By Ashley Nowak This time of year can be tough. Holidays are over, it is frigid cold, and summer seems so far away. With these despairing thoughts, it is the perfect time to talk about mental health. According to the Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior 2017 Survey (conducted by the Department of Public Instruction), 27% of Wisconsin high school students feel depressed, almost 40% suffer from anxiety, and 16.6% of students have self harmed. These numbers may be startling but they are our reality. It may not be enjoyable but talking about it is super important. While it seems easier to suppress our own feelings or ignore the friend who has been acting different, doing this is only harder in the...
By Anna Johnson Dear Grief; I really don't know how to handle you. You cling to me everyday and everywhere I go. I don't know how to get rid of you. Grief, you blurt out everything and anything at the best and worst times possible. It feels like word vomit. Unlike when I was diagnosed with my anxiety and depression, I knew that one day I'd see the light at the end of the tunnel... yet here you are and it looks never ending. Grief, you have ruined relationships, you have strengthened some, you have made me laugh, you have made me cry, scream. You taunt me in my sleep, you make me babble on and on. You make me...
By Anna Johnson If there is one thing that I always try to remember when speaking out about mental health is that I know that I did not go to school to become a mental health professional. I don’t have all the real known facts. All I have is the raw real-life truth. I have learned so much through a Dialectical Behavior Therapy program at Nystrom and Associates in Woodbury, MN. After multiple therapists, one other DBT program that I dropped out of because I wasn’t in the mindset that I actually needed it to be healthy and make a life worth living. This was a year long program, but it did indeed take longer than that to complete because...
By Anna Johnson One strong woman once said, "you should be kind to everyone even if they are not nice to you because you never know what they are going through behind the scenes". -My Mom. That is so true. Have you personally ever thought about a time when someone came into your place of work for instance and was just one crabby soul? Then they leave and you take a step and realize, maybe they just lost their job, maybe they just lost a loved one, maybe they are in a big fight with their family or significant other?, maybe their child is having a tough time at school, maybe someone they love is going through depression, anxiety, bipolar,...
