Mental Illness
Mental Health - Everyone Has It!
You would seek help from a physician or a trainer for an injury, why wouldn't you go to a therapist and get help you need mentally?
Mental Health is how we cope with everyday life.
Some days your might feel more confident or let things roll off your back more easily. On other days maybe the stress has you feeling sad or anxious. These are completely normal things to feel and normal ways to feel them. It's when the feelings get to be so overwhelming that they make living your normal, everyday life a challenge. When things like just getting out of bed, spending time with friends or doing your favorite activities becomes something you just can't do-that's when your mental health is becoming a problem, and possibly a mental illness.
Trying to tell the difference between what expected behaviors are and what might be the signs of a mental illness isn't always easy. There's no easy test that can let someone know if there is mental illness or if actions and thoughts might be typical behaviors of a person or the result of a physical illness.
ENGAGE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH
Our toolkit includes sample materials for communications and social media as well as printable handouts on the following topics:
Adapting after trauma and stress
Dealing with anger and frustration
Getting out of thinking traps
Processing big changes
Taking time for yourself
Radical acceptance
#HopeForChange reminds us to spread and rely on the hope that carried us through a year of change. These activities follow physical distancing guidelines and are built off the past year that changed many of our selfcare activities.
Every mental illness has its own symptoms, but there are common signs of mental illness in adults and adolescents:
Excessive worrying or fear
Feeling excessively sad or low
Confused thinking or problems concentrating and learning
Prolonged or strong feelings of irritability or anger
Avoiding friends and social activities
Difficulties understanding or relating to other people
Changes in sleeping habits or feeling tired and low energy
Changes in eating habits such as increased hunger or lack of appetite
Difficulty perceiving reality (delusions or hallucinations, in which a person experiences and senses things that don't exist in objective reality)
Multiple physical ailments without obvious causes (such as headaches, stomach aches, vague and ongoing “aches and pains”)
Thinking about suicide
Inability to carry out daily activities or handle daily problems and stress
An intense fear of weight gain or concern with appearance
Characterized by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity, ADHD is most commonly diagnosed in young people between ages 3–17.
Everyone experiences anxiety. However, when feelings of intense fear and distress are overwhelming and prevent us from doing everyday things, an anxiety disorder may be the cause.
A chronic mental illness that causes dramatic shifts in a person's mood, energy and ability to think clearly. The average onset of Bipolar Disease is 25 years old, but can occur at any age.
A condition characterized by difficulties in regulating emotion. This difficulty leads to severe mood swings, impulsivity and instability, poor self-image and stormy personal relationships.
Will a student’s bout of anxiety allow others to create a safe space to talk about what they’re going through and what’s really going on? Ghosted is a candid glimpse of a single day in the life of 4 high school students as they learn to adapt to remote learning and struggle to connect with others while still social distancing. It’s an up-close look at how they navigate their relationships and support each other while facing harsh realities and many unknowns.
Through the course of the virtual program, students learn to
Develop skills to talk about stress, anxiety, and depression and understand that all are common
Identify healthy coping strategies to build resilience
Access community resources for help with stressful and difficult situations
Combat stigma by creating a culture of acceptance and support for mental health
Because millions of people in the U.S. live with a mental health condition, you likely encounter people with a mental illness in your family or in your daily life. However, if you are unsure of how best to approach someone who may be struggling, these tips may help.
Now VIRTUAL, Send Silence Packing stories contain personal accounts from individuals that have experienced suicidal ideation, attempted to end their life, or have lost a loved one to suicide.
Let's Learn About
Mental Illness
This tool is meant to show the many ways you can talk about mental health with people in your life. But, everyone's experience is different. Use these words as inspiration, and feel free to find your own.
Join Mental Health America as we have open conversations about mental health. We're a group of people who want to change the way our communities talk about mental health. On this podcast, we share our lives, fight in the open, and work together to just figure things out.
Each week, America and Theresa (and sometimes special guests) discuss a different mental health topic. The topics come from questions Mental Health America hears from people with lived experience with mental illness. Many of them come from questions asked by people who have taken mental health screens. The conversations are easily accessible to people who are just beginning to learn about their mental health.
The human mind is incredibly complex – and life gets challenging. Sometimes our minds and emotions get thrown off balance, leaving us feeling physically, mentally, and emotionally drained.
If you’ve gone through a hard time or faced trauma, your mental health could suffer. Understanding mental illness, being aware of common symptoms, and having a plan for managing on tough days will help you grow and move forward.
Download the Game!
SUPERCHARGE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH SKILLS
EQUOO teaches psychological skills in a fun and captivating way. The instructional and inspirational game designed to support good mental health and emotional fitness. An avatar named Dr. Joy accompanies individuals through fictional stories that offer practical insights into how people think, feel, and act.
Looking for a way to encourage everyone to stress less and laugh more?
Active Minds has compiled ideas and educational resources for planning a day or week of activities for all of those anxiety-inducing times of the year — such as finals week or holiday shopping season or anytime.
Check out these ideas for hosting your own Stress Less Week®!
Complete the form HERE, and after you press “submit” you’ll see a download button. Clicking that will download a resource kit (PDF) to your device.
Saying the right thing to someone struggling with mental illness can be incredibly powerful. It can support, comfort, encourage and sometimes even save a life. The problem is finding the words. Too many people don’t know what to say to us, so they say nothing at all. Silence can make us feel hopeless, sad and alone.
Even as a young child, I’ve always felt that I was different from everyone else. I felt that no matter where I turned, I never truly fit in. This caused me to have an identity crisis... Throughout the years, I desperately wanted to know what exactly was “wrong with me” and was determined to figure it out. I still remember thinking: If only I knew the problem, I could finally “fix” myself.. Read more...
Myths.Facts.pptxThe presentation can be used by NCHS Clubs for social media presentation or student activity. Check out Activity #1 in March's NCHS Activity Guide to develop a plan. Find more Facts and Myths and HERE use them to expand the presentation.
The stigma associated with mental illness is now called “sanism.” Just like racism or sexism, it is a form of oppression and discrimination. And there is a lot of sanism and misinformation surrounding mental illness still present within our society.
It’s up to us, the mental health community, to educate others and set the record straight. Here are some of the common misconceptions people make and what you need to know.