Category: Uncategorized

An Interview with the Makers of Unstuck: An OCD Kids Movie

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 first saw Unstuck: An OCD Kids Movie at the International OCD Foundation Conference in San Francisco last year. I found it so moving that when I saw it again at a local OCD week event, I decided to interview the makers of the film for a post. In Unstuck, kids inspire viewers as they share their experiences dealing with OCD. There aren’t any adults in the entire movie!

For more information check out the trailer:

And their website and Facebook page.

Here is the interview.

Continue reading An Interview with the Makers of Unstuck: An OCD Kids Movie

Meet Ryan Klingensmith, Founder of “Shape the Sky”

Some days ago, one of our SOVA team members had an opportunity to talk with Ryan Klingensmith, the founder of “Shape the Sky: Creating Responsible Kids on Smartphones.”

In Mr. Klingensmith’s 20 years of working as a therapist, supervisor, and community educator in a variety of settings for young people and their families, he has seen many changes happening in the lives of adolescents—one of the biggest being technology. In 2010, while working as a therapist, he began to see how much the youth were becoming dominated by social media. And he started to see that many adolescents to share personal, private and even risky content online.

Continue reading Meet Ryan Klingensmith, Founder of “Shape the Sky”

Becoming a Mental Health First-Responder

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.

When we hear the term “first-responders,” we usually think of the workers in an ambulance, ready to help people with physical health emergencies. But what about people who have mental health emergencies—who’s trained and ready to help them?

I was recently certified in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) through a free weekend course at my university. Here’s what I learned:

Continue reading Becoming a Mental Health First-Responder

Resilience: A Skill that Can Be Learned (Part 1)

Resilience (or flexibility and toughness) is a skill that can be used to bounce back from stressful situations and to respond to life’s challenges. The United States Army Reserve developed a Resilience Training Program based on research about how to improve resilience. Designed at the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center, the program is called Master Resilience Training Skills. Army service members are required to dedicate 24 hours to studying this curriculum, which can benefit anyone—including our children.

Resilency

Check out this video about building up your resilience against shame.

Continue reading Resilience: A Skill that Can Be Learned (Part 1)

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. PHQ9 (2)

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.

Continue reading Screening Tools

Anxiety and Panic Attacks- What’s the Difference?

With a similar meaning, the words ‘anxiety’ and ‘panic’ are often used as if they mean the same thing: intense fear or worry. However, the truth is panic attacks and anxiety are two very different things.

Anxiety, by definition, is marked by an increase feeling of excessive fear and/or discomfort as a result of  a trigger. This trigger can be almost anything, but there is going to be one.

Panic attacks, on the other hand, occur suddenly and are completely random moments of extreme fear and panic, not triggered by anything. These feelings or symptoms come “out of the blue” and usually do not last long (approximately 10 minutes) before lessening.

Anxiety, Panic Attack

Therefore, the main differences between panic attacks and anxiety are:

  • Intensity of symptoms
  • Length of time the main symptoms occur over
  • The identification of a trigger

The symptoms for anxiety and panic attacks can be similar to each other. However, symptoms from panic attack are usually more intense compared to those experienced with anxiety.

It is important to understand the difference between anxiety and panic attacks, as well as their symptoms because the coping mechanisms and treatment can be different depending on whether you are experiencing anxiety or panic attacks.

As always it is important to discuss what you’re feeling and your symptoms with your doctors and the rest of your mental health care team. To read more about this question and about the differences, visit ABCNews.com or read this great article by BBC.

Has your child ever experienced any of these symptoms or had a panic attack? Do you know of anything that triggers their anxiety? If you have any questions about today’s blog post, let us know in the comments section below!

Tips for Telling Others About Your Depression

Depression is often times misunderstood. This can often cause apprehension surrounding sharing  your feelings of depression with others, compounding with the symptoms of depression that a person is already feeling. When preparing to tell someone about your mental illness it’s important to maintain appropriate expectations. The people you tell will likely be concerned and want to help you but at the same time lack the knowledge to understand what it means. Telling those how they can support you can be helpful.

Photo Credit: All I want for Christmas is a Leica via Compfight cc
Photo Credit: All I want for Christmas is a Leica via Compfight cc

Understanding the Scope of Depression shared some tips on how to tell your loved ones about your depression and your children. Continue reading Tips for Telling Others About Your Depression

We invite YOU to blog!

We are so excited to make a new announcement!

That is – we have gone through months of work so that we can invite you to be a wiseSOVA Ambassador!

This means that you can help us truly share your story by helping us blog and by committing to commenting on a regular basis.

For more information go to the menu to the side that says Become a wiseSOVA Ambassador!

We really look forward to your help growing our SOVA community!

Photo Credit: DimitraTzanos via Compfight cc
Photo Credit: DimitraTzanos via Compfight cc