FOR TWO WEEKS last summer, Justin Foster puttered around his Clemson apartment, working out as best he could, waiting for the 14 days of his COVID-19 quarantine to pass. He was one of more than 40 Clemson football players to test positive, and, like most of them, his symptoms were barely noticeable.

The 14 days passed, and he headed back to the field, officially recovered.

Something wasn't right. From the first workout, he struggled for breath while he ran, and after practices he collapsed in bed. No amount of sleep was enough.

"Even when you feel your best day, you're still so tired," he says. "You can't really keep up. You can't do anything."

As it became harder to function, doubt seeped in. Maybe something was happening to him, or maybe it was something else. Despite a lifetime of evidence to the contrary, "it was almost to the point where I just felt lazy," he says.

What Foster did not know, and would not know for months, was that he was a part of the COVID-19 population that was only beginning to reveal itself. He was a long-hauler, someone whose symptoms persevere for more than four weeks after the initial infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Beyond the fatigue, long-haulers have reported an odd collection of symptoms -- headaches, sore joints, shortness of breath, itchy skin, sore teeth, strange rashes, muscle spasms, mental fog -- but for many people, there is another side effect that's harder to deal with: You feel like you're losing your mind.

You feel like you're supposed to will your way out of it, show some gumption or get-up-and-go, and your body just ... won't. And like Foster, you start to think you're just lazy, and you worry that people don't believe you. Because often you don't believe yourself.

I didn't. I caught COVID-19 in March 2020, and by June I couldn't understand why I couldn't get myself together. I haven't felt like myself for a single day since.

He's a 22-year-old athlete from North Carolina who had aspirations for the NFL. I'm a 52-year-old journalist who lives in New Jersey and likes to run.

From our first conversation, we connected about what it was like to suddenly no longer be yourself, and the constant self-doubt that came with it. If we can't do the things we used to do, then who are we?

You spend your life running into limits and defining yourself by how you react to them. Then long-haul COVID hits you with limits that you don't know how to deal with, or didn't expect to deal with for years. And no one can tell you whether it will be one more week of this or the rest of your life.

JUSTIN FOSTER IS a "yes, ma'am/yes, sir" sort of Southern kid who grew up in Shelby, North Carolina, a town of about 20,000 just west of Charlotte.

He was quiet, he says, like his parents. He's still pretty quiet. He wasn't a natural athlete, and he wasn't one of those kids driven to play sports.

"Most of the time I was forced to play, just because I was larger than everyone else. I was very clumsy, not coordinated at all," he says. "I was pretty good at football, just because they'd just tell me to tackle the person with the ball."

In high school he was a linebacker, gaining national attention as a junior when he had 67 tackles during Crest High School's perfect 2015 season. (He had 10 tackles in the state championship.) One day his coach, Mark Barnes, handed him a phone and said someone wanted to speak to him. It was Dabo Swinney, who offered him a scholarship.

Only one member of Foster's immediate family had gone to college, he says, and it hadn't occurred to him that football could make him the second. He had been thinking about trade school or the military, some arena where he could use his skill to take any machine, figure out what was wrong with it and then put it back together.

"Everyone else looked at me as a ballplayer, but for me personally it really hadn't set in that that was my identity and that's what I really wanted to do," he says.

Clemson moved him to defensive end, and for his first three seasons, Foster was mostly a role player on a stacked team, showing ability as a pass rusher. The possibility of the NFL was becoming real, though. In 2019 he was honorable mention All-ACC and made the All-ACC Academic Team. (In December 2020, he graduated with a degree in construction sciences with a 3.24 GPA.)

His teammates describe the two sides of Foster they've come to know. There's "Mater," named for the rusty tow truck in the animated movie "Cars." "Mater" Foster fixes their vehicles and changes flat tires and is, in their words, an easygoing country boy.

Then there's the Foster who takes his place on the edge of the defensive line.

