Practicing Mental Health Self-Care During Civil Unrest

It is undeniable that the current national state of emergency has caused a lot of anxiety and concern about the future. Unfortunately, across the country, our state of distress was only amplified with media reports of civil unrest. How do we practice mental health self-care while in a state of national distress? 

We will need to find ways to remove or protect ourselves while being exposed to highly emotional states. As I’ve stated in the past, I’m not suggesting that you isolate yourself on a deserted island (by avoiding people and media) or ignore reasonable, global warnings. In fact, isolation would be counterproductive to resiliency, since interpersonal connection and support are key to helping our bodies deal with stress. The goal is to learn ways to prevent emotional contagion (experiencing another person's emotions or related behaviors), such as:

• Learning to relax your body as you listen to highly emotionally charged information
• Staying positive (if appropriate, smiling can help)
• Trying a news fast. Once you are informed of the situation, take a break from additional news or media 
• Surrounding yourself with things that make you happy
• Finding meaning by reflecting and being grateful for all experiences, both positive and negative

Resource:The Resilient Learner: Thriving and Succeeding in College - https://publish1st.com/dr-aubrey

Current Pandemic may have Adverse Effects on our Students’ Ability to Learn

So, here we are in 2020, and in the past few months we have seen great despair across our country as communities and families have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the start of this pandemic, media alerts of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic shattered the safety of billions of people around the world. This triggered state-dependent, survival functioning behaviors such as anxiety shopping (e.g., hoarding food and toilet paper, etc.). Thus, the strain and disruption that COVID-19 has caused our nation is undisputable. 

Recently, however, that strain has been further amplified by the tragedy in Minneapolis when George Floyd died by asphyxiation while in police custody, causing the subsequent unrest across the country. How are these traumatic events affecting our students?  

While it is true that school can increase the amount of stress and anxiety in a student’s life, it is also true that students may be dealing with anxieties outside of the school setting. Besides having to balance course loads, students can also be struggling with employment issues or work-related stressors and social and family concerns. On top of that, the media floods the news with warnings of mass shootings, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters, adding to students’ anxiety. This can result in what is known as emotional contagion, which is the psychological occurrence of experiencing other people’s emotions and related behaviors. 

We may have experienced this phenomenon from being around someone anxious or depressed, only to notice later that our anxiety levels are increasing or our energy levels are being sapped. However, emotional contagion can happen at a large societal or global scale, as we have seen with COVID-19 and the tragedy in Minneapolis. 

Students only need to turn on the TV or go online to read about traumatic events that shake their sense of security and personal safety. The flooding of emotions can interfere with students’ ability to learn and thrive and perform academically. For example, the human brain functions in a hierarchy. The higher thinking parts of the brain, called the neocortex, function at optimal levels only when subcortical (lower) parts of the brain are not in high alert, attending to internal or environmental threats or stressors. Since the basic needs of safety and security are being met, activity in the brain can be allocated to higher brain functions such as reflective and abstract thinking required for learning math and other college subjects. 

However, if students are reporting emotional stressors such as feeling overwhelmed with everything they have to do, “overwhelming anxiety,” sadness, depression or loneliness, the brain will naturally divert activity (energy) from the neocortex (higher brain functions) to more subcortical (lower) or primitive parts of the brain that modulate and attend to distressing emotions. The shift in activity (decreased neocortical activity) to more primitive areas of the brain leads to a reduction in abstract thinking, reflective thinking, problem solving, and critical thinking skills, which are essential to learning academic subjects found in college. 

How can this influence academic performance? A survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at students who received mostly Ds and Fs. About 1 out of 2 reported feeling sad and hopeless and 1 out of 5 attempted suicide.16 Other studies have also shown a connection with mental health concerns such as depression and suicidal thoughts and a decline in academic performance, including lower grade point average.

Solution to the Problem

Of course, I’m not suggesting that students isolate themselves on a deserted island (by avoiding people and media) or ignore reasonable, global warnings. In fact, isolation would be counterproductive, since interpersonal connection and support are key to helping our bodies deal with stress. The goal is to learn ways to prevent emotional contagion, such as:

·      Learning to relax your body as you listen to highly emotionally charged information

·      Staying positive (if appropriate, smiling can help)

·      Trying a news fast. Once you are informed of the situation, take a break from additional news or media 

·      Surrounding yourself with things that make you happy

·      Finding meaning by reflecting and being grateful for all experiences, both positive and negative

This will help prevent the shifting of activity (decreased neocortical activity) to more primitive areas of the brain. As a result, we can access neocortical functioning such as reasoning, abstract thinking, and reflection to best address any concerns that might be directly threatening our safety. 

Resource

Arizona Resilience Institute - https://azresilience.org/

Mental Health Self-Care for College Success

When someone talks about mental health, what comes to mind? Most people think of mental illnesses like depression or bipolar disorder. However, this is a half-baked or very narrow view of mental health. Mental health is "a continuum ranging from having good mental health to having a mental disorder" (as cited in Aubrey, 2020). More importantly, if mental health problems [not illnesses] and emotional problems are not addressed, they can develop into mental health disorders or limitations in the student's role or functioning at school, work, or social and community activities.

If you have a restricted view of mental health, it is understandable. At times even counselors tend to misunderstand the nature of mental health. This is the reason many college success courses tend to avoid teaching students about mental health. There appears to be an erroneously belief that it only applies to a small number of students (1 in 5) who are contending with mental illness. 

