By the time she had entered high school, Elizabeth had already been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. By her sophomore year she had been hospitalized, completed a treatment program and was seeing a therapist and taking medication. “Though the transition was difficult at best, high school was a really wonderful experience for me, something I attribute largely to the fact that I had an incredible support system,” Elizabeth recollects. “My parents were amazing – they embraced family therapy, helped foster my coping skills, and disassociated my worth from my appearance. I also saw a therapist, psychiatrist, and nutritionist regularly.”
Our bodies are undoubtedly the most amazing thing we will ever own so how come it’s so easy for us to insult and berate them? Society teaches us to value our bodies for their perceived attractiveness above all else. This discredits them by discounting all of the important ways our bodies support us and help us to connect to one another that are in no way related to appearance.
In a number of studies, friendship and social support have been linked to better physical health outcomes, like lower rates of heart disease. One such study (published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine in 2007) revealed that young men and women who discussed difficult parts of their lives had a lower pulse and blood pressure when a supportive friend accompanied them. Friendship is an important factor in our physical health, but what affects does it have on our mental health?
Studies show that we spend about 26 years of our life sleeping. There’s a good reason, too. Sleep is an integral part of overall health and well-being. Think about a specific day when you got little to no sleep—you felt slow, vacant, and most likely had a difficult time staying focused. Unhealthy sleeping habits can develop in high school and follow you through to adulthood and it can be difficult to break them.
Ever wonder why so many New Year’s Resolutions are abandoned just a few weeks after they were made? The prospect of setting a year’s worth of goals to improve yourself and your life can be extremely daunting and overwhelming. This year, take a different approach and make your one resolution be to be more mindful.
Winter break can be a difficult time for college students and their parents, who are trying to establish a new dynamic that falls somewhere between students’ new found independence and the structure and rules of living at home. While this period of time can be a struggle for some, it also presents an important opportunity for parents to tune in to their child’s mental health. Having been away for the past three or four months, changes in behavior that might have seemed minute in day-to-day interactions can become easier to identify.
Screening for Mental Health, Inc.
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