Stigma towards mental health and mental illness has always been present, but the way that stigma is expressed and the level of stigma can depend on a variety of things. One of those ways is how stigma can differ among different races: posts here have covered how stigma acts as one of the barriers for people of color to seek treatment, including African-Americans, Asians, and Native Americans, for example. Continue reading The Struggle in Finding Treatment for POC
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 know that many people are opposed to New Year’s Resolutions, but I like to use the start of the year as a time to reflect and figure out areas in which I would like to improve. This year, my goal is to be more vocal about my gratitude. I find that I’m often writing things I’m grateful for in my journal, but I rarely tell people I appreciate them. As a start, I gave a thank you card to my friend’s mom who always hosts us at her house and cooks us dinner. From experience, I know that showing gratitude feels good, but it turns out that gratitude actually changes the brain. Continue reading The Impacts of Gratitude
Maybe your child is a bookworm. Maybe they have “reading more” as one of their New Year resolutions. Maybe your child reads as a hobby and use it as a form of stress relief when they need a break from school and/or work. Whatever the reason, they may be on the lookout for something new to read. Continue reading Using Books to Learn and Cope with Mental Illness
Look online and you’re likely going to find guides upon tips upon warnings about how adolescents use social media and how parents should monitor and be cautious about their children’s’ activity online – with almost all of them being written by adults. The opposite is less likely to occur, where these same adolescents can openly express what they wish adults and parents knew about their social media use. Continue reading Youths, Adults, and Conceptions about Social Media
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.
Before now, I have never lost someone I loved or at least not to death. Continue reading Coping with Loss
Sometimes, and sometimes more often than not, the world can feel like a scary place. Younger generations have a more negative outlook on the state of the world and about what they’re able to achieve.
At the same time, younger generations have also been found to be incredibly compassionate: 92% of Gen Z’s in a survey stated that helping others is important, and about 3 in 4 of them are worried about inequality. Continue reading Compassion Fatigue
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.
Last semester was a long semester. It proved to be daunting and challenging, with the feeling of being overwhelmed constantly looming overhead. Due dates, part-time job, eating healthy – all of these things add up being a burden on our mental health.
This semester, I learned that it is important to take a break. Learn when it’s the right time to take a step back and be yourself again. Continue reading Wasted Time: Take a Break!
Have you ever experienced an upset stomach, a tight chest, clammy hands, or any other physical reaction when you’re stressed or depressed? The mind and body have an incredibly strong connection, and when you’re feeling an overwhelming amount of emotion, your brain can process it as being in danger even if the situation isn’t life-threatening, and initiates the fight-flight-freeze response. Continue reading What is Somatization?
Video games have become much more interactive than they used to be. If you wanted to play with others, they would have to physically be there, with up to four players sharing the same console connected to the TV, each having their own controller. Two people with Game Boys could connect to each other using a cable, and some games allowed them to play against each other that way. Looking back, all of it seems a bit excessive, especially now that we can connect to anyone around the world in an instant with a simple Internet connection.
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.
The question caught me off guard:
“What is your New Year’s resolution?”
I was holding a holiday drink up to my mouth, about to take a sip when I stopped. The Christmas music in the pop-up bar seemed to fade away. I looked at my friend who asked me expectantly, and I didn’t respond for a while. Continue reading Resolutions for 2020