However, good mental health is the cornerstone to success in:

• School
• Work
• Relationships

Without good mental and emotional health, do you think it's easy for a student to focus in class? If a student grew up with broken promises from adult loved ones, causing traumatic attachment injuries, do you think it will be easy for them to reach out to adults for help (e.g., tutoring)? Teaching college success skills (e.g., time management, study skills, etc.) without first teaching students mental health self-care is like the "foolish man who built his house on the sand." When the rain pours down or the wind blows (stressors in life) and the floods come (adversity, like COVID-19), the skills that students learn in college success courses will collapse. Why? Because they were never built on a solid foundation (good mental health). 

Do college success courses teach students mental health self-care? The answer is a resounding "no." Most college success courses do not teach evidence-based, self-regulation skills such as mindfulness to improve mental health. I've taught CPD-150 (college success) classes since 2010 and I've always been dumbfounded on how course competencies never address building good mental health. In fact, since I've taught CPD-150 at at a local community college, we have used four different textbooks and none of them have adequately addressed mental health self-care or discussed evidence-based approaches to build resiliency. Surprisingly, the word "mental health" is found nowhere in the index of most college success textbooks, including textbooks that have been written by a school counselor. This is puzzling to say the least. 

Of course, most of us know that the health of our mind and body depends on good mental health. In addition, without a healthy mind, body and brain, it is challenging to grow. learn, and thrive in college. Thus, college success courses need to focus on the integrated [whole] person, the mind, brain, and body [even the social person] and this means addressing mental health. 

Thus, my work on building a new pedagogy for college success is a new and innovative paradigm. It helps students build a strong foundation by teaching them mental health self-care and resiliency skills required to effectively learn and apply college study skills even during hard times. 

Stay-tuned for more

Resource

Arizona Resilience Institute - https://azresilience.org/

Coping with Thoughts of Suicide

If you are having thoughts of suicide, more than likely you have reached a point in your life when nothing seems to change for the better (a loss of hope). This can be an overwhelming and frightening experience. It may seem like the only way out is to consider suicide. However, even if you might find it hard to believe, your life is important! The goal is to offer you another option with the hope that you are willing to consider keeping yourself safe for now.

In my years of experience working as a crisis and trauma therapist, I’ve found that with the right support, people do get better. In addition, we innately have a desire to hold on to life, to live. The fact is, if you have ever had the desire for things to get better or for something to change (even if it seems impossible), you have a reason to hold on to life for now. This is your body’s way to grasp on to life. If you have felt confused and uncertain about what to do in life, this is also a good indication that your innate desire to find a way to hold onto life is alive and kicking. Our body gives us clues that we truly want to live even if it is the faintest desire for things to be different, but we need to listen to those clues. Now is a good time to listen to what your deepest yearnings are telling you, to live—of course, without this pain. 

What are some reasons you have to live? Even if they seem insignificant, they are important. Otherwise, the deepest part of your mind would not have taken the time to consider these options. At the very least, I invite you to be willing to keep yourself safe. Be open and curious about how things can change and what change might look like. 

My goal is to get you the right support to keep you safe. In order to accomplish the goal of keeping you safe for now, here are some things you can do to cope with thoughts of suicide. 

Make a promise to keep yourself safe for now. Even if you are overwhelmed with emotional pain, explore the possibility that these emotions can change. Like a physical wound, although it will take some time to mend or heal, emotional wounds do heal with the proper care. First and foremost, however, it is important that you keep yourself safe for now. This lets you explore ways to improve your situation and build resiliency to flourish in life. Seeking help is a very effective way to support this goal of safety. Reach out to someone you trust and ask for their help. This can include professionals.

If You Are Experiencing Suicidal Thoughts, You Are Not Alone. 

Talk to a Mental Health Professional. 

Call the National Suicide Hotline Number at: 1(800) 273-TALK (8255)

Avoid using alcohol or drugs. Even if used recreationally, drugs and alcohol can impair our judgment and inhibit our ability to control impulses. This is because drug and alcohol use can cause the executive functions of the brain to shut down or go offline. Thus, for now, avoid any use of alcohol or drugs since it can lead to you acting on thoughts of suicide. 

Create safety in your environment. Remove from your environment anything that you can use to hurt yourself. If this is impossible, remove yourself from this environment and go somewhere where you can be safe. Make sure not to be alone. Although we might feel like being alone, our best line of defense is to create a safe environment by connecting and bonding with others. This is because, biologically, we are wired to recover in the context of relationships.

Remember to hold on to hope. I have seen thousands of individuals in a state of crisis. Each one was going through hard times, but with time their situation has always improved. Yes, if you are having thoughts of suicide, you are obviously going through hard times. Otherwise, you would not be having these thoughts. But trust me when I say that things can get better, even if it’s hard to believe. 

With the right support, people do get better. No matter how painful your life is right now, things can get better if you give yourself time and the support that you need to heal. 

Seek professional help. More than likely the pain that led you to contemplate the possibility of taking your life did not happen overnight. Likewise, the healing process will take time. It can help to reach out to professionals who have experience in helping individuals with thoughts of suicide. If anything, they can help you put things into perspective. They can also teach you additional coping skills to handle whatever life throws your way (resiliency). 

Helpful Resources

• American Association of Suicidology: www.suicidology.org

• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: www.afsp.org

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Books

Arizona Resilience Institute - https://azresilience.org/