The World Mental Health Day is celebrated on the 10th of October, dedicated to raising awareness in mental health. This year, the UN decided the focus for this years World Mental Health Day focused on "Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World," specifically significant in stress among the youth. The issues addressed in this topic is the burden of the disease (relating to depression) among adolescents, the undetected and untreated mental illnesses in the adolescence, the need to build mental resilience and manage mental health.
However, we weren't able to do any activities on this day as it was October break. So Peer Helpers has decided to build to create some posters on stress and post facts about mental health on the daily bulletin. Some important facts we posted for this week included were:
About 5 in 100 people suffer from anxiety
According to a Harvard study, chronic stress leads to the faster degrading of chromosomes. This puts you at greater risk for several major diseases, including heart disease and some forms of cancer.
According to a 2013 study, positive stress boosts the production of neurons that may improve performance. Positive stress is where you feel challenged and not threatened. Convert your negative stress into positive stress by accepting an endeavour as a challenge and not a threat.
The Palo Alto Medical Foundation found the biggest stressors for students between the ages of 13-17 were academics and family pressure.
More than 300 million people suffer from depression globally
As well, most posters are on the Peer Helpers Bulletin and scattered around classes. Each one was created by a member (with some creating more than one). Each one has a various purpose for managing stress with some as inspiring quotes and others as helpful tips.
To print you own poster, here are a few you can download yourself:
For more information on World Mental Health Awareness Day, click here for the UN's webpage.