Mental Health Archives - Healthy Minds Philly®

It’s Not Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Coping with Seasonal Affective Disorder

Daylight saving time is coming fast. If you are like many, the thought of an extra hour of sleep seems glorious. Plus, the fall brings pretty colors, fun holidays, crisp air, and pumpkin spice lattes. For others, fall brings with it feelings of depression—seasonal depression. This type of depression is called seasonal affective disorder or SAD - a type of depression that happens seasonally. Its symptoms usually last through fall and winter, about four to five months each year. For some individuals, SAD occurs in summer. However, this is not [...]

Janine Monico2023-11-01T08:31:18-04:00November 1st, 2023|Depression, Mental Health|

Tips for Helping AAPI Parents Talk About Mental Health

*Content warning: Contains disclosure of behaviors of self-harm. “You are too much! And you talk too much!” was what I was told as a child when I expressed my feelings. My parents emigrated from the Philippines and wanted the best for their six children: rigorous education, fine clothing, and a spacious home. They were advised by the pediatrician not to teach us their native language, warning it would cause confusion. I pinpoint this advice as the cause for our home’s emotional deficiency. It created a dynamic of tense silences, suspicion, [...]

Janine Monico2023-04-30T09:53:17-04:00May 15th, 2023|Mental Health, Racial Equity|

Social Media in Small Doses

WARNING: Consume Responsibly Let’s face it…we’re in the age of social media. If you’re reading this as the parent of a teen, chances are this is very different from how you grew up. Nowadays, 90 percent of adolescents between ages 13 and 17 use at least one type of social media. So it seems the question is: What are the effects of social media on younger generations? The Upside When it comes to social media, it’s a double-edged sword. During the peak of COVID-19, social connection was needed, and social [...]

Janine Monico2023-04-18T21:35:57-04:00May 8th, 2023|Family & Youth, Mental Health|

People Can Pull Us Through It: Secondary Traumatic Stress

Overheard at a party: What do you do for a living? Oh, social work? That’s so hard.” Conversation ends. The stories social workers (and other caregivers) have can be buzzkills at parties. Our work is tough, and most folks don’t want to hear about it. This isn’t to paint us all as saints. We knew it was tough when we chose our line of work. But it can be very lonely to sit with our experiences, especially when you get secondary traumatic stress (STS). STS is the Post Traumatic Stress [...]

Janine Monico2023-04-18T12:05:59-04:00May 1st, 2023|Mental Health, Stress, Trauma|