Mental Health Wellness and Resources Guide: Mental Wellness Tips

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• Taking some big deep breaths or 4X4  breathing
• Not drinking caffeine
• Listening to music
• Being in the moment, focus on right now
• Grabbing a snack, a healthy one is better
• Try to stick with a routine, even when anxiety is getting in the way

And remember, It's O.K To Be Not O.K!

• American Mental Wellness Association: Staying Healthy
  "Health, in all areas, is a continuum. Nobody is perfectly healthy in every aspect. However, finding health in the four main dimensions of your life – biophysical, psychological, social, and spiritual – is the best way to maintain wellness and stop problems before they begin."---American Mental Wellness Association
• DBSA Wellness Toolbox
  This website provides you with tools to help you communicate better with your doctor, keep track of your symptoms and moods, and record the progress you’re making.
• Doing Things on Your Own (DIY)
  Mental Health America provides a doing things on your own section that provides tools from topics on how to calm your mind to how to stop unwanted thoughts and others.
• Emotional Wellness Toolkit
  " Emotional wellness is the ability to successfully handle life’s stresses and adapt to change and difficult times.6 strategies for improving your emotional health."---National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Mental Health America: Life on Campus
  "Mental health issues are on the rise on college campuses across the country. Better and accessible screening as well as earlier diagnosis of mental health conditions are critical to getting quality treatment and improving one's quality of life. This has allowed more students with mental health conditions to go on to college and be successful."---Mental Health America
• Mental Health America: Ten Tools
  "These proven tools can help you feel stronger and more hopeful."---Mental Health America
• Progressive Relaxation
  This website provides two free progressive relaxation tapes that are downloaded.
• Recovery is Possible
  This site provides information about recovery from mental disorder(s).
• Wellness
  "Relief of symptoms is only the first step in treating depression or bipolar disorder. Wellness is a return to a life that you care about. Recovery happens when your condition stops getting in the way of your life."---Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA)
• Active Minds: Self-care
  An Active Minds webpage with information about self-care that includes answering the question, what is self-care? and examples to help individuals the type of things they can do to help themselves.

• Setting yourself a challenge.
• Going for a walk, exercise.
• Hanging out with friends or with the people that make you feel good.
• Getting a good night's sleep, 7-9 hrs.
• Grabbing a snack, a healthy one is better.
• Create a wellness toolbox. This could include pictures, music, a journal, nice smelling lotion or a list of activities you might like to try.

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And remember,  It's O.K To Be Not O.K!

Know the facts:

• 1 in 5 adults experiences mental illness in a given year (about 44 m).
• Nearly 1 in 25 adults (about 13.6m) in America live with a serious mental illness.
• Half of all chronic mental illness begins by age 14, 3/4 by age 24.

        *Statistics from the National Institute of Mental Health, 2015.

Mental Illness is Not:

• The result of bad parenting
• Indicative of bad character
• A developmental disability
• Curable (but it can be managed)