LEARN Archives - Page 34 of 56

How to Manage Summer Loneliness

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.

Summer vacation is here! It’s a time to take a break from the stress of school and enjoy the long, sunny days ahead. But I have found that summer can also be a lonely time. I may not see my friends every day—they might be on vacation, working, or participating in an ongoing summer activity that makes it hard to meet up with them.

Coupled with the increased free time during the day, it can be very easy for us to retreat into ourselves and isolate. But with planning and variety, we can have a fun and engaging summer, even if we’re alone sometimes! Here are some ways I handle summer loneliness:

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About Mental Illness, Disability, and Education

Mental illness can make going to school really challenging, no matter where you are in your education. Some readers have asked us about Section 504 and how it can help folks balance school and life, especially when they’re experiencing tough symptoms. Here is some information that might be helpful.

What is Section 504?

It is a civil-rights law that says schools cannot discriminate against people with disabilities—students with disabilities have to have their needs met as adequately as those without disabilities. If you have a disability, Section 504 requires that you must still able to participate in any program or activity at your school. Any school that receives money from the federal government needs to follow this law.

How do I know if I have a disability?

There are a few different ways to define a disability:

A physical or mental health problem that limits a major life activity
Having a problem like that in the past, that you saw a doctor for
Other people thinking you have a problem, whether or not you have it

A major life activity could be something like seeing, walking, hearing, or caring for yourself.

Disabilities can be things like blindness, deafness, diabetes, migraines, learning disabilities, anxiety, depression, or allergies. Any of these things can make life activities hard or impossible—and in this case, can cause you to have a hard time in school.

What do schools have to do because of Section 504?

Schools have to provide free, appropriate public education to any student with a disability.

Free: The student does not have to pay out of pocket
Appropriate: The education fits students and their needs
Public: Public school district, university, or other educational center (like a local library that does classes)
Education: Must be provided to every person with a disability

How does Section 504 work?

You will be a part of a Section 504 plan with your school. The school works with you and your supports to decide what is best. You and your supports list the things you need so you can be involved in the activity. The school lists things they will do to help you while you are at school. For example, if you will need extra time to take an exam, the school would sign an agreement that says every teacher/professor would allow you extra time to complete exams.

You have to provide documentation that shows how your disability makes school difficult. The meeting for the 504 plan may include these things:

Grades
Staff/teachers noticing that you’re having a problem
Medical records
Testing done outside the school
Testing done in the school
Attendance records
Doctor’s diagnosis

Not all of these are required, but usually schools ask for more than one source of information. Keeping track of your own symptoms and the times that things are harder for you helps people to understand what you’re going through.

Where can I find more information?

disability-sign

What Is It Like To Use Lifeline Chat?

I have always been quick to share the number of the National Suicide Prevention Line (NSPL) and to encourage others who may need it to use it, but I have never been on the other side. But recently I have been going through a rough patch mentally, and I have been seeking out as much help as I can get online in between therapy sessions.

So I researched the Lifeline Chat, a messaging service of the NSPL that connects callers to a trained behavioral health worker on their staff. I learned that you don’t have to be in the most extreme of crises to connect with the chat—you can contact the service in many different circumstances. In fact, there is even a small percentage of individuals who reportedly call or message the hotline weekly just to have someone to talk to about their struggles, which cover a broad scale of severity. All people are welcome to share whatever they are going through.

So what is it like using Lifeline Chat?

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If I Don’t Talk About It, Maybe It Will Go Away

I was so ready to graduate from high school! I had been accepted to my dream college and I wanted to move away from home, meet new people, and start fresh. High school had been pretty rough. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder my junior year and I struggled to understand the illness, how to manage it, and how to explain it to other people. People who have bipolar disorder struggle with bouts of extreme energy and euphoria and then dark depressive episodes. The depressive episodes wiped out my motivation and made me feel hopeless and worthless. I was a good student, I belonged to a lot of clubs, I played sports, and I had wonderful friends but when I was depressed I had no energy to do any of these things. Depression made me feel so lost and defeated that I forgot who I was. I felt like all I had was my depression. I really wanted to go to college because I thought everything would be different. I honestly thought I could leave my bipolar disorder and my depression behind me.

