Mental Health Resources

Managing stress

Stress is something everyone feels. When someone feels stress strongly and often, it can strain your body. Often a person is not able to function as they normally can when under high levels of stress. 

Stress can cause physical as well as mental symptoms including: 

  • Headaches
  • Trouble sleeping
  • Jaw pain
  • Changes in appetite
  • Frequent mood swings
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Feeling overwhelmed

Did you know things we do can put us at more risk to experience significant levels of stress? Things like getting too little sleep, not eating well, and poor physical health can cause higher levels of stress. 

Managing stress for some comes naturally, however it is normal to struggle with high levels of stress. There are things that you can do to keep stress levels at a controlled level and keep yourself healthy. Resources for stress relieve can be found at: 

Mental Health

Mental health is a broad term for our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Mental health is important through our life as it affects how we think, feel, and act and can change overtime depending on many reasons. 

Mental health and mental illness are not the same. Mental illnesses are conditions that affect a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, or behavior. Mental illnesses can be occasional or long lasting and affect many aspects of a person’s life. 

Examples of mental illnesses include: 

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Schizophrenia 

Recognizing poor mental health from mental illness can be difficult as there is no one cause of symptoms.  The symptoms of mental illness can vary and be difficult to recognize. Factors that can contribute to poor mental health and the development of a mental illness include: 

  • Early life trauma
  • History of abuse
  • Biological factors
  • Use of alcohol or drugs
  • Having few friends
  • Having feelings of loneliness or isolation

Depression and mood disorders are estimated to effect 1 in 10 adults. Depression differs from a bad mood or being sad because those who experience these conditions live with more constant and severe symptoms. 

Depression symptoms are very personalized to the person being affected. More information on depression is available at https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/symptoms-causes/syc-20356007

 Free online tests for a variety of conditions can be found at https://screening.mhanational.org/screening-tools/