anxiety

My Own Approach to Mental Health

Nathan Smith4 Comments

As we continue on with Mental Health Awareness Month, I’ve taken a real interest in trying to define and explain what the concept of mental health looks like. I never thought the answer would be simple, but I did think that there would be a consensus. In the mental health community, it seems like there is.

Outside of that? It seems a bit up in the air. And since there are plenty of people who might be dealing with their own mental health challenges for the first time, it’s not the time for whataboutisms or judging what others are doing to stay mentally healthy. One way I can do that is to explain how I approach my mental wellness. Continue reading →

Mental Health Awareness Month 2020

Nathan Smith8 Comments

The month of May is a big deal for MBNB because it’s Mental Health Awareness Month! I write about Mental Health Awareness Month every year, not only because this is a mental health blog (duh!) but because I like to share the themes leading mental health organizations focus on each year. Continue reading →

What I Learned From “Angst,” A Documentary About Anxiety

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Last week I virtually attended a screening of a documentary called Angst. Less than an hour long, the film’s main purpose is raise awareness around and anxiety and start the candid discussion about what anxiety is, what it looks like and how to get help. Even though the documentary seemed like it could be geared more toward people who want to learn more about anxiety disorders (i.e. not me), I still took a lot of away from the screening and I wanted to share why that was.

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Stay-At-Home Activities To Relieve Anxiety

Nathan Smith4 Comments

As I mentioned last week, staying home for the foreseeable is bound to take a toll on your mental health. And while there are resources out there that provide helpful information on how you can manage your anxiety or channel it during this quarantine period, sometimes it’s just easier to see a list full of things you can do that have been proven to alleviate stress and anxiety. So that’s exactly what I made.

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It’s Okay to Feel Anxious – Mental Health Tips During Quarantine

Nathan Smith3 Comments

It’s been difficult to know how to start this post because it’s a weird time right now (“weird” being one of the biggest understated uses of a word that I’ve ever made). But social distancing and staying at home are becoming more and more imperative with each passing day, and with it comes the fear, panic and anxiety that’s unlike anything we’ve ever really dealt with. Since this is something that we’ll be facing for the foreseeable future, how do we adapt? What can we do to reduce some of the stress and calm ourselves down? Well, friends, I’m not an expert but I am here to help!

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How Social Distancing Affects Mental Health

Nathan Smith2 Comments

Social distancing is the buzzword in the U.S. right now, and rightfully so – it’s important and necessary and it’s not that hard to figure out what it means. And while it’s extremely important, it’s also not easy for people who are used to being out and about for the majority of the week. In fact, if you’re used to a more social lifestyle, social distancing can have a real impact on your mental health.

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Five Ways to Manage Your Anxiety

Nathan Smith3 Comments

As I wrote on Tuesday, there’s plenty in the world to be anxious about – now more than usual. And while I hope everyone is doing the necessary preparations and taking proper precautions, I also know that it’s a very stressful time, and fear and panic can also do a number on our health if we don’t keep it in check.

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What’s the Right Level of Anxiety to Feel?

Nathan Smith2 Comments

After the events of the past few months, I feel comfortable saying it’s a nervous time right now – to say the least. And rather than tell you why that is, pretending I’m any sort of medical expert (I’ll just point you to the CDC), I want to focus on the anxiety that many of us feel right now surrounding the situation.

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Shifting Our Mental Health Perspectives

Nathan Smith5 Comments

So an interesting thing happened over the weekend – I broke my laptop. Nothing major, just a cracked screen. I took it into the store the next day, they confirmed that’s all the damage was (no hardware issue), and I should have it back by the end of the week. When things like that happen in my life, events that warrant a reaction of any kind, I tend to use those as examples on my blog. It’s kind of a ‘lesson learned’ for how to react to certain things. But before I could get to writing, someone who’d been going through my blog (shoutout to the new reader!) gave me a helpful reminder that made me laugh out loud: I’d already written that post before. 

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Common Types of Anxiety Disorders (From the Experts)

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Continuing on the topic of anxiety disorders and their symptoms from earlier this week, I thought I could further the conversation by sharing with you all some of the more common anxiety disorders that currently exist in the United States.

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