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Common mental health experiences
Is it common to hear voices that others don't?
Not everyone hears voices or sounds that others don't, but it’s not an uncommon experience. The types of things people hear vary greatly, from distressing to comforting. Sometimes the voices or sounds go away quickly, and sometimes they linger over time.
If you believe that someone in your life may be hearing voices, it does not automatically mean they are experiencing a mental health condition like psychosis. Roughly 5 out of every 100 people hear voices at some point in their lives. But, because changes to how we process sounds are very common with psychosis, it’s a good idea to check in with a professional.
Take the symptom checker to quickly find local support options in Pennsylvania, or send your confidential questions to our team. We'll respond within 1 weekday.
Stress and anxiety: What’s the difference?
Though often used interchangeably, stress and anxiety are not the same thing. Here's what you should know:
Stress is your body’s response to anything that causes your body strain in some way, including physical, emotional, or psychological strain. Most often, stress is caused by an external trigger, or a specific situation. Occasional stress can be useful, like when you need to focus on an exam, have an upcoming game or match, or react quickly while driving, for example. But consistent stress can be harmful to your health in a wide variety of ways, affecting your mood and sleep, zapping your energy, impairing your immune system, and more.
When the brain’s stress response never stops, stress chemicals (cortisol, adrenaline) remain elevated and “feel good” chemicals (serotonin, dopamine) are blocked. This level of stress is not healthy, and if left unchecked, can lead to anxiety.
Anxiety is a common emotion characterized by persistent feelings of worry, uneasiness, or fear. Unlike stress, anxiety doesn’t have a clear trigger or solution. It can feel like you’re carrying a weight without knowing what the weight is or why you’re the one carrying it.
Anxiety shouldn’t be part of everyday life. If you are feeling an overwhelming sense of worry or restlessness every day, there are many options to keep it in check, such as lifestyle changes, targeted therapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, wellness practices, and medications.
Take the mental health symptom checker to learn more about what’s going on with your loved one and explore options for feeling better. Have a specific question? Send your confidential questions to our team, and we'll respond within 1 weekday. You can even send them anonymously if you like.
What is depression? How do I know if my loved one has it?
Depression is a common experience that affects how you feel, think, and handle daily activities. It’s different from feeling intermittent sadness or grief. The symptoms stick around for at least two weeks without ever really letting up.
Signs of depression can include feeling sad, nervous, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, or flat-out exhausted — not just once in a while, but for most of the day, every day, over an extended period of time. Many people who experience depression express complete loss of energy to conduct regular daily activities.
There are other signs too: Maybe they've lost interest in friends or hobbies. Or maybe they're having trouble sleeping at night, waking up in the morning, or oversleeping. Or maybe they can’t seem to bring themselves to eat anything or, on the flip side, to stop eating all the things. Or maybe they're suffering through ongoing stomach aches, headaches, or other pain that just won’t go away, no matter what they try.
Sound familiar? If you believe someone in your life is experiencing depression, take the mental health symptom checker to find local support resources in Pennsylvania, or visit Strong365 to learn more about depression. And, if you or someone in your life ever feels like hurting yourself, please text or call 988 to talk with a crisis counselor. Your life matters.
What is psychosis? How do I know if someone in my life has it?
“Psychosis” is a word used to describe a combination of symptoms that affect one’s mental health. When experiencing psychosis, it can become challenging for an individual to understand what’s real and what’s not. Common signs of psychosis include seeing or hearing things that others do not, having unusual thoughts or behaviors, and/or becoming fearful or suspicious of others. It also can cause them to withdraw socially, feel afraid, or have difficulty doing everyday activities, such as going to school or work. These experiences vary from person to person.
Psychosis is fairly common, and it most often starts in teen or young adult years. Three out of every 100 people in the U.S. experience psychosis at some point in their lives. It can be a short-term effect of extreme stress, substance use, or trauma, or it may be a symptom of a mental health condition like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder or another health condition.
If you think someone in your life may be experiencing symptoms of psychosis or may relate to any of the experiences described above, our team is here to offer support. Take the symptom checker to better understand what your loved one might be going on or send a question to our team, and we’ll respond within 1 weekday. To learn more about psychosis, visit Strong365.
How soon should I seek help? Will this get better on its own?
Just like any other kind of health issue, the sooner your family member receives professional support for mental health concerns, the better. Mental health issues rarely go away on their own, and those who seek help early tend to recover faster than those who don’t.
