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

Invisible Illness

Depression is not a “visible” health issue. It doesn’t announce itself to the world with a cast, or stitches, or vomiting. Depression is sneaky. It can be hard to talk about. Hard to define. It’s easy to say “I fell out of a tree and broke my arm,” there’s a cause and effect. Depression sometimes just happens – a chemical imbalance in your brain that may happen suddenly or over time. You may not even notice a sudden change in your adolescent, it could happen over years.

Remember that just because it isn’t visible doesn’t mean that it isn’t real. It’s important to remind ourselves and our adolescent that they are worthy of treatment and of living a happy, fulfilling life.

Photo Credit: Beatrice the Biologist
Photo Credit: Beatrice the Biologist

Continue reading Invisible Illness

Q&A with a Mental Health Therapist

Recently, I had the opportunity to ask a local therapist some questions about therapy. The therapist’s name is Shannon Toomey, MS-CP. She works at a local outpatient mental health clinic. The range of clients the clinic accepts vary from adults to children ages 2+ with mental health concerns that are treatable in an outpatient setting.

Why does therapy work?

Photo Credit: All Reverse Mortgage Flickr via Compfight cc
Photo Credit: All Reverse Mortgage Flickr via Compfight cc


Ms. Toomey spoke about the trusting, professional relationship the therapist and the client build together. This aspect of therapy is the foundation for accomplishing the client’s goals. Ms. Toomey also talked about the uniqueness of the therapeutic relationship. She stated that in therapy, the client can “gain skills they might not get otherwise.” Lastly, Ms. Toomey spoke about the outsider’s perspective that the therapist can provide for the client. This perspective is unbiased and nonjudgmental. This third party view can provide a different look at the situation and how things are. Continue reading Q&A with a Mental Health Therapist

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Depression

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been really open about his experience with depression during his early adulthood. Check out this video where he breaks down “having faith” that depression can be managed.

The Rock was 23 at the time and had just been cut from the Canadian football team he was playing for, after being rejected from the National Football League. He moved back in with his parents and worried that things wouldn’t turn around for him. With hindsight, Dwayne Johnson had this to say about depression:

“And often times it happens, you just, you feel like you’re alone and you feel like it’s only you, and you’re in your bubble, and I wish I had someone at that time who could just pull me aside and say ‘Hey, its gonna be okay, it’ll be okay’…”

Dear Black Women

This open letter featured on Huffington Post was written by Minaa B. the founder of Respect Your Struggle.  “Respect Your Struggle is a digital magazine that focuses on real life issues experienced by the ordinary individual who is set out to turn their struggles into their strengths.”  It was created to de-stigmatize mental health within the minority community and empower people. The articles are centered on self-care, mental health and life challenges.

depression quote
http://www.respectyourstruggle.com/p/about.html

Continue reading Dear Black Women

Mental Health Apps

Focusing on your mental health is made easier by having self-care at the tips of your fingers on your phone. There are many apps out there for both iPhone iOS and Android devices. The benefits of some of these apps makes it easy to prioritize mental health. When experiencing anxiety or depression, it can be difficult to ask for help right away. These apps can help you get a jump start on managing your wellness. If you are seeing a professional to address mental health concerns, these apps can also come in handy between sessions. Some of these apps help you track your mood/symptoms—something that can be shown to the professional during sessions. There are a wide array of apps out there to help with your mental health.

Photo Credit: wiyre.com Flickr via Compfight cc
Photo Credit: wiyre.com Flickr via Compfight cc

Here are a few apps we’ve found related to mental health, particularly anxiety and depression. All of these apps are free for download and available to iPhone iOS and Android! Continue reading Mental Health Apps

Mental Health in the African American Community

“African Americans are no different when it comes to prevalence of mental health conditions when compared to the rest of the population. However, your concerns or experiences and how you understand and cope with these conditions may be different.” NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness

Although African Americans have the same prevalence of mental health conditions often times they can become more severe because of a lack of treatment. The differences in obtaining treatment can be explained by many factors. Major depression, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Suicide (among young African American men), and Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are four mental health illnesses common among the African American community. Some of the risk factors for developing these conditions are heightened by African Americans’ risk of being exposed to violence and homelessness.

Photo Credit: Souls of San Francisco via Compfight cc
Photo Credit: Souls of San Francisco via Compfight cc

Continue reading Mental Health in the African American Community

Stand Together Staff Interview Pt. 2

In the past few weeks, we’ve done a couple of blogs on the program Stand Together. We first discussed the work that the initiative does and then had the chance to sit down with the project coordinator, Danyelle for an interview. During the first part of the interview, Danyelle spoke about Stand Together and the work they do to combat stigma in schools. If you haven’t already, check out part one! During the second part of the interview, Danyelle spoke about her personal experience with mental illness. Danyelle has a dual-diagnosis (two diagnoses that often occur together) of bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. Danyelle spoke with SOVA about her lived experience with mental illness and her passion for helping others…stand together Continue reading Stand Together Staff Interview Pt. 2