Selena’s Vogue interview

Before getting treatment, Selena was on tour performing her music. Looking back, she had this to say in her Vogue magazine interview:

“My self-esteem was shot. I was depressed, anxious. I started to have panic attacks right before getting onstage, or right after leaving the stage. Basically I felt I wasn’t good enough, wasn’t capable. I felt I wasn’t giving my fans anything, and they could see it—which, I think, was a complete distortion…”

Selena acknowledges that she wasn’t trying to figure out her mental health problems at the time. She went on to tell Vogue this about what she wanted to say to her fans:

“What I wanted to say is that life is so stressful, and I get the desire to just escape it. But I wasn’t figuring my own stuff out, so I felt I had no wisdom to share. And so maybe I thought everybody out there was thinking, This is a waste of time.”

Fortunately, Selena got treatment.  She received Dialectic Behavior Therapy. To learn more about DBT check out our recent blog post on it! Here’s what Selena had to say about DBT, stigma, and pushing back against unhealthy roles:

“DBT has completely changed my life,” she says. “I wish more people would talk about therapy. We girls, we’re taught to be almost too resilient, to be strong and sexy and cool and laid-back, the girl who’s down. We also need to feel allowed to fall apart.”

With the help of treatment, Selena talked about the relief she felt. She expresses letting go of the pressure, most of which she was putting on herself.

“For a change,” she says, “it feels like I don’t have to be holding my breath and waiting for somebody to judge a piece of work that I’m doing. I’m not eager to chase a moment. I don’t think there’s a moment for me to chase.”

To read Selena’s vogue magazine interview in its whole, follow this link. There is some profanity.

In what ways, if any, can you relate to what Selena is saying? Let us know in the comments below!

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Learn more about Myths Dealing with Mental Health

March 31, 2017 in LINKS

Mental Health.gov compiled a list of 9 commonly believed myths about mental health and provides facts to prove them wrong.  Many people have learned inaccurate information about people with mental health issues for a variety of reasons.  Whether it be because of how media displays mental health, or a lack of experience and exposure with the population.  Listed below are 2 of the myths on the site to see more visit MentalHealth.gov.

Photo Credit: shenamt via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: shenamt via Compfight cc

Myth: People suffering from a mental illness are weak and chose not to work hard enough to fix the problem.

Fact: Having a mental health problem has nothing to do with a person’s character.  Or whether or not someone is lazy or weak.  Many different factors contribute to mental health problems such as the following:

  • Biological factors, such as genes, physical illness, injury, or brain chemistry
  • Life experiences, such as trauma or a history of abuse
  • Family history of mental health problems
  • People with mental health problems can get better and recover completely from a disorder much like someone can improve after having a broken arm.

Myth: I can not do anything that would make a difference to a person with a mental illness.

Fact: Family and friends can really influence a person with a mental illness.  56% of the population of people with a mental health disorder do not get the help they need.  Fewer than 20% of children receive the treatment they need according to the mentalhealth.gov.  Family and friends can really create an impact and here are some ways you could help:

  • Helping them access mental health services
  • Doing your part by educating yourself and those around you about mental health
  • Keeping in mind that people suffering with a mental illness deserve respect
  • Refusing to define them by their diagnosis or using labels such as “crazy”
  • Making sure they know you are available and willing to help

 

Can you think of any other myths surrounding mental health? Let us know in the comment below.

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Heard Around Mental Health Twitter

March 30, 2017 in Social Media Guide

There are some pretty cool things happening in the world of mental health lately. We thought it’d be good to share some tweets from some mental health organizations. Social media has it’s downsides, but connecting people to resources is not one of them. Being aware about what’s going on in the mental health field is an important way to get the best information possible. These organizations are working hard to get the word out there about the importance of mental health. Check it out below!

