Mental Health Topics

When I was a junior in college, I studied abroad and taught English to hundreds of kids in Rwanda for five weeks. Those five weeks were the most exciting and influential weeks of my life—but they came with a fair amount of difficulties. Among those difficulties: learning to communicate with…

Oftentimes, we allow stress and anxiety to completely overtake us. We surrender to it and suffer from it—without even putting up a fight—because we’ve convinced ourselves that there’s no other option. But that just couldn’t be farther from the truth. In addition to counseling, there are a multitude of simple…

When I’m overridden with anxiety, my instinct is to curl up into a ball and rock until my mind is relieved of the static. This, however, isn’t too effective—so I ignore my instinct and implement a different strategy instead. I force my feet into my shoes and then out the…

Raising a teen isn’t easy—I know this not because I have one, but because I remember all too well what it was like to be one. I was a relatively well-behaved teen and didn’t cause many issues for my parents… but those years were markedly more difficult than the years…

Stress is an unequivocal part of life—there’s really no way to ensure we’re calm and happy and peaceful at all times. That would be too easy. However, there is a way to better manage the stress and anxiety we experience. In fact, there are multiple ways: spending time outside, engaging…

Imagine a stress-free life: no worrying about what others think of you, how late you’re running to work, or how anxious you feel today. The perfect fantasy, huh? While I can’t promise to make this fantasy world a reality, I can help you live a more stress-free life—simply visit the…

A few years ago, I lived out the ultimate adventure: I explored Europe for three months and then taught English in Rwanda for five weeks. Every day brought a new and unfamiliar experience with it—I stood atop the beautiful Cliffs of Moher in Ireland; I gawked at the Eiffel tower…

The people in Hawaii were sent into extreme scare about a week ago as alerts went out on a multitude of different avenues letting people know that a ballistic missile was about to hit and to seek shelter immediately. The scare caused a lot of emotions and had an impact…

On Saturday, January 19, a false ballistic missile alert was sent out to everyone in Hawaii, due to mere human error. While there was no real threat, these people were indeed threatened, disturbed, and scared for their lives. For some, this fear subsided once Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency corrected the…

In a recent study, the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College London explored the potential of using psychedelics to treat certain mental illnesses such as depression. The research team argued that this may be a more effective treatment, as it relieves symptoms by activating serotonin 2A, as opposed to 1A—the…

A popular topic of conversation (at least in the world of psychology) is whether or not video games make people more aggressive. For years, the bulk of research said yes, they certainly do; even the American Psychological Association declared violent video games—such as Halo and Call of Duty—a danger to…

Simply defined, your self-esteem is how you feel about yourself and your abilities. And according to Tina Bakardzhieva, Level Two Mindfulness-based Interventions Teacher, it can have a pretty big effect on your life, whether it’s high, low, or somewhere in-between. Bakardzhieva says it’s important to understand that nobody is born…