Mental Health by Dr Linda Kwakkenbos

Summary

The speaker, a psychologist and behavioral researcher, discusses mental health in the context of chronic rare diseases, focusing on Scleroderma and similar conditions. She highlights the importance of holistic healthcare, explaining the biopsychosocial model and how mental health impacts patients' quality of life. The presentation emphasizes positive mental health, resilience, and the concept of positive psychology. Through interactive exercises, she encourages participants to reflect on their mental health and explore ways to improve it, offering practical tools like mindfulness and peer support. The session concludes with advice on how to enhance well-being through small, actionable steps.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker is an assistant professor focusing on Scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disease, and highlights that principles in psychology for chronic rare diseases can be applied to other diseases.
• 💡 Mental health is discussed in a positive way, not just focusing on challenges but also on psychological resilience and the capacity to adapt to life's difficulties.
• 🧠 Health is redefined from the medical model (absence of disease) to 'positive health,' which emphasizes the ability to adapt and self-manage despite challenges.
• 📊 Resilience is key in managing chronic diseases and mental health, defined as the ability to adapt successfully to difficult life experiences, and it can be cultivated and practiced.
• 🌱 Mental health is more than the absence of illness; it's about enhancing life enjoyment and dealing with challenges. It involves thinking, feeling, and acting in ways that promote well-being.
• ⚖️ The traffic light analogy is used to explain mental health, with green for well-being, orange for mental health issues, and red for mental illness.
• 🔄 Positive psychology focuses on building well-being and resilience, while traditional psychology focuses on reducing symptoms. Both are important and often use similar techniques.
• 🧩 People with rare diseases like Sjögren's often experience a significantly decreased quality of life, with depression and anxiety being more prevalent compared to the general population.
• 👥 Peer support and communication with healthcare providers are important components of managing both physical and mental health, especially for people with chronic diseases.
• 📝 The speaker introduces a reflective exercise where participants rate their control over their condition, encouraging small, actionable steps to improve mental health and resilience over time.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of Linda's research?

Linda's research primarily focuses on Scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disease. However, she mentions that some principles in psychology related to chronic diseases can be applied to other conditions, like Sjögren's syndrome.

What is the biopsychosocial model of health that Linda discusses?

The biopsychosocial model of health considers a person as more than just their biological condition. It includes their psychological health, social challenges, and the broader context in which they live, promoting holistic healthcare.

How does Linda define resilience in the context of chronic illness?

Resilience is defined as the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult life experiences, such as being diagnosed with a chronic illness. It involves mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjusting to both external and internal demands.

What is Linda's view on health in relation to people with chronic diseases?

Linda challenges the traditional view that health is merely the absence of disease. She supports the concept of 'positive health,' which is the ability to adapt and manage physical, social, and emotional challenges, even in the presence of chronic conditions.

What is positive psychology, and how does it differ from traditional psychology?

Positive psychology focuses on enhancing well-being and helping individuals flourish, even if they are not facing significant mental health challenges. Traditional psychology often addresses what is wrong and aims to reduce symptoms. Positive psychology aims to improve an individual's overall quality of life.

Why does Linda emphasize building resilience?

Linda emphasizes building resilience because it helps individuals with chronic conditions adapt and improve their mental health. Resilience can be cultivated through various strategies, leading to better coping mechanisms and a higher quality of life.

What exercise does Linda propose during her presentation to help participants reflect on their mental health?

Linda proposes an exercise where participants rate their current life situation on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 means their condition completely controls their life, and 10 means they can live their life without being affected by their condition. Participants are then asked to reflect on why they chose that number.

What challenges do people with chronic conditions like Sjögren's face in terms of mental health?

People with chronic conditions like Sjögren's often face mental health challenges such as depression and anxiety. These issues are more prevalent among those with chronic diseases compared to the general population, and they can significantly affect quality of life.

What does Linda say about the relationship between physical activity and mental health?

Linda highlights that adopting a healthy lifestyle, including exercising and moving more, is beneficial not just for physical health but also for mental health. Even small activities like a brisk walk can positively impact mental well-being.

What strategies does Linda suggest for improving mental health in people with chronic diseases?

