Shared Links (weekly) Sept. 10, 2023
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World Suicide Prevention Day (10 September 2023): Creating Hope Through Action
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What to Talk About in Therapy: Ideas to Get You Started– If you’ve never been, where do you start? What is expected of you?
Similar Posts
Sharing – Nearly 1 in 10 American adults, 1 in 5 teens report having depression
The mental health of Americans has been in decline for years. Don’t let the political talking points fool you into thinking this is pandemic related. Shutdowns, masks, social distancing, and all the other things that happened due to the pandemic did not cause a spike in mental health issues like depression out of nowhere. The spike was already happening.
Link – Podcast: Surviving Christmas (and Other Gatherings)
Another thing many of us might want to take a listen to before the holiday weekend: In this episode of the Psych Central Show, hosts Gabe Howard and Vincent M. Wales tackle Christmas. Specifically, how to survive it. For all the wonderful aspects of holidays, they are not without stressful aspects, especially for people who…
College Student Dealing with Mental Health Issues? You Might be in the Majority.
This might just mean that the majority of the people around us right now are likely dealing with some sort of mental health struggle. This would also mean that there is nothing wrong with us, that we are the normal ones. That there is no weakness in us, or something lacking in us, but rather that we are having a normal reaction to a world that is causing anxiety and depression.
The fix is out there, not inside of us. We can only do what we can to cope, take care of ourselves, and find the tools that allow us to continue, but the real solution is much larger than that. The real solution will require much more. The real solution to mental health issues is fixing society and the world we live in.
If you want solutions, that’s where you start. How do we build a world where being anxious and depressed isn’t an understandable and normal reaction?
Sharing – Suicide Prevention: Why “Just Reach Out” Isn’t Good Enough
I’m sharing Anja’s post from last Sept. because I agree with what she says, during Suicide Prevention month, we’ll hear a lot about “reaching out”, but will we also acknowledge how many people will have no resources to reach out to? Or about things we can all do to look out for others and assist…
New Research on Social Media and Teen Mental Health
I think that second quote is really the key. We’ve seen studies that are reported as showing that kids who use social media get more depression and anxiety, but those studies do not address the question of whether there’s any proof that the causality is in that direction and not the other. In other words, do teens who use social media a lot develop depression, or do depressed teens use social media more. This study seems to indicate it’s the latter. As we continue with a lot of social distancing, and activities being canceled and in person gatherings are very limited, we know everyone will be relying more on social media to stay connected, so this is an important question, and I think what this study, and others, really shows us is that there are ways to use social media as a positive influence on our mental health, and a way to use it that will not be a positive influence on our mental health.
In the physical world, we have these same choices. Do we interact with people who are toxic? Do we spend all of our time comparing ourselves to others? Do we isolate? Or do we find out tribe, our group of supportive friends/family that can interact socially in ways that help our mental health?
We all make those same choices on social media, but the key difference here is that if we simply don’t choose, and make no effort to make conscious decisions about who we follow and interact with, social network algorithms will make the decision for us. Anyone already struggling with mental health is maybe more likely to not spent much time thinking about these things, and just let the app show them what it wants to show them, and that is not necessarily going to be good for our anxiety. Especially right now.
So, if you find yourself feeling more anxious, angry, irritated, etc. every time you hop on Twitter or Instagram, maybe instead of just being that way, spend some time thinking about who you follow, and what they are bringing in to your life?
For any of my social media using readers, can you share some of your favorite positive accounts that you interact with to HELP your mental health?
