Moderator ★, Author at WiseSOVA

Mental Health Days

The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by a SOVA Ambassador. SOVA Ambassadors help create meaningful blog posts for us to share.

Often times, we understand when someone needs to take a sick day from work or school. By sick, I mean physically sick. However, it is often considered unacceptable for someone to not go to school or work because they are mentally or emotionally struggling. Mental health days are not as valued as physical sick days. However, mental health days are essential and everyone needs one from time to time.

As a college student, I am always on the go. If I do not have an exam to study for then I have a paper to write. The college lifestyle can take a toll on your mental health with all the stress and no rest. This is what started to happen to me last week as the end of the semester is approaching and I have been working hard non-stop since August. Last week, I started to feel burnt out. My thinking was shattered all over the place. My appetite was thrown off. I could get a full eight hours of sleep and I would still be overwhelming tired throughout the day. I really wanted to skip my classes for a day in order to take a mental health day; however, I was afraid to do so because my professors would not count a mental health day as a valid excuse to skip their classes. However, I had to put my mental health first. My emotions and mental state are important to me; therefore, I decided to take a mental health day and skip my classes.

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My Journey with Multiple Mental Health Diagnoses

The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by a SOVA Ambassador. SOVA Ambassadors help create meaningful blog posts for us to share.

Dealing with your mental health can be a challenge. For some people, it can become even more challenging when they learn they have multiple mental health diagnoses.

I was first diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), generalized anxiety disorder, and social anxiety. I noticed these disorders often appeared together and can worsened each other’s symptoms. For example, when I would get super stressed and anxious about something, I would start compulsively washing my hands and checking door knobs. Soon, that would cause more anxiety. It was a vicious cycle! However, I knew these were all connected, as they fall under the category of “anxiety disorders”, so it didn’t feel too odd to be diagnosed with several of them.

Behavior therapy helped me control my OCD, and learning to keep good schedules and planning helped me reduce some of the stress that fueled my anxiety. For a while I was doing good, but a few years later my symptoms got worse and new ones appeared, and I was additionally diagnosed with depression.

“Like, really, another diagnosis?” I thought. “This one isn’t even an anxiety disorder!” I began to wonder if I was the only passenger on this multiple diagnosis trip!

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Screening Tools

Has your child ever gone to the doctor for a routine physical and while waiting they were asked to complete some surveys? Did these surveys ever containing sensitive questions?

If this has happened, most likely your child completed a screening questionnaire. A screening tool, such as the PHQ-9 (or patient health questionnaire) asks a series of questions that have been shown in the research to help identify when an individual might be experiencing symptoms of a health condition, like depression or anxiety. Then at the end all the responses are totaled for a final score, which helps interpret the symptoms.

It’s important to know that while screening is very useful, it’s only a starting point. These tools can help initiate a conversation with your child or with their doctor. Screening tools cannot be used to make a diagnosis, but rather let your child’s doctor know to ask additional questions. Only by talking to a professional, and usually more than just one time, can someone figure out if they have a mental health condition.

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The Challenges Faced by LGBT Youth

The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by a SOVA Ambassador. SOVA Ambassadors help create meaningful blog posts for us to share.

Hi everyone! This is my second blog post for SOVA (read more about my first blog post: Mental Health in Your Family Tree), and I just wanted to tell everyone that I’ve read some awesome posts. It is so nice to have a place to just talk to an audience without judgment. Also, the support and encouragement from my peers is super awesome. Without further ado, here is my second blog post!

What if I were to tell you that 6 out of every 10 LGBT students felt unsafe attending school because of their sexual orientation? Or how about the fact that approximately 80% of gay and lesbian youth report severe social isolation. The facts and numbers are truly heartbreaking, and being that I identify as a gay male, it really hurts me to see that my peers in the LGBT community are feeling so badly about themselves and the situations they are placed into.

For a long time, I have struggled with my sexuality and my naturally feminine personality, to the point that I would get anxiety about what colors I could wear to school. I distinctly remember that in 7th grade, I was harassed because of the color of my phone case. Literally, a phone case. I was called gay because of the color of my phone case! Now, I know that middle school is often an extremely difficult and sometimes awkward phase for a lot of people, and when there is such a strong stigma surrounding the word “gay” is when I realized a need for today’s youth.

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Gaining Momentum

The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by a SOVA Ambassador. SOVA Ambassadors help create meaningful blog posts for us to share.

When you’re struggling with a mental illness, it can be hard to find the energy to get through each day. Our days are often pretty busy, and it can feel increasingly overwhelming if you aren’t feeling your best. However, I’ve found that when I start doing something that engages my mind and body in a positive way, my energy begins to grow and I find it easier to get through the events, tasks, and challenges of each day. The energy I gain from doing one thing often carries over into the next thing that I do.

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Finding Solace at a Mental Health Vigil

The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by a SOVA Ambassador. SOVA Ambassadors help create meaningful blog posts for us to share.

My college is one of many around the U.S. that really pushes mental health awareness. During the month of October — the first full week of which is National Mental Health Awareness Week — my school holds dozens of events promoting the discussion of mental illness, stigma reduction, and self care.

This past Friday, they held their annual Mental Health Vigil to recognize past and present sufferers of these horrible conditions. After we lit our candles and listened to a few opening remarks from the Dean of Students, students were invited up to the podium to share their stories.

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App Games for Anxiety

The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by a SOVA Ambassador. SOVA Ambassadors help create meaningful blog posts for us to share.

There are days when anxiety can’t be overlooked or ignored. Often times it’s understood that if you have anxiety then you can’t sit still or think “straight” for more than a few minutes at a time. Anxiety also has the tendency to surface and show itself in more ways than one. You might feel more anxious and upset one day while feeling more sad and isolated the next. Either way, it’s important for you to know that you are not alone and there are ways to distract yourself when feeling overly anxious.

Personally, one of my favorite things to do when I’m feeling more anxious than usual is to engage in game-play. I’m a huge fan of video games and have since come to enjoy downloading and playing different games on my smartphone.

Did you know there are many games in the “app store” that are great for reducing anxiety and stress? One anxiety-reducing game that I’m fond of playing is “Polyforge.”

This game was created through Unity Technologies (a major game development company) and uses 3-D game technology to give players an amazing experience. While playing through level 1, you’ll notice that there’s a 3-D shape spinning around in a circle. Your job is to highlight the edges and sides of this shape with the small triangle that flows around the spinning shape. Piano music is also played in as background music and to add emphasis when the player hits the edges of each shape with their triangle marker. I am currently on level 60 (and am enjoying the soothing music as well)!

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Downpour

The SOVA Project is happy to share this blog post written by a SOVA Ambassador. SOVA Ambassadors help create meaningful blog posts for us to share.

When I was at my lowest point, I was completely lost. I felt like I no longer knew who I was anymore. I would look at old photographs and think of the younger version of myself who was so full of optimism and passion and wonder where that girl went. In order to try and help myself heal, I decided that I had to start doing things that I used to do that made me happy. With that being said, I began writing. I have always loved writing. Reading poetry inspired me to write my story in poems as a healing mechanism.

I wrote a free verse poem below to help inspire you to continue to be yourself.

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The Happiest Country in the World

According to the latest World Happiness Report, Norway is the world’s happiest country. The report measures many different things to calculate “happiness.” Some of the measurements include:

Generosity
Healthy life expectancy
Perceived freedom
Having someone to count on
Money (or gross national product)
Happiness in the workplace

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