Linda suggests a variety of strategies, including mindfulness-based stress reduction, peer support, adopting a healthy lifestyle, and engaging with healthcare providers about mental health. She also recommends focusing on positive psychology practices to enhance resilience and well-being.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Introduction to Mental Health and Scleroderma

The speaker, Linda, introduces herself as an assistant professor from the Netherlands, specializing in psychology with a focus on rare autoimmune diseases, particularly Scleroderma. She discusses the importance of understanding mental health in the context of chronic diseases and highlights the biopsychosocial model of care, which takes into account not just physical health but also psychological and social factors. The goal is to share insights on how mental health is vital for managing diseases like Sjögren's and how resilience and adaptability play key roles in the well-being of patients.

05:00

🌿 Resilience and Cultivating Mental Health

Linda defines resilience as the process of adapting successfully to life's challenges, including chronic illness. She explains that resilience can be both an innate trait and something that can be developed through practice. The speaker emphasizes the broader concept of mental health, not just focusing on mental health issues like depression and anxiety, but also on how individuals can enhance their well-being through emotional, mental, and behavioral flexibility. This positive approach to mental health highlights the importance of building resilience and improving quality of life.

10:02

🔍 Tools for Mental Health Improvement in Chronic Diseases

Linda shares strategies for addressing mental health challenges, especially in the context of chronic and rare diseases like Sjögren's. She advocates for using existing mental health tools available to the general public, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction, as a starting point. This can be supplemented by disease-specific strategies to manage the unique challenges faced by people with rare conditions. Linda stresses the importance of taking immediate action with accessible tools rather than waiting for specific interventions to be developed over many years.

15:13

💡 An Exercise in Mental Health Reflection

Linda introduces an interactive exercise designed to help participants reflect on how their condition affects their daily lives. She asks the audience to rate how much their condition controls their life on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 means complete control and 10 means no control. This exercise encourages individuals to assess their own experiences and discuss with others why their chosen number isn’t a 0 or a 10. Through this reflection, participants gain insights into their own coping mechanisms and areas where they may need to improve their mental health.

20:15

🚶‍♀️ Taking Small Steps to Improve Mental Health

In the final part of her talk, Linda encourages participants to think about small, concrete steps they can take to improve their mental health. She introduces the 'miracle question,' which prompts people to imagine what their life would look like if their problem no longer existed, and to identify steps to move toward that ideal. The focus is on incremental progress, such as moving from a score of 4 to 4.5, by changing behaviors, thoughts, or feelings. Linda emphasizes the importance of both individual effort and support from loved ones in this journey.

Keywords

💡Mental Health

Mental health refers to the capacity of individuals to feel, think, and act in ways that enhance their ability to enjoy life and deal with challenges. In the script, the speaker emphasizes a positive approach to mental health, focusing not only on mental health issues like depression but also on cultivating resilience and emotional well-being.

💡Resilience

Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, such as being diagnosed with a chronic illness. In the script, resilience is described as mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility in response to external and internal demands. The speaker explains that resilience can be built and practiced over time.

💡Biopsychosocial Model

The biopsychosocial model is an approach to healthcare that considers not just biological factors but also psychological and social influences on health. The speaker advocates for this holistic model, emphasizing how psychological and social challenges, in addition to biological issues, contribute to a person's overall well-being, particularly in the context of chronic diseases.

💡Positive Health

Positive health is defined as the ability to adapt and self-manage in the face of social, physical, and emotional challenges. The speaker highlights this concept as a shift away from the traditional medical model, which views health solely as the absence of disease. Positive health is about thriving despite a chronic illness, and it is linked to resilience and self-management.

💡Sjögren’s Syndrome

Sjögren’s syndrome is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects moisture-producing glands, often leading to dry eyes and mouth. The speaker discusses the mental health challenges faced by people with Sjögren’s, noting that depression and anxiety are more prevalent in this group than in the general population. Improving the quality of life for these patients is a key focus.

💡Chronic Disease

A chronic disease is a long-lasting condition that requires ongoing management. The speaker addresses how chronic diseases like Sjögren’s or scleroderma impact not only physical health but also mental and emotional well-being. The speaker encourages a holistic view, integrating psychological care into the treatment of chronic conditions.

💡Positive Psychology

Positive psychology focuses on improving well-being and helping individuals flourish, rather than merely addressing problems. In the script, the speaker discusses how techniques from positive psychology can be applied to help people with chronic illnesses improve their quality of life by enhancing their emotional and mental resilience.

