Emotional Well Being

Emotional Well-Being

We, as a community, often give help; We, as a community, often have difficulty receiving help. Let us seek balance.

-Sonal Markanda, PhD, LP

What is Emotional Well-Being?

Emotional well-being is related to other aspects of our self such as: spiritual, financial, and physical, etc. Emotional well-being involves the use of effective coping strategies when interacting with others; understanding, identifying, and managing our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in ways that are healthy for our self and those around us. Below are various common mental health concerns, along with resources and links that help us understand how to deal with these issues.

We recently held an art competition for students to create an art the reflected mental health. Below are the artworks – read more here.

Common Mental Health Disorders

black and white picture of a woman with her hand across her face looking downwards as though sad

Depression

Depression is a common but serious medical condition. Signs and Symptoms can include the following:

irritablility
problems with sleep (too much or too little)
problems with appetite (over eating or under eating)
decreased interest in activities that were once enjoyable
isolative behaviors
problems with concentration
low motivation
thoughts of suicide (passive or active)
feelings of guilt and hopelessness
feeling as if you are burden
physical symptoms (headaches, stomachaches, lethargy/fatigue, malaise)
feelings of heaviness and inertia
difficulty completing daily tasks that seem “small and simple” (laundry, cleaning, brushing teeth/hygiene, responding to emails/messages)

Depression.pdf (152 downloads)
What is Depression?
Teens & Trauma
YouTube: What is Depression?
YouTube: I had a Black Dog, his name was Depression.

Anxiety

Anxiety is an overwhelming feeling of fear that may be with you all the time. It is intense and sometimes debilitating.

Signs and Symptoms can include the following:

racing thoughts
irritability
tightness in chest, stomach pains
feeling out of control
inability to control symptoms of anxiety
general sense of doom and gloom
psycho-motor agitation
problems with sleep
feeling on edge
feeling “wired and tired”

Suicidality

Suicidality is being preoccupied with thoughts of suicide. Those who are expressing suicidality may be feeling or showing the following:

feeling others and/or the world would be better off without you
feeling intense shame that you feel cannot be overcome
feeling there is no “light at the end of tunnel”
feeling alone, misunderstood, and that no one will ever be able to understand how you feel
feeling that pain is intolerable
reckless behavior (use of substances, etc.)
extreme mood swings
talking about wanting to die
researching ways to die
extreme cognition (black and white thinking)
self injurious behavior
engaging in behaviors indicating the end is near (giving away your possessions, spending all your money, quitting a job, getting evicted)
sometimes, no signs may appear to be evident

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSD is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event. Symptoms can get worse, last for months or even years, and interfere with day-to-day functioning. Symptoms include:

traumatic invalidation
vicarious traumatization (learning indirectly about the details of trauma that someone else has experienced)
inability to recall parts of the traumatic event (dissociation)
depersonalization (experience of being outside of yourself, feeling as if you’re in a movie)
derealization (experience that the world is not real, feeling detached/distanced, foggy/cloudy from the world)
negative cognitions
intrusive memories/thoughts
hypervigilance/physiological arousal
avoidance of people, places, situations that remind you of the trauma
flashbacks, nightmares, irritability, hostility

black and white picture of a person holding their head as though stressed

Common Addictions

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a pattern of alcohol use that involves problems controlling your drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol, continuing to use alcohol even when it causes problems, having to drink more to get the same effect, or having withdrawal symptoms when you rapidly decrease or stop drinking. Unhealthy alcohol use includes any alcohol use that puts your health or safety at risk or causes other alcohol-related problems.

Symptoms include:

unsuccessful attempts to cut down/reduce use of alcohol
results in impairment in different areas of life (poor work performance, legal consequences)
using alcohol in situations where it is physically hazardous (driving while intoxicated)
tolerance – either needing more to achieve intoxication/desired effect or markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of alcohol
withdrawal – using alcohol to prevent withdrawal symptoms
an excessive amount of time, money, etc. is spent attempting to procure alcohol

Recognizing Emotions

Shame

Shame is:

feeling you are the problem
feeling you won’t ever be good enough
feelings of self-hate and regret
feeling you are wrong, unimportant, underserving, etc.

Guilt

Guilt is:

violating your values and beliefs
focused on behaviors
a heavy, suffocating feeling
the feeling of having done something you shouldn’t have done, or having not done something you should have done

Shame vs. Guilt
The Difference between Guilt & Shame
YouTube: Empathy vs. Sympathy
YouTube: Listening to Shame

Anger

Anger is a natural human emotion that we all feel at times. It is not all bad as it can help us detect & react to a threatening situation. However, allowing anger to get out of control can lead to problems in both our personal and professional lives.

Anger.pdf (156 downloads)

Black and white picture of an angry South Asian man