’Donnell

Mental Health Day was held Thursday May 15 in the Griffin Gate on Grossmont College Campus. The keynote speaker, Clinical Psychologist and Psychoanalyst David Diamond Ph.D., visited the campus to enlighten all students on being aware of one’s own proper mental health.

Diamond included applicable examples for students to grasp how important the concept of self-awareness is when it comes to one’s reflective and emotional stresses.

He reveals that mental health includes reflection on emotions, which allows one to do something constructive with them as well as cultivating secure and trusting relationships that make a person feel comfortable with themselves as well as the ability to maintain self-esteem and being okay with who you are.

There are three steps to dealing with emotional stress: the thought that comes into the mind, the feeling that arises from that thought, and the reaction to the feeling. Diamond explains that the reflective process is often skipped, which causes people to jump into action.

This irrational action can move into violence, or bullying because people are trying to work out their emotions or insecurities in an unhealthy manner. Diamond explains that this violence happens because “people want to get bad feelings outside of themselves.”

Diamond touched on the effects stigmas associated with mental health are hindering the process of becoming mentally healthy.  He explains the stigma associated with mental or emotional stress; that people are judged when they reach out for help from psychologists but that they are healthier than someone who does not reflect upon their feelings and pushes them down.

The other stigma revealed was about psychologists.  Diamond tells stories of the overall misinterpreted opinion people have about his profession as well as the people he helps.

Mental health defined by Diamond is the ability to: relate to others, derive satisfaction from work and life, as well as to experience and tolerate emotions along with knowing how to regulate them.