"He's a straight power rusher," teammate Myles Murphy says. "Loves to go through the tackle, go through people. Very aggressive player. We like that on the edge."

Before the 2020 season, a number of scouting websites said Foster was a credible "Day 3" NFL draft pick, meaning somewhere between the fourth and seventh rounds. A solid season could push him up the list.

On June 25, 2020, Foster was at his home in Clemson when the text came from the team training staff saying he had tested positive for COVID-19. All he felt at the time was a runny nose that he assumed was allergies.

When he returned to practice two weeks later, the struggle began. He'd had asthma his whole life but felt like it was always under control -- he rarely used an inhaler. Now, he was short of breath all day long. And he felt like he had to do something that went against every part of his personality: ask for help.

"There's some guys that maybe have a little something that's wrong with them and they drag it out for a period of time," says Danny Poole, the team's director of sports medicine, and an athletic trainer for 40 years. "With Justin, he's one of those guys that if he comes and tells you there's something going on, you better believe it."

EVERY DISCUSSION OF long-haul COVID has to start with the caveat that no one fully understands it. Almost two years into the pandemic, experts still have multiple theories about what long-haul COVID is and how to define it.

When Foster and I realized more than a year ago we weren't recovering, there was no consensus that there even was such a thing as long-haul COVID. Some doctors thought their patients were still sick with the disease but that the virus was somehow avoiding detection; some doctors thought patients were suffering from PTSD.

Researchers from the University of Washington estimate that roughly 30% of people infected with COVID-19 develop long-haul syndrome. The severity and symptoms range wildly. Some people feel a little off, while others are unable to get out of bed for days at a time.

What experts have come to believe is that for some unknown reason, long-haulers' immune systems act as though they're still under attack from the virus. Physical or emotional stress, even good stress, disturbs the entire system like a hornet's nest. Doctors want their patients moving so they don't become completely sedentary. But if you have the driven personality of, say, a college football player, accustomed to ignoring pain and fatigue, that drive can make the symptoms worse.

How it all happens and how to treat it, however, are still the subject of widespread debate.

"We all would agree that something is wrong with the immune system," says Dr. Daniel Griffin, an infectious disease physician and researcher at Columbia University. "To this day I still don't think we've gotten to why the immune system hasn't reset itself."

When I was infected, I was never hospitalized, never had problems breathing or with my heart. I was sick for three weeks, the worst of it a four-day period when I slept about 18 hours a day. A couple of weeks after I had been sick, I assumed that as soon as I could get my running legs back, I'd feel like myself. On my first run, I felt out of shape, but no more than that. Then, about 36 hours later, my lungs began to ache as though I had been breathing smoke. I was exhausted. I spent the better part of the next couple of days in bed, wondering why I was so tired, wondering if I had grown too comfortable being in bed all day. I began a pattern of recovering, trying to run, then having the same delayed reaction that shut me down all over again. I tried going for walks, but the result was the same.

A friend who survived the virus after 35 days on a ventilator had returned to his pre-COVID strength, but I hadn't. It made no sense. I just need to get back into shape, I repeated. I need to push through it. And that's one of the first things that sets in with long-haul, the question of whether you're imagining everything, or if, mentally, you're too weak to cope.

CLEMSON PLAYERS WHO had COVID-19 followed a series of steps before they returned to full workouts. They started with light jogging, then sprinting, then practicing in a green jersey, which signified no contact, always checking in with the trainer at the end of the day.

The main concern, Poole says, was making sure players hadn't contracted myocarditis, a rare but potentially fatal heart inflammation that doctors at the time were concerned was linked to COVID-19. Usually, players were back to full speed a month after being infected. Of the players who were infected, all reported complete recoveries. Except for Foster.

Teammates noticed that Foster was raising his hand during drills, asking coaches to rotate him out so he could catch his breath. They hadn't seen that before.

"If he takes the time to step out, that means something serious," teammate K.J. Henry says. "He has a great grasp on the difference between pain and injury."

