Mental Health...Fridays?

Dear Athenites.
...Okay okay, I know it's not Monday so it is technically not a "mental-health" day. That being said, today we looked at "Mental Illness in the Victorian Era" in one of my classes, and I found some of the information so incredibly appalling, but also really enlightening and even slightly encouraging. That is, it's good to know how things have progressed.

(Pretty much all of this information I am taking directly from my classmate's presentation. I think her name is Keisha. But unfortunately I can't give her any more credit than my best-guess at her first name. Sorry, classmate.)

Alright. So most people who have done even a bit of an analysis of history know that women have been considered "the weaker sex" for a very long time. Women were expected to be passive, dependent, sexually disinterested, angelic, ...and were essentially viewed as baby making machines. The women who did not fit this criteria, particularly in the Victorian era, were diagnosed with a severe mental illness.

By this criteria, almost all of today's women would be diagnosed as needing to be contained in an asylum.

The common belief was that mental illness was a disease of the soul...and this had to be "fixed" by doctor's methods. Accordingly, patients were kept in cages, given small amounts of [often unclean] food, had little or no clothing, wore no shoes, and slept on dirt. Let's remember....this was all because they were not meeting the societal expectation of them, not because they had showed any outward signs of something that actually required "fixing."

When some doctors began to recognise that this "mental illness" was not actually a God-given-soul-disease, but had something to do with a different structuring of the brain (---side note, let's recognise that this WAS a good step....but it was so incomplete in that they still believed women's disinterest to fill their stereotypical role as an 'illness' ) and could be treated with various other methods.

Some of the "treatment" methods that they tried for different "mental illnesses" that they diagnosed??

Well, for "nymphomanics" (women who showed were sexually-interested, [or in modern terms, horny] ) the treatment included:
separation from men, bloodletting, induced vomiting, leeches, solitary confinement, straight-jackets, and a bland diet.

(What did they hope to achieve from a bland diet? A little less "spice" and a little more "nice" ?? Good one, doctors.)

Oh, and let's not forget...desiring to be either a spinster or a lesbian (apparently the two go hand in hand according to the doctors of the day) the "treatment" included:
- forced marraiges by family members. or encouraged sexual encounters in which the "mentally-ill patients" (that is, the lesbians/spinsters) were sexually-abused or raped UNDER THE CARE OF THEIR DOCTORS.

Sigh.

I think it's important to recognise how far mental health has come from this time period. Specifically to realise that in Victorian times, people were labelled to be "mentally ill" simply because they did not wish to conform to society's stereotypes.

Do you think we have smacked the "mental-illness" label onto anything similiar in our current day and age?

- nadya

Mental Health Monday: Portrayal of Mental Illness in Current Media

I’ve been heavy-headingly making my way through these past couple of days with a nasty head cold, so unfortunately I don’t have any thing remotely close to incredible insight that I can offer for this week’s blog.

That being said, when I sat down at my computer this morning in order to decide what to write about, one thought came to mind: media portrayal. To give the media a fair chance, I will start by stating that they are not always entirely horrible. However….they do tend to be pretty inaccurate/upper-extreme in their portrayals of a variety of things.

i.e. What kind of people are feminists? According to media portrayals, they are generally the bitchy women who managed to make their way to the top of a business management, and will leave work (after an over-time shift) to return home to their lesbian relationship. Heaven forbid that a stay-at-home mom could be a feminist. Or her husband could be, for that matter. (I hope you notice my sarcasm.)

Anyway, noticing such inaccurate/incomplete/upper-extreme portrayals (such as the one mentioned above) made me wonder what kind of portrayal mental-illness is given in today’s media. I had one “positive” example come to mind, and that is the movie “The Beautiful Mind.” In the movie, the main character (John Nash) has a form of schizophrenia, causing him to form relationships (that, in his reality, are very much real) that are unaccepted as "real" by the standard measure of reality. He is not portrayed as someone who has "escaped from the looney bin and needs to be put back" but rather as someone who faces a struggle and tries to overcome it, much like one struggle against any other illness. You see parts of the personal aspect of treating mental illness...Nash informs his doctor with regret that he is stopped taking his medication, as he felt that it changed him entirely and he was no longer able to do things that he was formally able to do. Subsequently, you see the relapses that he endures into his [acceptably-false] reality as he re-establishes his relationships with characters who are simply creations of his own mind. And, toward the end of the movie, you can see the cautious approach that he holds in life, as to not unintentionally relapse into an active bout of schizophrenia.

