Mental health awareness: Why it’s okay to ask for help when you don’t feel okay – American Press

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time dedicated to shining a light on mental health issues, reducing stigma, and promoting the resources available to those in need. For many people, mental health is an invisible battle that requires understanding, support and care. That care is available at Family & Youth.

“Mental health is a silent killer, and I hate to use that word, but it is,” said Logan Tijerina, director of Family and Youth Counseling. “Because it’s not something you can physically see, people dismiss it as, ‘It doesn’t affect your daily life,’ or, ‘It’s just something you get over, move on and move on.’ ” But it’s like if you break your leg, you can’t walk away from it. You need to go to the doctor, get a cast, have surgery, or whatever else gets fixed. ”

Tijerina said raising awareness of mental health is just as important as caring for physical health.

Ricky Young, a provisionally licensed professional counselor with the agency, says a good way to deal with mental health issues is to talk about it and “put yourself in a vulnerable position and really open up and express your concerns.” He said it was true.

“You can sit in my chair, but unless you can be vulnerable and dig deep, it’s going to be difficult to truly address what’s bothering you,” Young said. . “You can scratch the surface, but that only gets you so far. It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a deep cut when it needs stitches.”

Many people rely on such bandages as a security blanket.

“When you start your mental health journey, it’s like you come here and say, ‘Hey, I’ve been through some stuff, and here are all my scars. I’m completely healed. ” Tijerina said. “But it’s our job to say, ‘Well, did it heal nicely?'” Has it healed the way you want it to heal? If you accept that, let’s reevaluate it, let’s take a look at it. ” I think that’s a big part of why people are scared, the vulnerability aspect. By ripping off that Band-Aid and exposing your true self, you can truly heal. ”

Tijerina said there are some symptoms that correlate with mental health that people don’t realize.

“If you’ve been experiencing stomach ulcers and you’ve changed your diet, changed your exercise, and they’re still there, it’s probably stress-related, and your body is trying to cope with it, but it can’t. ‘We’re not getting to the root of the problem,’ she said. “Even if I take medicine, it won’t work.”

The same thing can happen with headaches.

“We grit our teeth and don’t understand why different problems occur in our bodies,” Tijerina says. “That’s because you’re not aware of how you’re taking care of the root of the problem, which is your mental health. You may be carrying tension in your shoulders. Addressing your mental issues will help you resolve your physical issues. Masu.”

Young said a person’s mental health can change over time, especially when they encounter “life stressors.”

“One event, big or small, can make the difference between going from being very healthy to needing some help. You’re dealing with things and how you’re dealing with things,” Young said.

The same is true vice versa.

“If you get the help you need, you can go from extremely poor mental health to very good mental health,” Young says.

Young said Family & Youth is a “judgment-free zone.”

“This is a safe place,” she said. “I’m here to help you, to listen, to be a safe person to tell you things. Don’t tell me things I’ve never heard before or that I would judge you for.” I’m not going to tell you. We’re all human, we all go through things, we all have things that make a counselor stay away from you or not want to help you. Once they know your weaknesses, they will be more willing to help you.”

Tijerina’s mantra is, “Let’s try it.”

“Go for at least six sessions. If at the end of six sessions you’re like, ‘I love you, but I have to go,’ that’s totally fine. You can rest assured that you’ve tried it.” Please,” she says. she said. “But like Ricky said, you can come and sit in my chair. If you need that, or if you need a recommendation, or if you just need an ear to listen, we Let me know your location and we’ll meet you there. If it’s someone who challenges you and pushes you, we can too. ”

Tijerina said that just like students in school, if clients don’t accept what they’re taught and apply it to real-life situations, they’ll never learn. This will continue to be an issue.

“It can also be shaped into something else,” she said.

Signs of mental illness include irritability, restlessness, fatigue, weight gain or loss, and loss of identity.

Tijerina said their agency is responding to requests such as:
Individuals, families, couples, children.

“We are also concerned about the changes that have taken place in our environment here and how it is impacting our frontline workers, first responders, police officers, nurses, teachers and others. “I’m defending everyone who has had to deal with it,” she said.

Tijerina said mental illness is more common than people realize.

“It’s a silent killer because no one wants to talk about it. There’s a stigma,” she said. “I think we’ve been raised, especially in the South, to just leave it to God and pray about it and talk to our families and pastors and not realize that there are steps beyond that. Yes, those are helpful. I would encourage support groups and community growth, but I also think you should talk to a trained counselor.”

Tijerina said the experience caused mental illness.

“Certainly there are some things that come down to genetics, and you can’t help but be dealt those cards, but when I say experience, it’s how you deal with things.” she said. “We all go through things. Sometimes we deal with it in healthy ways, and sometimes we deal with it in unhealthy ways, but it’s up to you to decide whether you want to continue doing this or not.” ”

She said many of the mental health issues people experience are due to the mind working properly to cope in the moment.

“Because we were in that survival moment and that helped and that’s what we stuck with and that’s what we maintained,” Tijerina said. “We’ve been just surviving, surviving, surviving until we’ve lived apart for years, continuing to do the same things, but not the same experiences or the same environment. We’ve been doing this for years. , because now it’s a part of us. We can change it, but we have to deal with what happened. We need to realize we don’t need it anymore and move on.”

Tijerina and Young said they also have to take care of themselves, which sometimes requires therapy.

“We experience things in exactly the same way as other people. Just because we tell others how to deal with things in a healthy way doesn’t mean we always take our own advice. No,” Tijerina said with a laugh. “It’s much easier to cook than to eat.”

She said self-care is so important.

“As we encounter moments of cloud cover, we have to find those little moments when the sun peeks through the clouds, what I call pockets of sunshine.” said Tijerina. “We’re realizing that it’s not always gray.”