Foster says the harder he drove himself, the worse it got.

"I didn't want to be the one that wasn't working out or the one that's always having a problem and having to go to the training room and deal with it," he says. "It was just a lot mentally, pretty much just being down all the time. And I didn't know what was going to happen."

Foster and Swinney shared a shorthand to monitor how he felt. Swinney would wave his thumb in three positions -- up, sideways, down -- and Foster would respond with his own thumb to reflect where he was. Too often it was sideways or down.

After a couple of weeks, he wasn't able to practice at all. Day after day, when his teammates came into the training room to get taped up or treated, they saw Foster sitting in the corner with a nebulizer strapped to his face.

"I just remember him coming to me and he just was kind of was broken down. He said, 'Coach, I can't do it,'" Swinney says. "As an athlete and especially as a football player, we're kind of all wired to go and [be] like, 'Hey, snap out of it.' But this was something you couldn't see. It's not like you got a torn ACL, or you got a broken bone or something like that."

Foster says he worried his teammates thought he was lazy. No, they say. Quite the opposite. The fact that it was Foster who was struggling unnerved them. "No one thought he was lazy at all. We knew that he does what he needs to do every day to prepare," Murphy says.

"The entire team had no idea what was happening: 'Am I going to be next? Why did he react like that to COVID? And if I get COVID, am I going to react the same way?'"

Foster got to the point at which walking up the stairs in the football facility was too much. "It was just a very dark place for a long time," Foster says.

One night during the summer of 2020, Foster went to lie down a little after 11 p.m., when he felt an asthma attack coming on. He did what he usually does during an episode and took a puff from his inhaler. It didn't work.

He didn't want to call 911 and go to an emergency room in the middle of a pandemic, so he called Poole, the trainer.

Poole says he was struck by the fear in Foster's voice and told him to get to the team facility. Poole and the team physician put Foster on a nebulizer and talked him through breathing drills until, finally, a few hours later, the attack subsided.

In the weeks that followed, the training staff took Foster to several local doctors, each of whom came to the same conclusion, that there was no medical problem they could identify.

"It's like, am I crazy?" Foster says. "Is something going on with me mentally that I just can't push through this?"

IT WASN'T JUST his body. Foster took summer classes, and when he sat at a computer or tried to read a book, his mind couldn't grasp what was in front of him. This from someone who was an All-ACC Academic Team selection.

"There was a time where I was probably three weeks behind in class. I'm never a person not to do my work," he says.

The mental fog can be more destabilizing for some people than the physical symptoms. You don't recognize yourself, but you look normal to everyone else. I had plenty of evenings with friends or family when I could rally for a few hours, but I knew I'd be wiped out for the next two days. In my lower moments, it became too difficult to read because simple words didn't make sense. When I wrote, I might forget what I was writing in the middle of a sentence.

Over and over, I went through the process of researching something for an article, writing that portion, polishing it and then discovering that I had already done all that hours earlier. I had no memory of writing the same material. I learned to use outlines and checklists to do what I'd relied on my mind to do for 30 years. I had to lean heavily on colleagues to make sure that my work was clean.

In conversation, I frequently lost thoughts in mid-sentence, and then worried people thought I was being melodramatic. There were times watching TV when my mind couldn't keep up with the dialogue and I had to hit pause. Twice I got lost driving near my home and had to use Waze to get back.

And many nights I hit that wall and had to leave the dinner table as my family watched knowingly, not saying anything because they knew I didn't want the attention. I'd be in bed the rest of the night.

Most of the time I felt like I was possessed by someone dumber and more irritable. The cuts to my sense of self were relentless, with the wild, vivid dreams I had every morning, my inability to smell or taste, the strange things I found myself saying, the words I couldn't come up with, the loss of desire for longtime passions, the difficulty of small talk. Experiencing the minutiae of the day and thinking, "This just isn't me," over and over for months.

When I shared that with Foster he nodded and said, "Exactly."