However, apart from this movie, when I think of mental-healtl portrayal within the media, I can't quite put my finger on why this is (i.e. no immediate movies or TV shows etc come to mind as proof of this) but I recognise that, in general, there has been a very negative stigma attached to mental-illness. I can recall various TV shows in which the person facing a struggle in mental-health is viewed as an outcast, etc.

And this made me wonder........how on earth ARE we to portray mental health in our media? Part of me wants to fight for my belief that "people are people, regardless of medicinal diagnosis" and accordingly not have the media recognise mentally-ill people as any different than any other people....but then this fails to raise awareness on mental health issues. The modern-day media is undoubtedly the fastest way to bring people's attention to something, whether it is through movies, magazines, facebook ads, etc....the media is in our face all the time.

So, what do you think? How should the media be portraying mental-health? How can it use its resources to raise accurate awareness on the issues surrounding mental-health? Not simply exposing the "extreme" cases in a negative light, but to authentically educate our general public with the realities surrounding mental health.

I would love to hear your thoughts on:

- the way YOU see mental health being portrayed throughout our media

- the way YOU think mental health SHOULD be portrayed

- and anything else :).

Nadya

Mental Health Mondays- Thoughts On Power Intro

Hey Athenites,

Lately, I've been thinking about power. Power to choose, power to lead, power over others. I'm finding that to me, power is a very abstract thing. I can't quite pin it down. I'm not sure if it's something to want or to fear, to welcome or to push away.. The theme of power gives rise to many questions:

What is power? What does it mean to have power? To give power? To relinquish power? Is that defeat? Can power be shared? Can power be bought? If so, how? By who? Who has power an how is that decided? What are the advantages to having power? Are there any advantages to losing power? And, most relevant to this blog: how does power affect our mental health: feelings, emotions, moods? How does power affect our relationships?

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about power? For me, it's US president Barack Obama, his words echoing through a microphone out to millions of people during the State of the Union speech. "We are here to serve our people, not our ambitions." (I may be paraphrasing here.)

As a young white woman I have a lot of power in this world. Also, as a young white woman I'm rarely aware of the power that I have. I'm usually only aware of my power when I lose it. I'm a tad overwhelmed by this subject, so this is more of an introduction to themes I hope to explore in the weeks to come: Political power, sexual power, racial power, military power, personal power. I'll be examining the power of images, media, sound.

My apologies for the short post, I hope I can make it up in the weeks to come.

Micky

Mental Health Mondays- The Power of Words Pt 2

The Power of Words Part 2: Jeff's Law

Hey Athenites,

My apologies for the late post. I saw a documentary on TV a couple of weeks ago and have only been able to dig up its name a few moments ago.

The show is called This Emotional Life. It is a documentary that traces different emotions accompanying aspects of being human. I saw the first episode, Family, Friends & Lovers. In this program, the filmmakers followed a couple, a group of friends, or a family facing adversity. Whether it was navigating a marriage in rough times, or learning how to support a son who has Autism, the documentary provided fascinating insight into the intricacies of the mind and human relationships. I would highly recommend it.

One story in particular struck a chord with me. It was a story about a boy named Jeff, who committed suicide as a freshman in Florida, after he had been bullied for two years. It was unclear as to why Jeff may have been singled out by his bully- the reflections his friends provided painted Jeff as a fun person, the life of the party, who made High School more bearable.

Both Debbie (Jeff's mother) and his friends said that Jeff never returned his bully's violence.
Jeff's mother brought the case of her son's suicide to the courts and got a law passed called Jeffrey Johnston's Law that gives schools more power to intervene in bullying.

Something that really struck me was Debbie saying that one step of intervention taken was to sit Jeff down with his bully, something she likened to "having a rapist sit down with his victim to justify why she deserved it." I can't even imagine having to do this.

"Kids can be so mean."

