wellness

News is everywhere, all the time, and a lot of it is negative. 

With streaming, social media, games, and pop-up headlines, it’s hard to avoid these negative events, especially since coverage is global, bringing what’s going on around the world right to our front doors. With so much exposure to violence and disaster, it’s understandable that we have a buildup of negativity, anxiety, and fear that can lead to media-induced stress. 

Constant Bad News Takes a Toll

If you think you may be dealing with media-induced stress, here are some signs to watch for:

• inability to “unplug” from media reports

• feeling overwhelmed

• anxiety, depression, fear, anger, numbness, shock

• deep feelings of empathy you can’t let go

• difficulty relaxing

• increased heart rate, blood pressure

• sleeping too much or not enough

• restlessness, headaches, stomach, and other physical problems

• overeating, undereating

• isolating

• self-medicating

A Strategy for Tragedy

There are many things outside our control. But taking action when and where we can helps give us a better sense of stability and peace in times of turmoil. Here are some steps to help:

• Assess the reality of a situation to your life. The news makes it seem like negative events happen everywhere, every day to everyone—which can make us feel as if these events are happening in our own lives. But that’s not true. Take time to process what actually affects your daily life. 

• Learn to unplug. Take deliberate breaks from your screens and from the world. 

• Avoid news before bed. They can lead to disrupted or inadequate sleep.

• Limit media consumption in times of hyped-up tragedy. Being informed is okay. Being obsessed is not.

• Talk with friends or family about feelings and issues. Engaging in real-world discussions often helps bring our focus back to what is real, immediate, and important.

• Write your thoughts down. Getting thoughts out of our minds and onto paper helps us assess their validity while cleansing our thought process.

• Try meditation techniques to quiet the mind. Sitting quietly, focused breathing, intentional thinking, and getting in touch with nature can help lower blood pressure and heart rate and deal with rising anxiety.

• Take positive action. In times of tragedy, the urge to help can be therapeutic. Find a local charity or organization to support in some way.

• Engage your mind and body in centering activities. Channel the energy that would typically go toward stress and anxiety toward something positive and productive instead. Listen to or play music. Spend time with your children. Cook a healthy meal. Walk the dog. Organize your closet. Read a book. 

Keep in Mind

Media-induced stress is a real and growing issue that can impact our daily well-being. Realizing that you’re not alone is a big step in battling media-induced trauma. If you’re struggling with handling what’s going on in the world, reach out for help.  

Disaster trauma is such a prominent issue that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has set up a free support line for anyone in need as well. The Disaster Distress Helpline can be reached at (800) 985-5990 or on the web at www.samhsa.gov/find-help.

“AMA policy adopted last year identifies loneliness as a public health issue that affects people of all ages.” ~ American Medical Association

February is the month of love and connection. But what if you don’t feel connected? In a January 2020 (pre-lockdown) survey of 10,000 adults, 61% said they were lonely. And loneliness is more than just a mental health issue. It’s been linked to increased heart problems, stroke, and other medical issues. 

According to psychiatrist Dr. Tiffani Bell Washington, MD, MPH, “Loneliness is essentially the feeling of being uncomfortable or in distress when someone feels that there is a gap between the connection they would like and the connection they actually have... You can be in a crowd full of people, you can know all of them, and you can still feel lonely.” 

She added that superficial social connections, no matter how many, don’t really decrease loneliness. “What you really want is something deeper—someone to know you on the inside,” she said. “It's really based on perception of the difference between the relationship you'd like and the relationship that you have with others.”

Types of Loneliness

Loneliness and social isolation are two sides to the same coin. As stated above, a person can be lonely in a crowd. But many people are also at risk for social isolation. These include marginalized populations, older people, and those in remote areas. Either way, the lack of connection to others is detrimental because humans are hard-wired for connection. 

How to Combat Loneliness

When it comes to “fixing” the problem of loneliness, there are two major things to consider: connection with others and connection with ourselves (being content while alone). 

Connecting with others doesn’t have to mean going to crowded places or attending parties every week. Since we long for others who really “get” us, it’s helpful to find those who share our interests, values, and backgrounds. Writers, for example, tend to work in isolation. As a profession, they are often considered introverts. But attending writer’s conferences and joining writer’s groups—either locally or online, offers connection for people who share similar interests and who often view life in comparable ways.

