Social media can be used as a great way to bring awareness to a variety of topics, much like the #icebucketchallenge. This hashtag brought about awareness, mass donations, and a large open forum to discuss the issue and the amount of people that are effected by ALS. This same type of social media movement was used to bring awareness to black men and mental health using the hashtag #YouGoodMan. Continue reading #YouGoodMan
The mental health diagnosis Bipolar Disorder has been mentioned on SOVA before. We thought it would be good to provide some information about the diagnosis. Bipolar disorder causes drastic changes in mood, energy, and activity levels as well as the ability to complete daily living tasks. There are four different types of bipolar disorder, but today we are going to focus on the first and second: bipolar I disorder and bipolar II disorder. For this post, we’ll breakdown the symptoms of both bipolar I and bipolar II, as well as the differences between the two. We’ll also talk about the way bipolar disorder relates to anxiety and depression.
Before we dive in, it’s important to note that only a professional can diagnose individuals with mental health disorders. We want to warn against the dangers of self-diagnosis, especially relating to mental illness. If you or someone you know is experiencing some of these symptoms, it’s okay to investigate further by educating yourself on the disorder, but important to get a professional opinion before drawing any conclusions.
Continue reading Breakdown of the Diagnosis: Bipolar Disorder
Stand Together is an amazing initiative located across Allegheny County. The program joins with local youth to break down the stigma associated with mental illness and substance use disorders. Recently, we did a post on the work the program does. SOVA also had the opportunity to sit down with Stand Together’s Project Coordinator, Danyelle. She had so many powerful things to say about mental health and getting rid of the stigma surrounding it. Check out the interview below!
This week, we have an awesome resource to share with our users. The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) is a website dedicated to providing support to individuals who have mood disorders, as well individuals who know someone with a mood disorder. Mood disorders include diagnoses like depression and bipolar disorder.
Continue reading The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
Twitter is an awesome place for mental health resources and information. Check out these recent tweets from some great organizations. We’ve linked their websites and twitter accounts below.
Miley Cyrus made news and social media headlines awhile back by announcing that she identifies as pansexual. If you haven’t already looked it up, pansexual is described as “a sexual identity along with bisexual, homosexual, heterosexual, asexual, polysexual, queer and more. People use the term to describe being attracted to and falling in love with people of all and any gender, whether transgender, genderqueer, male or female. They are, to an extent, “gender-blind”.”
There are many different models and methods of looking at and explaining mental health. “Where Does The Pain GO?” was a conference series hosted by the Community Empowerment Association (CEA) in Pittsburgh that used this frame work to discuss ideas to help their community. The CEA website stated that the conference was created to “begin to better understand our conditions and the historical trauma that continues to play itself out in our day to day personal relationships. We also need a better understanding of how day to day life occurrences impact our physical, mental, and emotional well being.” You can read more about CEA at CEApittsburgh.org . Continue reading Where Does the Pain Go?
The term “mindfulness” is kicked around a lot lately. Trying to figure out what it means, and how it can help can be overwhelming. Here’s a short video that explains mindfulness in an easy-to-understand way! Continue reading Mindfulness, Simply Explained
Coping is not built-in knowledge. It is a learning process that is developed and nurtured- both positive and negative methods can be used. As a parent, you have the power to help guide your children to learn positives methods to deal with situations including stress, defeat, and disappointment which we all have to deal with in life.
The Do’s and Don’ts of Teaching Your Child to Cope by Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D provides parents with 6 tips to help your child develop positive coping mechanisms. Here are a few examples from the list: Continue reading Teaching Your Children to Cope
