According to Mental Health America’s State of Mental Health in America report for 2021, the prevalence of mental health issues is increasing or worsening, and there is an unmet need for mental health treatment that has not declined since 2011. You can probably guess what my next point is going to be: It’s worse for Black, Indigenous and People of Color.
Certified Trauma-Informed Life coach for victims of domestic violence tells her own personal story of leaving an abusive relationship. Building a strong support system and finding safe ways to fight back are two of the most significant methods to surviving and recuperating from abuse.
In December of 2019, Jane, a 40-year-old married woman with a son in elementary school, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Soon thereafter, her husband Michael became her primary caregiver— someone who provides ongoing assistance to and advocates for a care recipient, helping them through activities of daily life such as bathing, dressing, using the restroom and coordinating their care. Life was difficult but manageable. Then COVID-19 hit.
Our lives, which slowed down for so long, seem to be quickly speeding up again. While everyone else is moving more quickly, I feel myself moving more slowly. A very heavy weighted blanket of deep sadness and anger envelopes me. Because while everyone else is moving quickly, I can’t forget about India.
Mental health issues are not new. However, since 1949, Mental Health Awareness Month has been observed around the country through the media and special events. Now, conversations about mental health have become more mainstream and much less taboo than ever before.
If there is one industry that benefits most from this era of innovation, it would be the healthcare industry. Progress to help people recover from severe health issues is made every day, and technology offers tremendous help in screening, treating, and helping patients recover.
It has been six months since most companies officially sent employees home for what many thought would be a few weeks and has now become months, stretching on for the foreseeable future. The flexibility to work from home has long been part of the trend toward flexible work arrangements aimed at attracting and retaining talent in an ever more competitive market. However, half a year working from home has had the opposite effect on work-life balance for many and instead of feeling less stressed, people are feeling the WFH burnout.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a condition where the brain lacks the standard amount of impulse control receptors. Your moods are intense, fast, unpredictable, and rapidly changing. Everything is felt in extreme waves of emotion. It's as if you are in a tornado of your feelings. Some days you are in the calm eye of the storm. Other days you are swept up and out of control. No matter which day it is, you tend to leave destruction in your path.
About six years ago, some colleagues and I published research that indicated that increased time on the social media platform, Facebook, was linked to depressive symptoms among young people. The studies, which served as the basis for the article, were, of course, not conducted during a major global pandemic. So even during the best of times when the economy is booming and people feel relatively safe, they tended to suffer from mental health consequences as a result of spending too much time on social media.
Like most people, I am often asked, "What do you do for a living?" As a therapist of color, I think about what it is like to walk into my office. The walls are covered with my photography and beautiful illustrations from former patients of anxiety, depression, and recovery. "Thank You" cards are strung up, and the bulletin-board shows messages of allyship. On closer inspection, you might notice a carefully curated bookcase with titles on trauma, body image, and culture. Everything in the office is done consciously and intentionally; my space is not only a reflection of me but an invitation to others: an invitation offering my office as a safe space to do the work necessary for recovery.
As women, I believe that we are all familiar with societal pressures to "do it all." Some women thrive under this mindset during normal circumstances, however, COVID-19 has thrown a wrench in all of our lives and added an unprecedented level of stress and additional barriers to normalcy. How can we, as women, now handle our "new normal?" How can we do it all, when that now means so much more and doing anything is more difficult than it's ever been before?
I didn't seek entrepreneurship in the THC-Free CBD business at first. It was something my partner, who is an addiction physician, nudged me towards while working in corporate America. When the coronavirus hit, we saw our friends and family suffering from anxiety and stress due to job loss, staying at home, lack of exercise, and uncertainty. We knew we had to do something to help, without relying on medication. If you go to a doctor and complain about anxiety, stress or depression, he/she will probably recommend medication as the first line of treatment. They bypass natural remedies, because they don't teach about them in medical school. That is where the problem lies with most people. We identified a problem where doctors did not look at viable alternative treatments and we wanted to change that.
Life can be messy, and you might be wondering if you should involve your friends with your mental health ups-and-downs. You might be afraid because your friends are undereducated and misinformed about people living with mental health issues. They might be in the dark.
Michelle was a three-sport athlete in high school. While there was a part of her that enjoyed the camaraderie with her teammates, the sense of accomplishment she felt when setting new records — there was another part of her that participated in the hopes of shrinking her body. Michelle, who is now studying to be a therapist, didn't know about eating disorders when she was younger. She reflects, "I had this idea that I wanted to become a professional swimmer so that I would be able to exercise even more. I would get many compliments on my body during swim season, even though that was when I hated my body the most."The comments Michelle received on her weight and body when she was restricting and compensating fueled her eating disorder.
The abrupt appearance of the novel coronavirus in late 2019 brought with it a health crisis that quickly swept across the globe. Millions were confined to their homes in an attempt to flatten the curve, but the virus continued to spread quickly, sickening millions and killing hundreds of thousands. The physical toll has been stunning, but the effects on our mental health have been insidious and no less serious. In these days of social distancing and Zoom meetings, self-hypnosis offers a creative solution to stress management and holistic healing.
The spread of the current pandemic and the resultant quarantine is affecting all of us at the moment, and for each person its effects are unique. Something I know I've been struggling with in the midst of this change is holding onto my creativity, and somehow I don't think I'm alone in that fact.
To maintain your mental health, you need your friends, family, and potential life partner's support. It's important to ask questions like, "Who's the better fit?" and "When's the right time to open up?" Educating your perfect match on your health needs may also be necessary.
We know that all of these things, from illness to job loss to systemic racism, hit the Black community harder, making it even more essential to develop a self-care routine that centers our own physical and mental well-being in ways that are practical yet effective.
I've been talking about trauma and loss for a long time, so I want to talk about complaining. We are experiencing a loss of freedom, lack of connection and increased fear of economic fallout during this pandemic. We are not used to this kind of prevalent, lengthy. and collective grief in the air.
One of the few things I remember from grade school biology is the concept of tropism. In plain language, tropism is the reaction of a living thing, like a plant, towards a stimulus like sunlight or heat. You've likely seen this before but just didn't recognize it for what it was. If you've ever seen the leaves of a potted plant bending towards a windowpane, that's tropism in action. The plant is bending towards the sunlight. In our everyday lives, we are all inundated with stimuli throughout the day...
Growing up, my parents (particularly my mom) expected greatness. This helped me do well in school but it also had a negative side effect: I became a perfectionist. I think perfectionism is tied to pleasing others and trying to make sure people like us. If we are perfect, you have to love us right? We feel like we aren't good enough as is, so if we are perfect, it will make up for it.