It's true. I've been a bully, half-unconsciously, half-knowingly, when I was younger. A strange sense of power came along with that. I've been bullied. Results: a sense of sinking, hopelessness, helplessness.

Jeff's bully spread rumours about him, and hacked into an internet game he had been working on for months to replace its content with hurtful words.

I'm not sure which comes first, but from what I've seen hatred breeds hatred, and I admire Jeff for not attempting to retaliate against his bully. Some people may see this as weakness, but I would argue that Jeff displayed a remarkable amount of strength. Much respect to Jeffrey and Debbie for sharing their story.

Micky

Debbie's Story
http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/people/personal-story/debbie/bio

This Emotional Life Website
http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/

Hotline for Youth
www.kidshelpphone.ca

Mental Health Mondays: Stroke of Insight

A couple of my friends have recommended to me that I begin watching/listening to short educational videos from an online site called Ted Talks. From my understanding, Ted Talks are short discourses given by PhD holders and other various intellectuals on their specific area of focus. At least from their titles and reviews (I can only base my following statement on this, because I have actually only seen one video so far) the topics range from more philosophical areas, such as “does school kill creativity” to more scientific areas, such as the “the thrilling potential of the six sense.”

The video that I have seen, is called Jill Taylor’s Powerful Stroke of Insight incorporated both “science” and “philosophy” through first giving the factual overview of the way that the human brain functions through a division of “left” and “right” hemispheres but then continuing to discuss the application that this knowledge can have. Jill argues that we are able to consciously enter into to an overruling of either our left or our right hemisphere, and through doing so we are able to make the world a better place: a place where humanity as a whole is more peaceful, and where people as individuals are more content.

She seems a bit overly mystical at times, but I think that Jill has some very interesting thoughts to consider. The thing that I found most interesting about it was what I identified above (how we are able to consciously choose which side of our brain we will utilize) but really you should watch the video. It is 18 minutes long, so a bit longer than reading through a quick blog post would perhaps take, but it is just 18 minutes. Totally manageable.

Do you agree with Jill Taylor, that we are consciously able to enter into using a specific side of our brains? And do you think that choosing to process things with either our left or right side can actually impact the world as a greater whole? If so, how can we make use of this?

Nadya

http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Mental Health Mondays- The Power of Words Pt 1: "Retard"

"That's fucking retarded."
"Are you demented?"
"Are you a retard?"
"What's wrong with you? Are you crazy?"
"You know, those two girls, what were their names? The gimpy ones?"
"Let's get retardedly drunk!"
"Where's your psychotic girlfriend?"

The Power of Words Part. 1: "Retard"

Hey Athenites,

Both this blog and my next blog will be about the appropriation of words concerning what I would describe as debilitating mental states. I used this term to signify phenomenon affecting the mind that might compromise an individual's ability to interact with themselves and their world. This means mental illness as well as physical and mental disabilities.

As someone who has friends and family members affected by learning disabilities, and mental illness, any rhetoric surrounding these issues affects me personally. Slang words that are disparaging to people with either mental or physical disabilities have creeped their way into our daily speech, and seem to be doing this without much resistance. Many people are vaguely aware that incorporating words like "gimp" and "retard" into casual conversation has a stigma surrounding it, but as there are no clear lines about this, it's mostly up to the individual to decided whether or not to appropriate* these words, and to what degree it will be done.

*Side Note- The Word "Appropriate": In this case, I am using the word to describe adapting something for one's own, usually without permission. This has been done artistically, culturally, politically, socially, and personally. However, the word "Appropriate" has another meaning: that which is suitable, that which belongs to someone. The word is therefore its own antithesis in a way, and can describe both an ownership and a removal of ownership.

But is this appropriation even a decision anymore? Chart-topping artists The Black Eyed Peas used the word "retarded" in Let's Get Retarded to describe getting drunk. After public backlash, they changed the title of the song to Let's Get It Started. Although the word "retard" is defined as "a slowing down or impeding," and also means being late in French, it has been appropriated in two ways: one as a disparaging way to refer to someone who is mentally disabled, and another to refer to someone who is socially inept. In the latter case the word can be used in a casual context; however, when it is thrown around it becomes even more disparaging to those with a mental disability as well as their families, who have to cope with constant challenges and barriers. As someone who believes that those in position of influence should think critically about what they say, as they have great power, I was disappointed.


