October is Emotional Wellness Month. We check up on our physical health once a year, we should be doing the same with our mental health. As life slowly begins to return to normal, now is the perfect time to reexamine our emotional wellness.
What is Emotional Wellness?
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) defines emotional wellness as “the ability to successfully handle life’s stresses and adapt to change and difficult times.” Emotional wellness doesn’t mean a person is always happy. Instead, they have the ability to recognize negative emotions, accept them and cope in healthy ways; they don’t act impulsively in response to emotions.
Why is Emotional Wellness Important?
Emotional distress harms physical health. When a person is under stress, the body produces the stress hormone, cortisol. Chronically high levels of cortisol lead to inflammation in the body. Stress also decreases the number of white blood cells in the body, which weakens the immune system and makes a person more susceptible to illness and infection. If a person is under high levels of stress for a prolonged period of time, they are at higher risk for physical illnesses such as heart disease, ulcers, diabetes, and even cancer.
So, How Does a Person Achieve and Maintain Emotional Wellness?
Millions of Americans live with a mental health condition, but mental illness impacts everyone in some way. Everyone knows a family member, friend or co-worker with a mental illness. That's why every October, NAMI and participants across the country raise awareness of mental illness, fight discrimination and provide support through Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW).
This year’s MIAW theme is centered around NAMI's new awareness campaign, “Together for Mental Health,” where they will focus on the importance of advocating for better care for people with serious mental illness (SMI).
What is Serious Mental Illness (SMI)?
Did you know that nearly one in five U.S. adults lives with a mental illness? Mental illnesses include many different conditions that vary in level of severity, ranging from mild to moderate to severe. There are two categories that can be used to describe these conditions: Any Mental Illness (AMI) and Serious Mental Illness (SMI). Any Mental Illness includes all recognized mental illnesses. Serious Mental Illness (SMI) on the other hand, is defined more specifically as a diagnosable mental, behavior, or emotional disorder, found in patients 18 and older, that causes serious functional impairment that substantially interferes with one or more major life activities. Having an SMI can directly impact your work life, concentration in school, healthy relationships, socializing, maintaining hygiene, and more. The four diagnoses most commonly associated with SMI are bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.
Do you have unused or expired prescription medication in your home?
Prescription Drug Take Back Day is coming soon! Many communities in our region will have drop-off locations on Saturday, October 23rd from 10 AM - 2 PM. We will announce locations as we receive notice of events.
Why is it important?
The majority of people who misuse prescription drugs, particularly teens and young adults, get them from a family member or friend's home. Since Take Back Day began, our state has collected 131,935 poundsof medications!
Are you hosting a Take Back Day Event? Email your flyer to us to share!
Quiz: Proper Drug Disposal
Many people who misuse prescription drugs get them from family, friends, and acquaintances. You can make a difference by properly disposing your unused medication. There are a few ways you can do this; but do you know them? Test your knowledge by ...
Young people are misusing prescription drugs, which puts them at risk of encountering counterfeit pills. Nearly 15% of Young Adults (18 - 25)... Reported prescription drug misuse in the past year and nearly 5% of youth ages 12 - 17 reported...
The Fairfield CARES Community Coalition, the Local Prevention Council for the town of Fairfield, is pleased to announce that, in partnership with Fairfield Public Schools, it has received a five year federal Drug Free Communities Grant of $625,000 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The grant, allocated at $125,000 per year, will take effect on September 30, 2021, and will provide funding to prevent and reduce youth alcohol and cannabis/marijuana use, the two most frequently used substances by youth in Fairfield. Read full press release.
TRUMBULL - Niki Beddoe doesn't like to use the word overdose. That's not what happened to her son, Jake, last year when he took alprazolam, an anti-anxiety medication sold under the brand name Xanax, closed his eyes, and never woke up, she said.
The Devastating Ways Depression and Anxiety Impact the Body
Mind and body form a two-way street. It's no surprise that when a person gets a diagnosis of heart disease, cancer or some other life-limiting or life-threatening physical ailment, they become anxious or depressed. But the reverse can also be...
