Wear Your Label

Wear Your Label is an online store that creates clothing to get the conversation started about mental illness. Their profound motto is: “It’s okay not to be okay.” Wear Your Label makes clothing that reduces stigma (they have a shirt that says “stigma free” on it), promotes positive body image and embraces mental health. Each of the team members behind Wear Your Label has experienced mental illness. All of the clothing items have phrases that support mental health. They also have a bracelet line with various colors signifying different types of mental illnesses. Watch their video to learn more!

Wear Your Label partnered with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in 2016. In this collaboration, they created clothing that aligns with NAMI’s #stigmafree campaign. Additionally, the online clothing store donates 10% of their proceeds to mental health initiatives. These initiatives include  Jack.org, the Jed Foundation, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Project UROK, and Project 375, and the Semicolon Project. Wear Your Label also promotes fair, humane, and ethical work standards where their clothing is made.

Check out the website and let us know what you think!

Social Media Can Induce Feelings of Anxiety

Social media can produce high levels of stress and anxiety.  Sharing and posting  aspects of your life with others is the purpose of social media but it can lead to negative outcomes. These negative outcomes can cause a mental health concern or it can exacerbate an existing disorder. Studies show that those with higher levels of self-esteem use social media to creatively express themselves by posting and sharing information.  On the other hand, those with lower levels of self-esteem use the sites differently.  Individuals with lower self-esteem spend a significant amount of time counting likes, making sure there is never an unflattering picture, or negative comment made that would change the image of themselves they are creating.

Photo Credit: Visual Content Flickr via Compfight cc
Photo Credit: Visual Content Flickr via Compfight cc

Continue reading Social Media Can Induce Feelings of Anxiety

Mental Health & Changes in Functioning

In order for mental health concerns to be considered a disorder, the individual usually must present “significant distress or disability in social, occupational, or other important activities” (DSM 5). These vast changes in functioning can look different depending on the person, the environment, and the disorder. For this post, we are going to focus on what the impairment in functioning can look like. Usually, it means there is a significant and negative change from how one functioned previously, to now. There are different areas of life that these impairments can show up in like school, social settings, and other important activities.

Big differences in how someone interacts with others can indicate a problem. For example, if someone is really outgoing and generally a happy, positive person and they become withdrawn and start avoiding social situations for an extended period of time -that might indicate a problem. These changes in social functioning can also take place around family members. Big changes in the way someone communicates might mean the individual is experiencing a problem.

Photo Credit: matthewstanley via Compfight cc
Photo Credit: matthewstanley via Compfight cc

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What is therapy? An interview with Dr. Levenson

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Jessica C. Levenson, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh

We spoke to Dr. Jessica Levenson who works at the Sleep Medicine Program at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Jessica is a clinical psychologist who is trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Interpersonal Therapy (IPT). She is currently specializing in psychotherapy for sleep which is focused on specific treatments that help with a variety of sleep problems like insomnia or nightmares. We interviewed Dr. Jessica to learn more about what to expect out of therapy.Dr. Jessica says that, “People usually meet once a week or once every few weeks for about an hour at a time and it is talking, but it is very purposeful talking. It’s talking about things that are related to concerns that a person is having and trying to develop a plan for problem solving or improving those areas.” Continue reading What is therapy? An interview with Dr. Levenson

Journaling Toward Mental Health

I recently found an article on Amy Pohler’s Smart Girls website about journaling and I thought it would be great to share here.

HNCK4555One of the things I really liked about the article was this:

According to a post on PsychCenteral, University of Texas at Austin psychologist and researcher James Pennebaker believes that, “Writing about stressful events helps you come to terms with them, thus reducing the impact of these stressors on your physical health.” A study from BJPsych Advances also found that expressive writing had a powerful impact on both the mind and body, linking journaling to “improved immune system functioning” and  “improved working memory,” among other beneficial things.

Do you think keeping a journal could help your adolescent?

10 Games to Help You Get Rid of Some Stress

Sometimes we all just need to take a moment and escape from the real world for a second. For many people, games on the internet can be a fun outlet. Lifehack.org has complied a list of 10 fun and relaxing games to play to help you de-stress and stimulate your mind.  Alex Morris from Lifehack.org describes the games as “minor masterpieces of chilled-out enjoyment which can help calm you after a busy day, or hectic morning, by ridding you from the stress of modern life. It’s blissful escapism at its best, and it’s entirely free!”

Photo Credit: Robin Hutton Flickr via Compfight cc
Photo Credit: Robin Hutton Flickr via Compfight cc

There are ten games available on the website. Here’s a description of one of the games: Echogenesis

“Put your headphones on and immerse yourself in the wonders of Echogenesis. The visuals come from nature; swamps, forests, coves, and the like, whilst the sounds are created by interacting with the various life forms come across. It’s an immersive experience, from the beautiful graphics to the luscious stereophonic orchestration. You can’t win or lose; you just experience and influence the worlds you see, making it a relaxing tale of exploration.”

Take at look at what they have to offer and lets now what you think of the games.

Do We Share Too Much On Social Media?

Social Media is all about communicating and sharing your experiences with friends and followers. The question is at what point does it become too much and we begin to overshare? How and what we choose to share on social media will affect how people see us. It is important to be mindful of what information you decide to disclose. Psychology Today has provide some tips to help keep oversharing to a minimum.3333841090_c0d144158e_o

  • Don’t Tell everyone what you ate for breakfast….if you communicate with them a lot 
    • Studies show that when individuals share trivial or superficial information on social media it impacts relationships. Those closely associated with the person find more dissatisfaction in the relationship when told trivial information but it had little effect on those the person had less contact with
  • Don’t whine 
    • Research found that people don’t like viewing negative posts. Also when outside observers, unknown to an individual, evaluated the statuses/posts, the more negative and less positive emotions that are expressed, the less the person is liked by the observers
  • Show, but don’t show off, your romantic relationship 
    • This is not to say don’t talk about your relationships but keep the SUPER “lovely-dovey” posts and statuses to a minimum. People see others in happy and healthy relationship, but just limit some displays of affection to just each other and not the entire internet
  • Show who you are…but do it by being positive 
    • “Disclosing information about yourself in a way that gives people a full impression of the kind of person you are can make a better impression, as long as you keep the tone positive.
  • Don’t be completely self-centered
    • Those that post more self-oriented posts tend to receive fewer posts from others. It can also create a bad impression of who you are when the goals of social media is to connect but you are only posting about yourself.

At the end of the day just keep in mind that social media represents who you are to many people. This is a snapshot of your life and you want it to represent the best of who you are.

Have you overshared or seen others overshare on social media? What was the result?