•  Mental Health Awareness Month

    Are you struggling with a mental illness not listed? Come talk to your SAC or guidance counselor to find more resources that will work for you!

    "It's okay not to be okay!" Get help now!

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    Feeling depressed?

    What is depression?

    Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home.

    Taken from the American Psychiatric Association

    Warning signs & symptoms:

    • Feeling sad or having a depressed mood
    • Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed
    • Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting
    • Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
    • Loss of energy or increased fatigue
    • Increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., hand-wringing or pacing) or slowed movements and speech (actions observable by others)
    • Feeling worthless or guilty
    • Difficulty thinking, concentrating, or making decisions
    • Thoughts of death or suicide

    Taken from the American Psychiatric Association

    Feeling anxious? 

    What is anxiety disorder?

    Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress and can be beneficial in some situations. It can alert us to dangers and help us prepare and pay attention. Anxiety disorders differ from normal feelings of nervousness or anxiousness and involve excessive fear or anxiety. Anxiety disorders are the most common of mental disorders and affect nearly 30 percent of adults at some point in their lives. . But anxiety disorders are treatable, and a number of effective treatments are available. Treatment helps most people lead normal productive lives. Fear is an emotional response to an immediate threat and is more associated with a fight or flight reaction – either staying to fight or leaving to escape danger. Anxiety disorders can cause people into try to avoid situations that trigger or worsen their symptoms. Job performance, schoolwork and personal relationships can be affected.

    Taken from the American Psychiatric Association

    Types of anxiety disorders:

    • Generalized Anxiety Disorder: persistent and excessive worry that interferes with daily activities.
    • Panic Disorder: recurrent panic attacks, an overwhelming combination of physical and psychological distress.
    • Phobias: excessive and persistent fear of a specific object, situation or activity that is generally not harmful.
    • Agoraphobia: the fear of being in situations where escape may be difficult or embarrassing, or help might not be available in the event of panic symptoms. The fear is out of proportion to the actual situation and lasts generally six months or more and causes problems in functioning.
    • Social Anxiety Disorder: significant anxiety and discomfort about being embarrassed, humiliated, rejected or looked down on in social interactions.
    • Separation Anxiety Disorder: excessively fearful or anxious about separation from those with whom he or she is attached. A person with separation anxiety disorder may be persistently worried about losing the person closest to him or her, may be reluctant or refuse to go out or sleep away from home or without that person, or may experience nightmares about separation.

    Taken from the American Psychiatric Association

    Warning signs & symptoms:

    • Restlessness
    • Easily fatigued
    • Feeling on edge
    • Difficulty concentrating
    • Palpitations or increased heart rate
    • Trembling or shaking
    • Feeling of shortness of breath

    Addicted to a substance?

    What is addiction?

    Addiction is a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. People with addiction use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences.

    Taken from American Society of Addiction Medicine

    People can develop an addiction to:

    • Alcohol
    • Marijuana
    • PCP, LSD, and other hallucinogens
    • Inhalants, such as, paint thinners and glue
    • Opioid pain killers, such as codeine and oxycodone, heroin
    • Sedatives, hypnotics, and anxiolytics (medicines for anxiety such as tranquilizers)
    • Cocaine, methamphetamine, and other stimulants
    • Tobacco

    Warning signs & symptoms:

    • Impaired control: a craving or strong urge to use the substance; desire or failed attempts to cut down or control substance use.
    • Social problems: substance use causes failure to complete major tasks at work, school, or home; social, work or leisure activities are given up or cut back because of substance use.
    • Risky use: substance is used in risky settings; continued use despite known problems.
    • Drug effects: tolerance (need for larger amounts to get the same effect); withdrawal symptoms (different for each substance).

    Taken from the American Psychiatric Association

    Suffering with an eating disorder?

    What is an eating disorder?

    Eating disorders are behavioral conditions characterized by severe and persistent disturbance in eating behaviors and associated distressing thoughts and emotions. They can be very serious conditions affecting physical, psychological, and social function. Taken together, eating disorders affect up to 5% of the population, most often develop in adolescence and young adulthood. Several, especially anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are more common in women, but they can all occur at any age and affect any gender. Eating disorders are often associated with preoccupations with food, weight, or shape or with anxiety about eating or the consequences of eating certain foods. Behaviors associated with eating disorders including restrictive eating or avoidance of certain foods, binge eating, purging by vomiting or laxative misuse or compulsive exercise. These behaviors can become driven in ways that appear similar to an addiction.

    Taken from the American Psychiatric Association

    Types of eating disorders:

    • Anorexia Nervosa: characterized by weight loss (or lack of appropriate weight gain in growing children); difficulties maintaining an appropriate body weight for height, age, and stature; and, in many individuals, distorted body image.
    • Bulimia Nervosa: characterized by a cycle of binge eating and compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting designed to undo or compensate for the effects of binge eating.
    • Binge Eating Disorder: characterized by recurrent episodes of eating large quantities of food; a feeling of a loss of control during the binge; experiencing shame, distress, or guilt afterwards; and not regularly using unhealthy compensatory measures to counter the binge eating.
    • Orthorexia: an obsession with proper or ‘healthful’ eating.
    • Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder: “selective eating disorder,” involves limitations in the amount and/or types of food consumed but does not involve any distress about body shape or size, or fears of fatness.
    • Pica: eating items that are not typically thought of as food and that do not contain significant nutritional value, such as hair, dirt, and paint chips.
    • Rumination Disorder: the regular regurgitation of food that occurs for at least one month. Regurgitated food may be re-chewed, re-swallowed, or spit out.

    Taken from Nationaleatingdisorders.org

    Warning signs & symptoms:

    • Behaviors and attitudes that indicate that weight loss, dieting, and control of food are becoming primary concerns.
    • Preoccupation with weight, food, calories, carbohydrates, fat grams, and dieting.
    • Any new practices with food or fad diets, including cutting out entire food groups (no sugar, no carbs, no dairy, vegetarianism/veganism).
    • Withdrawal from usual friends and activities.
    • Frequent dieting.
    • Extreme concern with body size and shape.
    • Noticeable fluctuations in weight, both up and down.
    • Cuts and calluses across the top of finger joints (a result of inducing vomiting).
    • Dental problems, such as enamel erosion, cavities, and tooth sensitivity.
    • Muscle weakness.
    • Impaired immune functioning.

    Taken from Nationaleatingdisorders.org

     Resources

    Where can you get help?

    • Talk with your guidance counselor or SAC about resources that may further help you!

    Addiction:

    • SAMHSA’s National Helpline 1-800-662-HELP
    • Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services of NJ (856-384-6886) or (856-384-6889)

    Depression:

    • Mobile Response/Perform Care 1-877-652-7624
    • Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK
    • Acenda Integrated Health 1-844-422-3632

    Anxiety:

    Eating Disorders:

    • Doors of Growth Counseling Center (856-881-8780)
    • Perform Care 1-877-652-7624

    For more resources, head over to our "Mental Health Resource" Page! Click Here!