SOVA Blog

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Trick or Treat

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.

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Well Beings

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.

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The Neuroscience Behind Why We Use Instagram

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.

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Radical Acceptance

One mental health technique that I have been thinking a lot about recently is radical acceptance.  According to Psychology Today, radical acceptance is the process of accepting life the way it is, even if it makes you uncomfortable. 

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Online Therapy

Do you have reservations about online therapy? Do you feel like your therapist won’t really “get” what you’re trying to say if you’re not physically in the room with them?

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The ABCs of Gratitude

As the weather gets colder, news seems to always be getting worse, and traditional end-of-the-year holiday plans have become either limiting or cancelled altogether, it can be difficult to find something to be grateful for, much less multiple things. Mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety can make finding the positives in day-to-day life impossible, and these outside events can worsen these feelings of hopelessness and negativity too.

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Letters for Mental Health

Letters to Strangers is a youth-led, youth-based organization that aims to help break down the stigma regarding youth mental health and make treatment and information about it that much more accessible. There are many...

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How to Help Someone Through Social Media

With more and more people opening up about their mental health online, you may find yourself thinking about a few things. You may feel proud of them for opening up about their struggles on a large platform, or you might feel comforted and feel less alone that someone you know also has struggles with their mental health. You might think about how social media is helping reduce the stigma about mental illness by giving many the opportunity to write about what they’re going through too.

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My Struggle with Binge Eating

Writing this is very freeing to me. For as long as I can remember I’ve had an issue with food. I’ve associated food with good feelings, and to have that make sense, every time after a good soccer game, we would go get ice cream. Situations like that began my unhealthy relationship with food.

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What is Excoriation?

BFRB’s, or body-focused repetitive behaviors, is an umbrella term for a variety of conditions that include excoriation disorder (skin picking), trichotillomania (hair pulling), nail biting, cheek biting, and other BFRBs that arise as a form of obsessive compulsive disorder.