Mental Health

We live in an immensely voyeuristic and exhibitionist world thanks to social media. At first, with a simple post using words of how we were doing, we could create small statements to describe the events of our lives. Next, came photos, opening a new world of possibilities. Soon, we became professionals on the latest news, sharing links, sharing videos, and leaving behind us a digital breadcrumb trail about every aspect of our lives. Today, instant sharing allows people to document every moment of their day and night, letting people in, and showing their lives off. Social media falls under scrutiny for promoting fake identity and falsism rather than authenticity. There is never a way of knowing the truth behind every photo and post, the pain behind every smile, or the eating disorder and severe body dysmorphia behind every “insta-perfect” body. Numerous “insta-famous” “insta-stars” have come forward about the truth behind their picture perfect looking lives. It takes hours to frame a shot the right way, obsessive takes and retakes, endless editing, and filtering, before that one shot of perfection can be ogled over by millions upon millions of followers. Dangerously, there are the use of hashtags which perpetuate unrealistic and severely unhealthy idealistic standards of perfection and beauty which drive particular populations toward eating disorder behavior. Without understanding the truth behind the image, people are shown just an image and a message: this is how you should look, do whatever it takes to get there, it is worth it. Hashtags like “thinspo” “fitspo” and others have sparked controversy, in addition to the multiple body “trends” which problematically place a high amount of focus on specific body parts. Professionals have the most worry about pro-eating disorder hashtags and posts in which users encourage one another in their eating disorder behaviors. “For people suffering with anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder,” explains a contributing author to Huffington Post, “obsessions over self-image and feelings of shame over eating food consume a person’s daily thoughts and actions.” In addition to documenting every physical achievement, perfect angle, and healthy meal, social media users feel compelled to talk about their version of acceptance-- maybe they “indulged” today and ate “bad” thereby “cheating” on their “lifestyle”, but it’s okay, because they will work out and eat clean tomorrow, because that is the meaning of “balance”. “With the multitude of environmental stressors already influencing disordered eating habits, social media has new been added to the list. Now more than ever, since social media is used by individuals of all ages and backgrounds, it has begun to play a larger role in the influence and development of social media.”

After treatment, therapy is suggested as an ongoing part of the recovery lifestyle. It’s easy to regress into old patterns and stop going to therapy once life starts feeling “better”. If you notice your loved one starting to struggle and want to encourage them to go back to therapy, here are some suggestions. Needing Fixing Doesn’t Mean You’re Broken We place a lot of value on independence and self-sufficiency in today’s society. When encouraging someone to see a therapist it is important to emphasize that needing outside help isn’t a sign of weakness or failure. In fact, it is a sign of courage and strength which helps gain the tools and empowerment for being more independent in the future. Mental health is as important to take care of as physical health. Encourage your loved one to understand that seeking a therapist is just another tool for taking care of themselves. Therapists Aren’t Out To Get You The therapist’s job is to be 100% objective in their listening and response to their patients. Judgments, criticisms, or shaming is not part of the therapy process. Trusting a total stranger with the deepest thoughts and intimacies of one’s life is intimidating. However, seeking a therapist won’t mean starting therapy. Finding a therapist is only part of the process. Remind your loved one that it will be one step at a time. First, they need to find someone they like and feel comfortable with- comfortable enough to eventually dive into their inner selves. For now, they need to just take the action to find potential therapists and have preliminary sessions. It’s Okay To Not Be Okay “But I’m fine” is a common response when we urge a loved one to seek therapy. Fine is not great and it isn’t always an example of good mental health. Remind them of things they’ve opened up to you about, or what you’ve noticed about their mental health which has caused you concern. These aren’t damning or shaming observations. They’re objective facts about your loved one’s life. Therapy Works Recent research has found that people who go to therapy are 30-40 years ahead of the game in their personal development. Instead of taking a lifetime to work on their ‘stuff’, people who regularly work with a therapist expedite the process, leading to a happier, healthier, more productive life.