This being said, the Black Eyed Peas are not the only ones to use the word "retarded" casually. Who hasn't heard a friend, classmate, family member or co-worker toss one out to express what they see or qualify an emotion? Here I am stuck between being a wet blanket who ruins the fun by challenging the usage of a word, or passively accepting what is being said even though I don't agree with it. This is a very delicate matter; I know that I can't fight every battle (nor do I want to) but I still desire to speak up for what I believe in. The closest I've come to a conclusion on this front is to let the word slide in contexts where I don't know someone very well, or in large groups, but to bring it up with my friends and people I see frequently in private. I'm open to suggestions, though!


Love and respect,

Micky

"Retard" defined by dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/retard

Black Eyed Peas controversy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_Get_Retarded

Mental Health Mondays: New Years Resolutions pt. 1

Let me cut to the chase on this one, because the holidays can be a busy time for everyone.

Okay, so the New Year is well on its way. Which means lots of people are beginning to think about new years resolutions and whatnot. Which can definitely be a great thing to do—I think that setting reasonable goals for oneself can be a much-needed thing sometimes.

However, I think there can also be a dilemma attached to new years resolutions. Not necessarily in the goal-setting stage, but in the reflecting stage. Looking back at the past year, there are a couple of goals that I set for myself last year that I did not meet. I think this is the case with most people, to some degree or another. We experience some degrees of success for sure, but when that success does not feel 100% complete it can be very easy to focus on the negative of what we “failed” to accomplish, rather than the positive that we succeeded in accomplishing.

(To briefly digress before I return back to this post, I want to put in a quick plug for Avonlea’s blog that will be coming on Thursday. She will focus on some top-ten new years resolutions. And, while I’m not entirely certain of her focus, it will definitely be something to check out!!)

So often, we subconsciously allow ourselves to get caught up on things that bring us down rather than build us up.

If there’s something I can challenge you (and myself too!) with in regard to this area is to work at having a change of perspective. I am not saying that we should pretend we are absolutely perfect and completely successful….I do not think that would be very healthy. But I am suggesting that we try to intentionally focus on the good things that we have accomplished in the past year. It could be something huge that comes to mind immediately, or you may have to spend a bit of time thinking over the year’s events in order to come up with a few solid things.

But I am certain that there are great things that we all have done with ourselves and with our lives in this past year. And I think if we take the time to focus on them a bit more, rather than simply brushing them off as expectations and focusing on the negative, we will be able to create a great impression of the past year AND simultaneously help enter the new year with a healthy mindset.

Cheers,
Nadya

Mental Health Mondays: The Other Side of the Spectrum

The following is a blog written by Brittany Buffam. (If anyone else would ever like to write something to post, feel free to email your submission to athenasubmissions@gmail.com)
As you read Brittany's thoughts about "the other side of the spectrum" in relation to body image, I hope you're really able to consider how this affects society as a whole, but also the individuals within society.

One of the major issues these last couple of years, in respect to girls, has been body image. That has mostly consisted of encouraging articles, photos, etc. on and of people who have different body types, namely bigger, than the skinny women who used to dominate the pages of magazines (luckily, things in that regard are getting better). Although I definitely think that’s great, and people should continue with it; I also have to wonder if the other side’s suffering a little for it. Now, I’m not one to gripe on little things that are said to me but there is one thing that seems to come up fairly often. A good example is when I was a biology class one time and we were talking about metabolism. My teacher asked two questions of us; “Which of you can eat twelve cheeseburgers and not gain any weight?” and “which of you can’t even look at a cheeseburger without gaining weight?”

Thinking that the first choice was probably the one that best suited me, I raised my hand, but I did so reluctantly. The thing is, I don’t think I’ve even eaten twelve cheeseburgers over the course of my nineteen years of living and the idea kind of grosses me out. I decided not to say anything because I knew the teacher was exaggerating and I didn’t want to make a big deal out of something that was said in passing. I also know that he did not mean it to be insulting, part of the reason I don’t fault him for saying it, but it’s still a good example of the stereotype I’m really starting to not like.

