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Life pressures have teens on overload

Jason Hopcus, CLC, MSLC Anxiety, college, colorado, community, connection, depression, education, educators, gratitude, happiness, health, Healthy Practices, healthy students, help, high school, kindness, life pressures, meditation, mental health, mental health care, mental illness, NAMI Blog, pressure, Scholarship, social, Students, teachers, Teens, time management, well-being, wellness, whole health
Life pressures have teens on overload

Today, teens get a lot of ‘future’ pressure from parents and older adults to be a certain way and succeed in the ways they see best, which can result in considerable undue stress. The expected norm is that you have to do well in school while taking part in extracurricular activities to secure admission to a choice school or prestigious university. This pressure can make a youth feel as though they aren’t doing enough, aren’t good enough, and ultimately can lead to them giving up overall. Personally, my parents have always pushed me to do my best. Once, I hadRead More

A Path to Happiness and Well-Being

Jason Hopcus, CLC, MSLC Anxiety, arapahoe county, community, depression, douglas county, education, educators, exercise, gratitude, happiness, health, Healthy Practices, healthy students, journaling, kindness, meditation, mental health, mental health care, NAMI Blog, presentation, psychology, recovery, sleep, social, Students, support group, teachers, time management, well-being, wellness, whole health
A Path to Happiness and Well-Being

The Science of  Well-Being  People want to be happy and the study of positive psychology can help. Recently, I completed The Science of Well-Being, a free online course offered by Coursera. It is a ten-week program adapted from the most popular course at Yale University taught by Professor Laurie Santos. Dr. Santos created the original Yale course for two main reasons. First, she observed that many Yale students were unhappy, which was also prevalent at other universities. Second, Dr. Santos realized she wasn’t as happy as she could be. Each course participant completes lectures, quizzes, and readings, which explore the most prominent studies aboutRead More

Scholarship to Connect the Dots Between Mental Health and Learning Disabilities

Jason Hopcus, CLC, MSLC Anxiety, arapahoe county, colorado, community, counseling, criminal justice, depression, douglas county, education, educators, health, healthy students, mental health, mental health care, mental illness, NAMI Blog, psychology, recovery, Scholarship, sociology, special edcuation, stigma, Students, teachers, well-being, wellness

My name is Morgan Miller and I am a proud recipient of a 2018 NAMI Arapahoe/Douglas Counties Seeds of Hope Scholarship. Receiving a scholarship from NAMI ADCO helps support my goal of becoming a special education teacher. In my studies and work, I have observed an often overlooked correlation between learning disabilities and mental health. My passion for this work has been a dream since childhood. I believe as a future educator, I can help highlight the need for educators to know about mental illnesses and their prevalence in those with learning disabilities. In recent years, I have worked with individuals who haveRead More

2018 NAMI ADCO Seeds of Hope Scholarship

Jason Hopcus, CLC, MSLC Anxiety, arapahoe county, colorado, community, counseling, criminal justice, depression, douglas county, education, educators, health, healthy students, mental health, mental health care, NAMI Blog, nursing, presentation, psychology, recovery, Scholarship, sociology, special edcuation, stigma, Students, teachers, well-being, wellness
2018 NAMI ADCO Seeds of Hope Scholarship

On April 25th, NAMI Arapahoe/Douglas Counties hosted its inaugural Seeds of Hope Scholarship Awards Breakfast at the Hilton Denver Inverness. We proudly awarded six scholarships to local students pursing a degree in a behavioral health or human service field. Our 2018 NAMI ADCO scholarship award recipients were: Talia Brown – Legend High School, Parker, Health Sciences and Psychology Sophie Camp – Mountain Vista H.S., Highlands Ranch, Psychology and Sociology (criminal justice) Sarah Knapp – Skyview Academy, Highlands Ranch, Psychology Brianna Lawrence – Regis University, Nursing and Psychology Morgan Miller – University of Colorado, Denver, Special Education Kimberly Smith – ArapahoeRead More

1 in 5. Changing the faces of mental health

Jason Hopcus, CLC, MSLC Anxiety, community, counseling, depression, education, educators, health, healthy students, mental health, mental health care, NAMI Blog, presentation, recovery, stigma, teachers, well-being, wellness
1 in 5. Changing the faces of mental health

May is Mental Health Awareness month. An entire month aimed to create positive awareness for mental health. A healthy step forward, right? Personally, I believe this is an important first step on a long winding road, but merely a starting point. My feelings about this cause are deeply personal, rooted in my own complicated mental health history. I invite you to follow along as I unpack some of my thoughts for you in hopes of shining a light on a different path. To begin, let’s acknowledge that all of us has mental health. Each person has a brain and thereforeRead More

Anxiety, My Companion

Jason Hopcus, CLC, MSLC Anxiety, community, counseling, depression, education, educators, health, healthy students, mental health, mental health care, NAMI Blog, presentation, recovery, stigma, teachers, well-being, wellness

My relationship with Anxiety is like what they say about falling in love: “gradual and then all at once.” She started spending time with me when I was in college—only every once in a while—then, I slowly became more anxious as I started adulthood. With each hardship I faced, Anxiety became a more consistent companion. Anxiety begged me to seek reassurance and validation for the lack of comfort in my new life. Together, we found it in the wrong place—a toxic relationship. What started off as an exciting fling became soul-sucking attachment. An attachment that I was fortunately able toRead More

Growing The Whole Teacher: Mental Health In Education

Jason Hopcus, CLC, MSLC counseling, education, educators, health, healthy students, mental health, mental health care, stigma, teachers, well-being, wellness

Today, the role of teachers is expanding to include more duties and responsibilities than ever before, including building emotionally strong and healthy students. However, society often neglects to address or even discuss the mental and emotional well-being of teachers themselves. This neglect has led to two major issues – teacher burn-out and a lack of skilled teachers available as a result. Given their expanded duties, growing numbers of educators are struggling to cope with the changing demands of their profession. According to a recent survey of over 30,000 educators, conducted by the American Federation of Teachers, more than 75 percent sayRead More