Mental Health Spring
An important event took place in the Higher School of Economics on the 30th of May devoted mental health of students. This day allowed all guests to relax and think of their feelings, emotions and in-depth problems. In fact, employees of the Psychological counseling center have been holding this event for several years. I am convinced that the organizers have invested a lot of effort and resources in Mental Health Day in order to make this event happen.
I would like to draw attention to this because it is worthy of respect and admiration. This special day reminds us that our emotions have a crucial meaning. Students had an opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities, from tasks for rethinking conflicts to therapy with specially trained dogs. Moreover, everyone could attend the following events: immersive theater, a quest, an evening with songs and poems, a lesson on self-esteem, personal boundaries, self-concepts and art therapy. And you could also make aqua grim and meet a crow. The topic of Mental Health Spring 2024 was the world of Hayao Miyazaki.
Personally, I made a decision to visit a lecture, which is called “Psychosomatics. Are all diseases really caused by nerves?” This problem does not lose its relevance and results in constant discussions. Everyone has at least once asked the question: Why do I feel bad if everything is physically fine? The answer to this and other interesting questions was given by Irina Vilorievna Makarova, director of the Psychological Counseling Center. This lecture has inspired me a lot and resulted in many insights in my head.
A significant part of psychosomatics is the idea of the mutual influence of the soul and body, which was developed by Freud. He has been trying actively to learn more about this topic. Nevertheless, at the beginning people did not believe in the fact that problems with mental health may lead to physical disorders. All individuals were convinced that a person pretends and lies purposefully. Despite the fact that people were not aware of psychosomatics, already in the 20th century and earlier, hysterical paralysis, conversion blindness, hypochondriacal symptoms, and even false pregnancies had been identified. In the past, doctors did not know what the cause of such strange diseases was and psychotherapy was not as developed as it is now. But researchers, especially Chicago psychoanalysts, continued to immerse themselves in such a phenomenon as psychosomatics, to create hypotheses and even received a grant from the American government, but not all attempts were successful.
Generally, the meaning of psychosomatics is that it is not urticaria that needs to be treated, but stress. The reason is that a symptom is only a reaction of the body to an event in a person's life. Nowadays, it is known that there are seven psychosomatic disorders, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, bronchial asthma, dermatitis and other forms. The main concept is that an individual, for instance, does not have difficulties with bones or muscles, but a person faces paralysis. It means that he or she did not cope with unusual or powerful stress. In fact, it is a common situation, when students become nervous before the exams and it influences their health. For example, your stomach or head starts to hurt and other symptoms. Furthermore, some people have mixed feelings, when they are in transport, with a large group of people or before the public speech at the seminar. Most likely, if you are absolutely calm during the preparation for all exams, but a certain exam gets on your nerves, the problem is in your attitude towards this exam. Also, moving causes fear and uncertainty for many, because life changes significantly and a person finds himself in conditions, when it is necessary to adapt to a new place and people. In such cases, it is advisable to sort out your feelings and speak them out.
It is necessary to remember that stress is a human`s adaptation to the world, and the key goal is to learn how to deal with this stress and how to adapt to reality. In the previous century people used hypnosis to cure a psychosomatic illness, but today psychotherapy assists in this task. So if the malaise occurs when a person is worried, the main recommendation is to consult a psychotherapist. One more serious task is expressing your own emotions. During psychotherapy a patient should have an ability to discuss their feelings. Patients should not just operate with terms like “good” or “bad”, but fully demonstrate a palette of emotions. The reason is that the efficiency of psychotherapy depends on the extent of a patient`s openness, an individual should be fully involved in a discussion. Usually, people write their emotions in a diary or read specific literature about feelings to reach this openness. So, it is significant to remind yourself about the mental side, engage in prevention and consult a specialist, if stress interferes with you on a physical level, pain accompanies you in crisis situations and distracts you from important tasks. Such situations might happen, but it is possible to solve a problem, if a person is ready to discuss feelings and talk about them.
Then I saw incredibly cute animals in the atrium - dogs and I could not get past it. The dogs were of different sizes, with different names and from different countries. Among the presented breeds were Labradoodle, Mountain Dog, and Pomeranian. All of them took part in the parade of breeds. This way, dogs showed their beauty and talents. The breeds were moved from a variety of countries, including Italy, Switzerland, England, the USA, Germany and Scotland. Actually, this activity was very interactive, because the students were asked to say their hometowns aloud and throw the ball. It turned out that many students moved from different parts of the country and the world (Belarus, Yaroslavl, Sakhalin, Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar, Voronezh, Penza and many more). A little bit later, students tried to identify the main difficulty that they were worried about at the end of this academic year. The most common answers were missing for parents, the search for work, multitasking and coursework.
After that, students petted the dogs, played with them and listened to breathtaking stories about pets. Dogs, both small puppies and adult animals, easily made contact because they were trained in obedience. The atmosphere was very peaceful and conducive to sharing something that has been bothering you for a long time and chatting with new people. The owner of one of the dogs said that they are not really tactile, but they subtly feel the mood of a person and protect him from enemies, as they notice the release of adrenaline. I spent plenty of time near the dog called Handsome, he is able to turn over and give a paw!
In conclusion, I would like to say that problems with mental health are common in today's world, you, the reader, are not alone, there are many people with the same problems or close to yours. A wide range of methods are useful for coping with accumulated stress. Special events, for example, Mental Health Day in the Higher School of Economics are a great chance to think about your internal conflicts, it will never be superfluous. In this matter, prevention in order to avoid the appearance of diseases is very important, as well as solving existing problems. Last but not least, my personal advice is to find the balance between a body and a soul by participating in different forms of therapy, such as canister therapy, classic psychotherapy or art therapy. Obviously, it will help you recover from some sort of stress, get positive emotions, energy and get rid of the unpleasant consequences of stress. Do not be afraid of visiting a specialist, because it will have a positive impact on your health and general condition and provide you with many advantages. Mental health is of great importance, it plays a huge role in all aspects of life!
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