💡Quality of Life

Quality of life refers to an individual's overall well-being, including physical health, psychological state, level of independence, social relationships, and relationship to their environment. The speaker notes that people with chronic illnesses like Sjögren’s experience a significantly reduced quality of life, which necessitates targeted interventions to improve their daily functioning.

💡Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

MBSR is a therapeutic program that uses mindfulness to help people cope with stress, pain, and illness. The speaker recommends MBSR as a tool that can help people with chronic diseases, including rare conditions like Sjögren’s, to manage their mental health and emotional well-being.

💡Self-Management

Self-management refers to an individual's ability to manage the symptoms, treatment, physical and psychosocial consequences, and lifestyle changes inherent in living with a chronic illness. The speaker emphasizes the importance of self-management in the concept of positive health, where individuals are encouraged to adapt and manage their condition actively.

Highlights

Introduction of Linda Quos, an assistant professor from the Netherlands, focusing on Scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disease.

Emphasis on applying psychological principles from chronic rare diseases like Scleroderma to other diseases such as Sjogren's syndrome.

Mental health is discussed from a positive perspective, highlighting the importance of addressing both mental health issues and building resilience.

Introduction of the biopsychosocial model of health, which considers the psychological and social aspects, not just the biological challenges.

Discussion of the shift from the traditional medical model of health, which defines health as the absence of disease, to a more positive health definition focused on adaptability and self-management.

Introduction of the concept of resilience as the ability to adapt successfully to challenges like chronic diseases, emphasizing that resilience can be built and cultivated.

Mental health is framed as a capacity to enjoy life and manage challenges, not just the absence of mental illness.

Introduction of a traffic light model of mental health, with green representing flourishing, orange for mental health issues, and red for mental illness.

Positive psychology is discussed as a movement to not only reduce symptoms but to enhance well-being and resilience, even when individuals are doing relatively well.

Key finding: People with primary Sjogren's syndrome have significantly decreased health-related quality of life, similar to other chronic inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

The prevalence of depression and anxiety is approximately three times higher in people with Sjogren's syndrome compared to the general population.

Challenge: Conducting well-designed, large-sample studies for rare diseases like Sjogren's is difficult, but there is a need for targeted interventions to improve quality of life.

Linda proposes a framework for mental healthcare tools, starting with general mental health strategies like mindfulness-based stress reduction and progressively addressing challenges related to chronic and rare diseases.

Interactive exercise: Attendees are asked to rate how much their condition controls their life on a scale from 0 to 10, leading to discussions on how different perspectives impact mental well-being.

Recommendation: Attendees are encouraged to take small, concrete steps to improve mental health, aiming for gradual progress rather than drastic changes.

Final takeaway: Tools such as mindfulness, peer support, and guided relaxation techniques can help improve mental health and resilience in those living with chronic diseases like Sjogren's.

