Because of constant news coverage and social media, it’s hard to miss pretty much anything that’s happening in the world. This is accessible the second you turn on the TV and go to a news station or when you log on and see a retweet with an article link. Some of these can be silly and fun, while some can be more serious. And lately, it feels like the news has veered to more serious, more negative territory. Continue reading Monitoring Your Mental Health when Consuming Negative News
The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent.
For many people, taking time to sit back and relax is an essential part of managing their mental health. I however, do not give myself a chance to do that. I have referred to myself as a workaholic and have often said things like “sleep is for the weak” or “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
Struggling with anxiety and depression pushes me to constantly keep myself busy. My anxiety makes it difficult for me to take a break because all I ever do is worry about the things I should be doing. At times I can also have thoughts of worthlessness when I try to relax. I feel lazy and wonder what I even contribute to society. I feel like I should be accomplishing so much more. Continue reading Workaholics Anonymous
The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent.
So recently, my best friends have broken up and ended their relationship with each other. I was really close with both the boy and the girl, and I’m still close with both of them. I feel really torn on who to “side with.” Continue reading When You’re Friends with Both Parties of the Breakup
The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent.
My birthday is coming up this month. In the past I’ve enjoyed celebrating my birthday. But the last few years, every birthday has been accompanied by feelings of anxiety and apprehension. It seems to be getting more common among people in their 20’s. Everyone seems to be concerned with where they are in life when it comes to their career, school, personal relationships, and health.
Last year was especially bad – you could say I had a quarter-life existential crisis. I thought back to all the things I told myself I wanted to accomplish over the years and how many of those things I did accomplish. When I was younger, I figured that by that point I would be working my dream job, be married to the perfect guy, and live in a nice house with a garden and a pond. I thought about where I wanted to be by that point in my life and wallowed in the fact that I didn’t feel like I had succeeded in my path. It felt like I was the only one out of everyone around me that didn’t have things figured out. That birthday really made me think about where I was in life versus where I wanted to be.
Fast forward one year later, I’m certainly not having an existential crisis, but it’s still not a birthday without some worry over life in general. I have tried to implement some practices for gratefulness and mindfulness like keeping a journal and meditating. These practices have helped at times where I can’t help but ask myself “what have you accomplished?” or “what are you doing with your life?” I remind myself that sometimes it’s okay to not know, or to still be figuring things out. In the meantime, there are things I’m really grateful for in my life. I may not be married, or working my dream job, or have a house with that garden or pond. But I do have a small cozy apartment, loving boyfriend, and great coworkers who I consider to be like family.
Do you celebrate your child’s birthday? How do they feel about their birthday? Do you think that there are certain goals that people should reach by a certain age?
March is Women’s History Month, with Sunday specifically being International Women’s Day. This is to pay tribute to and learn more about women and the history of women’s rights, as well as honor the movements that women are participating in today to make the world a better place in the future. Regardless of race, sexuality, class, and socioeconomic status, women have made great strides and efforts to do more with the opportunities they’ve had available to them.
Quite often, the first piece of advice we receive when trying to change our sleeping habits and to get a better night’s sleep is to put our phone (and all other types of screens and technology) away. Experts recommend that adolescents get at least 8-10 hours of sleep a night, and to ensure staying asleep, to avoid screen time at least 30 minutes to 1 hour before you plan to call it a night. Continue reading Getting Better Sleep without FOMO
The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent.
Anxiety. A normal feeling among all individuals. Everyone gets anxious occasionally, and you’re supposed to! Your body’s fight or flight system gets activated, which was the best way for our ancestors to fight for survival. However, our bodies now will send our anxiety into overdrive over things that may be slightly less dangerous than a wild animal trying to eat us. There is a common misconception between experiencing anxious feelings and having an anxiety disorder. Anxiety: common feelings. Anxiety disorder: feeling anxiety way too often over seemingly irrational things. Continue reading My Anxiety Causes My Anxiety
The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent.
Luckily, I am someone who does not get headaches very often. Most of the time it’s when I forget my morning coffee. I can take a couple Ibuprofen and it goes away and I move along with my day.
More recently, I have been experiencing more frequent and severe headaches. After some research, I found that my symptoms were that of a tension headache. Continue reading Stress and Headaches
The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent.
I was told time and time again that exercise would help my anxiety. I was hesitant to believe it would have any major effect on what I was feeling. But after talking with a counselor, my parents, and my friends, I finally took the steps to try exercise as a method to channel my anxious thoughts. Exercise is a natural and effective anti-anxiety treatment that relieves tension and stress, boosts physical and mental energy, and enhances well-being through the release of endorphins.
Although I was a serious athlete in high school, I struggled to maintain my competitive spirit in college. The hardest part for me was motivating myself to get out and go to the gym. After lots of time and research, I finally found methods for motivating myself to exercise that worked for me.
I have always struggled in self-motivating to go to the gym as a college student. I discussed my hesitations with my roommates and found that they felt similar to me. We decided to set a plan to go to the gym together on specific days each week. Having a friend to motivate me to get out of bed in the morning and head to the gym made it so much easier. A workout buddy provides support and a feeling of belonging if you are struggling to self-motivate.
I dreaded stepping foot on a treadmill or elliptical at the gym. I decided that if I wanted to be committed to coping with anxiety through exercise, I needed to try some fitness classes that were out of my comfort zone. I have been doing hot yoga for three weeks now and can honestly say that it has changed my perspective on working out. I am finally excited to exercise and feel good about how my mindset has changed by trying something that I had never done before.
The gym culture at my college can be very intimidating — I felt insecure in my knowledge of using machines and weights alongside frequent gym-goers. I found that there are so many body positive fitness influencers on Instagram who share simple, at-home workout routines. Some of my favorites are @ivfitness and @cindyyufitness.
Exercising has become an amazing outlet for my anxiety. It is important to note that sometimes I felt guilty if I decided to skip going to the gym or cancelled my hot yoga class last minute. You have to reassure yourself that one missed workout is not anything to feel ashamed about. Be proud that you are taking steps to better your mental health, whether that’s implementing a strict workout plan or trying out a new class once in a while. Studies have suggested that a 10-minute walk may just be as good as a 45-minute workout for relieving anxiety and depression.
How do you incorporate activity, no matter how intense, in your daily life? Do you involve your child? Does your child exercise?
While it’s important that adolescents are getting a good night’s sleep, sleeping patterns and the amount of sleep adolescents get can get jumbled because of mental illness (for example, we’ve talked about depression naps and their effects). Overall, it’s difficult for adolescents to get the recommended amount of sleep they should be getting, and with higher rates of mental illness within this age group today, it can be even more difficult because of the ways that it can affect your sleep, such as depression napping and insomnia. Continue reading Helping Your Child Improve Sleep