I recently found out about this book Writing Away the Stigma: Ten Courageous Writers Tell True Stories About Depression, Bipolar Disorder, ADHD, OCD, PTSD & more One in four American adults will endure the trials of a mental health condition this year, and more than half will experience one in their lifetime. Yet the stigma of mental … Continue reading Writing Away the Stigma
Glenn Close has a wonderful website called bring change 2 mind about ending mental illness. She was inspired by her sister’s mental illness and uses the website to educate others about mental illness. One area of the site includes stories about mental illness. Check out Laura’s story about how she uses positivity and her support … Continue reading Glenn Close and mental health stigma
QPOC, an acronym standing for “queer people of color,” are minorities in several ways. Not only are they racial minorities, but they are also members of the LGBTQ+ community. This intersectionality – the ways that things like discrimination and disadvantages overlap if you belong to more than one marginalized group – can be difficult, especially during adolescence.
With more and more people opening up about their mental health online, you may find yourself thinking about a few things. You may feel proud of them for opening up about their struggles on a large platform, or you might feel comforted and feel less alone that someone you know also has struggles with their … Continue reading How to Help Someone Through Social Media
Our minds often give us images of certain types of people when we think about certain things. For example, we tend to think of those with anxiety to be by themselves, preferring to be alone and in the quiet. It can be easy and even confusing to separate introversion and social anxiety, since both include a preference of … Continue reading Can You be Extroverted and Have Social Anxiety?
Trying to combat mental illness and the effects it can have on you can be exhausting, hard, and can even make you feel worse. Nonetheless, resilience, or the process of fighting back and recovering from difficulties, is possible. Resilience is a way to include positivity in your life and a way to fight back against the negative thoughts that often come with having a mental illness. It’s a … Continue reading What is Resilience?
When people talk about social media and its effect on people, it’s almost always negative. Many have mentioned and researched about the effect of social media on mental health: feeling unproductive, worrying about what we said or did online, and experiencing FOMO are just a few of the things that affect us from using social media.
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. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent. In January, I was in my first relationship where … Continue reading Staying True to Yourself While Dating
The mental health statistics for transgender people are unfortunately bleak. Nearly half of trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming (GNC) youth between the ages of 3-17 are likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness. Statistics show that at least half of them have received a depression diagnosis, with increased rates of attention deficit and anxiety diagnoses as well. These statistics increase in transgender, nonbinary, and GNC youth of color, and overall, rates of suicide and suicide attempts are alarmingly … Continue reading The Power of a Name
More often than not, people have a negative view of video games and its relationship with mental health. Video games are often associated with addiction and seen as a poor coping mechanism. Those who play violent video games tend to be more likely to show depressive symptoms too.