Heard around mental health twitter

Today (3/30) is world bipolar day! This event is meant to bring awareness to bipolar disorders. Here’s what NAMI (The National Alliance on Mental Illness) had to say:Nami Tweet

@NAMICommunicate

Here’s a great tweet from Mental Health America suggesting a great way to “ground” yourself. If you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed, this is a way to bring focus back to the present moment.

Mental Health America Tweet

@MentalHealthAm

The National Institute for Mental Health is hosting a webinar focused on teenage depression on 4/27/17. We linked to the details below!NIMH Tweet

@NIMHgov

Follow this link to learn more about the webinar

The next mental health organization, Bring Change 2 Mind shared a great article on their twitter that talks about self-care. The article talks about self-care pins that can be bought and worn in support of self-care and mental health– It’s a cool new way to fight stigma! We link to the article below the tweet.

BC2M Tweet

@BC2M

Here’s a link to the artcle, Everyday Bravery Pins Celebrate Big and Small Life Accomplishments from themighty.com

Lastly, here’s a tweet from Active Minds, Inc. about “fighting” stigma and how easy that fight can become. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of starting the conversation.

Active Minds Tweet

@Active_Minds

Have you seen any great mental health information shared on social media lately? Let us know in the comments below!

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“Smiling Depression” – A Mask Worn to Hide Feelings

March 29, 2017 in Educate Yourself

Smiling depression. A person can look as if their whole life is together but still be suffering from depression. Everyone experiences and expresses their depression symptoms differently. Psychology Today defines smiling depression as “appearing happy to others, literally smiling, while internally suffering with depressive symptoms. Smiling depression often goes undetected. Those suffering often discount their own feelings and brush them aside. They might not even be aware of their depression, or want to acknowledge their symptoms due to a fear of being considered weak.”

The smile this person wears might be a mask to cover and hide the feelings and emotions they are feeling. People suffering with depression can be working, have a family, participating in the actives they have always enjoyed, and even have an active social life. Hiding your feelings and just pretending to be alright is not beneficial. People that love and support you are often times more willing to help than we might think. Many people feel as if they will be a burden on others if they express their feelings of depression but if you avoid and deny your feelings they can’t be fixed.

Photo Credit: http://www.changedirection.org/

Photo Credit: http://www.changedirection.org/

NAMI has created a list of 3 ways that can help others or yourself if you are experiencing this. First, do your part to create more awareness to de-stigmatize mental illness. Often times people feel as if they need to wear this mask to cover their depression symptoms to “fit in” and that is not true. It is always more important to take care of your self and feel comfortable reaching out for help. Secondly, pay closer attention to those you love. Make sure to check on your family and friends. Don’t assume everything is all right in their life just because everything appears normal. Making sure someone feels heard and is not alone can be very helpful. Lastly, if you are the person suffering with smiling depression know you are not alone. Always remember, “you are enough, you are worthy, you are loved and you are not alone.”

Have you ever felt like you’re wearing a smiling mask for others? Let us know in the comments below. 

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Tips on talking to parents

March 28, 2017 in Educate Yourself

Sometimes you might want to know what your parent or guardian thinks about something, but you’re just afraid of what will happen if you bring it up? Will they get mad? Will they lecture you? Will they not let you do something you really want to do? These worries can make you really not want to talk.parent-talk

This article from WebMD offers some useful tips on how to talk to parents. Its written for girls but the tips can apply to both!

One of the cool tips is sending out a “trial balloon.” Maybe you want to talk to your parents that your relationship with a significant other is getting more serious. You could try mentioning a friend who has been dating someone for awhile to get the conversation started slowly and see what they think in general.

Remember if you don’t feel comfortable talking to your parent about something important, you should see what a trusted adult thinks. Friends can be great but they don’t have the life experience to always give you the right advice. You can always talk to your primary care doctor in private. The law protects your confidentiality and your doctor can always help you talk to your parent about uncomfortable topics.

(featured image: “Highland Village Balloon Festival” by TexasEagle is licensed by CC-BY-NC-2.0)

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