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NAMI Cobb
2019 Leadership Team
President – Peter Lyons [email protected]
Secretary – Donna Hook [email protected]
Treasurer – Jim Williams [email protected] CIT/Newsletter Editor – John Avery [email protected]
Website Chair - Allen Spetnagel [email protected]
Communications - Greg Ausham [email protected] Outreach - Tiffany Welch [email protected] Education Chair— Melissa Pike [email protected] Programs Chair—Neill Blake [email protected] Hospitality Chair – Debra Howard [email protected] Publicity Chair – Tiffany Conyers
[email protected] Membership Chair – Jennifer Jacobs [email protected] Helpline Volunteer
Phone – Sylvia Oliphant [email protected]
Email – Linda Javadi [email protected] NAMI Walks Cobb Co-Captains Linda Hicks John Hicks
Website: www.namicobb.org
Email: [email protected]
Mailing address:
NAMI-Cobb
P.O. Box 999
Kennesaw, GA 30156
I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E
1 Monthly Meeting
2 President’s Letter / Peter Lyons
3 Education Speaker: Teresa Lane, RN
4 Smiling Depression’: It’s Possible to Be Depressed While Appearing Happy
5 Stop Self-Harm. Resources for Parents and Teens.
7 The Best Free Mental Health Apps for Anxiety, Stress and Depression
10 Emotionally Strong People Do These 5 Things Differently
12 Meeting and Membership Information
Newsletter Date
Volume 1 Issue 1 MAY 2019 FRESH START
NAMI Cobb Educational
Meeting
Education Speaker Series
Presents:
Teresa Lane, RN
Family Nurse Practitioner/Psychiatric CNS
At
Cobb And Douglas County Community
Services Board
Page 2 Fresh Start
NAMI Cobb, May President’s Letter May is a busy month for NAMI Cobb with many activities supporting our mental health community. On Saturday, May 4th, NAMI Cobb held a Mental Health Resource Fair from 9 AM until Noon, at The Cathedral of Turner Chapel AME. Tiffany Welch, our Outreach Events Chair, put together a great program with 2 speakers, and 36 exhibitors.
Our next monthly educational meeting will be on May 16th, at Turner Chapel. Our speaker will be Teresa Lane, Family Nurse Practitioner/Psychiatric CNS, at Cobb and Douglas County Community Services Board. In June, the location of our monthly meeting will move to the Tommy Nobis Center, at 1480 Bells Ferry Rd, Marietta, GA. We are thankful to Turner Chapel for hosting our monthly meetings for the past three years. On Saturday May 18th we will have the NAMI GA Annual Meeting which will include a Leadership and Recovery Symposium. This event will be in Macon, Georgia, at River Edge Behavioral Health. Please join NAMI Cobb there for a day of learning and networking. The Annual Meeting for NAMI Georgia members will convene after the symposium, at 3:45pm. Complete details and registration are on the NAMIGA.org website. NAMI Cobb has two weekly support groups. One is called Connections and it is for people with a mental health condition. The other is called Family Support and it is for family members and friends who support those affected by a mental illness. Both support groups are held every Monday night from 7 to 8:30 PM at First Presbyterian Church of Marietta, 189 Church St, Marietta, GA 30060. The only time the meetings do not occur is when the church is closed, as it will be on May 27th, Memorial Day. For details on all these and other events, please see our website, NAMICobb.org. Thank you for your continued support of NAMI Cobb.
Peter Lyons, and his wife Angie, joined NAMI Cobb seven years ago. They went through NAMI’s flagship Family-to-Family course and have served as Family Support Group facilitators for several years. Peter’s work experience includes leadership positions in Finance, Insurance and Risk Management. His academic achievements include both a MS in Risk Management from Georgia State University and an MBA from Babson College. NAMI is a great organization providing education programs, support and advocacy for mental health.
Fresh Start Page 3
Education Meeting May 16th, 2019: Teresa Lane, RN
Education Speaker Series Presents:
Teresa Lane, RN
Family Nurse Practitioner/Psychiatric CNS At
Cobb And Douglas County Community Services Board
I graduated in 1982 from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a BSN and worked for 6 months in an
oncology preceptorship at Memorial Mission in Asheville, NC. I secured a position on the Medical Psychiatric Unit
at Emory University Hospital in 1984 under the direction of the late Alan Stoudemire MD. I then entered the
Gero/Psych Master of Nursing Program at Emory. I worked many positions within psychiatric nursing as a Clinical
Nurse Specialist. In 2006 I graduated from North Georgia College with a Family Nurse Practitioner certificate. I co-
owned Blue Ridge Psychiatric Consultants with Michael Gladson MD from 2004 to 2010.