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Stories From A Woman Who Got Mental Health Help Early

Now age 40, New Orleans native and current Pittsburgh resident K. Rose Quayle was first committed to a mental hospital at the age of 15 for Bipolar II and an eating disorder. She spent her teens trying to control her mental illness through various medications, and by the time she got to her 30s, her illnesses had stopped responding to medications, so she decided to try electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

K. Rose Quayle sitting on the right during the Q&A.

Last year Quayle released a self-published book called Look Left, Walk Green: A Shocking Tale of Losing the Past and Choosing to Gain the Future, which she says she hopes will serve as a guidebook to various mental health treatments, especially ECT—one of the most feared and stigmatized treatments, and one of the least understood. She spoke about her experiences last night at the National Association of Mental Illness (NAMI) Keystone Pennsylvania event series “Stories that Heal” at City of Asylum in Pittsburgh.

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Is Depression Something You Can Control?

Is depression something you can control?

Or does the brain actually change in ways that are beyond our control?

Research studies show that when someone is depressed, we can see many changes in the brain.

Of course, the brain is a super complex organ, and science is still only scratching the surface of everything there is to know about it. People who have depression can have different symptoms, different causes, and different factors that contribute to their symptoms.

It’s important to know that even though we don’t understand everything about the causes of depression, we do know something about what treatments can help. And if one treatment doesn’t work for your child, there may be another one that will, so don’t give up trying to find help! Your child and their body and mind are very special and unique—so something that worked or didn’t work for someone else will probably work differently for them.

Depression probably has a combination of different causes:

Gene-environment interactions: Your child’s brain and their genes can change based on what they are exposed to in their environment. Changes in genes based on environmental changes are called “epigenetics,” and they prove that, as we’ve written in a previous blog, our genes are not set in stone. And we can see big differences among different people in their emotional/psychological responses to environmental factors. For example, some people’s anxiety skyrockets if they’re in a car wreck, while other people don’t have that response.
Endocrine system, otherwise known as hormones: Some people’s moods fluctuate with changes in their hormone levels. Hormones are neurotransmitters that help different parts of the body communicate with each other. An example of fluctuating hormones is premenstrual syndrome (PMS)—some girls’ moods change with hormonal changes, and others’ don’t.
Immune system: Stress and depression can cause your child’s immune system—the part of the body that fights infections—to get weaker. And vice versa: some chronic illnesses can increase depressive feelings.
Neuroplasticity: Scientists talk about the brain being “plastic,” meaning the connections between neurons can change over time. In previous eras, we thought the brain’s electrical system was hard-wired. Now we know that its wiring can change based on genetics, environment, hormones, the immune system, and and medical and psychological treatments.

All of this means there are ways to get better!!

References: Medscape; Nature

Change As A Teacher

Change can be one of the hardest challenges in a person’s life. It might be reassuring to know that everyone experiences some type of drastic change during their lifetime, and in most cases more than once.

These changes can range anywhere from experiencing loss, going through an illness, or dealing with a family divorce, to changing schools or hard adjustments in friend groups and social circles. Every person experiences their own version of change; some changes can be harder and take longer to adjust to, while others can be fairly simple and figured out in a short time span.

Since I was a little kid, I always feared change. I was always attached to my life in every aspect at each moment. I wanted to stay my young age, stay in my same position, with my same friends and teachers. I simply never wanted to grow up. I always wished that time would just stop so that I could live without having to worry that the time was passing and life was changing.

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Grrr!—Irritability And What It Means

Have you met adolescents who seem irritable constantly? Does that description fit your child? Nothing ever seems to go right for them. They are always slamming doors or talking back. You feel like they should be really happy about something and instead they just seem pissed off. What’s their deal?