Let me tell you a bit about myself. My family has always been very big on healthy living and all it entails. There was some kind of exercise pretty much every day of the week and hardly ever any fatty or sugary foods in the house. This was how I was raised, so naturally I continue to be an active person who eats very little that can be referred to as unhealthy. That was simply the lifestyle I was raised to crave.

In addition, I have a grandmother who is in her early eighties and still walks and bikes around the town of Almonte, regularly swims laps in the fast lane, and often goes on nature and bird-watching hikes, not to mention walking tours around cities all over the world. I aspire to be like her and although I certainly don’t count my calories or even schedule my exercise, I take my health seriously and also take pride in the fact that I do lead a very healthy lifestyle.

So, when I get pigeonholed as somebody who “can eat twelve cheeseburgers” or somebody who probably doesn’t put any effort into their health, it really irritates me. To finish up; why don’t we just not make assumptions based on somebody’s weight? I realise that’s the base objective of all the media attention on people who have bigger body types, but let’s just not forget the other side of spectrum, okay? ^_^
- Brittany


So, what do you think, Athenites? As this "other side of the spectrum" been entirely downplayed, and how does that come into play in affecting our every day life?
Let us know what you think!
- Nadya

Mental Health Mondays: Ongoing Influence of Past Comments

At the end of this post I’ve included a list of quotes taken from Charles’ E. Bressler’s book “Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice.” They are a collection that he placed within the surrounding of feminist criticism. When I was reading through these quotes, most stated by well-known authors, it made me wonder how much the statements that individuals made in the past impact women in today’s present-tense.

Do you think that women, particularly women who are establishing a career or passion in writing (as that is who most of the quotes are directed at) continue to feel the affects of these negative words? Or do you think that “what’s past is past”
How much do the statements of the past, even if made hundreds of years ago, continue to affect the state of our mental health today?
What do you think? Take a look at the quotes I’ve listed…maybe focus on one or two. Do you think you are still influenced by these words, or are they a thing of the past that we simply shrug off?

Take a look at some of these....

"Do not let a woman with a sexy rump deceive you with wheedling and coaxing words; she is after your barn. The man who trusts a woman trusts a deceiver."
- Hesoid, poet 8^th century BCE (...p.s. "sexy rump" and "8th century BCE" , yes you read correctly.)

"Plato thanks the gods for two blessings: that he had not been born a slave and that he had not been born a woman."
- Plato (c. 427-c.347 BCE)

"The male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules and the other is ruled. Woman “is matter, waiting to be formed by the active male principle…Man consequently plays a major part in reproduction; the woman is merely the passive incubator of his seed.” (People actually BELIEVED this!!!!! It was thought to be scientific fact! Wtf?!??!!)
- Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

"Frailty, thy name is woman."
- Shakespeare (1564-6116)

"Mary Wollstonecraft is a hyena in petticoats”
- Horace Walpole, author of one of the earliest Gothic novels

"Nature intended women to be our slaves...They are our property…what a mad idea to demand equality for women!"
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

"Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it, even any…recreation"
- Robert Southey, poet laureate (1774-1843)

"Women writers are a “damned mob of scribbling women” who only write anything worth reading if the devil is in them."
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

"The woman author does not exist. She is a contradiction in terms. The role of the woman in letters is the same as in manufacturing; she is of use when genius is no longer required."
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865)

"Jane Austen is entirely impossible to read. It seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death."
- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

"Feminism is a political mistake. Feminism is a mistake made by women’s intellect, a mistake which her instinct will recognize."
- Valentine de Saint-Point (1875-1953)

"Educating a woman is like pouring honey over a fine Swiss watch. It stops working."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922- )

With love and hopes of forward-motion,

Nadya

Mental Health Mondays: 4.48 Psychosis

Hopefully if you read last week’s Monday blogpost you were able to realize self-reflection (leading to a greater level of self-awareness) is a pretty crucial element of my idea of striving for a healthy mental state. Last week, I focused on journaling and how that can provide a method for some much-needed processing. For journaling, I’ve noticed that I have to be intentional about the time I set aside, or else I rarely enter into that state of self-reflection. I usually journal early in the morning (or sometimes late at night), when I am by myself, because I feel like that is the best time for me to enter into a state of authentic self-reflection and focus upon things related to my state of mental-health.

