September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month (aka SPAM), and Sept. 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day. NAMI observes these events by talking about suicide prevention and promoting resources and awareness, including: how you can help others and how to talk about suicide.

More about suicide prevention>

Read the full article here>

Date and time:

Sat, Oct 1, 2022, 1:00-6 PM MDT

Sun, Oct 2, 2022, 9-12 PM MDT

Location:

Staenberg-Loup Jewish Community Center

350 South Dahlia Street

Denver, CO 80246

Map

*Note* A virtual option will also be available. A link will be sent to all registrants the week of the conference.

Click here to register at no cost

Five Tips to Cope with Double Discrimination

"Disability and mental illness alone are accompanied by significant stigma and discrimination, but when paired together, they result in a unique experience the mental health community calls, “double discrimination.” Mental illness is still so misunderstood, and when an individual has severe mental illnesses that contribute to their disability status, or they have physical disabilities paired with mental illness, others are often unable or unwilling to understand the complex experience. Often, they simply can’t accept another’s experience for what it is."

Warning Signs of Mental Illness

Certain thoughts, behaviors, symptoms and conditions are directly related to mental illness. We often don’t examine how we might excessively use alcohol, for example, to calm our anxious minds after a long day, or how a loved one’s refusal to enter therapy might not just be personal preference.

See video below:

Trying to tell the difference between what expected behaviors are and what might be the signs of a mental illness isn't always easy. There's no easy test that can let someone know if there is mental illness or if actions and thoughts might be typical behaviors of a person or the result of a physical illness.

A mental illness is a condition that affects a person's thinking, feeling, behavior or mood. These conditions deeply impact day-to-day living and may also affect the ability to relate to others. If you have — or think you might have — a mental illness, the first thing you must know is that you are not alone. Mental health conditions are far more common than you think, mainly because people don’t like to, or are scared to, talk about them.

Renowned psychologist Diana Fosha teaches that trauma and psychopathology is caused by experiencing overwhelming emotions in the face of unwanted, utter loneliness. Using this definition, it becomes clear that trauma is a universal human experience. How many of us have had to face our feelings alone for fear of judgment, abandonment or retaliation?

Approaching Mental Health Care with a Trauma-Informed Perspective

Trauma often happens in families and relationships when there’s emotional neglect or abuse. But trauma isn’t limited to what happens in families and relationships: we live in a society and a world filled with violence, stress and injustice.

Compounding our distress is the fact that parents and schools have, for the most part, not been given the proper tools to address this subject — and they are often unequipped when it comes to emotional health. As a result, they are not prepared to help children process overwhelming emotions — which is vital for raising calm, confident kids in the context of a chaotic, traumatic world.

Full article here>

Click here to pre-order your copy today!

NAMI Launches First Podcast, “Hope Starts With Us,” Hosted by NAMI’s CEO, Daniel H. Gillison Jr.

In this episode of NAMI’s podcast, NAMI CEO Daniel H. Gillison Jr. speaks with NAMI board member and psychiatrist Dr. Glenda Wrenn Gordon about her experience navigating the mental health system as a mom, after discovering one of her children has been struggling with thoughts of suicide and tried to take his own life.

In this episode of NAMI’s podcast, NAMI CEO Daniel H. Gillison Jr. speaks with NAMI Chief Advocacy Officer Hannah Wesolowski about how 988 came to be, the work that still needs to be done to build out a system that can support 988, and misinformation spreading online about 988. Listen in to get the facts straight and help spread awareness in your communities.

Keep an eye on your student's mental health this back-to-school season

Students across the country are moving into dorms or getting ready to board school buses for their first day of class."For some of these kids, [there is] a good bit of anxiety around getting back into the classroom on a regular basis," he says, "They're understanding and trying to deal with everything that has happened over the last two years."

While the pandemic caused widespread disruption to learning, one of the biggest concerns, for students of all ages, has been how it has affected their mental health. High numbers of teenagers have reported persistently feeling sad or hopeless, and the Biden Administration has tried to make student mental health a priority.