Ways to Connect with Others

• Consider your interests and hobbies, and find groups who share those. If you live in a remote area, find an online group that meets online. 

• Join a community or volunteer organization. Look for someone else who looks lonely and befriend them. 

• Take your lunch to a park or other place and people watch. Even if you don’t talk to anyone, just being around other humans can help you feel less lonely. 

• Find creative ways to connect. If you live far from family and friends, set up online appointments to meet for coffee, dinner, online games, or even watch a movie or sporting event. You can use these to join birthday parties and holiday gatherings too.

• Make a large group smaller. If you’re already in a large group that makes you feel lonely, invite a few people you have something in common with and start a group within a group. This can be a study group, a book club, a dinner club, or anything else that brings a deeper connection.   

Ways to Connect with Yourself (Hint: Self-Care!)

• Learn to relish your alone time. Schedule appointments with yourself to do things you really want to do, that you need to do alone, anyway. Get a massage or a facial. Take a bubble bath. Turn on some of your favorite music, light a candle, read a novel. 

• Reorganize or redecorate a room in your home. 

• Start a new hobby. YouTube is an excellent resource for learning to paint, play guitar, garden, or just about anything else you might be interested in. 

• Go outside. Talk a walk or a jog in a park or around your neighborhood, or simply enjoy a cup of tea while you listen to birdsong. 

• Talk to yourself. Tell yourself the things you’d say to your best friend, if they were feeling disconnected. Remind yourself that you’re amazing, interesting, intelligent, and fun. Do this every day—out loud or in your head. 

Several studies link loneliness with depression, immune suppression, and other health problems. If you’re feeling lonely, it’s important to combat the issue in any way you can. Sometimes you can do all the right things and the loneliness persists. Don’t hesitate to reach out to a therapist who can help you explore ways to bridge the gap between the connections you want and the connections you have. You are worth the effort.

 

News is everywhere, all the time, and a lot of it is negative. 

With streaming, social media, games, and pop-up headlines, it’s hard to avoid these negative events, especially since coverage is global, bringing what’s going on around the world right to our front doors. With so much exposure to violence and disaster, it’s understandable that we have a buildup of negativity, anxiety, and fear that can lead to media-induced stress. 

Constant Bad News Takes a Toll

If you think you may be dealing with media-induced stress, here are some signs to watch for:

• inability to “unplug” from media reports

• feeling overwhelmed

• anxiety, depression, fear, anger, numbness, shock

• deep feelings of empathy you can’t let go

• difficulty relaxing

• increased heart rate, blood pressure

• sleeping too much or not enough

• restlessness, headaches, stomach, and other physical problems

• overeating, undereating

• isolating

• self-medicating

A Strategy for Tragedy

There are many things outside our control. But taking action when and where we can helps give us a better sense of stability and peace in times of turmoil. Here are some steps to help:

• Assess the reality of a situation to your life. The news makes it seem like negative events happen everywhere, every day to everyone—which can make us feel as if these events are happening in our own lives. But that’s not true. Take time to process what actually affects your daily life. 

• Learn to unplug. Take deliberate breaks from your screens and from the world. 

• Avoid news before bed. They can lead to disrupted or inadequate sleep.

• Limit media consumption in times of hyped-up tragedy. Being informed is okay. Being obsessed is not.

• Talk with friends or family about feelings and issues. Engaging in real-world discussions often helps bring our focus back to what is real, immediate, and important.

• Write your thoughts down. Getting thoughts out of our minds and onto paper helps us assess their validity while cleansing our thought process.

• Try meditation techniques to quiet the mind. Sitting quietly, focused breathing, intentional thinking, and getting in touch with nature can help lower blood pressure and heart rate and deal with rising anxiety.

• Take positive action. In times of tragedy, the urge to help can be therapeutic. Find a local charity or organization to support in some way.

• Engage your mind and body in centering activities. Channel the energy that would typically go toward stress and anxiety toward something positive and productive instead. Listen to or play music. Spend time with your children. Cook a healthy meal. Walk the dog. Organize your closet. Read a book. 

Keep in Mind

Media-induced stress is a real and growing issue that can impact our daily well-being. Realizing that you’re not alone is a big step in battling media-induced trauma. If you’re struggling with handling what’s going on in the world, reach out for help.  

