Can You be Extroverted and Have Social Anxiety?

Our minds often give us images of certain types of people when we think about certain things. For example, we tend to think of those with anxiety to be by themselves, preferring to be alone and in the quiet. It can be easy and even confusing to separate introversion and social anxiety, since both include a preference of being alone and away from crowds. Even though there are significant differences, the assumption is that most people with social anxiety are also introverts, and that the two go hand in hand.

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Learning to Fight Thought Distortions

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.

I would consider myself to be on the emotional empath spectrum.  At times it feels like I’m a sponge that absorbs all the emotions, stress, and problems of others. On the surface these emotions manifest as a caring, compassionate person, but when it’s all said and done I often find myself worrying or feeling down days and weeks after seeing the person or friend.

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New Places to Write

Those interested in writing have probably heard of National Novel Writing Month, also known as Nanowrimo. Here, writers of all kinds attempt the intense challenge of writing 50,000 words over the 30 days of November, an average of 1,667 words a day, and a total of about a 200 page novel. Some authors have even been published with the books they started during Nanowrimo, such as The Night Circus, Fangirl, and some of the books in The Lunar Chronicle series.  

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The Mental Effects of Family Separations

There have been a lot of stories lately, particularly in the last couple of years, regarding immigration. They have a more depressing tone to them, often discussing how there have been more attempts to put rules in place to make it more difficult to enter the United States. The most common of these stories involve deportation cases that take place at the United States and Mexico border.

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Little Things You Can Do to Help Through a Depressive Episode

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.

I have been in a depressive episode for a few weeks now. If you’re unsure on what constitutes a depressive episode, this definition by Bridges to Recovery offers a great start: “A major depressive episode is a period of two weeks or longer in which a person experiences certain symptoms of major depression: feelings of sadness and hopelessness, fatigue, weight gain or weight loss, changes in sleeping habits, loss of interest in activities, or thoughts of suicide.”

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It’s Always Time to be Thankful

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.

With fall in full bloom and Thanksgiving on the way, now is the perfect time to start reflecting on what it is that you are thankful for every day. Although it is always the perfect time to be thankful, sometimes it is hard to remember the positives in your life during stressful times. It was a challenge for me for quite some time to find the good in every bad scenario I was thrown. But I guarantee there is almost always something good behind everything bad, whether that be a lesson or a loving, helping hand guiding you through whatever struggle you are dealing with that you can learn to cherish.

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Screen Time and Adolescent Mental Health

For those with iPhones or keep some sort of track on the latest technology, then they might know that one of Apple’s most recent update for iOS 12 included Screen Time, letting users know how much time they spend on their phone, including information about how much time they spend on specific websites and apps. For those who are brave enough, they can enable the feature here.

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Why Do People Like Getting Scared?

Whether it’s celebrating on the first day of Autumn, the entire month of October, or just today on Halloween, now’s not just the time for posting photos of changing leaf colors and apple picking, but for pumpkin carving, costumes, and yes, spooky activities. Everyone has different feelings about whether they like to get frightened or not, and all are completely justified. While some refuse to watch a show with just the slightest hint of a jump scare, others will jump at the opportunity to enter a pitch black maze, excited to see what the unknown has in store for them.

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