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.
Heard on Mental Health Twitter
Author: Moderator ★
Pan-sexuality as an Idenitity
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”.”
Where Does the Pain Go?
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?
Mindfulness, Simply Explained
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
Teaching Your Children to Cope
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
When in doubt, “OM” it out.
Photo credit: Leslie Schweitzer via Flickr
“Downward facing cat. Nailed it.”
There are many yoga poses that individually can be helpful, but an integrated, regular yoga practice, including meditation, can reconnect you with your true essence and your inherent wholeness. In that space of “being,” there is a release of attachment to our worries, problems, fears, or circumstances.
The Stand Together Initiative
For young people with mental health concerns, school can be a negative space. Individuals with mental health concerns, like anxiety and depression, can come up against stigma from their classmates, and maybe even the faculty. There’s much that can be done to change the stigma that can be a part of schooling. We’ve mentioned before that learning and talking about mental health can be a powerful way to reduce stigma. Luckily, there are people working within schools to make change from the inside out.
Try to Not Crack a Smile
It’s difficult not to while watching the compilation video by America’s Funniest Home Videos. Enjoy!
Any video suggestions for those in need of a pick-me-up? Let us know in the comments below!
Social Media and Self-Esteem
The urge to maintain an online presence can be exhausting. Sure, social media isn’t always negative, but there are important things to keep in mind about using
social media that can prevent it from being a bad experience. For example, monitoring self-esteem and the impact social media has on it. It’s important to be self-aware about the way social media makes us feel, especially for adolescents and young adults. If your adolescent uses a particular social media site and you comes away feeling worse about themselves because of it, it might be time to reconsider the use of that platform. If I log onto Facebook and become frustrated and unhappy about my life because of the way it compares to others, it’s important that I consider changing the way I use the site. This might mean changing how long I use Facebook, or who I am interacting with, maybe even considering if it’s worthwhile to use the site at all. Continue reading Social Media and Self-Esteem
Difficulty with Diagnoses
If your doctor tells you that your child may be depressed, what does that really mean?
Maybe some of the “symptoms” they have could be from something else like:
- trouble adjusting to a new situation at school or home
- a bad break-up, a friend who let them down, or not making a sports team or other extracurricular
- bullying at school
- a medical problem like anemia (a low blood count), headaches, belly pain
- not getting enough sleep from being overscheduled, overhomeworked, too much online time, or having to wake up too early
- another mental health or physical problem like ADHD, anxiety, or anemia