Early professional support from peers and therapists — and also from your loved ones — can make a big difference in getting them back to feeling like themselves again quickly. Take the symptom checker to get quickly connected with appropriate resources in Pennsylvania.
Finding help
What should I do if I think someone in my life needs help?
Here are a couple of tips to help get someone in your life the care they need:
Inquire curiously, and make a plan for a next step together. Build trust and mutual respect with your loved one by asking questions with genuine curiosity. Once you're ready to make a plan, remind them that you're a team with a shared goal. For example, you might ask "What can I do to support you so that you can [work toward our shared goal]?"
Send your questions to our team. All questions or concerns about emotional health are important and valid. Send your questions and concerns to our team (you can send them anonymously if you like), and we’ll get back to you within one weekday. Our support service is free and confidential.
Take the mental health symptom checker. Answer a few questions about what your loved one is experiencing, and we’ll help you find appropriate local resources. *Note: your privacy is important to us, and your responses will remain confidential.
Where can I find help in Pennsylvania?
PAWell, a project by Strong365, offers a safe, confidential way to find accurate information and wellness resources, both online and in your community.
We’ve partnered with experts at Northwell Health, a nonprofit health care provider, and HeadsUp, an innovative youth-focused wellness program representing locations across the state, to make getting help as easy as possible.
Get started now by taking the mental health symptom checker and answering a few questions about what your loved one is going through.
Not located in Pennsylvania? Check out the Strong365 short list of mental health resources nationally and internationally.
What if my family/ loved one doesn't have insurance?
PAWell services are completely free for you to use. If our team refers you to a mental health provider, your insurance copay or deductible may apply.
If you don’t have health insurance, or if your policy doesn’t cover everything you need, don’t worry. Check to see if you qualify for any free, sliding-scale, or subsidized programs.
Here are a few options:
You can take advantage of grants or publicly-funded treatment programs. Our team partners with grant-funded youth mental wellness programs across Pennsylvania that may be resources for care, depending on your needs. Or we may be able to refer you to other free or reduced-cost support. Get started now by taking the mental health symptom checker.
Federal programs like Social Security Disability Insurance, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicaid are available for children, adolescents, and young adults coping with a diagnosed mental health disorder. The requirements differ for each program.
The state of Pennsylvania offers low-cost health coverage for residents under the age of 19 through a program called Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Depending on your family's income, your children may be eligible to receive CHIP for free or at a low cost.
Community health centers, programs, and organizations also provide financial assistance or free or discounted services to families with low incomes or youth with special circumstances (such as artists, military, living with HIV/AIDS) who’ve been diagnosed with a mental health condition.
How can I help my child, friend, or loved one?
Here are four things you can do right now to support someone in your life:
1. Take the mental health symptom checker.
Answer a few questions to help determine whether someone you care about could be struggling with stress, or something more. Take the symptom checker
2. Send your questions to our team.
All questions or concerns about emotional health are important and valid. Please send us your questions, and our team will respond within one weekday. Our support service is free and confidential. Ask the team
3. Try to understand what it’s like to face a mental health challenge.
A little empathy goes a long way. Learn as much as you can about mental health so that common misperceptions don’t get in the way of being positive and supportive. Ask questions and really listen to the answers, with a readiness to learn more about what your friend or loved one is experiencing. To start the conversation, you might say things like:
“You don’t seem like yourself lately, and I’m concerned because I care about you.
“How can I help?”
“How are you feeling today?"
"How can I support you?"
4. Find other ways to connect.
Spending quality time together — whether you’re walking the dog, going for a bike ride, playing games or making music online, or collaborating on a craft or other project — can help ward off feelings of loneliness and isolation.
How can PAWell help?
PAWell is a project by Strong365 that offers free, confidential online mental health support and care navigation services to teens, young adults, and their families in Pennsylvania. Our services are offered in partnership with experts from Northwell Health and HeadsUp. We offer safe, confidential ways for you to find accurate information and access local resources.
Our community, created by people with personal experiences alongside medical experts, supports people ages 13 to 30 who are coping with mental health challenges. We understand how hard it can be to overcome fear, stereotypes, and stigmas. Mental health challenges aren’t shameful, and they can be treated before they disrupt your life. We’re here to support you and your family.
Take the mental health symptom checker and answer a few questions about what your loved one is going through to get started.
