Let's Talk About Mental Health

A mental health challenge is a health problem that changes the way you think, feel, and act. These challenges can be short-term or long-lasting.

Examples of mental health challenges: grieving a loved one, worrying about moving to a new place, or feeling like you cannot stop thinking about a fight you had with a friend.

A mental illness or mental disorder is diagnosable condition (like depression or schizophrenia) that affects a person's thinking, mood or behavior. The effects of a mental illness can appear mild, severe, anywhere in between, or not at all.

Example of a mental disorder or illness: being unable to get out of bed because you are sad, feeling anxious every day, or feeling like you cannot control your thoughts.

Getting Started: Just Tell One Person

Sometimes people do not get the mental health care help they need because they do not know where to start. No matter how
hopeless and alone you feel, there is always someone that is ready and willing to help you. Start by telling just one person. Choose a person you feel comfortable with and who you know will be a good listener.

Learn how to ask for help.

Mental Health Care Options

• One-On-One Therapy: One person meets privately with a therapist.
• Family Therapy: A therapist meets with family members in a group setting.
• Group Therapy Support/ Group: One or two therapists work with a group of people who share similar challenges or diagnoses.
• Medication: Medication prescribed by a health care provider can lessen the effects of mental health disorders.

“You do not need to be a licensed therapist to be therapeutic.” - Pastor Charles Walker of Buffalo

Community care is linked to community healing. As we work to heal each other, we can learn to heal ourselves. Community care can mean a lot of different things. Make a meal for a friend in need, help a child with their bike chain, chat with an elder, join in collective prayer, or stand up for someone who needs your support. These are all forms of community care.

For more information about community care, visit Mental Health America's page on Community Care.You can find togetherness and heal close to home.

Communities can be the support system a person needs. Community care means supporting one another and the broader community. It has been around for generations. Community care can come from your neighborhood, your family, your faith-based practice, and beyond. You might receive community care in one of these forms:

• Peer-to-peer support
• Community Health Workers
• Community-organized efforts

Each of us has a collection of practices that form part of our daily lives and connect us to other people. These forms of community care come from our ancestors and heritage. Practicing them contributes to collective healing.

• Prayer circles
• Spiritual healing practices
• Multigenerational living
• Kinship and familial bonds
• Storytelling
• Collective art
• Energy rituals
• Ancestral ceremonies
• Mutual aid

Once You Find a Mental Health Provider

• Check your provider’s hours to make sure they
  work with your schedule.
• Ask how you can pay for visits. Ask: Are you
  covered by my insurance? If you do not accept
  my insurance, what are my options?
• Ask your provider if they offer virtual or in-person
  visits and decide what type of visit is most
  comfortable for you.
• Share a list of all of the prescriptions, over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and substances you
  take and be open about how you deal with stress

Do You Understand Me?

Respect and Dignity are crucial in mental health care.

Asking your provider about their understanding of your culture will help them learn what is important in your treatment. A provider who is trained in cultural competence will understand how your culture plays a role in your life and health. They will include your beliefs, values, practices, and attitudes in your care. 

Here are 3 great questions to ask:

1. Have you treated people like me or received training in cultural competence for mental health?
2. How do you see our cultural backgrounds impacting communication and my treatment?
3. What is your understanding of differences in health outcomes for patients like me?

More information on finding mental health care that fits your cultural background.

Trauma

Trauma is a lasting emotional response to living through very stressful, scary, or upsetting events like accidents, violence, or natural disasters. 

Witnessing a traumatic event can affect you even if it did not happen directly to you. Trauma can leave us feeling overwhelmed, unsafe, or stuck in fear for a long time after the event is over. We may also feel powerless, ashamed, or numb.

Not everyone has the same reaction to a traumatic event. What upsets one person might not bother another person in the same way. There is no wrong way to feel after a traumatic event. We often need time and support to heal.

Trauma can sometimes come from the environment around us rather than specific traumatic events.

• Environments and systems, including policies and laws, can cause what is called systemic trauma or can change how we respond to trauma.
• Sometimes suffering that was experienced by older generations can affect a whole family, even family members who were born later. This is sometimes called generational trauma.
• Sometimes deep hurt can build up over time in a group of people as a result of massive group trauma in the past like slavery, war, forced removal from their land, or unfair treatment. This is sometimes called historical trauma.

