MENTAL HEALTH
Diverse thoughts on the frequently discussed topic of mental health.
MAY 2021 ARTICLES
3 WAYS TO LET YOUR HAIR DOWN AFTER STRESSFUL MIDTERM EXAMS
by Jiah
Midterm exams are always stressful for students, not to mention everything is online this semester. Many students say that they have such a high workload because of the exams, resultantly, their mental condition deteriorates. Therefore, this article will show you 3 ways to boost your mental health up ^^
Try new sport activities
Keeping your body active is such a good recommendation for those who just went through the stressful exam. During the midterm, most of the students usually sit all day and glue their eyes on the computer. Therefore, after such a period of high concentration on technology and class material, it is so refreshing that they can try something to get their body moving. It would be greater if you can try some team sports activities with your friends; I am sure that you gain not only the improvement of your mental and physical health, but also valuable time with your colleagues.
2. Find new hobbies
If you are not a person who is into sporting activities, another suggestion would be trying new things, maybe luckily you can find your new hobbies. When you put your effort in trying new things, you can discover yourself more, hence knowing what skills that your own body wants to develop. Recently, I started reading a new genre of book: thriller; and found it so interesting. In the past, I always thought that it would be too scary and mysterious for me to read. However, as I gave myself a chance to approach this genre, I found that my analytical skills have greatly improved. Such an improvement makes me feel more confident, hence boosting my mental condition.
3. Allow yourself to one peaceful moment of the day
What I mean about “one peaceful moment” is writing a diary. Nowadays, I found that increasingly less and less people keep themselves familiar with the habit of writing a diary. However, such an activity is actually really helpful for mental health. By writing about what happened in a day, how your condition is, could be a way to stress down. It is considered a reflection and you may feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day!
Those are 3 ways to get rid of stress that I want to share with you. If you have any other tips to let your hair down, do not hesitate to share with us ^^
NOVEMBER 2020 ARTICLES
RECOVERY
by Jooyoun Park
Health is critical in our lives and I think our mental health is as important as our physical health. Today I would like to share my personal story of a time when I faced some mental health issues and how I was able to recover from it. I hope it would be a helpful guide for you when you are facing your own issues with mental health.
Growing up under strict parents, I had little freedom in what and how should I do certain things in my life. Everything was planned so that I have become very dependent on my parents. As I entered high school, my parents started to give me more and more freedom in my life, however, I realized that I was a very weak independent learner. I had no ambitions which made me lazier and lazier and more “generous” to myself. In my junior year of high school, my grades were not as good as I expected and I was very overwhelmed by the workload of school. I was so overwhelmed and it eventually affected my mental health significantly. I was always so negative and stressed out I truly did not enjoy my life. This was the time when I realized that I must talk to someone to recover from this state of mental illness. To begin with, I had regular meetings with my counselor which was really helpful for me. I started with the ways to take control of the things happening in my life. Making daily and weekly plans and taking time to clear them out one by one helped me to regain a sense of achievement. This sense of achievement significantly enhanced my self-esteem. I also try to meditate every night before I go to sleep to release stress and clear out stresses in my life. Instead of watching SNS before I go to sleep, it was really helpful to take 5-10 minutes of meditation. It helped me to relieve some stress from the day and I was able to organize the random floating ideas in my mind, which gradually helped me to recover from depression. Lastly, I tried to read and watch as many positive books, videos, and films as possible. I think trying to have a positive state of mind and having hopes of recovering from mental illness is crucial. If you realize you are not in a healthy mental state, I am telling you, not to worry and that it is a positive sign because it means you have a high chance of recovering from your depression.
This is how I slowly recovered from my mental illness and I am so sorry if you are facing mental illnesses in your life. I hope my experience and the guides can help you with recovering from it!
OCTOBER 2020 ARTICLES
DEAR READER,
By Jisoo Myung
Dear Reader,
I really adore writing letters and exchanging them with pen pals from all around the world, and will try to write about mental health in such a way that it feels like I am actually talking to you (because I am!) through a letter.
How have you been? Are you eating and sleeping well? Are you making sure that you prioritise your health above all else? Are you making sure you are balancing between your academics, work, and some fun?
I strongly believe that mental wellbeing is an incredibly vague yet important topic, that should be discussed a lot more than it is right now. It is vague in the sense that it really does differ per person, but important in the sense that it affects everything in one’s life.
I found that listening to other people’s experiences has always encouraged and inspired me, so I will try to do the same here. Not to necessarily empower you, as I am not that poetic or eloquent, but at least to make you feel less alone in your journey in life.
As with pretty much everyone in the world, I have struggled with balancing things in my life, and so failed to prioritise my own mental health. Thinking back, I believe that this was partially due to the lack of knowledge I had on this subject. Ever since I could start understanding speech, I assumed that physical health was the most important aspect to focus on, and “mental health” was limited to the “weird minority” - which I am sure you know, is definitely not true. Now, this lack of knowledge and insane amount of stigma that leads to the label of a “taboo” topic, frustrates me to no end.
A lot of my internal struggles stemmed from my lack of confidence and love for myself. This constant self-doubt and self-hatred led me to make numerous stupid decisions and ruin too many relationships. I was always comparing myself to the more “successful” individuals both near and far from me, and felt like I was never enough. I guess I could be described as a perfectionist. Adding puberty, social media, and the increasing competition at school to the mix, did everything but help this helpless confusion. I think this could be considered as a universal experience shared by many adolescents growing out of childhood and into adulthood - and even beyond that.