I am committed to the best delivery of psychiatric care in Atlanta. Everyone has a sacred story. I am invested in
honoring and helping my patients to integrate their sacred stories for the fulfillment of their lives.
This Event Is A FREE Community Service; All Are Welcome!
May 16, 2019 7:00-9:00 P.M.
Turner Chapel AME Church – Room 187
492 N. Marietta Parkway Marietta 30060
Page 4 Fresh Start
‘Smiling Depression’: It’s Possible to Be
Depressed While Appearing Happy
The term “smiling depression” – appearing happy to others while internally suffering depressive symptoms – has become increasingly popular. Articles on the topic have crept up in the popular literature, and the number of Google searches for the condition has increased dramatically this year. Some may question, however, whether this is actually a real, pathological condition.
While smiling depression is not a technical term that psychologists use, it is certainly possible to be depressed and manage to successfully mask the symptoms. The closest technical term for this condition is “atypical depression”. In fact, a significant proportion of people who experience a low mood and a loss of pleasure in activities manage to hide their condition in this way. And these people might be particularly vulnerable to suicide.
It can be very hard to spot people suffering from smiling depression. They may seem like they don’t have a reason to be sad – they have a job, an apartment and maybe even children or a partner. They smile when you greet them and can carry pleasant conversations. In short, they put on a mask to the outside world while leading seemingly normal and active lives.
Inside, however, they feel hopeless and down, sometimes even having thoughts about ending it all. The strength that they have to go on with their daily lives can make them especially vulnerable to carrying out suicide plans. This is in contrast to other forms of depression, in which people might have suicide ideation but not enough energy to act on their intentions.
Although people with smiling depression put on a “happy face” to the outside world, they can experience a genuine lift in their mood as a result of positive occurrences in their lives. For example, getting a text message from someone they’ve been craving to hear from or being praised at work can make them feel better for a few moments before going back to feeling low.
Other symptoms of this condition include overeating, feeling a sense of heaviness in the arms and
likely to feel depressed in the evening and feel the need to sleep longer than usual. With other forms of depression, however, your mood might be worse in the morning and you might feel the need for less sleep than you’re normally used to.
Smiling depression seems to be more common in people with certain temperaments. In particular, it is linked to being more prone to anticipate failure, having a hard time getting over embarrassing or humiliating situations and tending to ruminate or excessively think about negative situations that have taken place.
Women’s Health magazine captured the essence of smiling depression – the façade – when it asked women to share pictures from their social media and then to recaption them on Instagram with how they really felt in the moment they were taking the picture. Here are some of their posts .
Fresh Start Page 5
Burden and treatment
It is difficult to determine exactly what causes smiling depression, but low mood can stem from a number of things, such as work problems, relationship breakdown and feeling as if your life doesn’t have purpose and meaning.
It is very common. About one in ten people are depressed, and between 15% and 40% of these people suffer from the atypical form that resembles smiling depression. Such depression often starts early in life and can last a long time.
If you suffer from smiling depression it is therefore particularly important to get help. Sadly, though, people suffering from this condition usually don’t, because they might not think that they have a problem in the first place – this is particularly the case if they appear to be carrying on with their tasks and daily routines as before. They may also feel guilty and rationalise that they don’t have anything to be sad about. So they don’t tell anybody about their problems and end up feeling ashamed of their feelings.
So how can you break this cycle? A starting point is knowing that this condition actually exists and that it’s serious. Only when we stop rationalising away our problems because we think they’re not serious enough can we start making an actual difference. For some, this insight may be enough to turn things around, because it puts them on a path to seeking help and breaking free from the shackles of depression that have been holding them back.
Meditation and physical activity have also been shown to have tremendous mental health benefits. In fact, a study done by Rutgers University in the US showed that people who had done meditation and physical activity twice a week experienced a drop of almost 40% in their depression levels only eight weeks into the study. Cognitive behavioural therapy, learning to change your thinking patterns and behaviour, is another option for those affected by this condition.
