Category: LEARN

Don’t Like Sitting in Total Silence? Try Nontraditional Meditation

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.

If you are anything like me, you feel a hint of jealousy whenever you see or hear someone sharing how sitting meditation has changed their life. As someone with anxiety, it seems nearly impossible to achieve the level of calmness associated with traditional sitting meditation. The few times I have seriously tried out traditional meditation, I found myself more anxious and unable to deal with the silence.

It took me a couple of years to realize that meditation is not a single concept; there are many ways to meditate, and you can alter it to however it fits you best. Through exploration, I found a few ways to meditate that genuinely help me calm down.

Maybe you are interested in meditation, but the idea of sitting on a cushion in a room with a bunch of strangers in silence and focusing on your breathing just heightens your anxiety? Well, don’t worry. Try some meditation videos on YouTube. I began with listening to meditation streams or videos that were a couple of hours of meditation sounds and music. I started doing this when studying and doing homework and eventually incorporated it into the background of more daily activities.

My daily meditation includes these meditation videos with gentle music and noises, but I also use guided meditation to help me sleep. I have bouts of insomnia with my anxiety and will lose many hours of sleep because of it. I have found guided meditations to listen to on YouTube that are specific to people with anxiety and depression and it has really helped me out.

Here are a few of my favorites. This video is by a channel called Yellow Brick Cinema, which I highly recommend. They provide many different meditation videos and streams.

And here are two guided meditations to help you sleep if you are struggling with anxiety and/or depression:

Have you ever used meditation music/sounds or guided meditation to help you calm down from anxiety? Please share below!

Perfectionism: A Good or Bad Way of Thinking?

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 strive for perfection all the time, especially when it comes to academics. If I feel as if I scored less than an A on any assignment or exam then I have terrible anxiety accompanied with crying spells. During these times of distress, it’s nearly impossible to calm myself down. I shake and mentally exhaust myself so much that I cannot do anything else for the rest of the day. These intense distressful experiences last for hours.

The definition of perfectionism is a person’s constant effort to achieve unobtainable goals, and measuring their self-worth according to their accomplishments rather than their own values and essential worth as a person. Being a perfectionist can have positive aspects, such as being very detail-oriented and highly motivated. However, when perfectionists fail to meet their unrealistically high standards, they can become depressed.

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A’s and B’s

It can be difficult to guide your child about making a decision to start therapy if their grades are already suffering. How can they afford the time to go to all of the sessions? Especially if they have to miss school? Is it worth it?

If your child already has good grades, it might seem unnecessary for them to go to therapy, because good grades means they are functioning well, right? Well … grades are only one part of their life. They might be struggling in other parts, such as their relationships with others and their relationship with themselves. Some young people also try working harder at school as a way to deal with their emotions. There are other important ways of functioning—see our past article talking about this.

If, on the other hand, your child’s grades are getting worse because of their symptoms, can they afford to miss school for therapy?

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The Need to Belong

Human beings all crave belonging. We are evolved to want to have friendships that support us and make us feel good. And when we start to feel we’re no longer wanted by others, we experience the weight of loneliness and isolation.

This is especially true with adolescents. A study about bullying behaviors connected these negative behaviors to feelings of not belonging.

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Eight Signs of Respectful Love

Does your teenager or young adult’s significant other seem disrespectful or demeaning? It can be hard to start a conversation about relationships with someone of any age.  One way to approach it is to talk to them about what a healthy or good relationship looks like.

Here are eight signs of a positive relationship you can talk about with your teen:

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Would medication change who I was?

When you get diagnosed with depression, or any mental illness, the first thing you might feel is relief. The realization that your feelings, struggles, and symptoms can be described by a diagnosis can make you feel better – you aren’t alone! But the second thing you might feel is embarrassment, shame, or guilt. You aren’t alone in that either. There is a lot of stigma when it comes to mental illness. Most people with mental illness go through a process of understanding, accepting, and figuring out how to manage their illness. When I was diagnosed in high school at first I felt some relief, but soon enough I was really conflicted when it came to defining my identity. Who was I? Was I the same person? Was I “crazy”?

I didn’t want anyone to find out about my mental illness, and honestly the best way to do that was through treating it so I could actually manage my symptoms. But I was really afraid to take medication.

Photo Credit: what_marty_sees via Compfight cc
Photo Credit: what_marty_sees via Compfight cc

For a long time I denied that I had a mental illness and refused to take any medication because that felt like I was admitting that I was “crazy.” I worried that taking medication would change who I was. Would I act differently? Would I still be fun? Would I still be smart? Who would I be after taking medication? My family and my psychiatrist wanted me to take medication but it seemed scarier to try medication versus living with my symptoms. At least my symptoms were predictable! I understood my depression, I knew how my mental illness felt, but taking medication was a big unknown. However, I really wasn’t able to live happily, I wasn’t able to accomplish my goals, and I wasn’t able to have healthy relationships. I realized that my mental illness wasn’t going to go away and I was so miserable! Maybe the medication would change me, but considering how terrible I felt I realized it might change me in a positive way! I wasn’t enjoying my life and medication seemed like a way to hopefully make it better and make me healthier.

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Types of Therapists

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 worked with a total of four therapists throughout the years, and they have all varied in terms of their therapy style. I recently talked to a friend of mine about her therapist’s method. It was not anything like the ones I have experienced. This got me thinking about how therapists can differ along with the effectiveness of your treatment.

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Help Others with Mental Illness: Participate in Research

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.

Have you ever wanted to help others who suffer from mental illness without going public with your own experiences?

Participating in research studies—by the way, like SOVA!—is a great way to do just that.

There are two main types of research studies: observational studies and clinical trials/experiments. The most important distinction to understand is that observational studies do not involve any sort of treatment, while clinical trials test a new medication, therapy, or intervention and compare its effects to a control group that does not receive the treatment.

Below is a list of the most frequently asked questions for those interested in participating in research studies:

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