When you have a mental illness, positive coping skills can make the difference between thriving and surviving, because let's face it – difficult experiences are a part of life and its how you handle them that make or break you. While there are countless negative coping skills that may appear to help temporarily relieve negative emotions, ranging from alcohol overuse and … [Read more...]
Tips for Anxious Flyers
Flying can be a stressful experience. As I embark to study abroad, I thought of a few key tips I use when I fly that can help you reduce your anxiety on your next trip: Have a music playlist at the ready Be prepared to have a playlist that has enough music to last you through most of the flight. Since you will be seated with people for a while, putting your headphones can … [Read more...]
A Closed Letter to My Immigrant Parents
Dear Mom and Papí, No number of “thank you’s” or “I love you’s” could possibly cover it. You dedicated your life to make sure I could build my own. You crossed oceans and continents to get here. You kept your head down and worked hard to put me through school. You slept on floors, went to bed hungry, worked multiple jobs just to make sure we could make it. And we made it. I … [Read more...]
How School ACTUALLY Made Me Sick
My struggle with mental health began long before I even realized what was going on. It started my freshman year of college. I was starting a new school that frankly I didn't even want to attend, and I only knew a handful of people. On top of all that I would be commuting to school, and I realize now that this was definitely one of the main contributors to the stress I dealt … [Read more...]
Mental Health In A World of Tech
In today’s world, you can’t get away from technology. It is a part of almost everything we do. As with anything, there are pros and cons. Of course, technology helps improve life, but it also can harm it if used incorrectly. When it comes to mental health, social media can be very harmful, especially if used in the way most people do today. Have you ever posted about how … [Read more...]
Mental Health Recovery is a Process
Although mental health stories are not all the same, they all have several stages. Nothing happens overnight. So if you’re in the midst of dealing with mental health issues, don’t beat yourself up! Mental health recovery is a process. These personal accounts from mental health survivors represent some common stages of mental health recovery: Admitting That There is a … [Read more...]
The Journey to Finding the Right Medication
After meeting with a health care provider and determining that you struggle with an anxiety disorder, you may be encouraged to start taking medication to manage your mental illness. Depending on the severity and persistence of anxious symptoms, a person may be prescribed short-term or long-term medication, which is just as natural as putting a cast on a broken leg or taking … [Read more...]
Anxiety Hacks While Bored – YouTube Scavenger Hunt
Feeling like you need to escape and try something new to ease your anxiety? You've probably already heard that Mindfulness has been demonstrated to reduce anxiety and stress time and again. But how does one put it into practice? A daily meditation practice may be challenging to startup and continue to do on a consistent basis, so taking it one step at a time with no … [Read more...]
Things I Do To Manage My Anxiety on Weekends
Weekends can be a stressful time for those of us with social anxiety- we want to have friends, be loved, and in the know (FOMO is real!), and yet we don't. I've often wondered what it would be like to live completely free of my social phobia and attend parties with classmates, crack jokes over drinks, and heck, maybe even be the life of the party one day. However, as it stands … [Read more...]
Test Anxiety: Ways to Overcome it
You’ve spent hours and hours cramming for that daunting exam, studying until it feels like your brain can’t take in any more information. With all your hard work behind you, you walk into the exam room, take a seat, flip to the first page of the exam… and your mind becomes a blank slate. The concepts and vocabulary that you thought you had drilled into your head the night … [Read more...]
3 Mental Health Apps for Youth
Today, there are dozens of online tools and applications for adult mental health. More recently, however, there are has been an influx of tools and resources just for kids, teens and young adults. Here are three apps that offer digital support just for youth and teens: MindRight MindRight offers personalized, live coaching over text message for teenagers who could use some … [Read more...]
Using Nutrition to Ease Anxiety
Anxiety disorders are the most common form of mental illness, affecting over 40 million adults in the United States, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. That’s around one-fifth of the population. There is a plethora of therapies and medications on the market nowadays, but only about a third of people suffering from anxiety will actively seek … [Read more...]
Understanding Panic Attacks: How Learning the Science Helped Me Manage
It was 2 am in the bedroom of my aunt's cabin a few hours north of the city where I grew up. With my heart pounding and my hands shaking, I turned to my mother and said, "I think I need to see a therapist, I cannot keep living like this." I was 12 years old at the time. This realization came to me while in the midst of another frightening panic attack. At the time I did not … [Read more...]
What to Say (And What Not to Say) to Someone with a Mental Illness
Despite the prevalence of mental illness in our society, it’s still incredibly misjudged, and because there is such limited public understanding, there are countless myths and stereotypes penetrating our thoughts, behaviors, and discourse. The truth is, the way we talk about mental illness perpetuates stigma and negative stereotypes, and can be detrimental to those vulnerable … [Read more...]
The Cyber World Around Us
We now live in the digital age, a time where social media has become more important than in-person relationships and communication. The culture of social media is mainly concentrated between the ages of 15-25 but spans across all ages. I am 19 years old which means I have been alive and understanding of most huge technological advances that have taken place over the last few … [Read more...]