And finding meaning in life is of utmost importance. The Austrian neurologist Viktor Frankl wrote that the cornerstone of good mental health is having purpose in life. He said that we shouldn’t aim to be in a “tensionless state”, free of responsibility and challenges, but rather we should be striving for something in life. We can find purpose by taking the attention away from ourselves and placing it onto something else. So find a worthwhile goal and try to make regular progress on it, even if it’s for a small amount each day, because this can really have a positive impact.
We can also find purpose by caring for someone else. When we take the spotlight off of us and start to think about someone else’s needs and wants, we begin to feel that our lives matter. This can be achieved by volunteering, or taking care of a family member or even an animal.
Feeling that our lives matter is ultimately what gives us purpose and meaning – and this can make a significant difference for our mental health and well-being
Olivia Remes / Creative Commons / The Conversation
https://themindunleashed.com/2019/03/smiling-depression-depressed-while-happy.html?fbclid=IwAR2nuh2bDANDI1BZjQthrWoysLNadJjUH3WXLwlfsbaOdVOHb_hMbQSTIfQ
Page 6 Fresh Start
Stop Self-Harm. Resources for Parents and Teens.
February 27th, 2019 By Boys Town Contributor
The idea that a child would engage in self-harm is often baffling to parents. Self-harm often occurs for the first time at the transition between childhood to adolescence. It's around this time that adolescents begin to think more about their feelings, pay more attention to peers' behaviors and place more of an emphasis on fitting in. Upon discovering their adolescent is self-harming, parents may become deeply concerned and wonder if their child is thinking of suicide. It is important to know that self-harm and suicide are two distinct concerns, and one does not always imply the other will happen. Understandably, many parents want to understand why their son or daughter is self-harming. Children and adolescents may self-harm for a number of reasons. Below are three common reasons why some self-harm.
• Emotional pain. Some may self-harm to manage emotional pain. Research has found that adolescents who self-harm to manage emotional pain report that they feel better after cutting. Those who self-harm for this reason may hide it for months before it is discovered and often do not want others to know.
• Communication. An adolescent may try to communicate to others that she is experiencing emotional pain. In this case, the cuts may be on wrists or other visible areas and the individual may not try to conceal them.
• Belonging. Engaging in self-harm may give individuals a sense of belonging if they spend time with peers who also self-harm. For example, individuals who are seeking a sense of belonging through self-harm may talk about cutting or may take pictures of their cuts and share them through social media. This shared interest may give adolescents a sense of belonging and acceptance that can be appealing.
The examples above suggest that self-harm is often maintained by the responses from others or by skill deficits in managing emotions. Therefore, self-harm can be treated by modifying the responses and by teaching skills to better manage emotions. If a person is cutting or engaging in any other form of self-harm, a mental health professional should be consulted, but below are some additional resources for both parents and teens who may be dealing with self-harm.
YourLifeYourVoice.org: This website is part of the Boys Town National Hotline and provides kids and families the opportunity to ask their questions via phone, text, chat or email. Let your kids know they are not alone, support is available to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The site also offers content specifically for teens related to preventing self-injury including journal pages and worksheets. http://www.yourlifeyourvoice.org/Pages/self-injury.aspx
MyLifeMyVoice App: This app is a great way to help teens track their changing moods and behavioral triggers by journaling within the app. You can review a report of your tracked moods over a period of time, and you can also get life tips on ways to help turn your mood around when you're feeling down or stressed out!
Fresh Start Page 7
Help Your Child Build Their Own Coping Skills Toolbox: Coping skills are great tools for kids to have when the stresses and strains of life threaten to slow them down or overwhelm them. Coping skills are not a "one size fits all." This means a coping skill that works for one person might not work
for another. Help them find and develop the coping skills that work best for them in various situations. https://www.boystown.org/parenting/Pages/feelings-and-coping-skills.aspx
What Happens When You Call the Hotline? - Have a specific question? The Boys Town National Hotline's specially trained counselors are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to offer you parenting advice and assistance or to help your teen if they need someone to talk to. Program this number in your phone and your child's phone so it's always available. Ask your own question or call 24/7 at 800-448-3000.