Disaster trauma is such a prominent issue that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has set up a free support line for anyone in need as well. The Disaster Distress Helpline can be reached at (800) 985-5990 or on the web at www.samhsa.gov/find-help.

All about Feelings

Feelings and emotions are two words often used interchangeably.  They generally mean the same thing, however, feelings and emotions can differ.  For instance, feeling love for your child can cause the emotion of fear if he or she is in danger.  A mood is also separate from a feeling or emotion.  Whereas emotions are short-lived, a mood lasts longer.  The cause of a mood is not always easy to detect, as you might feel down for a few days and not know why. 

Basic Emotions

Psychology researchers cite six basic emotions that are universal to all humans.  They include happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise, and anger.  Other psychologists have added embarrassment, pride, excitement, and satisfaction to this list.  It’s also possible to experience more than one emotion at a time, such as feeling happy and excited simultaneously. 

 

Experiencing Feelings

There are three main ways we encounter an emotion.  First, we experience the feeling.  Second, our body reacts to it.  Last, we express the feeling through our behavior.  Therefore, if you were angry, you’d interpret the emotion as anger.  Perhaps, your body would tense up or your heart would begin to pace, and then you might lose your temper and begin to shout.  These would all be examples of how you might react to the emotion called anger. 

 

Emotions cause both physical and physiological reactions, which are regulated by the nervous system.  These reactions affect body responses that we can’t control, like digestion and blood flow.  The nervous system also monitors our “fight-or-flight” response to stress, dangers, and threats.  More noticeable examples of the physical effects of feelings might be sweaty palms, stomach pains, increased heartbeat, muscle tension, etc.

 

There are some universal expressions of feelings, like smiling.  Others will differ according to culture, tradition and custom.  When we understand our emotions and seek to increase our emotional intelligence, we can have some control over our behavioral reactions.  Exploring our thinking and paying attention to what our bodies are doing when we feel emotions helps us gain insight into our behaviors.  Mindfulness and relaxation techniques as well as a trained therapist or counselor can help you gain control over your reactivity. 

 

The Importance of Feelings

Exploring your feelings can benefit both your body and behavior.  For example, if you find that you often feel afraid, you may also discover that you regularly experience associated anxiety and physical symptoms of stress. Perhaps your heart is continually racing and your sleep is affected; these responses can have a long-term impact on your health.  If you start to examine the root of your fear, you might find that your thoughts aren’t factual.  Recognizing this faulty or irrational thought pattern is the first step in modifying it and ultimately feeling less anxious and afraid. 

 

When our feelings are based on facts we can try to change our situation or goals to fit that reality.  Perhaps, you’ve found a hobby that makes you feel happy and excited.  You can seek to incorporate those skills into a career you might really enjoy. 

 

Whether your feelings are fact-based or irrational, paying attention to them can provide clues about how to live healthy and how to achieve the life you desire.  When you put a name to your feelings and begin to understand how they work, you create more space between something happening and your reaction to it.  This space gives you an opportunity to choose your behavior and how you interact in your relationships.  Momentarily stepping back from a situation also provides the choice to treat yourself in a healthy, self-respecting manner. 

 

Tips for Managing Emotional Reactions

Controlling your reactions to emotion takes time and practice.  The following ideas will help you learn how to regulate your reactivity:

• Track your feelings- Keep a log of your feelings throughout the day. This experience will give you greater insight into how you see the world and react to it. 
• Scale emotions- Emotions exist on a broad spectrum, so rating them on a scale of one to ten might prove helpful. For example, if your anxiety is particularly high one day, make a note of that with a higher mark on your scale.  This allows you to look for patterns and situations that trigger certain emotions. 
• Reduce stress- When you experience negative emotions, tracking the methods you use to lower your stress provides invaluable insight. Take note of which ways of coping are the most and least effective, so you can have several effective options whenever you feel like your emotions are out of control.

Feelings affect everyone on a daily basis.  Learning how to manage and understand your emotions will benefit your health, work, and relationships.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it, as medical or mental health professionals have valuable knowledge about ways of coping with intense feelings.  With the right motivation and practice, you can learn to change your reactions to emotions rather than letting them control you.

 

Want to talk to a counselor today about this? 

Call Amplified Life at 800-453-7733 and ask for your “Free 15 Minute Phone Consultation" with one of our licensed counselors. We’ll listen, answer questions you may have, and help you plan next steps.

