#i just figured a poll woud get more responses

[precuremusictournament]

I was thinking of making the final match last a week, to get as many votes in as possible and really get the True Best Precure OP, but also the votes have been rolling in pretty quickly and I worry an entire week will result in interest fizzling out. Any thoughts?

[studentchow]

Student Mental Health and 2 Ways Food can help manage it.

I’m going to go out of my way this time to talk about a subject I had to go away and research in an attempt to better understand it. There are plenty of sources that I will link in this peice, so please go ahead and do your own research as well. I am neither a nutritionist, or a psychologist; just a guy with a laptop and Google. This is also gonna be a pretty heavy slog, so feel free to stick Nahko and Medicine for the People’s track “7 Feathers” on loop as we get into this. I’m also going to put a trigger warning here. While this article doesn’t delve into Mental Illness in any great focus, there are still references to depression, anxiety and schizophrenia. If those things upset you, this might not be the article for you.

When talking about Student issues, and how that ties into later life as an adult, and viral videos that provide Y E T A N O T H E R H O T T A K E on “Millenial Woes”, the conversation will normally lean into discussing the impact of mental health. A recent YouGov poll found that 27% of UK students report having at least 1 mental health problem. The breakdown of the main keypoints of the survey are as follows:

-Female students were more likely to report they had experienced mental health issues at 34% vs 19% for male students.

-LGBT+ were more likely to report mental health issues than cishet students (46% to 22%).

-Depression and Anxiety were the most prevailent mental health issues (with 77% and 74% respectively showing an implied overlap amongst students).

-63% of those that reported issues said it interfered with their daily lives.

-71% said it came from the stress of study work, 39% said it was due to looking at jobs after Uni, 35% said it was due to family, 23% said it was relationships and jobs that was a contributing factor, and friends comes in last at 22% (again implying these factors have overlap).

-Only 14% were unaware of access to services available that would help people manage their mental health more effectively.

While there are some methodolgical issues with the Survey (the issue of self diagnosis and people with unreported mental health issues, the subjective distinction between mental wellbeing and mental illness as a measuring stick, the lack of a given methdology or sample size, the NUS coming up with 78% instead on another sample set and that 54% did not know of or have access to services that would help manage those issues, the possible exclusion of  the comparisons to data on public mental health as a whole etc.) it’s important to remember that these are issues still worth tackling, and 27% is still a pretty worrying figure, as mental health is just as important as physical health, and with NHS funding for mental health dropping from previous years, the risk and threat to Students becomes higher.

So with the ongoing threat made by cuts to the NHS, it’s important now more than ever to give students the tools to help manage their own mental health. Given the nature of mental health being both subjective (in how well equipped a person is to cope through environmental and intrapersonal factors), and objective (how biology effects mental health) its important to understand management has to be a 2 (if not 3) pronged attack. Now I’m not going to write this blog as if I’m some hollistic alternative medicine provider, that screams you need to allign your Chakras, consider Reiki, and putting more Watered down Arsenic into your diet before disappearing off into the night like to some Homeopathic version of Tuxedo Mask.

Your first port of call should always be your Doctor. They can help assess if there’s a distinction between mental health issues and mental health illness (a collection of issues manifesting as symptoms). There is nothing to be ashamed of getting hold of them and considering the option medication provides. In some cases it can be life saving, and help go towards creating a long term plan that helps the patient.

The idea of Self Care before, during and after a visit to the Docs is not a new one either, and it’s important to remember that the subjective area of managing mental health is as much a lifestyle change as anything else. Posts here on Tumblr have a flavour of “get more sleep, go to bed on time, make sure you eat etc.” about them, which is great but they often don’t go into a great amount of detail, preffering to focus on the tangible tasks accomplished in the day as a main motivator of progress. However if you want to dig a little deeper, and focus on how food comes into the equation then I have two tips that I hope will help. It’s also worth adding the caveat that sometimes with illness, willpower may be inhibited. That’s why it’s also important to speak to your doctor and any services available. However what helped me manage my own mental wellbeing was being able to see the details and how each element woud contribute. Similar to self care, it feels good to see the reasons and results you do some things. It feels like you’re doing the “right” thing. In the same way that some one with a cold may feel better consuming something with Vitamin C in it even before it gets working. If the science behind nutrition for mental health resonates with yourself, then it can’t be wrong.