However, this past Saturday I entered into a rather high level of self-reflection (that in and of itself is not at all uncommon for me due to my frequent journaling) but this time I was in a fairly tiny room surrounded by lots of people, most of whom I’d never even seen before. I spent this past weekend in Halifax, (partially because one of my best friends is attending school there and I would jump at any opportunity I had to go visit her, but also because I needed to intentionally do something to break a negative cycle I had found myself entering) and one thing that I did while there was go to a theatre production put on by students of Kings University.

The show was called 4.48 Psychosis, written by Sarah Kane. Any summary I can come up with will by no means do justice to the beauty and depth put into it by the playwright (and subsequent directors who have worked with the play), but I’ll try to give a basic overview of it:

My initial reaction is it’s a play about mental-health. So, great!, it fits perfectly in with this article-theme...but that would not really distinguish it from any other play, as EVERY play (that is, essentially every element of life) includes elements of mental-health…some are just less obvious than others. 4.48 Psychosis, in its original form, was written more as a narrative story than as a play. That is, there are no characters, and thus no dialogue. The “script” itself is not even divided into distinguishable speaking parts. It looks a lot more like a long poem, or broken narrative, than a play. Directors who have worked with the play, or at least the [incredibly powerful and moving] version that I saw of it the other night, have chosen to divide the text amongst multiple characters while maintaining one role that is the obvious lead.

The lead (played by a female in the version that I saw), in a somewhat convoluted and indirect way, shares her struggle with depression. She views “4:48” [am] as the time “when depression visits” and she struggles to overcome her negative thoughts, particularly the temptation to use suicide as a means to escape both morality and reality. The play then seems to jump forward (that is, backward) to the time she spent receiving psychiatric and medical help. Evoking an incredible amount of emotion, she explains the difficulty of communicating her innermost thoughts to her doctors— “Please. Don't switch off my mind by attempting to straighten me out. Listen and understand, and when you feel contempt don't express it, at least not verbally, at least not to me.” She also expresses the frustration she experienced while trying to discover the proper medication for her. She continues to talk of how she is “loving” one who is “absent”, or in other words, she is loving someone who is not present in her life. At a different point in the play, she makes the connection that she herself is not present in her own life, that her mind and her body have been separated from each other. It could be said, then, that (while she is attempting to love herself) she is unable to love herself due to some unexplainable absence. It was heart-breaking to experience these feelings and emotions with her as I sat in my theatre seat.

While the play as a whole can undoubtedly be described as being filled with an immeasurable amount of emotional brokenness (my heart felt as if it was continually being broken and re-broken), I also saw the play as containing the potentially for immeasurable beauty. Particularly in the closing line “It is myself I have never met, whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind. Please open the curtains.” She is making a motion for change. Here, the character wants to discover herself. Here, she seeks to be able to recognize her own face. Here, she seeks self-identity.

And so I was sitting at this theatre, watching this play, surrounded by people I didn’t even know, and I found myself entering into this state of immense self-reflection. For just one example, I started wondering how my own struggle to work toward and ultimately maintain a healthy mental-state has influenced me in ways I have not entirely realized.

A friend and I tried to process various aspects of the play with each other. She and I agreed that, while there was a lot of material within the play that hit extremely close to home for us, there were also aspects that we had never experienced, and hopefully never will. This reflection helped me realize that we’ve all had our struggles just as much as we’ve all had our successes. We’ve endured hardship—even if we think our own life struggles are small and insignificant; we’ve had some degree of pain in our lives that we can use to relate to the pain of others. Yes, everyone’s pain is different, but everyone’s pain is…well, painful. As I watched 4:48 Psychosis I witnessed the pain of a character in an “extreme” depressive state, and I simultaneously recalled the pain brought about by some of my own states. They are indeed different, but they are both painful, and so they were both one in that.

