Suicide Prevention

Suicide is the third leading cause of death for teens according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors all have a significant impact on the risk of suicide. When a young person decides that they want to end their life because of feelings of hopelessness and frustration, it is extremely devastating to their friends and family. We must come together as a Community to prevent suicides.  WE ARE ONE.

Through education, we can learn about what might lead a teen to suicide and together, we can help prevent further tragedies from occurring. Teens are caught in that gray area between childhood and adulthood and feel immense pressure to fit in socially with their peers. Some of the factors that increase the risk of suicide amongst teens are: a pre-existing psychological disorder, a family history of depression, previous suicide attempts, feelings of distress and agitation, undergoing emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, and a lack of a support network.

If we can know and share about these factors, we all can be better able to recognize the warning signs of suicide. Education is the first step in prevention. Many adults feel as if young people who say that they want to commit suicide are “doing it for attention,” which ends up discounting their feelings. It is imperative to realize that if teens feel that they are being ignored when seeking attention, it can increase the likelihood of them hurting themselves. It is also important that you listen to what they are saying without making judgements and being dismissive of their feelings.

We MUST break the stigma associated with mental illness and encourage people and our children to speak up about their challenges and to seek solution.  No one is alone.  An attempt at suicide as a cry for help. When a person tries to commit suicide, it doesn’t always mean that they want to end their life, it can also be an indication that they do not know how to handle the pain that they are in. Being a good listener during this time of need, can certainly go a long way. Being a good and attentive listener does not require any special skills. Being there for someone, listening to them and showing that you genuinely care about them can allow them to realize that they are not alone in this.

We must encourage others to get help for their depression, anxiety, or any other mental illness.  Although some suicides can seem like they came out of the blue, those who have died by suicide probably have been undergoing depression for a long time. When you notice even the smallest signs of depression from a friend or loved one, it is crucial to seek out professional assistance in order to prevent suicidal thoughts in the long run. Ongoing conflicts between a loved one and someone who is experiencing suicidal thoughts can be detrimental.

These teens are feeling isolated, devalued, misunderstood, and suicidal, and being in a conflict with a friend or loved one just adds unnecessary fuel to the fire. These prevention methods mentioned above can serve as a basis for someone who wants to help someone going through a difficult time in their life. For the most part, people who are feeling suicidal are experiencing conditions that will pass in time if they can get the help they need. Educating yourself on suicide and the different ways to prevent it, can end up saving someone’s life.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.  The Suicide Prevention Hotline is 800-227-TALK.  Our Mental Wellness Networking Alliance is here for you, as well.

Strategies for Young People in the Age of COVID

Strategies for Young People in the Age of COVID

By: Jack Ziluck and Jonathan Richards 

When COVID-19 was first discovered in November of 2019, many did not expect that it would spread so rapidly and extensively throughout the world, hampering businesses nationwide and worldwide, while exacerbating isolation. Additionally, with the nationwide crisis and the resulting losses and changes that young people in particular have endured, many of them have struggled to become accustomed to the new normal in the aftermath of the initial outbreak. In this article, I interviewed multiple people between the ages of seventeen and twenty-nine, to see how they dealt with the isolation resulting from COVID, and to learn of their strategies for getting through day-to-day life.

Teddy Fronczak is from Portland, Oregon and is a twenty-year-old rising junior year at Florida State University. When COVID-19 initially shut down the nation in March of 2020, Teddy was a senior in high school. Due to the shutdown that resulted from the pandemic, he missed out on graduation, prom, and other senior events with his friends. I asked Teddy what he did during the lockdown to keep busy. Teddy said he worked at Dutch Bros, not only to maintain productivity, but also to make some money. He also did a lot of working out, which helped him maintain focus and mental clarity for his schoolwork. He leaned on his family and friends as his support system when dealing with stress or anxiety. Teddy learned how to cook, went hiking, spent a lot of time with his family, and facetimed friends. Teddy suggests that during difficult or lonely times resulting from COVID or from other events, that one should pick up new fulfilling hobbies, such as reading or cooking. Teddy suggests that these activities help with anxiety or similar forms of mental and emotional health issues. Teddy personally regrets not doing more reading during the lockdown. When I asked Teddy if he had COVID, he stated that he has had it before. I got some of his suggestions on what he did during his isolation period; he said he slept a lot, watched Netflix, and made sure to stay connected with friends and family to help pass the difficult time.