Both tips rely on being able to understand the brain. Feelings and emotions are controlled as transmissions between the neurons in your brain. The chemicals that are part of this process of transmitting between the neurons are called Neurotransmitters (stop me if I’m going too fast). The chemicals linked to mental health are varied but the main ones normally come in one of two flavours: Dopamine and Serotonin. Effects of defficiency in Serotonin has been linked to a low mood, as well as difficulty sleeping, and feeling disconnected (sleep being an issue that can exacerbate mental health issues) where as a lack of Dopamine has potential to lead to a lack of enthusiasm, motivation and drive: sympotms people with Depression will be all too familiar with; and in some cases can also lead to conditions like Schizophrenia. Therefore the first tip has to be looking at your diet and making small changes to foods that help the production of these reward centred neurotransmitters.  While the Neurotrnsmitters can be absolutely fine, and the problem is within the ability of the neurons to send and absorb those chemicals, a little extra available because of a diet change, is not an inherrantly bad idea. That means cutting out high sugar content foods that create a dip in their production and swapping to foods like fish and eggs. Natural sugar like Fruit is also in (even dried or tinned, it’s still better than getting a sucrose heavy snack in). Mind and the New Zealand Organisation for Mental Health both have great videos/ articles you should check out. I’ll link here and here respectively. There are a fair few choices as well that will fit to any budget and pulses/ legumes are always available for my veggie readers out there. Get the changes into your self care lifestyle and you’ll be well on your way to helping yourself.

The second tip is a bit more convuluted, and can seem as more of a band aid to tide you over until your, but it lies in a subject that’s near and dear to my heart: Comfort Food. Learn a recipe from home that makes you feel good, make a budget version if necessary and add it to to your new diet for some balance.

Let me explain. Comfort Food and learning a dish from home, something that has meaning to you is a valuable way to ground yourself, and actually has a basis in science. It’s part of a coping mechanism called Broad Minded Affective Coping. The study I’ve linked talks about the positive effects association to a positive social memory; that a balance of threat  (threat in this sense being social awkwardness, shame, a lack of motivation) and positive based emotions can help navigate later life, and that by evoking a positive emotional response ( in this case, through cooking and eating dish that holds significance to the invidual), the memorable dish has the ability to create positive long and short term effects for the person consuming the dish.  In addition the Study also finds that repeated activation of positive emotions can result in changes to brain function and structure that confer long-term resilience to negative emotions, and more importantly the emotional difficulties brought on my Mental Health Issues through stimulating the prodcuction of Dopamine. It may seem a reach (and if not a little contradictory to say have comfort food: a list of food that often comprises of ingredients I and the sources just said were bad- consider it an emotional investment and trust your ability to distinguish a flexible and balanced diet), but the feeling’s food from home/ comfort food/ food the way your ____ used to make is such a universal idea that it resonates with all of us, and up until now, I’ve not been able to fully comprehend it myself, let alone communicate the the idea to anyone else. Heck. Through the power of ripped episodes of Man VS. Food, you can see that reaction to Soul Food; A whole cuisine built on happy memories and endorsement of “just like Mom used to make”.

It honestly feels wonderful being able to see the explanation behind it and how that can change the way a person feels, and now that you know as well, you may be able to use it in your own. If you try changing your lifestyle up with these tips or if you already have a comfort food dish you use to ground yourself, why reblog this post with your recipes for your followers to try? The worst this post can do is not help anyone, so we have nothing to lose.

Look after yourself. I’m rooting for you as always.

-Cowley