Getting Help

1. Getting Help For mental and emotional problems

2. When should you get help • If any of the following feelings or behaviors persist over a period of time or begin to interfere with daily living • You feel trapped with no way out, or worry all the time • Your feelings affect your sleep, eating habits, school work, or relationships • Your family/friends express concern • Involvement with drugs or alcohol • You are becoming increasingly aggressive, violent, or reckless

3. Signs to Seek Professional Help • Prolonged sadness for no specific reason • Frequent outbursts of anger • Overwhelming fear, anxiety or anger • Unexplained change in sleeping or eating habits • Social withdrawal

4. Methods for seeking help • Parents and guardians • Teachers • School psychologist • Counselors • Coaches • Clergy members • Crisis hotlines • Contact Crisis – (972) 233-TEEN

5. Therapy Methods • Psychotherapy – Talking to a counselor • Behavior therapy • Focuses on changing unwanted behaviors though rewards and reinforcements • Cognitive therapy • Designed to identify and correct distorted thinking patterns • Group therapy • Treating a group of people who have similar problems • Biomedical therapy • medicines

6. Understanding Death and Grief

7. Expression of Grief • Coping – dealing successfully with difficult changes in your life • Grief response – an individual’s total response to a major loss • The response is unique to the situation

8. The Grieving Process:reactions that may occur during the grief response • Denial or Numbness • Can’t believe the loss has occurred • Protects the person from being overwhelmed • Emotional Releases • Periods of crying • Recognition of the loss • Anger • May lash out because of feeling powerless and unfairly deprived • Bargaining • Promise to change if only…

9. The Grieving Process:reactions that may occur during the grief response • Depression • Feelings of isolation, alienation, and hopelessness • Remorse • What he/she could have done to prevent the loss or make things better • Acceptance • Allows the person to face reality in constructive ways • Hope • A point where remembering becomes less painful • Begins to look ahead to the future

10. Unresolved Grief • Tends to affect the grieving process at the next occurrence of loss – causing a person to express some emotions and responses that have been held back

11. Coping with Death • Don’t think about what you should have done • Remember the wonderful things about the person and the great memories • Seek support from others

12. Helping others through the grieving process • Support from friends and family is important during mourning • Mourning – the act of showing sorrow or grief • Show empathy or just listen • Share memories and appreciation of the person who has passed away • Grief counseling • Seeing a counselor that can help work through the grieving process

13. Coping with Disasters and Crises • Spend time with other people and discuss your feelings • Get back to daily routines as quickly as possible • Eat nutritious foods, exercise, and get enough rest and sleep • Do something positive to help your community through the event, such as assisting with cleanup or raising money for aid