SARATOGA SPRINGS — May is National Mental Health Awareness month, a time to shine a light on the importance of mental health self-care. Statistics show that 1 in 5 people will experience a mental illness during their lifetime; however, with the seriousness of the COVID-19 outbreak, it is extremely important to note that many more people will be experiencing mental health issues.
Prolonged isolation, social distancing, and constant worry over finances, family, and personal health, all play a large part with growing anxiety in Americans during this unprecedented time.
For some people, a full treatment plan is necessary to maintain good mental health. For others, there are simpler measures that one can take to assist with more of an immediate relief. The National Mental Health Association provides the following tips:
1. Allow yourself to feel.
Everyone has emotions, they are part of the human experience, and you have every right to feel them, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, socio-economic status, race, political affiliation or religion.
2. Don’t ignore how you are feeling.
Most of us have heard the term “bottling up your feelings.” When we try to push feelings aside without addressing them, they build strength and make us more likely to “explode” at some point in the future. It may not always be appropriate to process your emotions at the very moment you are feeling them, but try to do so as soon as you can.
3. Talk it out.
Find someone you trust that you can talk to about how you are feeling. You may find that people are eager to share about similar experiences they have had or times that they have felt the way that you are feeling. This can be helpful, but if you are really only interested in having someone listen, it is okay to tell them that.
4. Try journaling.
Each night write down at least three feelings you had over the course of the day and what caused them. It does not need to be a “Dear Diary” kind of thing. Just a few sentences or bullet points to help you practice being comfortable with identifying and expressing your emotions.
5. Consider the strength of your feelings.
By thinking about how intense your emotions are, you may realize that what you thought you were feeling at first could better be described by another word. For instance, sometimes a person might say they are stressed when what they are really experiencing is something less severe like annoyance; alternatively anger might really be a stronger, deeper feeling like betrayal.
6. See a mental health professional.
If you are taking steps to be more in touch with your feelings, but are having trouble dealing with them, mental health providers like counselors and therapists have been trained to help. Your employer might have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that offers a limited number of free counseling sessions,
and your Human Resources department can help you access this resource. At Saratoga Center for the Family, professional therapists are available by appointment.
There is also completely free help available. During a press conference, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York State is providing free online mental health services to anyone who needs them amid the state’s coronavirus outbreak. New Yorkers can call a toll free hotline at 1-844-863-9314 to schedule a mental health appointment “totally free.”
“For each of us, the tools we use to keep us mentally healthy will be unique. Saratoga Center for the Family wants everyone to know that mental illnesses are real, and recovery is possible. Finding what works for you may not be easy but can be achieved by gradually making small changes and building on those successes,” says Rebecca Baldwin, Executive Director of Saratoga Center for the Family.
Saratoga Center for the Family offers mental health counseling as well as educational programs on parenting, anger management, child custody stress prevention, and child abuse prevention. To learn more, visit www.saratogacff.org. Mental health is essential to everyone’s overall health and wellbeing, and it is important to know that mental illnesses are common and treatable.