Caregiver tips and tools
How can I seek mental health support on behalf of my loved one?
You’ve noticed changes in your loved one’s behavior that concern you. You suspect they need mental health care, but you aren’t sure how to support them. We've designed a 4-step Caregiver Guide to help you figure out how best to take care of them, yourself, and your family.
1. Assess the situation.
Determine whether they’re in immediate danger. Do their recent actions seem completely out of character? Did they tell you that they want to hurt themself or others? If so, seek medical attention right away. (Call 911 in an emergency.) The next thing to do is look for signs of a mental health concern:
Withdrawing
Problems with sleep
Difficulty with school or work
Changes in mood
Troubling beliefs
Perception problems
Disorganized thinking
2. Ask for help.
Seeking mental health care, from coping with emotions to navigating systems, can be a difficult process. You can make things easier for your loved one by being a strong ally. When they’re ready, research and discuss the options available to them. Some options might include:
Healthcare system (doctors, therapists, and other practitioners)
Peer support groups
Local, community-based services
School resources
Family and friends
3. Understand your health insurance benefits and alternatives.
Health insurance often can be used for annual check-ups, specialist visits, medications, and, if needed, emergency care and hospital stays. Your insurer is required to supply you with an easy-to-understand summary of benefits, including mental health coverage.
4. Put together a wellness toolkit for you and your loved one.
Supporting a loved one presents as many challenges as it does rewards. It's essential to take care of yourself first. Staying well--physically, emotionally, and mentally -- and making sure your own needs are met will enable you to show up for your loved one when they need it most.
How can I support my child when they don't think they need it?
Keeping an open, productive dialogue with a young person who is struggling with their mental health but can't see it can be challenging. Here are 3 tips for how to offer support:
1. Find a shared goal
A shared goal refers to something that you and your loved one can agree on. For example, maybe you both want them to feel like themselves again, or maybe you both agree that getting back to school is a priority.
You may not agree on the best way to get to that shared goal, but starting the conversation there is a great place to start. Continue to talk through the different routes for reaching this goal while also trying to understand their perspective. It's important to listen intently without judgement or expectation and realize that it's okay to disagree.
2. Normalize and (try to) relate
It's important to remember that mental health exists on a spectrum with a wide range of severity and resulting distress associated with ill-mental health. For example, young people in the early stages of a mental health condition may have a hard time sleeping or paying attention -- something many of us can relate to, particularly when we're stressed. Try drawing on these experiences to relate to more severe symptoms, such as an inability to get out of bed or a debilitating panic attack.
3. Inquire curiously, and make a plan for a next step together
Build trust and mutual respect with your loved one by asking questions with genuine curiosity. Sometimes, asking for permission to ask questions to help you better understand their experiences and viewpoints and help disarm them and grow their willingness to share with you. It's also okay not to have an answer, or solution, or response to everything they say. Sometimes, just acknowledging that you heard them is enough.
Once you're ready to make a plan, remind them that you're a team with a shared goal. For example, you might ask "What can I do to support you so that you can [work toward our shared goal]?" Sometimes an in-between step prior to speaking to a professional might be speaking or even texting with another trusted ally, such as a school counselor, a teacher, another family member, or a friend.
How do I explain that professional support can be helpful to my teen or young adult?
Though it's getting better, there is still stigma still associated with seeking mental health support and therapy today. This can make it tough to convince some young people to speak with a therapist, psychiatrist, or counselor. But there are a few ways you can explain mental health support that may change their mind.
Therapy used to be something that people didn’t talk about as much, but today it’s becoming better understood as something that anyone can benefit from - it’s not just for people who are in the depths of a personal struggle or mental health condition. It can be a great tool to learn more about yourself, uncover your vision for your life, learn lifelong tools that will serve you in relationships and work, and help you be the best version of yourself.
A common misconception is that therapists and psychiatrists are just going to tell them what to do, or that they'll share information with their parents. This is not the case. Rather, you can think about therapists and psychiatrists as navigation tools, sort of like Google Maps. They'll listen as a young person shares where they want to go, and then help them figure out how best to get there.
Another way to think about it is in terms of sports psychology. Often, when athletes hit a roadblock in their career, they'll reach out to sports psychologists for help overcoming whatever happens to be challenging them at the time. It could be a previous injury, a tough coach, or stress over performance.
