Headspace.org.au is a place where you can reach out for a Happiness Buddy. There are 30 centres around the nation and it is the home of Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation.

The headspace mission is to deliver improvements in the mental health, social wellbeing and economic participation of young Australians aged 12-25.

They currently have an advertisement running on commercial TV which caught my eye and I found it on YouTube. What do you think?

Happiness

A while back I wrote Your Guide to Happiness 101 and didn’t consider the mental health side of things. There are a lot of youth struggling with issues related to family, school, peers and work too. It’s initiatives like headspace who provide support and counselling for these troubled kids.

Mental Health

I can’t say that I have been personally affected although I do know of friends of friends or members of their families who are. Unfortunately, it will not go away and we cannot sweep it under the rug. There are real issues and a high suicide rate among youths.

The most viewed factsheets on headspace are:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Alcohol
• Eating Disorders
• Self harm
• Psychosis

There is also a forum on bullying and cyberbullying. This issue is becoming more prominent as kids who want to be in contact and message their friends sit at home on their computers. They set up chats on MSN and sites like MySpace where the death of a teenage girl was highly publicised online and in offline media last year.

In my humble opinion, the headspace site is one that we have to draw youths to in order to provide some help for them. What we can do as a society in our every day lives is if we see or know of someone who does have issues, to offer them kindness and listen to their story. You know what a relief it is when you can talk to someone who actually listens to you and offers support.

I will be the first to admit that I don’t want to believe this goes on but the cold hard facts are that it does. The mind can play tricks on us and make us believe that the world is against us. If we listen to that little voice in our heads that says:

Who do you think you are to make your dreams a reality… How are you going to make that happen… or even, Nobody loves you…

Reprogram the Mind for Success

That little voice has a lot to answer for. Overcoming those negative thoughts is a challenge that we all face from time to time. Loving yourself first and having a belief that you are beautiful does help to reprogram the mind for success so that we can live life to the fullest.

How have you dealt with someone you love who has mental health issues? All comments are welcome here and I look forward to you sharing your experiences.

Bless