My low point might have come after a weekend in November visiting my daughter in Washington, D.C., the most active two days I'd had in months. When I got home that Monday night, I saw a story from my colleague Jeff Passan about Tony La Russa's DUI. Something was vaguely familiar about it, and it hit me that Jeff and I had spoken three days earlier. I called him and was blunt. "I need to know, did I f--- something up? Was there something you asked me to do?"

"Actually," he said, "there was."

It turned out to be inconsequential, and Jeff couldn't have been better about it, but I had no memory of the conversation. It was like being told about a drunken blackout. And then the thought hit me that I had no way of knowing how many times this had happened over the previous eight months.

I felt like a writer who couldn't write, a reader who couldn't read, a runner who couldn't go for a walk, a father and husband who disappeared into his own head every night. Lesser in every way I could measure. I kept repeating to myself, "Useless."

THE FIRST TIME Foster heard the term "long haul" was in August 2020, from head trainer Poole. Foster then went to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, where, finally, a doctor said his issues were indeed probably related to his COVID-19 infection, and they were real. No one could explain why his asthma attacks had become so intense, and no one could say when or if he would get better. But just hearing about "long haul" was a massive relief.

"Someone telling me that I'm not crazy and that there's actually something going on, that was the first time that I realized that I could relax," he says. "I knew that there was actually something going on that was causing me to be like this."

For the first two months after I'd been sick, convinced I had fallen into some rut of laziness that I couldn't break out of, I wondered if I'd even had COVID at all. In those early pandemic days in North Jersey, you couldn't get a test unless you needed to be hospitalized. I might be imagining this whole thing, I thought.

Ultimately, I took my sons with me to get antibody tests, and even as the nurse drew blood from my arm, I felt like I was on a path to being exposed as a fraud. A few days later the call came and someone read me results. Michael Quinn ... negative. Liam Quinn ... negative. Thomas Quinn ...

As I waited to hear my result my heart was pounding so violently my shirt was moving. "Positive," she said.

The wave of relief that went through me felt like anesthesia. I teared up. I wasn't crazy. I had no idea what would happen, but for the moment it was enough to know it was all real. She sent me a copy of the test result, and I pinned it to the wall next to my desk.

AS THE 2020 football season began, knowing he was fighting an illness and not his own mind, Foster still had hopes of rallying. But week by week, nothing changed, and his nights became lessons in terror.

"There were multiple nights where I would lay down and I would be choking in my sleep. And I would wake up in the middle of the night and I could barely breathe," he says. "That's when I was at my lowest point because I just didn't know what was going to happen. ... If I was going to go to sleep one day and not wake up."

Midway through the season, Foster and Swinney agreed that he needed to focus on his health. There was always next year. Foster went to practices and home games but didn't dress, speaking up when the defensive line gathered, maybe sharing a certain move that would work against an offensive tackle.

"At practice, even in games, he'd be right there, pretty much just coaching us up," Murphy says.

And when the defense was on the field, Foster found a spot on the sideline where he was unlikely to encounter players tumbling out of bounds. "I knew if something did happen I couldn't run fast enough to get out of the way, and I didn't want to cause a scene," he says.

But he says it was killing him not to participate or know whether he might play again. The idea began to sink in that he had to walk away from football altogether, just to be able to move on mentally and emotionally to the next part of his life. To become whatever he was going to be after football. There was always going to be an end to his career; maybe this was it.

He says he made the decision in December but didn't make it official for two months. "I couldn't really bring myself to do it, just because of all the work I'd put in," he says.

On Feb. 24 this year, Foster went to the Clemson football facility and sat outside Swinney's office for 90 minutes until the coach was free. Foster told him he needed to step away from football. Swinney said he understood and told Foster he would have a place on the team if he wanted to come back.

Foster told the rest of the world that day on social media.

"Today is a difficult day for me, but it is also a day of reflection and gratitude," he wrote. "With sadness but no regret, I have decided it is in my best interest to call it a career and hang up football."

