Maintaining
Your Mental Wellness
Place
Things in Perspective: Peak performers use "Percentage Thinking"
to see things in context so they can choose how to react to events in their
day. Recognize that all situations don't cause the same impact on your stress
level.- Cultivate and
Maintain a Strong Sense of Humor: Many people have not developed
the ability to laugh at themselves or at life when it goes sour. This is a
skill that peak performers use as a major stress buffer.
- View Life as
an Adventure: Reflect on what you want out of life and decide that
life is to be an exciting adventure. Remind yourself daily.
- Make Meaning
Out of an Often Meaningless World: Know that for life to hold significance,
you must form a world view that makes sense with your values and priorities.
- Develop Mental
Toughness: Peak performers live by this credo: "Don't hope for
an easy life; strive to be a strong person." Try to apply this to your
life?
- Live Life With
a Healthy Sense of Urgency: Realize that life is short and try to
wring out all the excitement, quality and grandeur life has to offer.
- Become a Supreme
Problem-Solvers: Have the flexibility and adaptability to solve,
avoid or reduce the problems we all face. Welcome these challenges as avenues
for growth.
- Maintain Focus
Under Pressure: Top performers live in the present moment, and even
though they reflect for planning purposes, they live in the here and now.
- Recover From
Stress Intentionally: Try to renew your reserves so you can go out
again and "do battle.”
- Continually
Reinvent Yourself: Peak performers endlessly re-formulate goals and
their vision of life as they achieve each step in their master plan.
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Promoting
Mental Health In Children And Adolescents:
The best way to promote
children’s mental health is to build up their strengths, help to protect
them from risks, and give them tools to succeed in life.
- Help children
relate to others and build their confidence. Give children a chance
to talk about experiences and feelings; offer encouragement and praise; acknowledge
positive and negative behavior; and provide consistent and fair expectations
with clear consequences for misbehavior.
- Be a role model.
Talk about your own feelings, apologize when you are wrong, don’t express
anger with violence, and use active problem-solving skills.
- Encourage exercise
and sports. Researchers have linked a variety of psychological benefits
to exercise, including decreased depression and anxiety, and improved mood
states, self-confidence, sense of life-quality, and general psychological
well-being. [Participation in exercise and sports has also been shown to reduce
delinquent behavior and boost academic performance.
- Suggest involvement
in after-school activities. A questionnaire on body image and self-esteem
found that girls who were active in a greater number of after-school activities
had higher body image, self-esteem, and feelings of competence than girls
who participated in fewer.
- Encourage strong
family relationships. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in
Houston found that adolescents who were from closely knit families and maintained
an intimate connection with their parents based on trust and open communication
were less likely to use alcohol.
High expectations can
go a long way. Studies indicate that high parental or family expectations for
a child’s performance may serve as a protective factor against child substance
abuse.
Tips For Parents
And Care Givers
- Recognize that your
children’s mental health is just as important as their physical health.
- Spend time with your
children daily listening to them and talking to them about what is happening
in their lives.
- Provide unconditional
love and support to your children.
- Educate yourself about
children’s mental health and illness.
- Talk about emotions
and feelings with your child.
- Teach and model tolerance
and understanding about mental illness.
- Consult with their teachers,
guidance counselor, or other adults that may have information about your child’s
behavior if you’re concerned about your child’s mental health.
- Seek professional help
if you think there might be a problem.
- Develop a comprehensive
plan, which includes input from the child if treatment is needed.
Tips
for Teachers and School Officials
- Think about mental health
as an important component of a child being “ready to learn”; if
a child is experiencing mental health problems, he or she will likely have
trouble focusing in school.
- Incorporate mental health
into the classroom and ensure that all students are treated with respect.
- Know the signs of mental
illness and available resources.
- Contact a child’s
parent or caretaker and seek consultation from school mental health professionals
if you have concerns.
- Use the mental health
professional(s) at your school as resources for preventive interventions with
students, including social skills training; education for teachers and students
on mental health; crisis counseling for teachers and students following a
traumatic event; and classroom management skills training for teachers.
Courtesy of http://www.servingfamilies.org
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Promoting Mental Health in an Older Adult
- Develop the ability
to focus on the positive aspect of a situation or person.
- Take time each day
to eat a balanced diet, relax and exercise.
- Take time to put things
in perspective – be realistic.
- Surround the older
adult with positive supportive people.
- Have fun, laughs, and
be playful.
- Find and keep in touch
with the spiritual self through prayer, meditation, inspirational readings,
and nature.
- Know that asking for
help is a sign of courage and strength – seek help early before problems
seem too big or difficult to manage.
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Confronting
the Urge to Use Substances
It is suggested you meditate
on each of these points instead of merely reading through them hurriedly.