I felt stupid and silly for feeling the way I did, because I had not suffered from a trauma or tragedy that would permit myself to feel the way that I did. I could never ask for help because I could not even properly pinpoint what the actual issue was. But the thoughts and feelings that followed were definitely true and real, and definitely did affect me. The internal, ambiguous conflict followed me into the real world, and appeared as forms of procrastination, withdrawal from people, excessive sleeping, etc… There is a long list of behaviours that are very common among adolescents, that may actually indicate that you are struggling.
The thoughts and feelings that rise from any level of difficulties are valid and okay, and there is no competition to have come out from the worst circumstances. It is perfectly valid to have lived a completely privileged life and still end up with, let’s say, depression. You do not need to define, or prove, or explain yourself, because you are valid in the way that you are. You do not always have to find out why you are feeling a certain way, or slap a label on it. It is okay to just feel the way that you do until it passes. Because it will definitely pass. Nothing is permanent.
And words like these helped me when I felt like an idiot, whining about nothing, and wanted to melt away.
Personally, multiple times throughout my short life, I was at a low point where I could not bring myself back up with my own abilities, and was too embarrassed and ashamed to seek help from others. Although it is always preached, “seek help when needed,” it was incredibly difficult to actually do it. And that is also okay, because it really is not easy to be vulnerable in front of someone, especially regarding mental health and wellbeing, which is still stigmatised today. But I whole-heartedly encourage you to try not to be alone when you are struggling - but make sure the other person is also okay with listening, because everyone is going through something at some point in their lives. And if you are on the receiving end, you do not need to feel obligated to solve the problem or offer a full therapy-course. Just listening, and being there to root them on is usually more than enough!
We should encourage and add onto the conversations about mental health and wellbeing, in order to reduce stigma and increase self-empowerment. And you need to know that whatever pace that you are currently going at, at whatever point in life that you are in right now, take it easy, understand yourself, and be yourself.
I sincerely hope that you are managing well right now, or even feeling great! Life is full of ups and downs which are all temporary, but that means that the bad will never last. Take care!
Your friend,
Jisoo
I HATE #MENTALHEALTH. HERE'S WHY.
By Laura Senior
The word "mental health" has become almost an internet trend- a hashtag to add to your post. "Metal Health care" and "self-care" hashtags often come with tips on how to take an off day, skincare tips, or a very aesthetic picture of a cup of tea. I enjoy that type of content as much as anyone else, but there is something I have to admit. As someone who has had a mental illness, this kind of glamour surrounding the self-care trend tends to lead to toxic places.
I propose looking at why this tendency to set "mental-health" as a hashtag is detrimental to anyone suffering or who has ever had some kind of mental illness. It's nice to talk about the positives and alternatives, the supposed solutions. Mental illness itself is not a fad trend; anxiety or depression is never accurately depicted in an Instagram picture or a 15-second TikTok.
Mass information about mental health is useful. It raises awareness and ultimately helps information reach a more significant demographic. However, it leads to misinformation and allows destructive behaviors, such as self-diagnosis, to occur. There is a distortion of illnesses such as anxiety and depression, a certain kind of romanticization within social media.
If you look online, it seems as if everyone had some kind of anxiety or depression. There are some cases where this is true, where a change of lifestyle is enough to get out of an ugly place. Yet, there are those cases that aren't as happy, where a change of scenery or lifestyle is not enough to get out of a depressive episode or an anxious state. Those are the instances where the illness takes a more severe form.
There is little serious talk about illness. Mental health goes beyond the occasional anxious tough, and the gloomy day. Depression, anxiety, and many other mental disorders are realities too hard to bear for many. Depression is not being able to wake from bed for days or weeks, getting your hair so knotted you have to cut it off, completely cut out from reality. Anxiety is exhausting, being all alert 24/7, and your body going on override until becoming unresponsive, never a moment's break. These cases are severe and have to be treated medically. You would never expect someone with a broken leg to walk it off. You would bring that person to the hospital to get treatment. Yet, the same approach is not suitable for mental illness. No one wants to see the pills, the therapist, the side effects, the tension with family and friends.
Recovery isn't as the hashtags portray. Often, it showcases tips or habits to have a healthier lifestyle, habits for mental health. This is welcomed information, as they help the everyday person overcome difficult moments and cater to their state. But these do damage to those who are diagnosed with an illness. There is almost no information on medication available online under the hashtag "mental health" other than the continuing stigma. There is virtually no information on therapy, nothing on how difficult and painful it is. Almost nothing on how long it takes to recover from an episode. Personally, a depressive episode that lasted around six months was followed by a year of pills and two years of weekly and biweekly therapy sessions. And I had it easy. And after the challenging recovery path, I am happier than I have ever been, though I still struggle from time to time. But this is not accessible information. When I first felt this way, I felt alone. No one understood, and the online sources never explained how challenging but rewarding recovery was. The easy to find information about mental health only made me feel inadequate because I needed medication, and they did not. Because I spent two years fighting, and they did not. These portrayals set the recovery path as easy and something everyone could do. It ends up undermining mental illnesses, as it undermines the difficult path to recovery—the countless hours with a therapist, the morning and night pills, the side effects.
Other issues have been born out of this inexact exposure of mental health, a trend to self-diagnose, or worse, diagnose others. Yet, I do not have a solution to offer you. Most posts rarely come from malign intent and do help some in difficulty. It is challenging to limit social media regarding these issues. One way for mental illnesses to stop being stigmatized is through social media. In the meantime, there is one thing you can be more aware of. Label things the right way. Mental illness does not need a mental reset. It needs help. Destigmatize the right parts, the medication, the therapy. Normalize them. Discuss them. Listen to your friends' struggles, not to what a random person on the internet says about them. Help those who ask for it and provide resources to those who do not ask for help.