Week 12 - Mental health literacy

Define social welling

Social well-being refers to various aspects of how you relate to others and to the social world around you. It includes the following key concepts:

Social connection
Social Adjustment
Social support
Sense of belonging

Social conection

Means feeling close to others, and feeling loved, cared for, cared about, and valued. It means feeling like you matter to someone.

Social Adjustment

Refers to the social roles you perform in various areas of your life, including at home, work, school, and with extended family. It also includes your satisfaction with relationships in these areas as well as how you adjust to your environment. For example, if you moved away from home to live on, or near, campus, then part of your social adjustment would involve making new friends, performing new social roles as you live on your own for the first time, and adjusting to your new environment.

Social Supports

Refers to the number of people in your social network as well as your satisfaction with your relationships. There are several ways in which people provide social support, as we'll learn in this module.

Sense of belonging

Refers to feeling connected with a group, or a community. It means that you feel like you belong, in the sense that you have a place in the group and that you feel accepted by that group.

What is the correct way to check in with others?

Rather than say: “How are you?”

Say: “I’ve been thinking about you and wanted to see how you’re handling everything that’s been doing on. How have you been?”

Waht is “Empathize”

"I'm sorry things have been so difficult lately."

What is “Make a specific offer?

Offering help in a specific way makes it easier for someone to accept the offer. For example, rather than saying "Let me know if you need any help" ask, "What's one thing I could do that would help?", or "How about if I bring supper over this Thursday – would that be helpful?"

How do you show that you value rest?

"I'm so busy", say something like "Even though I'm really busy I'm still making time to go for a walk". Or, invite another busy person to join you on your walk.

Engaging in authentic socialization

Two people enaging in conversation (in person or virtual) vs. two people scrolling on their phones.

Intervene

When you witness discrimination or abuse, use your postion of power to speak up.

Show small acts of kindness

Smling at a cashier and thanking them by name

Helping a friend on your day off

Holding the door for a stranger

What is social support?

Social support refers to the functional content of a social relationship. It includes the perceived as well as the actual support received.

Having relationships and people to depend on.

What are the benefits of social supports?

Buffer effect
Emotinal support
Practical support
Postive interactions

Buffer effect

Social supoort can provide buffering

One way that social support improves mental health is known as the buffering effect because social support helps to protect people from feeling all of the effects of stress.

Imagine you lose your job. Without social support, you might feel overwhelmed, isolated, anxious, and hopeless. But if you have supportive friends or family, you can talk to them, get emotional support, receive practical help, and remind yourself that you're not facing the situation alone.

Emotional support

Social support prvides emotional support.

Someone to listen to you and support you emotionally.

Practicle support

Child care
knowledge and advice
New perspective
Ride to appointments
Daily chores etc.
Develop meaningful social relationships
Strengthen self regulation skills

Positive interactions

Being able to just relax and enjoy the company of others is social support.

Is perception of support more imporant than support itself?

YES.

Because sometimes, social support is not necessarily beneficial and it can even be detrimental. Many behaviours are offered in the name of support, but if the person on the receiving end does not feel supported, then the actions can't really be considered social support.

It’s important to understand what type of support the person needs.

Weiss has identified two types of loneliness:

Social lonely: Not feeling like you’re part of a social group
Emotional lonliness: Not having close meaningful relationships

What are some strategies for reducing loneliness?

• Talk about it. Tell someone that you are feeling lonely. Ask other students if they are feeling lonely too. Many campus staff will be able to suggest ways to get involved that you might not have thought of on your own (e.g., academic advisors, staff working in the Student Success Office, Accessibility Services, International Student Association, campus health services, to name a few).

• Set a small, concrete social goal for yourself. For example, one time each week, sit beside someone you don't know (in class or at lunch) and just say hello to another student. If you're comfortable doing so, start a conversation with that person after saying hello.

• Get involved. For example, participate in campus events that are of interest to you, or join one student club or group. If this idea seems daunting, start small.

• Increase your physical activity. This can be particularly beneficial if you join a club (e.g., Karate, yoga) or a sports team.

• Reduce the amount of time you spend online. Spending a lot of time on social media is associated with loneliness. We will talk more about social media and loneliness on the next page.

Sense of belonging is more important than socal supports T/F

True.

Social supports are important, but sense of belonging is the most imporant for mental health, happiness and welling being.

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

Not being on social media makes people feel FOMO

Telepressure

Refers to the feeling that you need to respond to emails or text messages quickly in order to keep up positive social standing with others. It is accompanied by difficulty concentrating on tasks until you have responded.

Sleep is not only disrupted by the light of screens, research on social media use shows that for post-secondary students, telepressure and FOMO contribute to the negative impact of social media use on sleep and sleep hygiene in several ways

What are strategies for Minimizing the Negative Impacts on Well-Being

Monotor your use

Monotor self talk

Reduce time

Use social media to counteract FOMO

Avoid engaging at night

Develop meaningfu social relationships

Monotor your use

• how frequently you engage in one day, 

• the time of day or night when you engage,

• how long you stay on social media at one time,  

• how you are engaging in social media (i.e., what you are doing when engaging – viewing images, reading posts, posting, commenting), and 

• changes in your mood after spending a long time on social media.

Monotor self talk

Use Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) strategies to check and correct your: 

• assumptions and automatic negative thoughts regarding social media posts, 

• expectations about when, and how many, comments and/or likes you receive on your posts. 

Reduce time

Several experts suggest limiting social media use to 30 minutes per day, but if that seems unrealistic, just start by decreasing your use by small increments (by 5-10 minutes per day, for example), and go from there.  

Choose active use over passive use

Active use means using social media in ways that promote connection and meaningful interaction with others. 

By contrast, passive use does not promote connection. Passive use, such as lurking, creeping, scrolling through Instagram photos, gives the illusion of being social, but it does not fulfil social needs; rather, it fuels social comparison and lowers well-being

Use social media to counteract FOMO

• Unfollow accounts that contribute to negative mood and dissatisfaction with your body 

• Set your status to indicate that you are offline or make your status invisible to others altogether 

• Intentionally follow only the topics that interest you 

Avoid engaging at night

• Avoid checking social media or email during your buffer zone (i.e., the time at the end of the day when you can wind down from your day and prepare for sleep). 

• Schedule short windows of time in your day when you will engage with social media. Make it a habit of engaging with social media only during those designated windows of time. 

• Make a commitment to being off-line during the night, after you have gone to bed. This means: 

  • not sending or checking for messages  

  • not viewing photos or videos

  • not taking your phone into your bed with you at night, 

  • putting your phone on silent, or turning it off, when you go to bed. 

Develop meaningful social relationships

Having quality social interactions with others and having meaning relationships in your life will fulfill your need for connection and belonging. This can help you to avoid relying on using social media in passive ways that do not promote social connection, but that do decrease well-being. 

Strengthen self regulation skills

Changing the way you use social media requires effort, intention, and self-control, especially when use has become problematic. As described earlier in the course, self-regulation is what makes self-control possible. Strengthen your self-regulation skills by using some of the strategies described earlier in the course.