Transcripts

I'm very grateful that we can have uh

now uh Linda

quos also from the Netherlands and she

is a uh professor of the assistant

professor of the University of n the

rbout and she was to told something

about mental health yes thank you thank

you very for the very nice introduction

and also for having me and for all the

insights that I have gathered already on

showrun because as you can see uh here

on the bottom line under my name my work

mainly focused around Scleroderma which

is another rare autoimmune disease which

some of you may know um but I think that

like saurin said some of the general

principles that we use in Psychology um

in um in chronic diseases especially

chronic rare diseases can be transferred

to other diseases such as sug so uh I'm

learning a lot but I hope that I can

also give you some insight in mental

health and psychology

I am a psychologist by training and a

behavioral researcher and I was very

happy to find saurin because he is in

the same boat with me um in uh in that

respect and I'm going to speak about

mental health about mental health in a

positive way and about a little bit

about mental health

issues um and just a disclaimer in

addition to telling you about mental

health I also have a small exercise

because I know that about 5% of what I

will tell you you will remember after

this presentation but but about 75 to

90% of what you experience you will be

remembering after this presentation so

uh be aware uh there's no test but it's

a small exercise that I will walk you

through I do not have any

disclosures um when you walk into the

doctor's office or as a doctor clinician

when the patient Works walks into your

uh office what do you see do you see a

patient a sugr patient or do you see a

person who has sugrin but also has a lot

of other things in addition to this bi

biological challenge it's also a person

with um uh psychological challenges uh

but also psychological Health Social

Challenges and health uh who lives in a

certain context I see that the um uh the

corners of the and the colors is not

really visible uh um but these are like

little circles that all constitute the

person with a certain

disease the bioc psychosocial model of

health and holistic Healthcare and I

think they go hand handin hand and if

you look at EUR this um they also made

priority of holistic care and holistic

Healthcare and you may be surprised that

when I'm at UL or at ACR or another

rheumatology conference that I'm one of

the few psychologists actually who is

present there whereas for you as

organizations this is such an important

topic um not to say that all of the

medical research and uh advances are not

important but this is another important

part of healthare for people with

children so when thinking about health

and mental health how would you actually

Define health and I'm giving you a

moment to think about it yourself if you

think about health what is health to

you anyone who would like to

share what does Health mean that I that

I can do what I want yeah that you can

do what you want yeah yeah thank you

same for you yeah good quality of life a

good quality of life yeah yeah

nice from morning till night wow yeah

thank you thanks for sharing that yeah

and actually for the longest period of

time the healthc care system has been

focusing on the medical model of Health

until approximately 1977 the medical

model of Health where Health was the

absence of disease so that means that

when you have a disease or when you have

sug for instance you will not never be

healthy again I tend to disagree and

luckily many with us because there's

also something called positive health

and maral Huber also from the

Netherlands by the way she came up with

an other definition of health and she

said health is the ability to adapt and

to self-manage in the face of social

physical and emotional challenges and

I'm teaching my third-year psychology

students this because they still while

we all talk about like the

biopsychosocial model they still have

this like internal idea like if someone

is ill you cannot be healthy right but

there's many things of positive Health

uh Health adaptation and self-management

that you could still build and some of

this is related to the concept of

resilience and resilience basically is

defined as the process and outcome of

successfully adapting to difficult or

challenging life experienes such as

getting a diagnosis with sugar

especially through mental emotional and

behavioral flexibility and adjustment to

external and internal demands wow that's

quite a mouthful but what basically the

idea is is that you can build resilience

like we all have a certain level of

resilience already based on our uh life

challenges that we've already had our uh

youth um our um personality traits Etc

but you can also cultivate and practice

resilience improving your mental health

or cultivating your mental health and I

think this is a really important

component of what I would like to

discuss today in uh in this

presentation so I've given you a

definition of resilience I've given you

a definition of Health but what actually

is mental health and often if we talk

about mental health we think about

challenges mental health challenges

mental health issues depression anxiety

Etc but it's much broader it's a much

broader concept looking again not at the

disease side of it but at the health

side of it so Mental Health is the

capacity of every individual to feel

think and act in ways that enhance their

ability to enjoy life and deal with

challenges so again very positively

connotated um uh positive sense of

emotional and spiritual well-being uh in

someone's

context so thinking about this a little

bit more you could come up with this

kind of like I it's like traffic light

colors I don't know if you can see it

but like the green on top mental health

you have the capacity to think feel and

act in ways that uh enhance your ability

to enjoy life deal with your challenges

and it doesn't mean that there are no

challenges it basically means that you

suffer your losses and you pull yourself

back up again so that is mental health

on the complete below spectrum is mental

illness depression anxiety uh conditions

that really affect your thinking feeling

uh your mood and behavior and then

somewhere in between is where I would

think um many people with a chronic

disorder sometimes um uh are situated

the mental health issues it's not what

we call in Psychology Psychopathology

