Sligo Mental Health Association

24/03/2019

This says it all ... ❤️

24/12/2018

It’s ok to ask for help. You wouldn’t want a friend or loved one to suffer in silence, they wouldn’t want that for you either 💖

22/12/2018

We know that for some Christmas Day can be a difficult time so there are a few things on that

27/11/2018

18/11/2018

Union of Students in Ireland (USI) have launched a fantastic new app, +connections, to help students all over Ireland (including Institute of Technology, Sligo students) to engage with local mental health services on campus or in their area. Download it for Android and iPhone now!

http://usi.ie/news-release/mental-health-usi-launch-recharge-campaign-connections-app/

Union of Students in Ireland Launches ReCharge Campaign and +Connections App in response to concerns over student mental health Press Notice: Date: Monday 12th (Photocall 1pm, Launch 12 Noon)Location: UCC (Room G06, Brookfield Campus)Organisations: USI, HSE, Department of HealthMinister with special...

05/11/2018

When you feel anxious:
🌲 Go outside
🙏 Ask for help
🎨 Create something
💧 Drink water
📝 Write about how you feel
🌈 Take a deep breath
🎵 Listen to soothing songs
🌍 Stay present
👍 Find a positive distraction

11/09/2018

Seven useful apps to support positive mental health. Get off Instagram & get on these instead! 😀📱💪

http://amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2018/06/08/apps-for-anxiety-and-depression

These iOS and Android apps are additional sources of support.

13/07/2018

When you're feeling especially low, it's extra important to look after yourself.

05/07/2018

Exercise reduces the levels of your body’s natural stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline, and promotes the release of dopamine which boosts motivation and increases the levels of serotonin, the brain’s own natural antidepressant.

28/06/2018

Please bear with me!

Supportive friends are the best friends 😊🐻

15/06/2018

Emotions are no measurement for "manliness". Let's put an end to stigma, one stereotype at a time.

08/06/2018

When you have depression it’s like it snows every day.

Some days it’s only a couple of inches. It’s a pain in the ass, but you still make it to work, the grocery store. Sure, maybe you skip the gym or your friend’s birthday party, but it IS still snowing and who knows how bad it might get tonight. Probably better to just head home. Your friend notices, but probably just thinks you are flaky now, or kind of an as***le.

Some days it snows a foot. You spend an hour shoveling out your driveway and are late to work. Your back and hands hurt from shoveling. You leave early because it’s really coming down out there. Your boss notices.

Some days it snows four feet. You shovel all morning but your street never gets plowed. You are not making it to work, or anywhere else for that matter. You are so sore and tired you just get back in the bed. By the time you wake up, all your shoveling has filled back in with snow. Looks like your phone rang; people are wondering where you are. You don’t feel like calling them back, too tired from all the shoveling. Plus they don’t get this much snow at their house so they don’t understand why you’re still stuck at home. They just think you’re lazy or weak, although they rarely come out and say it.

Some weeks it’s a full-blown blizzard. When you open your door, it’s to a wall of snow. The power flickers, then goes out. It’s too cold to sit in the living room anymore, so you get back into bed with all your clothes on. The stove and microwave won’t work so you eat a cold Pop Tart and call that dinner. You haven’t taken a shower in three days, but how could you at this point? You’re too cold to do anything except sleep.
Sometimes people get snowed in for the winter. The cold seeps in. No communication in or out. The food runs out. What can you even do, tunnel out of a forty foot snow bank with your hands? How far away is help? Can you even get there in a blizzard? If you do, can they even help you at this point? Maybe it’s death to stay here, but it’s death to go out there too.

The thing is, when it snows all the time, you get worn all the way down. You get tired of being cold. You get tired of hurting all the time from shoveling, but if you don’t shovel on the light days, it builds up to something unmanageable on the heavy days. You resent the hell out of the snow, but it doesn’t care, it’s just a blind chemistry, an act of nature. It carries on regardless, unconcerned and unaware if it buries you or the whole world.

Also, the snow builds up in other areas, places you can’t shovel, sometimes places you can’t even see. Maybe it’s on the roof. Maybe it’s on the mountain behind the house. Sometimes, there’s an avalanche that blows the house right off its foundation and takes you with it. A veritable Act of God, nothing can be done. The neighbors say it’s a shame and they can’t understand it; he was doing so well with his shoveling.
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We don’t know how it went down for Anthony Bourdain or Kate Spade. It seems like they got hit by the avalanche, but it could’ve been the long, slow winter. Maybe they were keeping up with their shoveling. Maybe they weren’t. Sometimes, shoveling isn’t enough anyway. It’s hard to tell from the outside, but it’s important to understand what it’s like from the inside.

Understanding and compassion have to be the base of effective action. It’s important to understand what depression is, how it feels, what it’s like to live with it, so you can help people both on an individual basis and a policy basis.

I don’t have a message for people with depression like “keep shoveling”. It’s asinine. Of course you’re going to keep shoveling the best you can, until you physically can’t, because who wants to freeze to death inside their own house? We know what the stakes are. My message is to everyone else. Grab a shovel and help your neighbor. Slap a mini snow plow on the front of your truck and plow your neighborhood. Petition the city council to buy more salt trucks, so to speak.

Depression is blind chemistry and physics, like snow. And like the weather, it is a mindless process, powerful and unpredictable with great potential for harm. But like climate change, that doesn’t mean we are helpless. If we want to stop losing so many people to this disease, it will require action at every level.

(Copied from another post, 8.06.18)

13/05/2018

Well done to all who participated in Darkness into Light Sligo this year! 🌜⭐☀️💛

04/05/2018

Mental health difficulties are nothing to be ashamed of, let's end the stigma and bias that shame us all. http://thndr.me/twEpS2

02/05/2018

Take a moment to consider how you refer to mental illness and people who are dealing with a mental illness

Your words and behaviors matter.

01/05/2018

Support See Change Mental Health Awareness month and wear a green ribbon. Ribbons can be ordered online for free at www.greenribbon.ie

Teacher Jen Ronan’s anxiety worsened after the death of her mother in 2013, and she checked into hospital depressed. She talks openly about it, so others will, too, says Áilín Quinlan.

24/04/2018

22/04/2018

We can improve our mood by getting out for Earth Day! Fitting in a walk can be highly beneficial for mental health, helping us to relax and shifting us into a more positive emotional state.