Jonathan Richards originally is from Kingston, Jamaica and is currently 24 years old. He was a senior at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., when in March of 2020, he officially lost his graduation ceremony to COVID, as well as the last few months with his friends up there. When Jonathan had to return home to his family in Florida, he spent a lot of his free time: job searching, preparing for LSAT, looking up law schools, thinking about his future, and doing schoolwork. Jonathan made sure to rely on his family, former roommates, and friends to help him through stressful and anxious times. He also took the time to reach out to family in Jamaica, that he had not seen in a while, with an intent to build better relationships with them. Jonathan struggled with finding motivation in completing his final round of studies during the last 3 months of school. However, Jonathan states that taking up reading as a hobby, as well as having a strong support system in his immediate family, was very therapeutic for him, and helped him push through the last few months of his academic career at Georgetown. During the initial lockdown, in addition to reading, Jonathan engaged in more new hobbies which included following basketball, doing zoom meetings with friends, and cooking. Lastly, Jonathan states that having powerful conversations with his family and friends on significant global events and movements occurring at the time, influenced him to think more critically about ongoing socio-political and economic issues, as well as on ways to make a difference in his community.

Samantha Van Helden is from Coral Springs, Florida. She is 21 years old and is about to start her first year of law school at the University of Miami. She was a junior at the University of Central Florida during March 2020. Sam loved working out at the gym but could no longer do this due to the initial COVID outbreak. Additionally, her boyfriend, who is currently in the Marines, was not able to leave the base he was situated at, during the initial outbreak, to visit Sam. Sam states that not being able to re-connect with and see her boyfriend, deeply affected her happiness at the time. I asked Sam if she previously had COVID, and she said stated that she did. She was staying with her boyfriend at the time and quarantined with him and his family. They played a lot of board games and watched movies together. During the lockdown, Sam relied on her family as her support system. She stated that to pass time, she watched a lot of TikTok, hung out with her family, and focused on her online classes. Sam had switched her classes to an online format right before the semester that COVID had come around. She found it easier to work at her own pace and watch online lectures. Sam said that during Covid, her hobby was working on her new workout page that she had started. She focused more on her career path and figured out what she wanted to do in life. Her biggest realization during COVID was just how important her family was to her, and as a result, she has been more deliberate about spending time with them.

Brett Unger is from Parkland, Florida. He is currently 19 years old and is heading into his sophomore year at the University of Florida. He was a junior at high school in March of 2020 when COVID hit hard. Brett liked watching sports games and playing basketball with his friends; hobbies that were deeply and negatively affected by the shutdown. Brett had a unique hobby that he developed throughout the lockdown, which was developing a social media account based on calendaring, where every day he would post a holiday(s) specific to the date, as well as additional significant events that occurred on said date(s). Brett spent a lot of time studying Instagram’s algorithm to aid him in building his own following. His account currently has a little over 67K followers and is growing every day. Brett also played a lot of basketball at his house, watched Netflix, and did running, to help pass time during the lockdown. With his growing Instagram account, and other hobbies, Brett was able to find a great work-life balance during the shutdown. Brett suggests that for anybody who is going through a tough time, to find what they love, and to work as hard as possible at it.

 

 

Is Becoming a Lawyer with Anxiety Possible?

Is Becoming a Lawyer with Anxiety Possible?

By: Paige Martin

Some people may worry about obtaining a law degree with anxiety, but it is completely possible. Anxiety is common in the legal profession! There are different types of lawyers, some who spend time in the courtroom or spend their time researching and legal writing outside of the courtroom. If you’d rather spend time working individually rather than interacting with others, there are plenty of opportunities for you in law. If your environment gives you anxiety, the simple solution is to change the environment you practice in. Simply applying to other firms or moving to a new area can resolve environment anxiety in law. As well as taking a step back to realize that this is the lifelong career you really want to pursue and learn how to overcome obstacles to achieve your dream of becoming a lawyer.

Attorneys struggle to manage stress since their workload is so intense. There are many effective ways of coping with anxiety as a lawyer. Meditation, exercise, reading a book, avoiding caffeine, and sleeping more can help improve anxiety! If you are worried about social anxiety, therapists can help you combat your worries and help you earn success in the court room. Social anxiety can impact areas in your entire life and not just your professional career. It is always recommended to seek out help and master your social skills!

