Creativity Galore
‘Mental health’ is a term that is often tossed about (usually incorrectly!) these days, but what exactly does it mean? Well, mental health is the condition of your mind, or your outlook on life. Your mental health is exactly like your physical health--you need to take care of it in order to be able to deal with life’s difficulties. Your mental health can be affected by many things, including your family, your school, your social life, your freinds, abuse of drugs such as alcohol and marijuana, and bullying.
How do you know if you are mentally healthy? That depends on how you feel--in general, do you feel safe, in control, and optimistic about your life? Are you able to live life happily and without fear? Sometimes we can have days when we feel sad or angry for no reason (especially during the teenage years!) and with all this talk of mental health, we may believe that when we have these feelings, we are not healthy. That is completely incorrect! It’s perfectly fine and even natural to have bad days--having a good mental health does not mean that you feel good all of the time, but rather that you don’t let things that make you feel bad get in your way and hold you down. It’s only when these bad days go on for weeks or even months at a time, or when someone finds it difficult to face challenges most people find ‘easy’, that we call it ‘mental illness’. What exactly is mental illness? A mental illness is a condition that causes disorder in a person’s behaviour or thinking. Just like physical illness can affect different parts of your body, mental illness can affect different parts of your personality, and just like physical illness can be treated, cured, or tolerated without too much difficulty, so can mental illness. There are many different kinds of mental illness, but I’ve only outlined the two that are most common in Ireland: Depression and Anxiety. Depression: Around 400,000 Irish people have depression, and you’ve probably heard the word an awful lot. Depression is a mood disorder characterised by low mood and a wide range of other possible symptoms which vary from person to person. It can be treated with counselling and/or medication. People with untreated depression often notice that their depression comes and goes in waves--they might feel depressed for a few weeks and then feel fine for another few weeks. If you are suffering from depression, you can feel sad, angry, isolated, lonely, or even scared for weeks or months at a time. You can feel tired all of the time and be sleeping irregularly (too much or too little). You can be indecisive and feel as though your thoughts are slowing down. You may lose interest in your friends or in your hobbies, and you may feel as though you are worthless. You may even get physical symptoms like tummy, chest or headaches. Often depression can lead to self-harm or suicidal thoughts or actions. If you or someone you know has a lot of these symptoms every day for a while, you should speak to a trusted adult and ask for help. Anxiety: About 13% of Irish people suffer from anxiety. Anxiety is normal, but it becomes a problem when the body’s natural fight-or-flight response goes into overdrive, and reacts to things that most people don’t find dangerous or threatening. If you suffer from anxiety, you may suffer from panic attacks, which are moments when you feel extremely scared. You may feel unable to breathe during a panic attack, and you may also have a pounding heartbeat or chest pains, dizziness or feeling faint, sweating, a ringing in your ears, hot or cold flushes, or a fear of losing control or even dying. A panic attack may be brought on by situations you find to be stressful (of which people with anxiety may have more) such as an exam, speaking in public, dating, making a phone call, ordering at a restaurant, using a public restroom, meeting new people, etc. It’s important to remember not to force someone with anxiety to do something they’re uncomfortable with, because you may trigger a panic attack for them. If there’s a history of mental illness in your family, you have a higher chance of developing a mental illness--but don’t worry! By taking care of yourself and watching out for the signs, you can hold off or even prevent mental illness. And even if you cannot stop it, there is a huge support network for mental health issues out there (I’ve listed some of these below). When we’re not feeling very good, we may feel the need to hide these feelings from people that care about us. We do this for a number of reasons: because we’re afraid of what people will think, because we don’t feel like we can trust these people, or because we just don’t think they’ll understand. Take it from someone who’s been through it before: the very best thing you can do for yourself is to talk to someone. Whether it’s a parent, a friend, a teacher, a guidance counsellor, a doctor, or even a stranger, it’s so important to talk about our problems with someone and to get help. This is especially important if you’re feeling as though you want to hurt yourself. If you’re worried about a friend, the best thing you can do is to be supportive and to be a good friend. Try to talk to them about what they’re feeling; ask them how long they’ve felt this way, and ask them if they’ve thought about hurting themselves or committing suicide, and do your very best to help them. By speaking openly about mental health, we make it easier for people with mental health issues to ask for help and to live their lives to the fullest. Talking about how we feel helps to remove the stigma (the fear) from mental health and helps those affected to heal and live the best life possible! Support Services: Samaritans: 1850 60 90 90, www.samaritans.org Childline: 1800 66 66 66, www.childline.ie Teenline: 1800 83 36 34, www.teenline.ie Aware (Depression support): 1890 30 33 02, www.aware.ie Pieta House (Self-harm/Suicide support): 01-60 10 000, www.pieta.ie Bodywhys (Eating disorder support): 1890 20 04 44, www.bodywhys.ie Console (Suicide bereavement support): 1800 20 18 90, www.console.ie Grow (Mental health support): 1890 47 44 74, www.grow.ie Mental Health Ireland: www.mentalhealthireland.ie Dundalk Outcomers (LGBT+ support): 042 93 53 035 TENI Helpline (Transgender support): 085 14 77 166 SoSad (Teen suicide support): 041 984 8754
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