Mental Wellness Highlights
Parent Edition
March 2024
Core Essential Values: Peace
peace /pēs/ noun
freedom from disturbance, tranquility.
"you can while away an hour or two in peace and seclusion."
Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding." "Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is the ability to handle conflict peacefully." "To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart."
Self-harm is also called self-injury. Self-harm refers to the act of hurting your own body on purpose to handle very difficult emotions, feelings, memories, and situations.
Self-harming may start in childhood and increase in frequency and severity in adolescence, as the pressures of growing up, coupled with bodily and hormonal changes in puberty, take their toll.
Drastic changes in a person’s situation, such as end of a relationship, an increase in work related stress, or any other significant personal trauma can contribute to the intense emotions which lead to the urge to self-harm.
Self-harm is also described as:
- expressing something that's hard to put into words
- turning invisible thoughts or feelings into something visible
- changing emotional pain into physical pain
- reducing overwhelming emotional feelings or thoughts
- having a sense of being in control
- escaping traumatic memories
- having something in life that can be relied on
- punishing self to feel
- stop feeling numb, disconnected or dissociated
- creating a reason to physically care for self
- expressing suicidal feelings and thoughts with
If someone you know is self-harming, it is important not to be judgmental. Let that person know that you want to help. Mental health counseling may help by teaching:
- Problem-solving skills
- New ways to cope with strong emotions
- Better relationship skills
- Ways to strengthen self-esteem
· Punching hard objects
· Picking at skin
· Hair pulling
· Swallowing foreign bodies
· Intentional poisoning with medication
· Burning parts of the body
· Having frequent cuts, bruises, or scars
· Wearing long sleeves or pants even in hot weather
· Making excuses about injuries
· Having sharp objects around for no clear reason
Happiness
Components of Happiness
- The balance of emotions: Everyone experiences positive and negative emotions, feelings, and moods. Happiness is experiencing more positive feelings than negative feelings.
- Life satisfaction: The amount of satisfaction experienced in different areas of an individual's achievements, relationships, work, and other things considered important.
Happiness is an emotional state expressed by feelings of contentment, joy, fulfillment, and satisfaction. Happiness routinely involves positive emotions and life satisfaction.
There are three types of dissociative disorders:
- Depersonalization/derealization disorder
- Dissociative amnesia
- Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative disorders involve difficulties with memory, identity, emotion, perception, behavior and sense of self that disrupt every area of mental functioning. Individuals may experience feeling as if they are outside of their body, detachment and amnesia or loss of memory.
Dissociation is disconnection of a person's actions, feelings, memories, sense of who he/she is and thoughts.
Dissociative identity disorder is connected to overwhelming experiences, abuse and/or traumatic events that occurred in childhood.
Symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorder
- two or more distinct identities exist, accompanied by changes in behavior, memory and thinking.
- other people observe or report the signs and symptoms.
- continuous gaps of memory about daily events, personal information and past traumatic experiences.
The personal preferences and attitudes of a person with dissociative identity disorder may suddenly shift. The identity shifts occur involuntarily, unwanted and creates distress. Often people with dissociative identify disorder may feel that they have become observers of their own actions, bodies and speech.
Risk Factors
People who have experienced childhood physical and sexual abuse are at increased risk of dissociative identity disorder. The vast majority of people who develop dissociative disorders have experienced (repetitive and overwhelming) childhood trauma. Approximately 90% of individuals diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (in Canada, Europe and the United States) have been abused and neglected.
Self-injurious behavior and suicide attempts are common among individuals diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder.
Treatment
Medication is helpful in treating related conditions and symptoms of dissociative identity disorder. Treatment routinely includes therapy. Therapy aids individuals to gain control over their symptoms and the dissociative process. Cognitive behavioral and dialectical behavioral therapies are the most common treatments for individuals diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder.
Individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder experience extreme shifts in mood that include periods of depression and mania. The severity of symptoms depend on the bipolar disorder type.
- Bipolar I: Individuals experience at least one manic episode in their lives. A majority of individuals diagnosed with Bipolar I will also experience major depressive episodes .
- Bipolar II: Individuals with bipolar II have a minimum of one hypomanic episode (a less serious form of mania) and at least one major depressive episode.
Bipolar Mania or Hypomania Symptoms
- Prolonged periods of crying and sadness for no reason
- Concentration difficulties
- Indecisiveness
- Extreme fatigue,
- Inability to get out of bed
- Feelings of guilt
- Hopelessness
- Loss of interest in activities
- Loss of interest in health, nutrition, or physical appearance
- Sleeping disturbances
- Suicidal thoughts
- Impulse to self-harm
Bipolar Depression Symptoms
- Prolonged periods of crying and sadness for no reason
- Concentration difficulties
- Indecisiveness
- Extreme fatigue,
- Inability to get out of bed
- Feelings of guilt
- Hopelessness
- Loss of interest in activities
- Loss of interest in health, nutrition, or physical appearance
- Sleeping disturbances
- Suicidal thoughts
- Impulse to self-harm