May is Mental Health Month: Therapizing the Mind
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- The Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity Inc., Committee on Social Activism (COSA) invites all undergraduate and alumni brothers to participate in this year’s May is Mental Health Month: Therapizing the Mind. For this month, we commit to promote and advocate for mental health awareness at the collegiate and professional levels. Throughout the month, we will be highlighting mental health stressors and management skills that are centered around: Managing Stress in College, Separation Anxiety and Loneliness, Practicing Mindfulness, and Maintaining Healthy Relationships. Brothers are encouraged to advocate for mental health awareness through various ways: social media, hosting a collaborative event on campus with counseling center services, or highlight other mental health disorders and symptoms on social platforms.
- Week 1: Managing Stress in College (Graphic) – May 1, 2019
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- What is stress? Ask yourself…
- Do I find it hard to relax?
- Am I easily irritated?
- Am I anxious all the time?
- Do I have an increased desire to smoke, drink, or use drugs?
- What is stress?
- Stress is a natural experience and part of life. It is how the human body responds to a variety of external and internal signals. External triggers can include starting a new semester, final exams, an illness or death in the family, and even the start of a new relationship. Internal triggers include physical or mental discomfort, desire to please others or need to attain perfection.
- Week 1: Managing Stress in College (Graphic) – May 3, 2019
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- What are the possible effects of stress?
- Feeling overloaded or overwhelmed
- Sudden attacks of panic or excessive worry
- Forgetfulness, disorganization, confusion
- Depression, irritability, mood swings
- Headaches, chronic pain, frequent colds
- Difficulty making decisions
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- Ways to manage or cope with stress effectively.
- Be spiritual – religion, meditation, or prayer can have a relaxing effect on the body.
- Reach Out – talk to friends, family, and professional psychotherapy in counseling centers or community
- Deep Breathing – take a deep breath and exhale slowly through your mouth counting backwards from 10 to 1.
- Relaxation techniques – exercise and meditation
- Week 2: Separation Anxiety and Loneliness (Graphic) – May 6, 2019
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- What is separation anxiety and loneliness?
- One of the most difficult and challenging aspects of starting college is the process of leaving your family and friends behind and having to create a new social network. The interpersonal issues that students encounter as they make the transition from home to college is separation anxiety. You may find the prospect of not seeing your family and friends for several weeks to be somewhat scary.
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- Strategies for coping.
- Be assured that separation anxiety always passes no matter how intense the feelings
- It helps to talk about the uncomfortable feelings you are having. Speak to a RA, family member, or friend
- Consider calling your campus Counseling or Health Center
- Week 2: Separation Anxiety and Loneliness (Graphic) – May 8, 2019
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- Loneliness and/or Loss of Social Status and coping skills.
- Loneliness can be a painful feeling that something is missing from your life or that you feel disconnected from friends and family. Sometimes, starting over in a new environment makes you feel as if you have lost that status and that you have to start all over again from the bottom of the social ladder.
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- Strategies for coping.
- Experiencing feelings of loneliness is perfectly normal and to be expected while you are going through a period of change. Being alone can lead to personal growth and greater self-confidence
- You are simply going through a transition; don’t send yourself negative and self-critical messages about your loneliness and/or loss of social status
- Remind yourself that you can meet new people and build a network just like you have before
- Week 3: Practicing Mindfulness (Graphic) – May 13, 2019
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- What is Mindfulness?
- Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to what is happening to you from moment to moment. To be mindful, you must slow down and bring awareness to your thoughts, feelings and actions, without attaching judgement to them. When we feel stressed, it is easy to focus solely on problems and simultaneously be blind to any positive experiences. Taking notice of simple sensations, like taste, helps stop line of thinking.
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- Simple ways to practice mindfulness.
- In the shower, notice how the water feels on your body
- As you brush your teeth, pay attention to all sensations and tastes
- On your way to school, pay attention to how you walk. Take deep breaths, relaxing throughout your body.
- Repeat daily
- As you go to sleep, let go of today and tomorrow, and take some mindful breaths
- Week 4: Maintaining Healthy Relationships (Graphic) – May 20, 2019
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- Romantic relationships
- A first step in figuring out how to create a healthy relationship, or to know whether you are in an unhealthy relationship, is to be clear about the characteristics of both.
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- Signs of a healthy relationship
- Little emotional pain
- Life is better with your partner in it
- Never try to control of manipulate each other
- Trust and respect each other
- Never violent – no pushing, shoving, grabbing, hitting, or punching
- Week 4: Maintaining Healthy Relationships (Graphic) – May 22, 2019
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- Romantic relationships
- A first step in figuring out how to create a healthy relationship, or to know whether you are in an unhealthy relationship, is to be clear about the characteristics of both.
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- Signs of an unhealthy relationship
- Your partner tries to control or manipulate you
- Your partner is very possessive and jealous
- Your partner excessively drinks or abuses drugs around you
- Your partner makes you feel bad about yourself
- Your partner calls you names and yells at you.
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- What can you do?
- Recognizes signs of an unhealthy relationship
- Seek help for yourself or a friend
- Counseling services are available on campus
- Week 5: Suicide Prevention (Graphic) – May 27, 2019
- Many individuals between the ages of 18 and 25 tend to present with higher rates of suicide attempts than any other age group; and even when rates of suicide are very similar among men and women, women tend to present more suicidal attempts than men (SAMHSA, 2015). Regarding cultura y bienestar—culture and well-being, there are many factors that contribute to suicide ideation that are specific to the Latinx community. Interfaced with being the largest minority group, Latinxs continue to experience significant mental health, scholastic, economic, environmental and societal disparities (Sue & Sue, 2013).
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- Risk Factors: Prior suicide attempts, substance abuse, access to lethal means, social isolation, knowing someone else who’s died by suicide, depressive disorders, oppressive systemic experiences and lack of access to specialty mental health or behavioral health care.
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- Protective Factors: Through a culturally responsive approach, identifying cultural protective factors are vital ways to prevent risk of suicide: familia—family, support systems such as comunidad—community and friends, espiritualidad—spiritual or religious views that discourage suicide, and re-discovering a meaningful purpose in life.