it's not mental health uh Mental Illness

but you have diminished capacities that

interfere with your enjoyment of life um

and that interfere with your ability to

rebound or recover from losses or

challenges so that's the orange part of

this uh uh traffic

light still with me yep

good just a check and then if you think

about psychology there's also this

movement from the traditional

psychological approaches that basically

speak about something is not going well

something is wrong and you're trying to

reduce the symptoms and prevent it from

getting worse so basically something is

going wrong and you're making it normal

again very important I'm not saying that

one is more important than the other but

there's also a newer tradition on

positive psychology and that means

you're already doing quite well but you

can still improve you can improve your

well-being you can flourish you can uh

um uh um strengthen your character and

build even more resilience and um uh

they kind of like go hand inand and the

techniques that we're using in

Psychology may be quite similar actually

um in both Traditions but it's really a

bit of a mindset and a change in

thinking about health and also our

Mental Health

I did put one slide with some Su uh uh

information um and uh only one slide

because I think that um uh this uh um

these two points are important or

actually the three points that are

listed here are important first of all

we're not talking about quality of life

here because it's not important in

people's uh life and people with primary

Sugar's life we actually see that people

with primary sugar have significantly

decreased health related quality of life

and it's actually simp similar if you

compare on the different aspects of

quality of life to other chronic

inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid

arthritis or

lupus the prevalence if we talk about

mental illness the prevalence of

depression and anxiety are approximately

three times higher in people with Su

than in the general population so this

is a really important topic to keep in

mind in our research programs but also

in our care for people with uh with

Su actually I found this nice quote and

I put it here is that um because this

quality of life is diminished it

suggests that targeted intervention

should be carried out to improve health

related quality of life I agree but it's

very hard to do that in a rare disease

um and future well-designed and well-

conducted studies with larger sample

sizes may be required I also agree but

again it's really hard to do that in a

rare disease so I also start thinking

about like what can we learn from what

is already available in terms of

interventions rather than wait for 10 20

years to things to be developed because

in my opinion if you think about Mental

Health Care tools you can start with

tools that basically are available to

anyone in the general public mindfulness

Bas stress reduction for instance then

on top of that there are challenges that

you have to deal with if you are F

coping with a chronic disease any

chronic disease can be diabetes can be

sugar can be Scleroderma rheumatoid

arthritis then on top of that there's

the challenges of living with a rare

disease like Su or Scleroderma and and

then on top of that are disease specific

uh uh issues that may be targeted if you

start with the top and I'm not saying

that that isn't a good approach you're

actually a long way out of making tools

available for people with

shrs um I'm am very dedicated to to

building that and to building that

framework and to see where there's

adaptations necessary but also think

that we shouldn't wait for so many years

to give you some tools and some examples

of what you can do to improve mental

health so that is the next part of my

presentation and the exercise is coming

up so just a

reminder so tips and resources lifestyle

I actually put quite some uh slides on

lifestyle and then I saw that tomorrow

there's a colleague of mine who's going

to speak a lot about lifestyle lifestyle

medicine adopt a healthy lifestyle may

sound like an Open Door um but actually

exercising moving more sitting less uh

is very good for not only our physical

health but also for all our Mental

Health

even a small like brisk walk like every

movement counts peer support um and I

think just by being here together and

like all of your organizations you're

taking very good care of uh that part

already um it's helping for emotional

support inform informational support

like letting people know and navigating

the health system as well as tangible

support just um practically you can help

each each other

out talk with your healthcare provider

about mental uh uh Health uh there are

some tips in this link that I put here

um but also the Dutch have a very nice

uh um conversation card that you could

actually download and bring uh to your

Healthcare appointment uh and uh find

information and support from trustworthy

sources so these are very generic tips

that uh uh that you could

use okay so now for this small exercise

and um I already said that uh this is um

um an exercise from the positive

psychology to make you like kind of like

feel how a different outlook on your

condition may affect your mental health

and uh your view on uh uh on daily life

so I would like to ask you if whether

you have sugar another condition or if

you don't have any uh um condition think

about any problem that may interfere

with your life so rate yourself on a

zero to 10 skill you have a very nice

notepad you can write it down or you can

just remember it where zero is is my

condition totally controls my life and

makes it impossible for me to live my

life all at at all in the way that I

want to and 10 is very positive I can

live my life the way I want to and my

condition does not affect that so take a

moment to think about it where on this

skill would you

be good got it yeah

okay so now the next step is to think

about about why is it the grade that you

chose and why is it not a 10 unless

someone had a 10

but so why is it a grade that you chose

and why is it not a

10

ready

yeah why is the grade that you chose and

not a zero

got

it okay so here is actually a bit of

time for uh discussion I'm I'm doing

well for time right so um let's take two

minutes to discuss the difference in

experience with your neighbor so the

difference between comparing the number

with a zero and comparing the number

with a 10 so two minutes to discuss and

then I would like to hear back what you

