Category: Weekly Posts

Aware Lecture Series

Title: Stopping Youth Mental Health Stigma

On the 12^th of February, we attended a lecture about Stopping Youth Mental Health Stigma in St. Patrick’s University Hospital. The lecture discussed the main difficulties people with mental-health issues face by the society and how to address them. It was delivered by Eilis Hennessy, a professor in Developmental Psychology.

We were interested in the topic of the lecture, as it was our first time to discuss it freely. Stigma is a society issue, as Prof. Hennessy mentioned, and that is why people often avoid talking about it. Furthermore, we, as medical students, found the lecture highly beneficial, as it raised our awareness about Mental Health issues in general, and specially Stigma. We thought that the majority of the audience would be University students, but we were surprised to know that there were some people with previous mental health issues or some other people who are interested in the lecture. The professor managed to deliver the topic in an interesting and simple way and in a short time, despite the high number of information included. She also kept adding examples to support her ideas. What we liked the most about the lecture that it was interactive, as she asked some questions to the audience during the lecture. The only thing that we did not expect was the small number of the audience, we think that people should attend lectures in such topics in order to raise their awareness and to get a chance to discuss these topics with others. The professor allocated time for questions and participations after the presentation, and a student, who had Bipolar disorder earlier in his life, described the stigma he faced.

Overall, It was a great opportunity to improve our knowledge about mental health stigma. And also having the lecture in the hospital gave us the chance to visit a Mental Health Service department.

Awareness Resilience Series

Resilience is the ability to overcome challenges, adapt, and keep going after something difficult has happened in your life. From this series we have learned that no matter what you suffer from, whether it is a disease, disorder, depression, sexuality or anything that effects your mental health, you will be able to overcome it if you have the determination and courage to do so. You don’t have to be perfect all the time and it’s ok to be sad and to have flaws, as everyone in this life struggles in their own way. Getting through the hardship a person faces with their mental health issues like addiction, depression depends on the way they deal with them. It is essential to create yourself and love yourself the most. Never compare yourself with others and live the life you want to live, don’t let others plan your life for you. All you have to do is accept yourself for who you are and draw your own kind of happiness. Always believe that emotions come and go and feeling depressed or afraid doesn’t mean that you lost, it just means you have to look at things from another perspective. Have faith that one day you will find the things in life that you are good at, that might give you the feeling of success even if they are simple and always surround yourself with people that you love, as they are your biggest support and motivation in overcoming your mental health problems and play a role in your mental-wellbeing . Never let the fear of being sick to stop you from living, and don’t compare yourself with others. Always think that being different makes you unique. Resilience means that you have to have hope and faith because all you need is time to make you heal and deal with your feelings to shift the burden off your chest.