Managing Your Anger: Everyone gets angry. It's a natural emotion. It's okay to feel anger. However, what you do with your anger is a major part of what defines your character. If you or your child are having a hard time managing your anger, here are a few steps you can take that will help. (https://www.boystown.org/parenting/Documents/Manage-Anger-tool.pdf)
If you become aware that your child is engaging in self-injurious acts, remember that it is fairly common. Approximately one out of every eight people engages in some form of self-harm behavior, and currently, it's more widespread than it has been in prior decades. Among people who have mental illnesses, it is more common, affecting approximately one out of every four people. Though it is often frightening for parents, the majority of teens who cut themselves do not intend to inflict serious injury or cause death. If the injury appears to pose potential medical risks, contact emergency medical services immediately. If the injury doesn't appear to pose immediate medical risks, remain calm and nonjudgmental, contact your child's pediatrician to discuss the concerns, and ask for a referral to a trained mental health professional who has experience in this area.
https://www.boystown.org/blog/Pages/Stop-Self-Harm-Resources-for-Parents-and-Teens.aspx?fbclid=IwAR3x5s1HMY11fnbu0Bc4y8nykruxLp1xAFEA8t3TPM0pjTymOLQdAO5TM2M
The Best Free Mental Health Apps for Anxiety, Stress and Depression
Mental health apps have made therapeutic techniques more accessible, portable and cost-effective. Although digital tools shouldn’t be seen as a substitute for traditional therapy, these apps can help you manage any issues you may be having while allowing for privacy and confidentiality.
Calm
Free on iOS and Android
Apple’s 2017 App of the Year award winner, Calm, offers guided meditations, Sleep Stories and breathing programmes. Sessions are all under 25 minutes, with topics ranging from self-esteem and relationships to tools for practising mindfulness at work. Whether you’ve never tried meditation before or regularly practise, you’re likely to find a Calm programme that’s right for you.
Learn the life-changing skill of meditation © Calm
Page 8 Fresh Start
Happify
Free on iOS and Android
Happify helps you conquer negative thoughts, cope better with stress, build self-confidence, fuel career success and practise mindfulness through meditation. Split into tracks of engaging games, activity suggestions, gratitude prompts and bite-size quizzes, Happify guides you to seeing more positive aspects of daily life.
CBT Thought Diary
Free on iOS and Android
Using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a technique centred around changing feelings by identifying negative and distorted thinking patterns, CBT Thought Diary lets you document emotions, analyse flaws in your thinking and re-evaluate your thoughts to gradually improve your approach to anxiety-inducing situations.
Harness the power of cognitive behavioural therapy
© CBT Thought Diary
Self-Help for Anxiety Management (SAM)
Free on iOS and Android
The Self-Help for Anxiety Management (SAM) app helps users build their own Anxiety Toolkit from a selection of 25 in-app resources ranging from physical relaxation techniques to mental relaxation and
health strategies. The app also has a Social Cloud feature, which enables users to share experiences with the SAM community while protecting their identities.
What’s Up?
Free on iOS and Android
What’s Up? uses both CBT and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), a technique that helps you acknowledge life’s difficulties to enable you to cope with depression, anxiety and stress. Features include a positive and negative habit tracker to help you maintain good habits and break those that are counterproductive, a Get Grounded page containing more than 100 different questions to pinpoint
Fresh Start Page 9
what you’re feeling and a Thinking Patterns page, which teaches you how to stop negative internal monologues.
Change negative thought patterns© What's Up
MindShift
Free on iOS and Android
Rather than trying to avoid anxiety, MindShift uses CBT to help change attitudes towards it. Designed specifically for teens and young adults, the app has tools to tackle sleep problems, intense emotions, perfectionism, social anxiety and more.
MoodTools
Free on iOS and Android
Aiming to support people with clinical depression, MoodTools offers a CBT-based diary to log and analyse thoughts, helpful videos that can improve mood and behaviour, and a suicide safety plan.
Improve your mood with simple and effective tools
© MoodTools
Wednesday 10 October is World Mental Health Day. To highlight this, Culture Trip is looking at how different societies are shining a light on this important issue in innovative and alternative ways.
The content of this article is provided for general information only and is not an attempt to practise medicine or give specific medical advice, including, without limitation, advice concerning the topic of mental health. The information contained in this article is for the sole purpose of being informative and is not to be considered complete, and does not cover all issues related to mental health. Moreover, this information should not replace consultation with your doctor or other qualified mental health providers and/or specialists. If you believe you or another individual is suffering a mental health crisis or other medical emergency, please seek medical attention immediately.