"I think that the Tops shooting did bring some awareness, but [...] what always happens [is] eventually, it just kind of dwindles off. People forget about the most traumatic event that anyone on the East Side has ever witnessed. […] It still keeps me up at night thinking about it. And so just that level of trauma and racial and justice and survival, [...] it's a daily struggle." - East Side community member and health care provider

Impact of Trauma

Trauma can have long-lasting effects on your body and mental health:

• Anxiety and depression
• Difficulty sleeping
• Economic hardship
• Heart disease
• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

The term "PTSD" is sometimes used incorrectly to describe general reactions to stressful situations or unpleasant events.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is a mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. Some symptoms include flashbacks to the event, nightmares, anxiety, and negative thoughts or beliefs.

Self-care means doing things that support your overall mental and physical health. Self-care can be getting enough sleep, managing stress, staying active, taking a day to yourself, or making a financial plan. For some people, allowing themselves to participate in self-care takes practice. Self-care should include things that bring you joy and satisfaction. Self-care does not have to include things that you consider regular hygiene, like taking a bath or getting your hair styled. 

Practicing self-care helps improve mental health. Self-care looks different for everyone. Do only what works for you and change your self-care practice as often as you need to.

Types of Self-Care

• Cognitive Self-Care: Things you can do to take care of your mind. 
  Examples: Learn a new skill, play chess. 
• Emotional Self-Care: Things you can do to take care of your feelings.
  Examples: Journal, talk to a trusted person or professional mental health care provider. 
• Physical Self-Care: Things you can do to take care of your body.
  Examples: Stretch, go for a walk, go to your annual primary care appointment. 
• Social Self-Care: Things you can do to build community. 
  Examples: Spend time with friends, attend a community event.
• Spiritual Self-Care: Things you can do to nurture your inner beliefs and values. 
  Examples: Meditate, pray, create a peaceful practice of your own.

The Brain-Gut Connection

Serotonin is a chemical messenger that helps your brain stabilize moods, regulates sleep, and can reduce pain. Most of your body's serotonin is made in your intestines (gut). So, caring for your gut or stomach is important to your mental health. If you are feeling low, take a look at what you have been eating and try to eat more of the healthy foods you have access to and enjoy.

Make a List

Keep track of your positive mental health habits.

• Mood: Tracking your mood helps you see when you need
  support most.
• Physical activity: How many days each week are you able to get moving for 30 minutes?
• Nutrition: What you eat can impact how your body reacts to stress.
• Community: What are the ways you stay connected to your
  community?
• Rest: Track the ways you prioritize sleep each week

Tools for Couples

Good communication is extra important when a mental health challenge is part of your life together.

• Eye contact, gentle touch, and showing interest can help your partner feel safe.
• Consider that you may not understand what your partner is feeling.
• Listen with your full attention.
• Focus on trying to understand instead of thinking about what you will say next.
• Avoid distractions.
• Ask questions to make sure that you understand.
• Be respectful and do not judge.
• Be open and honest about your feelings.

Tools for Calming Down

Over 40 million adults in the U.S. have an anxiety disorder.

When you are overwhelmed, you can use your 5 senses to practice soothing anxiety. It may seem silly at first, but grounding, or focusing your attention on the present moment, is a helpful tool to calm your body's “fight or flight” response to stress.

Try these grounding techniques:

• Breathe. Count to 4 as you breathe in. Count
  to 8 as you slowly breathe out. Repeat.
• Look. Notice what is off in the distance and
  what is close to you. Name the details you see
  around you out loud or quietly to yourself.
• Listen. Pay close attention to the noises you
  hear around you (cars, machines, birds).
• Touch. Notice the feeling of the ground under
  your feet or the chair beneath you. Or hold your hands and wrists under cold water.
• Smell & Taste. Chew a piece of mint gum or
  smell something spicy. Notice how this feels.

To learn more calming tips, visit our page on mindfulness.

Phone Apps to Try

• Erie Path - Erie County's smartphone app that helps parents and caregivers address mental and behavioral health challenges faced by children and adolescents.
• Exhale - Created by a Black woman for Black and Indigenous women and Women of Color for stress and well-being. Has an animated breathing orb, guided meditations, breathwork, and sounds.
• Finch - Complete daily self-care tasks to build healthy habits.
• PTSD Coach - Learn to manage symptoms that often occur following trauma.
• The Safe Place - Created for the Black community. Includes self-care tips, resources, self-assessment questions, podcasts, chat groups and more. 
• Smiling Mind - Learn skills that support mental wellbeing and create healthy habits.