You understand that sometimes some things just don’t work out. Some days are just rough. But adolescents who have depression may face these feelings every day. And they can’t figure out why they feel like this.

It’s called irritability. And it can be a major part of adolescent depression. Sometimes irritability makes depression hard to identify in adolescents, who get nasty labels attached to them all the time, like “angry,” “uncooperative,” “insubordinate,” “impolite,” “antisocial.” But underneath it all is this feeling of irritability that they can’t shake off. And they don’t understand why it’s so persistent.

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Nah—Therapy Is Not For Me (But Are You Sure?)

Studies show when people have a bad experience with therapy it can make them have a bad attitude about therapy in general. Sometimes I tell my patients that therapy could help them, and they tell me, “Nah, it’s not for me.” If they had a bad experience before, that response totally makes sense.

What are some reasons you think your child or others you know have had negative experiences with therapy?

Here are a few examples your child may relate to:

The first time they went, it wasn’t their decision.

Going to therapy can help with a lot of different problems your child may have—but if they were made to go or it felt like it was a punishment versus a decision they made to become more healthy, they might have a negative attitude about it. My mom used to make me pick weeds in our driveway, and I kind of have a bad attitude about gardening! Even though a lot of people enjoy it.

The therapist and you did not seem to connect.

We know a big reason therapy works is the therapeutic alliance, which we wrote about in a prior post. If your child felt like they didn’t connect with their first therapist – or especially if they didn’t feel like the therapist cared about them, that might have been a tough experience for them. Telling someone your deepest thoughts makes your child vulnerable and if it didn’t work the first time, maybe they don’t want to take that risk again.

You (the parent) were too involved.

Your child may have felt like they couldn’t be honest if you were always around. Or maybe they felt more nervous and weren’t able to listen because they were worried something they might say would get them into trouble. Parents can still be involved without being overly involved.

Your child felt betrayed.

If your child received therapy when they were younger and the therapist was worried about abuse, that is something that the therapist has to report to the state for their safety. But when you are a kid in the mix of it, sometimes you feel like your trust was betrayed. That can be hard to deal with.

The thing is – one bad experience does not mean the next one will be. And your child’s experience as a young person or child may be different when they are older. There are things you and your child can do to help make sure that their next therapy experience is a good one. We know therapy works and can get your child to better mental health.

If your child had a bad experience before, but wants to try therapy again, here are some things they can try:

Make a list of the pros and cons about going to therapy – go over the list with someone they trust like you, another supportive adult or their primary care doctor and together, make a decision if this is a next best step for them
At the first session, tell the therapist what their expectations and hopes are from therapy
If they feel like they don’t connect with their therapist, ask for a referral to see someone else—therapists are used to this as everyone is different and sometimes certain personalities don’t click
If you would like to be involved, talk to the therapist about the best way to communicate with them without making your child feel like they cannot be honest with their therapist. If you feel more work is needed between you and your child, ask your child’s therapist if they recommend family therapy in addition to individual therapy
at the first session, your child should talk to their therapist about the limits of confidentiality – what do they always keep private and what if anything, are they not allowed to keep private

Do you have any other examples of negative experiences you or your child have had with therapy? Or tips you have about how to make the next experience positive?

“Stand Together” Celebrates Another Successful Year

Today dozens of middle school students gathered at the Pittsburgh Heinz History Center to share the results of a year’s work on Stand Together, a project to educate other students at their schools about the challenges of mental illness and substance use disorders, and to break the stigma of talking about mental health in ordinary conversation.

“I was in the program last year,” one 14-year-old student said, “and I came back this year because I learned so much that I just wanted to share it with other kids at my school.”

The program is coordinated by Allegheny County’s Office of Behavioral Health and is run by just three staff members. Stand Together has been so successful at breaking down isolation among students with anxiety, depression, ADHD and eating disorders—the four most common mental health problems among students today—that the program now has a waiting list of schools wanting to get in on the action.

Here are some of the ways students have learned to bring awareness and break stigma among their peers:

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