1. When you have the urge
to drink or to use, don’t deny it—admit it: "Yes, I would like
some." This gives you a chance to deal with it. Remember, lying to ourselves
never did us any good and only caused us to go further into bondage.
2. Cultivate continued
acceptance of the fact that your choice is between intoxicated behavior or doing
without.
3. Cultivate enthusiastic
gratitude that you have had the good fortune of finding out what was wrong with
you before it was too late.
4.
Expect, that for a period of time, and it may be a long time, you may recurrently
experience:
A. The conscious, nagging
urge to use.
B. The sudden, all but compelling, impulse to use.
C. The craving, not just for the substance you used but, for euphoric feelings,
the glow, warmth, and rush the substance once gave you. (This also could occur
regarding the use of a needle.)
5. Remember that the period
of time you don’t want to use, is the time in which to build up your strength
and resources in sobriety for those times when you are tempted to use.
6. Develop and write out
a daily plan of action by which you will live that day without using. Remember
that you need to focus on changing your thoughts, words, and actions in order
to live your life of daily sobriety
7. Regardless of what may
upset you or how hard the old urge to use may hit you, remember there is no
problem so big that alcohol or some drug can’t and won't make it bigger
and worse.
8. When you find yourself
thinking (arguing within your self-conscience), focusing on yourself, feeling
sorry for yourself or comparing yourself to those who you think are normal and
have the privilege of having the ability to drink, stop and take a moment to
begin to focus on the truth.
9. If you find yourself
thinking of the pleasure you got from drinking or using, recall all the pain,
heartache, and misery it brought with it.
10. If you’re thinking
that just one or two drinks will make some bad situation better or tolerable,
take a moment to meditate on the scriptures and the truth they reveal.
11. Cultivate the association
of drinking or using with the loss of joy, peace of mind, and the ability to
make clear choices and decisions regarding your life.
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Coping with Day to Day
- Stay connected.
Talk to family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers about your stress and fears.
- Get physical.
Reduce stress by developing a regular exercise routine.
- Avoid
drugs and alcohol. Just like stress, they rob you of energy and cloud
your perceptions of everyone and everything.
- Make time to
relax. Try to reduce the amount of time you spend worrying about
things you can't control. Cut down or eliminate activities that cause you
stress.
- Take back some
control. You can't control the war, but you can exercise control
over some things. Limit watching the news and focus on activities that take
your mind off your worries.
- Maintain your
routine as much as possible.
- Take reasonable
precautions. Make an emergency communications plan with family and
friends.
- Maintain
a positive outlook. Remember that our nation
has survived other difficult times. Stay in touch with spiritual sources of
comfort whether that means reading the Bible, meditating/praying alone or
in a group.
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Asking the Right Questions of Your Healthcare Provider
- Are you familiar and
comfortable caring for my, or my family’s mental health needs?
- Are you comfortable
prescribing medication for my mental health problems or will I need a referral
to a mental health professional?
- What dosage of medication
is to be taken, at what time of day, and how should I increase my dose if
this is to be done before my next visit? (Take notes if this is complicated.)
- What are the possible
side effects of my medication(s) and what should I do if I experience side
effects?
- How can I reach you
if I experience any side effect or worsening of my condition? (Be sure you
leave the appointment with an emergency phone number to reach your doctor.)
- How long will it take
to feel improvement and what type of improvement should I expect?
- Are there risks associated
with this treatment and, if so, how can I recognize them? (If you have any
concerns, share them with your doctor.)
- How long will I need
to take the medication?
- If the medication needs
to be stopped for any reason, how should this be done?
- How often will I need
to see you? How long do the appointments take?
- Is psychotherapy recommended
as part of my treatment? If so, what type?
- What can I do to improve
my response to treatment? Are there activities I should avoid to increase
the likelihood of improvement?
- If someone questions
why my doctor prescribed medication, or raises doubts about possible dangers
of taking medication, how should I respond?
- Are there psychiatrists
or mental health professionals to whom you can refer my family members, or
me if I choose?
- What should I look for
in a therapist?
- Are you familiar with
my insurance benefits so that you know my rights and privileges?
What
To Share With Your Health Care Provider About You
- Make a list of all
your recent and current medical problems. Share all of them with your health
care provider, so that they may better assess your health care situation.
Many times mental disorders can be the cause of other medical disorders or
co-exist with other medical disorders.
- Make a list of all medication,
including vitamins and herbal supplements you are taking.
- Let the doctor know
if you or any of your relatives have ever had a mental health problem if you
suspect you may have a mental disorder.
- Discuss any big changes
or stresses in your life that may have affected the way you feel.
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