Thoughts on mental health classes

After taking a semester of public mental health courses, my most immediate feeling is that it is neither a panacea that can solve all emotional problems, nor is it a useless online course that collects credits. It is more like a home emotional first aid kit prepared in advance for ordinary people. When not in use, it is inconspicuous in the corner. If you really encounter a minor emotional problem, you can just take it out and use it. It is quite easy to use.

For example, when I was preparing for the CET-6 exam last month, I lay in bed and turned over for two hours for almost ten days in a row and still couldn't fall asleep. When I closed my eyes, my mind was filled with keywords that I missed in listening and sentence patterns that I didn't memorize in the essay. At that time, I even scolded myself for having poor willpower. Isn't it just a test? Why am I so nervous? Until the psychology class that week happened to teach about the somatic identification of acute anxiety, and the PPT listed several self-examination signs: difficulty falling asleep for more than a week, unconscious shoulder and neck muscle tightness, lack of interest in things I was passionate about before, and occasional inexplicable panic. I counted in a circle, and I hit all four, and then I realized that I was not "unable to handle things", but that my emotions had set off an alarm.

Oh, by the way, the teacher also mentioned in class that there are actually two different voices in the academic world regarding the popularization of daily psychology among ordinary people. Scholars with a psychoanalytic orientation do not advocate that ordinary people dig into their emotions excessively. They say that it is just a little awkward at first, but thinking about it over and over can easily magnify small problems and even induce unnecessary self-denial.； Researchers in the school of positive psychology believe that daily emotional awareness exercises can help people intervene when problems first arise and avoid them from turning into more serious psychological disorders. My own experience after trying it out is that both of them are reasonable. I had a conflict with my roommate before because of my duty. I forgot about it two hours later, but I ended up seeing several videos about "people who please people are destined to suffer". The more I thought about it, the more I thought that I had never dared to conflict with others since I was a child, so I just spent the night in emo mode. Isn't this the counter-effect of over-exploration? Later, I used the 5-minute landing method I learned in class, squeezed the bone-chilling lemon tea in my hand, counted the 7 electric cars passing by downstairs, and thought about the snail noodles with braised eggs that I was going to eat in half an hour, and in an instant, the snail noodles with braised eggs emerged from the horns.

Speaking of which, I chose this course purely to collect credits. I heard from my seniors that this class had easy attendance and high scores. In the first class, the teacher asked everyone to turn around and say "you are in great condition today" to the classmates next to you. I was so embarrassed that I could dig out the three rooms and one hall with my toes. I thought, isn't this just a pure chicken soup scene? If it wasn't for the credits, I would have walked away right then and there. Later, the teacher in class showed us survey data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying that more than 30% of young people aged 18 to 35 in our country suffer from mild anxiety or depression, but less than 10% of them will actively seek help. Most people are like me before, either thinking "I just think too much and I will be fine in two days" or "going to psychological counseling means you are mentally ill", which turns a small problem into a big trouble. Looking back now, the most useful thing about the mental health class is not that it teaches you many complicated psychological theories, but that it helps you to level the threshold for "looking at psychological problems" - you don't have to muster the courage to go to the psychological consultation room to register. You will know during the class that it is normal to be in a bad mood occasionally. It is not pretentious or a disease. You just need to know how to adjust it.

My mother called me a few days ago and told me that she had a fight with her teammates over the song selection during square dancing. She was stuck at home for several days and her chest felt tight. I taught her the abdominal breathing method I learned in class, and asked her to take a deep breath for 4 seconds every time she was angry, hold her breath for 4 seconds, and then exhale slowly for 6 seconds. Yesterday, she even made a video for me of herself doing a new dance. She said that method was really effective and she felt much smoother.

Do you think this lesson is amazing? It doesn’t seem to have happened. It didn’t teach me how to make a lot of money, nor did it help me directly improve my Level 6 score to 600 points. But it helped me not to scold myself for being useless when I encountered insomnia, irritability, or depression, but to know how to relax my emotions. From this point of view, the credits are worth it.