Sources:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/feeling-our-emotions/

About Behavioral Health Care

Behavioral health care focuses on an individual’s psychological wellness.  It is occasionally referred to as mental health care.  However, the term behavioral health is more common now because it encompasses the biology of mental health, as well as a person’s behaviors and habits. 

Measuring Mental Health

How do you assess or understand your mental health?  Looking at your emotional wellbeing and your overall life enjoyment on a day-to-day basis is an excellent guide.  Consider the following:

• Are you able to cope with the normal stresses of life?
• Can you bounce back and adapt to unexpected news?
• Are activities like working, going to school, or forming relationships inhibited? If so, you might need to focus on improving your behavioral health. 

Behavioral Health Issues and Signs

There are many contributors to mental health problems.  Biological factors such as your genetics, life experiences, and a family history of mental health issues can lead to behavioral health problems.  Some of the mental health issues people face might be depression, anxiety, trauma, relational issues, and addiction. 

 

Signs of a potential behavioral health issue range in their severity.  Changes in eating and sleeping patterns, withdrawing from activities and relationships, low energy, feeling hopeless, and numbness to life are all clues to a mental health problem.  Also, mood swings, hearing voices or hallucinating, increased substance abuse, and thoughts of harming yourself or others are warnings signs.  When a person is unable to complete daily life tasks, such as showering, getting out of bed, getting dressed, etc., they also might be struggling with a mental illness.  

 

Professionals and Treatment Options

When it comes to behavioral health issues, you’re not alone.  There are numerous professionals who can help you overcome and adjust to life’s challenges.  These might be your primary care physician or nurse practitioner, or a counselor, therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist. 

 

These professionals are skilled in a variety of behavioral health interventions that cover a broad spectrum.  These range from psychotherapy and group therapy to support groups to expressive therapy in art, music, or drama.  Recreational therapy, meditation, and mindfulness practices are also options, as is medication. 

 

Good Mental Health Signs

When your mental health is functioning well there are several indicators.  Setting and meeting goals, coping with stress, and problem solving are signs of healthy functioning, as is finding meaning in relationships and the community.

 

Whatever your current mental health you can benefit from practicing good behavioral health strategies.  Some of the ways to maintain and/or improve your mental health might include connecting with others, being physically active, eating healthy, and getting proper rest.  Developing strategies for dealing with life’s stressors, staying positive, and asking for help when needed are also healthy traits. 

 

The Importance of Behavioral Health

Why is behavioral health such a critical issue?  Half of the world’s population is believed to experience mental health symptoms that impact their day-to-day functioning.  Our mental state impacts our physical health, so being able to reduce our body’s stress responses can help us live longer and healthier lives.  Another benefit of working on your mental health is the control you gain over your life.  People who are mentally healthy are more goal-directed, and they function better in relationships.

 

Not addressing our behavioral health issues impacts all areas of life.  Depression and other mental illnesses can lead to disability, physical impairments, and even suicide.  Financial, social, and vocational issues may arise from failing to work on mental health problems.

 

Getting Started

Improving your mental health does not need to be overwhelming as there are many people available to guide you. The following tips suggest how to get started and where to go for help:

• Gather information- Talk to your doctor, friends, or other trusted individuals about resources in your area. Treatment options may be available through your physician’s office, mental health specialists, community mental health centers, hospital psychiatric departments, outpatient clinics, university programs, social services agencies, and employee assistance programs.  
• Find affordable help- Don’t allow cost to deter your mental health desires. There may be free support groups near you, and many counselors and therapists offer services on a sliding scale.  Some university training clinics and community mental health centers facilitate individuals for free or at a low cost, or your work may have an employee assistance program through your employer or health insurance plan. If cost is a problem don’t ever be afraid to ask professionals what free or low cost options are available in the community.

 

Want to talk to a counselor today about this? 

Call Amplified Life at 800-453-7733 and ask for your “Free 15 Minute Phone Consultation" with one of our licensed counselors. We’ll listen, answer questions you may have, and help you plan next steps.

 

A lifestyle complete with good mental health is possible for you and your loved ones.  For more information about behavioral health care, check out the following websites:

http://Findtreatment.samsa.gov

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/

 

Sources:

http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/overview.aspx?topicid=28

http://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health/