We learn that mental illness is not a choice. Coping with the many emotions and behavioral urges of mental health disorders do present many choices. What a loved one goes through as their mental health disorder develops and slowly takes over their mind, until they learn how to deal with it, is beyond their control. Unfortunately, it is beyond our control as well. We cannot make them stop hurting us, stop hurting themselves, or change they way they feel. A loved one’s mental health disorder is beyond our jurisdiction, which is challenging, because it can intimately affect our lives. One of the ways we try to cope with a loved one’s mental illness is through resentment. A form of passive aggression, resentment is often described as drinking a poison meant for others, or withholding love from others but instead withholding love from ourselves. To settle resentment, we have to find room for two emotional and spiritual principles: acceptance and forgiveness. First, we have to accept that our loved one has a mental illness which is beyond our control. Second, we have to learn to forgive them for how they might behave and how that behavior might affect us. Forgiveness does not mean forgetting. Acceptance does not mean condoning. Both can be healing and educations. Learning to set healthy boundaries, create healthy responses, and communicate in healthy ways are part of the process. Recognize Their Work In Recovery The effects of a loved one’s mental health disorder can be traumatizing. Self-harm, verbal abuse, physical abuse, substance abuse- all of the ways they act out can take a toll. As they work on themselves in their recovery by attending treatment and working with a therapist, you have the opportunity to witness their growth and development. How they are changing has to be enough. Letting go of the fear that they may revert into the old version of themselves is a practice in vulnerability. Resentment can feel like a form of protection against future harm. Unfortunately, it only creates harm in the present. Forgiveness sometimes means giving up all hope of a better past. That doesn’t mean relinquishing hope for a better future- as your loved one is already demonstrating the possibilities for what lies ahead in the work they are doing now. It means realizing that no resentment, bitterness, or fear can change what happened in the past or even what will happen in the future. Instead, it encourages letting go and celebrating what is happening now while preparing yourself for what might come in the future.

Learning about your loved one’s mental health diagnosis is the best way to understand what they go through clinically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and even physically. There are different ways to research a diagnosis. First, you can look up the specific diagnosis in the Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders which is what diagnosing doctors use for the criteria to make an official diagnosis. You will learn what the requirements of the diagnosis are, which can help you understand how severe or not severe the diagnosis is. In addition, you can identify some of the symptoms you will need to learn to look out for. The next best place to learn about their diagnosis is through first hand accounts online. Today, mental health is a popular subject on many blogs and websites. Thankfully, a growing awareness about mental health disorders has encouraged others to speak up about their personal experiences, their struggles, their treatment, and their recovery. In addition, there are many spouses and partners who write about their experience supporting someone with a mental health disorder. Reading these accounts can give you insight, teach you where to draw healthy boundaries, and most importantly, how to take care of yourself in the process. Lastly, the best place to learn about your partner’s mental health diagnosis is from your partner. After doing research of your own, ask them if it is okay to ask them questions so you can gain a deeper understanding. Get their personal insight on their experience, what they need, what they go through, and what they are learning. If they are going to treatment, have an open conversation about how you can support them in the healthiest way. Being in a relationship with someone actively seeking treatment and therapy for a mental health disorder means learning to take care of your own mental health in the process. Learning to set healthy boundaries and practice effective communication will help maintain necessary balance and structure in your relationship. Together, counseling or therapy can help you learn more about each other’s needs and wants, while developing healthy tools for supporting one another. Seeking out a therapist or counselor of your own can help you work through any issues which might come up, which isn’t uncommon.

Anxiety is one of the leading mental health disorders in the United States. Eighteen percent of the adult population will struggle with an anxiety disorder at some point in time. The New York Times recently wrote about the “American Anxiety” currently taking over the country. Due to tense political times, high levels of stress, a challenging economy, and a difficult job market, more people are living with anxiety, clinical or not, than ever before. “For the past decade or so,” the author describes, “American anxiety was usually described as either a mental-health issue or a generational style.” Today, as mental health disorders gain critical awareness, people are becoming more mindful of how their interactions with everyday American life, from politics to work, are affecting them and causing them what the article describes as “profound unease.” What people are experiencing, the article explains, is an emotion of anxiety and uneasiness, rather than an empirically analytical form of anxiety. “Even if they have incoherent or contradictory senses of why, or what it is they fear, or what should be done about it,” people today are experiencing more dis-ease than they have in recent times. Anxiety as a symptom and a mental health disorder revolves around fear of the unknown, which becomes irrational and uncontrollable. “Anxiety, after all, need not be rational, need not be coherent, can contain multitudes,” the author writes. “It’s possible to be anxious about things that will almost certainly never affect you; it's possible for anxiety to prevent you from accurately assessing danger and making plans to address it.”  Problematically, the sense of security many people have had in the systems, policies, processes, and procedures of the past is not the promise of the future. Everything today, in exaggeration and inaccuracy, is unsteady. Trust lies in a place the article characterizes as “more disordered, irrational and human.” Overcoming anxiety about the current national climate will be a national effort, perfectly synchronized with a nationwide initiative to raise awareness and support treatment for mental health.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a mental health condition characterized by distraction, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. The high quality of impulsivity and restlessness is a risk factor for developing a substance use disorder later on in life. Many adults and young people with a substance use disorder are diagnosed with ADHD when they are admitted for treatment. Never having been diagnosed or treated for the condition before, their treatment for addiction tends to have greater success as treating the ADHD significantly influences recovery from addiction. A new study from researchers in Brazil looked at the connections between ADHD and addiction in patients currently in treatment. Important factors included in the analysis were:

For many years borderline personality disorder was misdiagnosed and mistreated. As one of the most difficult personality disorders to diagnose, creating the right treatment plan for borderline can be challenging. However, recovery is possible. Today, there are proven treatment methods for:

Social media has provided a lot of social movement in recent years. Trending hashtags have provided the world insight to real events, real experiences, and real people which might not otherwise have ever been news. Bringing awareness and connecting others was always the main purpose behind social media. However, social media can also bring people together in the worst of ways. For example, links to the dark web for illicit drug sales, pro-eating disorders groups, advocates for self-harm, and more. One of the leading social media platforms, Instagram, has fallen under scrutiny for its inability to regulate trending hashtags and keep track of harmful material. Additionally, much research has been dedicated to investigating the effect of social media use on mental health. Most often, social media use is connected to higher rates of depression and low self-esteem. Problematically, what is depicted on social media might not always be accurate for what is happening in real life. Reversing that issue is what can bring mental health awareness to life on social media in addition to a safe community. Recently, Instagram has taken initiatives to fight for and protect users who might be struggling with mental health issues. When someone creates a post that is particularly ominous, which might specifically indicate a threat of suicide or severe depression, Instagram’s algorithms pick up on it. Immediately sending the user a message, the platform provides a link for help to directly call a helpline and talk to someone. Another initiative allows user to anonymously flag another user’s posts. If a picture, its caption, or included hashtags indicate any mental-health related problem, Instagram is notified. Instagram then sends the original poster a list of organizations they can contact for what could be a serious issue. Now, Fortune reports, Instagram has rolled out a new campaign called “#HereForYou”. “By clicking on selected hashtags (including #HereForYou, along with other more specific hashtags), the goal is to make it easier for users grappling with mental health-related issues to find resources on the platform.”  Bringing together people in awareness and recovery for mental health rather than perpetuating harmful behaviors associated with mental health makes social media a safer space.

Stigma comes from a lack of information. It’s more difficult to judge and stereotype something you have personal involvement with. Categorizing and characterizing people with mental illness is easier than taking the time to understand them or understand the mental illness they might be living with. A lack of education and awareness about mental health causes those who have mental health issues to suffer, in many ways. Stigma can prevent someone who is suffering from the symptoms of a mental illness from seeking the help or treatment they need. In recent years, stigma is what prevented the government and major insurance providers from recognizing mental illness as a serious medical issue. Today, awareness is increasing, but there is still much farther to go. Michigan State University released a study which examined how much people seem to know about mental illness. Using an internet survey as the method, 4,600 people provided data for the researchers to work with. The survey was not simple question and answer. Instead, the researchers provided participants with vignettes, or small stories about a fictional individual. After the story, the participants were asked to provide insight on what might be going on with that person and what would provide the most help to them. Most importantly, the participants had to respond to statements regarding stigma. Bustle reports, “The questions to measure stigma asked participants to respond thinking about themselves and separately about their communities, to statements like ‘If [I/most people in my community] had a problem like [this person’s] I would not tell anyone.’” The results were startling. It revealed that there aren’t just some areas of mental health that the general public needs more help in understanding. Bustle writes that the study “gave a big-picture look at just where more information needed to be targeted. Unfortunately, the answer seems to be "everywhere."