Trauma: Response and Recovery

Trauma: Response & Recovery

By: Paige Martin

Trauma can be defined as a “deeply distressing or disturbing experience.” Sometimes people learn trauma responses as a means of surviving their childhood, abusive relationships or severe trauma. There are four types of trauma responses that are recognized by the mental health community: fight, flight, freeze and fawn. Each of the responses has a healthy and unhealthy ways of showing up. Understanding each type of trauma response can help you understand your behavior and change behavioral patterns and healing. Here’s a breakdown of the four trauma responses…

  • Fight Response
    • Self-preservation no matter who you hurt in the process
    • Positive Responses: establish firm boundaries, be assertive, find courage, become a strong leader, and protect yourself
    • Negative Responses: Controlling behaviors, narcissistic tendencies, bullying, conduct disorder, demanding perfection from others, and feelings of entitlement.
  • Flight Response
    • If the threat seems impossible to take down in a fight, people react by leaving the situation entirely
    • Positive Responses: disengage from harmful conversations, leave unhealthy relationships, remove yourself from physically dangerous situations, properly assess danger
    • Negative Responses: obsessive or compulsive tendencies, needing to stay busy constantly, panic and fear, perfectionism, workaholic tendencies, inability to sit still
  • Freeze Response
    • Instead of trying to fight the danger or flee, someone pauses.
    • Positive Responses: mindfulness, awareness, full presence in the moment
    • Negative Responses: dissociation, isolation, zoning out, brain fog, difficulty making decisions or taking actions, perceived laziness, fear of trying new things
  • Fawn Response
    • People who spend a lot of time around toxic people learn to go above and beyond to make the toxic person happy
    • Positive Responses: compassion for others, compromise, active listening, fairness
    • Negative Responses: codependent relationships, someone to stay in a violent relationship, loss of self, people-pleasing to the point of destruction, little or no boundaries

How to have a conversation about mental health

By: Shauna Smith

 When talking about mental health as both the sufferer and the loved one, it can be an intimidating topic to approach but nonetheless an important one that is necessary to the healing of all parties involved. For those struggling to understand, these are some helpful ways to approach the conversation.

  1. Break the stigma surrounding mental health

Those struggling with mental illness still feel a great deal of shame despite how normalized and accepted it is to cope with one. This shame makes it hard to open up and gives individuals a sense of failure in their own life and their personal relationships. Asking someone what they are experiencing will ultimately help to guide them in a more positive direction and allow them to feel more comfortable speaking about it with you.

  1. Understand the connection between mental illness and suicide vs. illness and criminality

 Within today’s interpretation of mental illness, the word itself is still criminalized. It is proven that there is a major difference between criminality and someone who commits a crime while battling an illness. While mental illness is quick to be blamed for someone’s act of violence in the media,  the majority of those who suffer have no intent to harm another person at all. However, there is a larger and more impactful correlation with those who aim to harm themselves. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, “90% of people who die by suicide have depression or other disorders, or substance-use disorders in conjunction with other mental disorders”. When having a conversation please consider that triggering circumstances are not the main cause of suicide, but battling a mental illness at the same time is extremely high risk.

  1. Understand it’s not about using the “right words” it is about talking at all.

Those battling mental illnesses are people nonetheless and want to be heard regardless of how hard it is to speak about. It is not about avoiding specific terms or walking on eggshells in the conversation. As long as there is compassion and a willingness to hear them, then loved ones can begin to express how they are feeling. The biggest challenge about talking about this subject, is coming forward to talk about it period.

  1. If your comfortable, share your experiences

Talking about your own struggle in relation to the subject with no comparisons to another’s struggle can reach others in the conversation as well as aid yourself. Self advocacy is highly impactful and talking about what got you through the experience or how you manage day to day struggles could change someone’s life for the better.

A conversation can save a life, change a life, and empower others to do the same. In a time where mental health tolls are at their highest, have love in your heart, and compassion in your words.

Covid doesn’t end after recovery

By: Shauna Smith

Since the beginning of this mysterious virus, we as citizens have forced ourselves to learn how to cope and come to terms with the fact that life as we know it has completely changed. We have seen Covid-19 consume our media, our dinner conversations, and our social media feeds. We often struggle to remember a day where we didn’t have to wear masks in a store and social gatherings would sometimes feel like an inconvenience. Covid has greatly influenced our education system, our social lives, and in many cases has made mental health take a turn for the worst. While many believe their troubles end after recovery, I want to highlight the pain of those suffering with the lasting effects.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the symptoms associated with Covid-19 can last for months which can result in the lungs, the heart, and the brain. Whether you are young and healthy or elderly, this virus has proven its ability to affect us all. Many lasting symptoms include, fatigue, shortness of breath, cough, joint pain, chest pain, loss of smell or taste and other concerning symptoms such as, hair loss, and difficulty concentrating and sleeping. There are some despite the facts prevented that believe this virus is harmless and as a community I urge you to take a moment and look at those hurting. To aid in understanding the trauma this pandemic has caused, I interviewed some of those affected.