Feeling better & staying strong
Will my loved one feel better? How long will it take?
Yes! It's very possible to feel better. But the amount of time it takes to get there is different for each person and usually involves some shift to their daily routine. This shift may include:
making time in their schedule to engage in self-care activities
getting support from family or friends
trying a peer support network
working with a therapist, and/or with a doctor
Everybody’s path is a little bit different, and that’s normal. There is no one-size-fits-all approach or time schedule for moving through a mental health challenge. But with patience, courage, and determination, it gets better.
Why is getting help early so important?
If you are concerned about the mental health of someone in your life, seeking help right away gives them the best chance of getting back to feeling like themself again. By getting them appropriate care as quickly as possible, you can help reduce the impact mental health struggles can have on their school, work, or relationships.
How does therapy work, and what are my options?
Therapy used to be something that people didn’t talk about as much, but today it’s becoming better understood as something that anyone can benefit from. It can be a great tool for self-learning, personal growth, and developing lifelong skills to support healthy relationships and goals.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy — called CBT or talk therapy for short — helps change thoughts or actions by discussing feelings and perceptions with a counselor. The goal of talk therapy is to interrupt unhelpful thought patterns so that our relationship to a troubling experience or challenging relationship can be shifted.
A common misconception is that therapists and psychiatrists tell people what to do. This is not the case. Rather, you can think about therapists and psychiatrists as navigation tools, sort of like Google Maps. They'll listen as a young person shares where they want to go, and then help them figure out how best to get there.
Another way to think about it is in terms of sports psychology. Often, when athletes hit a roadblock in their career, they'll reach out to sports psychologists for help overcoming whatever happens to be challenging them at the time. It could be a previous injury, a tough coach, or stress over performance.
Looking for a therapist for a teen or young adult in your life? Take the symptom checker to find local support resources in Pennsylvania. Or, view Strong365's resources we love.
Does my child need medication?
Medication can play a role in treating mental health conditions, but not always. In some cases, talking to a therapist and making lifestyle changes may be enough to improve mental health. In other cases, taking medication can ease or get rid of the most troubling symptoms.
Choosing the right approach should be based on your child's unique situation, with support from a doctor.
Take the symptom checker, and answer a few questions about your child's mental health, to discover local support options in Pennsylvania to help you navigation medication-related decisions. Or visit strong365.org to learn more about common mental health medications.
What questions should we ask the doctor or therapist?
It can feel intimidating for teens and young adults to talk to doctors or therapists for the first time about an issue — especially one that we barely understand. As a parent or trusted ally, you can offer to speak on your loved one's behalf, particularly if they're feeling uneasy or confused.
Here are a few questions to share with your loved for them to ask, or for you all to ask together, at the first appointment.
What do you think I’m experiencing and why? Where can I get more information about it?
What changes can I make in my daily routine to improve my mental health? What are good goals for me to work toward?
When it comes to therapy, what are my options?
How long does treatment last? What are the benefits and drawbacks? Why are you recommending it? What are my options?
How soon (realistically) can I expect to start to feel better?
What types of therapy or community support groups are available for people my age? Where can I find them nearby?
When it comes to medication, what are my options?
What makes this medication the best option for me? How does it work to help my brain? What are the short- and long-term side effects? How long does it take to work? What happens if I miss a dose?
How much does the medication cost? Does the manufacturer have a subsidy or reimbursement program? Is other financial assistance available? How do I apply?
What should I do if I start to feel worse or need help immediately?
What to expect if I seek support?
Will taking the symptom checker result in a diagnosis?
It’s natural to wonder about a diagnosis. This isn't something that we are able to offer, since our support is online and temporary. By taking the symptom checker, and answering a few questions about what your loved one is experiencing, we can help provide you with appropriate support resources.
It is also worth noting that some people find a diagnosis helpful, while others find it less useful. The most important thing is that you are able to find the right mix of things to support your loved one's well-being.
Is the help you provide confidential? Is it free?
Yes. All of the support options we offer are 100% confidential and free, offered in partnership with Northwell Health and HeadsUp.
Our team has worked with teens and young adults on a very wide range of issues and concerns, and understands how important confidentiality is. Our goal is to ensure that people have a safe space to open up, get answers to their emotional health concerns, and find support resources if desired.
Do you collect or share personal information?
We do not share your information with anyone (unless you ask us to do so). Please review our Privacy Policy for more information.
