Paula Nagel - The Mental Health and Wellbeing Workout for Teens

THE MENTAL
HEALTH AND
WELLBEING
WORKOUT
FOR TEENS

Skills and Exercises
from ACT and CBT for
Healthy Thinking

Paula Nagel

Illustrated by Gary Bainbridge

Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

WELCOME TO THE MENTAL HEALTH
AND WELLBEING WORKOUT

I wonder what you were thinking when you opened this book?

While some of you will be aware of the thoughts that led you to pick up this book, many of you wont have registered them at all:

And thats totally normal. We have so many thoughts running through our minds that it would be impossible to keep track of them alland nor would we want to. Imagine if you had to consciously think about every single decision you madelike whether to scratch that itch on your nose with your forefinger or little finger, how to place one foot in front of the other when you walk to the fridge for a drink, or having to plan your route to school or college every time you leave the house. Youd have no space left in your mind to do anything other than the thinking needed to keep your body working, and to do the routine stuff to get you through the day. And Im guessing youve got so many other things youd rather be thinking about

But theres a lot going on in our minds, whether were aware of it or not. Some people believe that we have around 40 thoughts a minute. Thats nearly two-and-a-half thousand thoughts an hour! Of course we dont notice most of them. Many will be ones weve had before, so they may be automatic, a bit like a habit. Some of these automatic, thinking habits will be helpful ones that allow us to get things done quickly with minimum effort, motivate and make us feel good about ourselves, and help us find ways to solve problems. But other thinking habits will be less helpful and might actually stop us doing what we want to do, or being how wed like to be.

This Mental Health and Wellbeing Workout will help you get to know your thinking habits a little better, especially those unhelpful, automatic thinking habits that can get in the way, and the Workout Team will help us to do this. So before we go any further, lets meet the Workout Team

Its time for me to make a confession. I was teenager a long time ago and although I think I can remember that time quite well, the world is a very different place now. So while writing this book I talked to a number of teenagers and young people, and Ive drawn on their ideas and stories, as well as the ideas of those Ive had the privilege to work with over the years. So I hope the examples and illustrations feel real and relevant to you. Of course Ive made changes here and there to keep the stories and comments anonymous, and I havent included any real namesbut Workout Team, you know who you are! Thank you!

What is mental health?

Many people, including adults, still feel uneasy about the phrase mental health although we hear and talk about mental health more than ever before, theres still a stigma attached to it. The Workout Team shared some of the things they have heard others say about the words mental health:

fruit loop

crazy

psycho

mad

la-la

not right in the head

As well as being inappropriate, these phrases have another thing in common they link mental health to mental illness. But we all have mental health, just like we all have physical health. And in the same way that our physical health will be in good shape and not-so-good shape, so will our mental health.

Lets think for a moment about our physical health, so we can understand more about our mental health too.

We dont think twice about talking about what we door dont doto keep physically fit and in shape. And we usually dont mind talking about feeling under the weather because of a cold or a cough or a sore throat. And we certainly wouldnt call someone a cruel name if they had broken their leg or sprained a muscle, would we? So why do we think our mental health is any different? Our mental health will have its ups and downs, just like our physical health. Some days we might feel mentally robust, that we can face whatever comes our way, manage to get through things and stay mentally strong throughout. But having good mental health doesnt mean we will be happy and positive every single minute of every single day. People with good mental health will have good days and bad days. However, someone with good mental health will be more likely to think of things they can do to get through the bad days without it affecting them in the long term.

Our physical and mental health are both part of our general wellbeing and are so connected that sometimes theyre hard to separate. For example, big feelings like stress, anxiety, anger or sadness have an impact on our physical health too, and can make us feel in physical pain or more prone to bugs and infection. Physical and mental health are both part of our general health and fitness.

What the Mental Health and Wellbeing Workout is about

There are some exercises in this book to help you get to know your thinking habits and to find ways of managing them. Many of them have taken ideas from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). These two psychological approaches have some things in common but some differences too. Both of them stress the importance of being aware of our thoughts and how they can affect how we feel and what we do, but they differ in their approaches to managing unhelpful thinking.

CBT looks at the link between our thoughts, feelings and actions, and how unhelpful thinking can impact on how we feel and how we behave. It often looks at ways of challenging and changing unhelpful thoughts in order to change behaviour. CBT has a strong research base and is often the recommended approach for working with a range of emotional and behavioural problems such as depression and anxiety.

ACT is a newer psychological therapy and builds on some CBT approaches. However, rather than focusing on challenging and changing thoughts, ACT explores how responding differently to unhelpful thoughts can help manage them. So, as it says in the title, part of ACT is accepting that unhelpful thoughts happen, learning to live with them, and responding to them more flexibly. ACT incorporates many ideas from mindfulness, which focuses on directing attention to the here and now and noticing what is happening in the present moment.

A vital step for both approaches is recognising unhelpful thoughts in the first place, so this book will give you ideas for noticing your thoughts as well as accepting and responding more flexibly to them, and challenging and changing them. These ideas are reflected in three types of exercises included in this book:

Warming Up exercises to help you notice and get to know your thoughts. After all, we need to recognise our thoughts before we can do anything with them!

Stretch and Flex-ercises to develop greater awareness and acceptance, and promote flexible thinking. Having flexible muscles can help your body cope with stresses and strains. In the same way, thinking flexibly and finding different ways to respond to your thoughts can help you cope with the ups and downs in life.