After interviewing a college student with an active lifestyle, I learned that she and her boyfriend contracted the virus early this year. She described it as the worst thing she has ever experienced and constantly felt a weight on her chest, disabling headaches, and lost her ability to taste and smell. Months later, she has not fully gotten those senses back. Her boyfriend on the other hand, felt better quickly and did not experience symptoms throughout the entirety of his experience. Not only was she suffering from physical pain, but her mental health as well. Recovery involves missing work, not being able to have the comfort of family and friends, and feeling alone. One of the scariest realizations she had in her experience was knowing that no one truly knew what to do, and there was no guarantee of what would become of her condition. After both of their recoveries, it was revealed that her boyfriend was suffering from lung damage as a result of the virus and affects his ability to perform at his job, and small tasks in his personal life. While every experience is different, we must show compassion and support to the factors we don’t fully understand about this virus.

If you or someone you know is dealing with post-covid symptoms regardless of age or severity, please visit www.getmentalwellness.org for information on support meetings and resources. Let’s all work together as a community to not only break the stigma surrounding mental health, but surrounding this pandemic as well.

Improving mental health In the new normal

By: Shauna Smith

In recent years, support for mental health and mental health resources have increased gradually. We as a society are long past the outdated ways of shock therapy and are instead more focused on natural remedies that improve the wellbeing of others. With Covid-19, these practices are essential in order to maintain the balance of everyday life. Poor mental health impacts relationships, physical health, performance in work and school, and makes it hard to complete the simplest tasks. Due to this, it is imperative you take a moment and follow these simple practices to change your mindset.

Spend less time with the screens (This does not mean be uninformed) 

Watching the news all day and everyday is extremely unsettling and can dramatically decrease your mood. While it is important to know what is going on in the world around you, it should never consume you. Any type of cognitive overload is disheartening whether it is television, social media, or cramming too hard before a test. Stay connected and present! (This would be a great time to try something you have always wanted to do!)

Stay as physically healthy as you can

If you are anything like me and you don’t like to sleep, this can be a tough one. However, sleep and a good diet is vital to strong physical health. Incorporating daily exercise into your routine even for a short period of time per day Is life changing in improving your physical health and your overall mood. Following a ten minute yoga flow before work or going for daily walks, is a great start to increase your endurance to physical activity. 

Stay connected!

Like many of us who have loved ones that we cannot see, it is so important to stay emotionally connected even if you cannot be physically connected, utilize apps such as, Zoom, Skype, and FaceTime! For those in businesses, it would be helpful to find online networking events and collaborate with other groups in your occupation. For students, this would be a great time to get involved with online internships and seminars. 

Stop the spread of false information

While it can be extremely alarming to see the headlines of articles and may be tempting to share with others, please be aware of who is writing the article and how credible the source is. The spread of false news can worsen the improvement towards a cure and can greatly discourage those coping with the effects of the virus. We all want this to be over and need info with reliability only. 

Remember in this hard time to spread love, empathy, and kindness. While it is important to care for others, please make yourself a priority and find things to implement in your life that your mind and body will thank you for. 

Covid-19 & it’s impact on Mental Health

By: Shauna Smith

It is hard to believe that one year ago, March would have changed our lives drastically. Around this time, many college students like myself believed we were getting an extended spring break and that this illness spreading around the world was some false joke. We quickly began to see this was serious and we would be forced to adjust to a new normal. 

Many questions consumed the world such as, How did this begin?, When does it end?, What will life be like following this?, These are questions that have remained unanswered and yet, minimal questions have been asked about the well-being of those in isolation. It is no surprise to anyone that this has been detrimental to mental health and those who have suffered with mental health issues previously are the worst they’ve ever been. According to kff.org, 4 in 10 adults have reported symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorders as a result of the pandemic that have impacted their sleep, eating, increase In alcohol consumption, and worsening chronic conditions. Before the pandemic, about 1 in 5 Americans were impacted by anxiety and depression was the leading cause of disability, as stated by the Indiana University Health Department. Not only is contracting the virus a large risk to mental health, but the conditions and panic surrounding it. 

Unfortunately, it has taken this pandemic for many to realize the disabling effects of mental health challenges and has created an understanding that it should have always been a priority in this country and this community. People everyday have lost loved ones, their occupations, and felt the the stress of their children not being able to attend schools. Younger individuals have missed social interactions with their peers, a personal learning experience, and some have been forced to move back home after experiencing their independence. As we get used to life during a pandemic, we must never get used to a life where mental wellness is not a priority. 

So how do we combat this and provide support to those in need? 

We can provide support to those who need us by looking for the signs that they are suffering. Depression and anxiety look different for many of those that struggle and it can be brought to light by having the difficult conversations necessary to understand each individual’s situation. In a time when many are closed off and in fear of the world, I challenge us all to find kindness, to help those around us and to spread love in this discouraging and challenging time. With all of our efforts, Covid will not last forever and we must remain focused that when it does end, we will continue to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health.