Campus quietly had a chance to talk with Ross Szabo, our Mental Health Survival Expert, on ways to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health student. Szabo is the Director of Youth Outreach for the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign (NMHAC ).
Campus Calm: What does mental health stigma and how to prevent young people from seeking help that they need
?Ross Szabo: The stigma surrounding mental health stems from the stigma surrounding mental disorders. People think that if they talk about feelings is a sign of weakness. They are embarrassed and ashamed and I do not know how to talk about how they feel on many levels. In addition, many people are afraid of being labeled crazy, or crazy, or psycho, or a wacko. If you have an emotional problem, they are afraid that people are going to judge them, talk about them differently and make them more outcast.
There is a stigma about therapy. Some people feel that they do not have time to work out their problems or do not want to burden anyone, or make your life worse. Sometimes they do not have words to describe how they feel. Ultimately, it is the fear of weakness or that it will not be something you can treat that can be worn s.
Campus Calm: Do you believe that our generation has the responsibility, and perhaps even our call to stop the mental health of shame
?Ross Szabo: I think it's time to start looking at mental health problems in a different way. We pointed out these issues for a long time without being nailed. We told people to stop drinking, then told them to stop doing drugs. There are movements to tell people to stop having sex. In the middle of all these issues are mental health problems. If you have sex, it's probably not because they like it. If you drink a lot or doing a lot of drugs, it's probably not because you care about yourself.
It's time to focus on why people are doing destructive things. Young people are in a time period where possible. Previously, we did not know enough about the brain or on these issues to do that. So I think it is time to do so.
Campus Calm: What are some things you can do on an individual level to help stop the shame
?Ross Szabo: Individually, if you're going through a rough time, you know that talking about these issues and seeking help is a sign of strength, it is not a sign of weakness. It's not something you should keep hidden or silent only because of fear. Individually, we need to start more in advance and that discussions about these things. more confidence we have, the more we will be able to stand up to people who still view these issues as a stigma. Say: "No, you're wrong. It is a shame. The brain is part of the body and I'm going to try to get my brain healthy ."
We can also help our friends and family members by encouraging them and helping them have confidence to seek help when going through rough times.
Campus Calm: Who needs to worry about the mental health
?Ross Szabo: There is a whole spectrum involved in mental health, and we should all be concerned with the spectrum. At the lower end of the spectrum, people can cope with stress, pressure, or lack of sleep. All these things will affect someone's ability to do many things.
Further down the spectrum, people can deal with death or divorce, physical or sexual abuse or clearly defined problems. In these situations, people are going to have to find what works best for them and deal with it. Further, my people dealing with mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, eating disorders and anxiety disorders. In these situations, again, they're going to have to find what works best for them.
Mental health is something that affects everyone. This is something everyone should be aware of and everyone should definitely work. Nobody, apart from mental health. We must do a better job of helping people understand what is mental health.
Campus Calm: Why is it so dangerous to think that we can and should control all our problems by ourselves instead of seeking help
?Ross Szabo: Whether someone is trying to deal with something on their own, they May not be able to identify all the issues going on. They also may not be able to get through it alone. It's also good to have other people to be objective and available to help make matters a little clearer to understand or help you do things you might not be able to do so. People who keep their problems bottled in itself can have them out in other areas of their life that they are not as aware of their friendships or relationships.
Campus Calm: There are a lot of self-hatred involved in mental health problems. So what are some healthy ways to develop positive self-image that has nothing to do with our external successes, our failures, or how we look on paper?
Ross Szabo: difficult thing about self-hatred is to identify where it comes from. From my own personal life, my self-hatred came first from outside the event and when it is internalized has grown bigger because I was putting that pressure on yourself. For many young people, self-hatred can start from the outside. This could be a rough experience with parents, divorce or death. It could come from the event that a person can not be explained so that anger turned toward him. After self-hate starts, it snowballs. After you hate pretty much the next time something happens and it gets easier and easier to hate.
The treatment begins with the identification and then talk about the incident, which began his self-hatred. The next step is to find something you like about yourself. One of the hardest things I faced with my self-hatred was because I hated it so much that it is difficult for me to even admit that I liked one thing about yourself. Once I found the one thing I liked about myself, I was able to build from there to the point where I was able to find one hour one days where I did not hate it. It is a process that will not go away overnight, though. It will take a while and you're going to have setbacks along the way, but do not let those setbacks define the entire recovery.
Campus Calm: What can you say about the dangers of self-medicating with alcohol, stress, cigarettes, junk food, and even shopping-retail therapy
?Ross Szabo: self-medication is a quick fix that really long-term problem and it's not going to be a problem away. When my mind is racing endlessly for bipolar disorder, my initial feeling was that I just needed to shut my mind down and it was to drink until I passed out. Although it would close down my mind that night will surely not be long-term solution. Plus, alcohol is a depressant and will now bring it out of depression and other things. So, all these quick fixes do not solve the problem and in many ways, they are going to complicate them further. Finding a healthy release, such as exercise, yoga, writing, or whatever it may be much more useful in helping you where you need to self-medication is coming from, and remove the process of self-medicating.
Campus Calm: What can you say about the lack of a strong high school and college students receive today
?Ross Szabo: Many young people today have a whole routine that does not allow them to sleep. There's this new competition in secondary schools and colleges, where students are saying, "I have three of this week and two exams, and I slept last night, and I'm not going to sleep tonight." The next person like, "I have four papers and three tests and I did not sleep last two nights. This is a competition which can be the most stressed out, but there is a competition can be healthy. No one saying," I got my work before two weeks and I'm cool ."
When I do my presentation, I ask students how many hours of sleep they get each night. averages I've seen in more than 200,000 students four to six hours of sleep per night. the military has found that the easiest way to break somebody trying to investigate that they would not be awake 24 hours a day, but only allow them to sleep for two to five hours a day. In some ways, young people today are torture and they do not understand. The best way to get sleep, it is best not to procrastinate and then act like you know so at the last second. many children and dealing with the best work, and getting the best schools that have sacrificed so much of your life to do it.
Campus Calm: What are some things that colleges and universities can do to reduce the stigma of mental health care for their students and promote campus wellness
?Ross Szabo: The most important thing colleges can do is start with public education campaigns on campus that deal with these issues. Most schools will tell their students not to drink, not to do drugs, not to have sex, but they will not touch the mental health concerns. They can use the same model they use these issues to talk about mental health. Let students know the orientation of the mental health problems, where advice is, what can I do about these things and why you should do these things. Colleges can also begin to organizations and groups to continue their education. There are peer-to-peer groups, such as Active Minds on Campus. Depending on how far colleges and universities want to take this, they can work with your home address to do counseling for parents and other things that really address these issues in much broader.