found out

borrow this one

my

all

right all

right let's um let's move

on there are a lot of

um there are a lot of nice

discussions I'm are you done yeah yeah

so thanks um thanks for all the nice uh

discussions also in the back can we

um yes

yeah okay so I um I'm actually I'm

actually interested to hear some of your

experiences is there anyone who would

like to tell me like how does it make

you feel how was it to do this exercise

yes thank you

uh with it's difficult yes it's

difficult first of all to understand the

meaning and you need to be honest with

yourself to understand how the others

react and how the others uh um affect

your

feelings um we were discussing with the

girls here and we say that it's hard for

the others to understand how the

patients with SH disease

feel H because we have to put some

limits on our daily lives and the others

cannot understand even

though as much as they want to

understand you they can't even our

partners who live with us in a daily

basis and at night and they feel and

they understand how we feel and how hard

we try sometimes to go through the day

um even though our partners there are

times that they can't um a lot of people

think or feel that we exaggerate on our

feelings or maybe we are Bor to do

something or we are not interested and

they don't understand that it's our

limits for the day we can't go

through um more than we do because if we

do um we will have

consequences thank you yeah yeah thank

you thank you for sharing that so it's

also very important and I think uh you

you pointed it out to communicate with

the people around us and to help them

understand what you're going through

yeah thank you were there any insights

from this exercise that someone would

like to share how is it to compare it

with a Zero versus a 10 where you are

right now yeah

um I felt like when I compared myself to

a zero I was thinking of all the things

that are positive and that I am capable

of doing um that get me to the number I

felt I was at um versus When comparing

myself to ATT 10 I'm thinking about what

are all the things I can't do so

thinking more negatively about you know

how it how it impacts me in a negative

way so one was more positive I felt than

the other

thank you thanks three minutes okay I

have uh I'm I'm doing well for time were

there any other experiences or is it

like General agreement I just leave this

here because otherwise I look like I'm

singing a song which I am not I will not

bother you with that yeah so on the one

side if you look at the uh zero it makes

you feel quite positive but all the

things that you can do and the 10 about

the things that you find struggle with

of doing or what we say in like more

positive psychology focus on the flowers

not on the weeds that are in your garden

but then like it's easier said than done

right so how do you actually do that

first by hopefully remembering this this

exercise and sometimes looking at what

the zero would be but also how do you

take steps what if

your initial number was for instance a

four or the number of your um Pier was a

four and you would actually like to

improve and move towards that then how

would you do that um it's actually a

first step to think about like if I

would move from a four to a four and a

half and imagine think about like that's

a really small step which also makes it

more

attainable what would I need to change

in my behavior what would I need to

change in my feelings and what would I

need to change in my thoughts so how can

I go from a four to a four and a half

and it's a very difficult question and I

know that I'm challenging you with these

with these questions but it also helps

you make the step from a four to a four

and a half and the changes that you

would like to make in your life towards

a more positive mental health very

concrete and actionable so things that

you can actually do small things that

you can do in the next week or the weeks

after to improve your mental uh Health

going from four to a four and a half

maybe to a five to a five and a half

Etc also think about like what it means

for yourself but also what it means for

your surroundings so um it's not just uh

uh you but also your family Partners

Etc another thing that you could do to

think about like how can I move up on

that scale um if you would want to is

like the miracle question and a miracle

question basically is if your problem

would not exist anymore what would your

life look like so what would you do how

would you feel what would you think so

that is your 10 maybe and what actions

can you take yourself or with support of

others to help go up high that point or

one point so small steps moving from

where you were towards the 10 uh looking

at what you can still do so why it's not

a zero but also what you would like to

attain and this is actually um very

classical exercise that is helpful for

those who are in like the orange Zone

with like me some mental health issues

but also in the green zone because in

the green zone doesn't mean that you're

necessarily at a 10 there may be room to

grow and to flourish and to improve your

well-being then there's some tips and

resources for mental health issues um uh

for if you're in the red and I think

it's really important to mention that uh

there's disease specific but also many

generic programs and interventions that

could be available in your local setting

uh such as mindful mindfulness based

stress reduction that you could follow

they may not be specific to sugr but in

my um experience people like who give

trainings are very open to adapting if

needed to your personal needs um that's

not only for people with SU but there's

many other people who have like back

problems or other reasons they cannot

follow the the classic traditional

program so be open to speak about that

there's things you could do in terms of

relaxation guided breathing guided

imagery and I've put two links up here

and this the slides will be uh shared I

I know that you can uh look at and get a

refer to to a mental health professional

if needed don't um uh walk around with

your problems for too long ask for help

try to uh accept that sometimes you're

in the red you want to go back to the

orange or the green and you may need a

bit of help to get

there so thank you very much for

participating and I hope that this gave

you some insight in what psychology

could uh could mean and contributes to

improving quality of life and thank you

again for the organization for having me

thank you