Page 10 Fresh Start
Emotionally Strong People Do
These 5 Things Differently March 28, 2018
By definition, emotional strength involves a person’s ability to deal with challenges and bounce
back from them. Emotionally strong people are able to handle the day-to-day stresses and challenges of life more
effectively. Advertisement
Emotionally strong people are usually portrayed in the media as stoic types whose expression in a crisis is to square their jaw, clench their fists and dramatically stare off into the distance. Any sign of emotional stress or tears, especially in men, is seen as a sign of weakness. But
emotional strength has little to do with how someone momentarily reacts in a crisis. A person’s immediate reaction to a crisis matters much less than how they act afterwards.
If a plan falls through and you melt into a puddle of tears, but get up the next day and begin anew, that is a sign of emotional strength. Understand? Good!
Below are 5 signs that you are an emotionally strong person.
1. They don’t try to invalidate their feelings by using logic to stop them
Even if they don’t understand or like the feelings they’re having, they acknowledge that their
feelings exist. They recognize that often uncomfortable feelings aren’t rational in nature, and so using logic to
pretend they don’t exist is pointless and ineffective. 2. They seek respect more than attention
Fresh Start Page 11
It’s a basic human desire to be loved and accepted by the group. Unhappy people seek this
feeling of love and respect by trying to create social superiority. Emotionally strong people seek it by trying to earn the respect of those around them.
3. They focus on how to maneuver past obstacles, not on the obstacles themselves
While many people are stuck, unhappy and want to give up because they assume these
obstacles are the end of the road, emotionally strong people see roadblocks as signs to take a different route.
4. They aren’t afraid to feel pain
Most people spend their whole lives avoiding pain at all cost. They take refuge in relationships, in money, in sex, in beauty, in a desire to seem socially superior.
But, emotionally strong people are strong because they aren’t afraid to feel pain. It is in denying and suppressing feelings that we ultimately lose control. 5. They see failure as a life lesson, rather than taking it as a sign they are unworthy
Emotionally strong people don’t seek external validation. They know their worth, so they are able to learn from failure and criticism. They view these things as tools to help them grow.
If you enjoyed this article, don’t forget to SHARE it on Facebook with all your friends and family! http://dailyvibes.co/emotionally-
strong/?fbclid=IwAR2mOxi7WBFoYBG8pmenC2gz54dnjyjmD35N1yy5-ovSEtYFHby4SxjAlQw
Page 12 Fresh Start
Thank you so much for your interest in joining NAMI Cobb Affiliate! Please complete the form below, and mail this with your check made out to NAMI Cobb. (If you wish to pay by credit card, go to www nami.org and click on “Join”. You will start receiving our monthly electronic newsletter within the month. You are also invited to attend our monthly education and support meetings, on the third Thursday of each month at 7:30pm (there is a time to look at resources and brochures at 7pm). You are not alone. Come join us.
NAMI Cobb May 2019
P.O. Box 999
Kennesaw, GA 30156
TO:
Yes, I would like to join NAMI Cobb of Georgia! Date:____________________
Membership is for NAMI Cobb, includes NAMI Georgia and NAMI
Annual Dues: Individual [__] $40.00 Open Door [__] $5.00
Household [__] $60.00 - List specific persons living at the same address.
(Please note there has been a slight increase in membership fees nationally).
___________Donation (I would like to give an additional donation
to support NAMI-Cobb programming and outreach) Name(s):______________________________________
Address:______________________________________
_______________________________________
Phone: _______________________________________
Email: _______________________________________
I am interested in volunteering. My skill is ________________________.
Support Group Meetings
For families of those with a mental illness
1st Presbyterian Church
189 Church St
Marietta, GA
MONDAYS Time: 7-8:30 PM
Family Support Group Room 048
Connections Support Group Room 046
Contact Neill Blake at 770-427-5353 or
[email protected] with questions
about either support group."
Monthly NAMI Cobb
May 16, 2019
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Turner Chapel Room 187
492 N. Marietta Pkwy | Marietta, GA 30060
**Please mail this form along with your check to:
NAMI Cobb, P.O. Box 999 Kennesaw, GA 30156
Thank you for your membership!