While sometimes beneficial to working toward mental health, I don’t necessarily think it takes the professional diagnosis of a specific mental illness for an individual to recognize there are ways that s/he can improve the state of his/her mental health. I can’t pretend to know all the answers to improving one’s mental-health. But I CAN say there was one line of the play that stuck out to me as at least a partial solution: “Remember the light and believe the light.”

There’s something powerful about reflecting on the positive moments in our life; there’s something incredible about not only remembering the light of those positive moments, but in believing the light about them. Trust people’s words when they say “I care,” “I love you,” or “I want to help” because I think there is something powerful in remembering the light and believing that light. Do you?

Let me close this blog with an excerpt from the Sarah Kane’s play “4.48 Psychosis.” I want to use these lines as a wish for myself and for you. May we all be in continuous journey toward a healthy mental-state in which we are able to vow:

“to achieve goals and ambitions

to overcome obstacles and attain a high standard

to increase self-regard by the successful exercise of talent

to overcome opposition

to have control and influence over others

to defend myself

to defend my psychological space

to vindicate the ego

to receive attention

to be seen and heard

to excite, amaze, fascinate, shock, intrigue, amuse, entertain, or entice others

to be free from social restrictions to resist coercion and constriction

to be independent and act according

to desire to defy convention to avoid pain

to avoid shame

to obliterate past humiliation by resumed action

to maintain self-respect

to repress fear

to overcome weakness

to belong

to be accepted

to draw close and enjoyably reciprocate with another

to converse in a friendly manner,

to tell stories, exchange sentiments, ideas, secrets

to communicate, to converse

to laugh and make jokes

to win affection of desired Other

to adhere and remain loyal to Other

to enjoy sensuous experiences with cathected Other

to feed, help, protect, comfort, console, support, nurse or heal

to be fed, helped, protected, comforted, consoled, supported, nursed or healed

to form mutually enjoyable, enduring, cooperating and reciprocating relationship with Other, with an equal

to be forgiven, to be loved, to be free.”

Thanks for reading! Please share any and all comments/questions, etc. :)

- Nadya

Mental Health Mondays: Make Moments For Yourself

Hey everybody :)
My name is Nadya and I’m happy to introduce myself to everyone as the new co-blogger for Mental Health Mondays. I will be blogging alongside Micky so we’ll be alternating back and forth week to week with who is posting. Between the two of us, hopefully we’ll be able to cover a wide-variety of mental health related topics, and some stories and tips on how to better develop a positive state of mental health. If you ever want either of us to focus on something specific, feel free to just post a comment with a suggestion. :)

I’m originally from Ottawa but I now live in St. Stephen, New Brunswick where I attend St. Stephen University. I’m studying the Humanities in general, but plan to major in Literature. My friends who know me best (well, actually, even just those who have been around me for any extended amount of time) know that I have not always been the best person at dealing with stress. I love being involved in a lot of different things and sometimes get too caught up in what I’m doing and find myself unable to make the time to take a step back, or even to take a breath.

That being said, I really don’t think [or at least I really hope!] that I am the only one who struggles with getting too caught up in what they’re doing that they “forget to breathe.” So I’m going to try to find and share a bunch of different ways on how we can make the time to take care of our mental-health; how we can find ways to ensure we are staying healthy and remembering time to breathe. Hopefully, the thoughts shared in my posts can be combined with the comments/feedback from each of our viewers in order to create friendly reminders and useful ways to take care of ourselves.

While I will get into more details with each of my posts to come, I wanted to start out by giving a basic tip that has recently proven to be….well, pretty much crucial to maintaining my sanity: Journal writing.

Now, I don’t necessarily mean doing a “Dear Diary” entry at the end of every single day (although, who knows, that may work wonders for you!) But I do think that keeping a journal of sorts—it could be filled with scribbles, jot notes, poetry, drawings, songs…anything you want!—is such a great way to not only help process through the day-to-day emotions that we experience, but it also helps us experience some degree of “healing” from the particularly painful moments. I know when I’ve had a bad day and I write about it in my journal, it almost seems as if, through writing it on paper, I’ve forced the negativity out of my system. But I don’t just use my journal as a form of ranting…I also use it to write some poetry, some general reflections of the day, and I always try to pin-point ~3 things from that specific day that I did that made me happy. It could be something huge like saving the world (ahem......I was an Incredible for halloween, and believe it or not, superheros are still on my mind) or it could be something really small like offering to get a cup of tea for my housemate.

