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Mental Health - What's Normal and Concerning

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This 3-minute video for parents features Mental Health Therapist Stephanie Dann talking about mental health, what is normal, and when there is cause for concern. - Being mentally healthy means you have a range of emotions and you feel like you can meet life’s challenges and stresses in positive ways. - One in five youth will develop a mental health condition and that number is on the rise due to the global pandemic. - You may be struggling with a mental health condition if: 1) You feel sad, worried, angry, or empty most of the day nearly every day for at least two weeks, 2) Less interested in things you used to enjoy, 3) Changes in sleep, appetite, energy, and concentration, or 4) Have thoughts of not wanting to live anymore, suicide, or hopelessness. Challenge: If your student is struggling with their mental health, reach out! Contact your student’s school today, we have school counselors and mental health therapists available.

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Hi, my name is Stephanie Dann. I'm a mental health therapist that works with the White River School District and today I wanted to talk to you a little bit about mental health. What's normal and when we should be concerned. First let's start with talking about how mental health is something that we all have. Just like physical health, we can be physically healthy, or unhealthy and we can be mentally healthy, or unhealthy. When we're feeling mentally healthy that means we generally feel pretty good, and enjoy life. However that doesn't mean that we never have negative emotions. It just means that we feel like we can meet life's challenges and stresses in positive ways. When we have a mental health condition, or when we start to become mentally unhealthy it changes how we think, feel, and act. Some examples of that are things like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. You might think that mental health conditions are something that only affects a small number of people but we know that it's very common in youth. One in five youth will experience symptoms of a mental health disorder by the time they're 18 years old, and many of them don't get the help that they need. I do want to say right now in our world it is very common for people to be experiencing sadness, and worry. Confusion and loneliness. We're seeing an increase in these feelings in all people. Kids and adults. And I'm sure you've been feeling those things too. You can be mentally healthy and experience those difficult emotions. It's our response to those emotions that really, really matters. So when should we be concerned, since we're all going to have those kinds of emotion sometimes. We should be concerned when someone is experiencing sadness, worry, anger, or emptiness most of the time, every day, for about two weeks. And so that becomes their predominant mood. Sad, worried, angry, empty. We also might see things like feeling less interested in things that I used to enjoy, changes in sleep, appetite, and energy. Not being able to concentrate as much. And even things like thoughts of not wanting to live anymore, or hopelessness. If any those things sound like something that's going on in your life, or the life of your student, I want you to know that we are here to help in the White River School District. Reach out to your school. We have school counselors and mental health therapists here to help you and support you through this difficult time.

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Mental Health - What's Normal and Concerning

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