So, while I will get to covering more specific topics in the weeks to come, I want to hear from you to see what you think about the benefits of keeping a journal (maybe someone has a cool story to share?), and even just any comments about making time for yourself in general—I would love to hear them! Here’s a website that I think gives a few fairly good reasons on the value of journal writing: http://www.appleseeds.org/100_Journaling.htm

Why don’t you check it out and let me know whether there are ones that you agree/disagree with? Some of them are really great in my opinion, but others ...not so much...... so let me know what you think!

Now, if you'll excuse me...I have some journalling to do before I head to bed! :)

Love,

Nadya

Mental Health Mondays- Inner Superheroines

We can be our own worst enemies. Two weeks ago I gave a basic rundown of how to deal with communicating negative thoughts in romantic relationships. This week I will discuss a tactic to help cope with these difficult situations: the introduction of your very own superheroine.

The first step when dealing with adversity, as cheesy as it sounds, is to believe in yourself. Wherever a low moment or crisis in communication strikes, you need to show love and understanding towards yourself. For the sake of self-preservation, it doesn't matter whether or not you actually believe in yourself all the time, but that you are able to rally some form of self-confidence when you need it. Some people might call this an "inner superheroine." What is an inner superheroine? I see it as the culmination of all the inner strengths we possess. Some people like to take this idea further and create a drawing or name for their superheroine. This is cool, but don't remove your own identity from your superheroine's- you are her!

Different traits of your superheroine might be useful for different situations (for example you might not want to bring out the kick-ass Aretha heroine when you're in an emotionally delicate situation!), but I've found that the one trait that spans across everything- possibly also the hardest thing to do- is the ability to show love and forgiveness to yourself. This is sometimes very hard to do when you're in a situation that contradicts these feelings of support- for instance, if someone you love and trust makes a hurtful comment about the way you look or an aspect of your personality integral to who you are. In situations like these it's easy to feel bouleverser... completely knocked over. This is when taking a breather might be a good idea.

My superheroine is very abstract. She is the force that lifts me by the shoulders when I'm feeling low and says "So you want to cry? Take one more step before you do. Get to the end of the block. Read 2 more pages of your assignment. Then check in with me, and if you really need to, you can take a break." A superheroine doesn't always need to come out full force- sometimes it's the smaller victories we make that we don't give ourselves enough credit for.

What's yours like?

Mental Health Mondays- Late post

Hey Athenites,

A post about coping skills and how to be a friend to yourself is in the works, but it's not ready for tonight. Should be up by Wednesday- my apologies.

Micky

Mental Health Mondays

Mental Health- what is it? It's not easy to know, but it's certainly easy to tell when it goes wrong.

My name is Michaela, but you can call me Micky. I am 20 years of age and have lived on the same street in the same house with the same parents and cat for most of my life. What I find absurd about the term "mental health" is that it is usually only discussed in the context of not being healthy. Maybe Alanis Morissette should've added that to the lyrics of "Ironic." But what does mental health even mean? I'm not about to delve into the nearest dictionary. What it seems to relate to, in an objective sense, is the health of our mentality, the health of the way we think. But that definition doesn't satisfy me. The health of mind and body are deeply intertwined, and I've spent many years learning how to identify the warning signs when my mind-body equation is suffering. If I'm unsettled, my head starts aching lightly, behind the eyes. My throat starts hurting when I'm sad. I don't breathe or digest properly when I'm anxious.

In my experience, when either my mind or body starts to fail, the other isn't too far behind it.

Through the writing of this blog I hope to explore women's relationships with their own mental health, each others' mental health, how different societies have understood women's mental health, and how this has shifted throughout time. I will also be discussing mental "illnesses" and coping strategies through stories that combine fact with fiction (I'll be sure to let you know which is which!), and sharing my personal experiences. I hope you enjoy what I have to say!

Feel free to comment if you have requests for information or discussion of a certain topic!

With love and respect,
Michaela