A week later, Foster told me about the frustration he felt.

"The question I would ask when I went to the doctor is, 'You guys say you don't see anything; you guys say that things are getting better. I don't feel better. So is this a new life for me? Is this my life now?' And if it is, just tell me that. And I will be fine what that, and I'll just have to deal with it.

"I don't want to get my hopes up and keep hoping and hoping and hoping that I'm going to be back to normal."

We were experiencing something akin to sudden aging, leaping past what we saw as the coming vital years. You had to fight the urge to dwell on what had been lost or whether you could ever get it back. You had to learn that patience and acceptance weren't weaknesses, they were the only strengths you had left at times. This is what I can do today. Let's see what happens tomorrow.

THE SAME DAY Foster announced his retirement, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, announced a new federal initiative to study long-haul COVID, and dubbed the syndrome with an official name: Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2.

By that point, several prominent hospitals had established post-COVID clinics to both treat patients and gather data. Foster attended one at Duke, and I went to the one at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan -- an appointment I had to make five months in advance.

I met with a "functional medicine" doctor, who said the goal was to get my body's inflammation down so my autonomic nervous system would switch back to its normal state. I later learned not all experts believe the nervous system is even involved, but I was advised to adopt an anti-inflammatory diet, take a number of supplements to boost the immune system and decrease inflammation, wear compression clothing to help circulation, get a lot of rest when I needed it. I couldn't tell you if any of it has helped, but I do it.

Before COVID, I was in obnoxiously good health. But like many long-haulers, my blood pressure and cholesterol hit inexplicably high levels after I got sick.

Part of the Mt. Sinai program is visiting with a cardiologist, and the day I saw her in March my blood pressure was 155/110, a fairly alarming number. I hadn't had any cardiac symptoms, but as she listened to my chest she said, "I think I hear a murmur."

An echocardiogram showed that she was right. The aortic valve in my heart was slightly dilated, allowing some blood flow back into the chamber. The good news was the condition is mild and completely manageable. It's possible it had been there for years but eluded detection. But it's possible, she said, that the elevated blood pressure I'd had for a year at that point caused it to dilate. However it got that way, I needed to get my blood pressure under control and will have to control it for the rest of my life to prevent more serious problems.

When Foster went to Duke's clinic for the first time, most of the focus was on his lungs. His pulmonologist there, Dr. Loretta Que, said during one test he was using only 49% of his lung capacity. She and the team there put him on a regimen of new medications.

"Prior to COVID, he hardly ever had to use an inhaler, and now he's on a chronic medication," she says. "I can't predict whether or not he's going to be able to come off of those in the future, but that's something that we're going to need to evaluate for."

THERE WAS A ray of hope out there for both of us in early 2021. At first the results were anecdotal, but long-haulers around the country were reporting dramatic recoveries after getting vaccinated. As data began to roll in, Columbia's Griffin estimated that 40% of long-haulers were seeing improvement.

I got my first shot in March and didn't notice any difference. A couple of weeks later, Foster got his. When I was headed to get my second injection, I texted him to see how he was doing. He wrote back, "1.5 mile jog this morning."

I woke up the day after my second shot feeling the sickest I'd ever felt in my life. The worst of it passed after two days, and over the course of the next two weeks I realized I might be feeling worse overall than I had before the shot.

But something had changed for Foster. Maybe it was the vaccine and maybe it was the progress he had felt since changing medications. Maybe it was just the passage of time. But suddenly a comeback seemed possible.

He began to push himself. His runs got a little longer, and he started to lift weights again. In April, he went back to Duke and got more good news. That 49% lung output was now 102%. Dr. Que put him on a new inhaler and said he was ready to attempt a comeback.

"She was telling me, what do I have to lose? She's like, 'You go back, you try to play again, and if you can't play, you just can't play.' And I was like, 'It's not a bad option,'" he says.

As Foster walked out of the appointment, his phone rang. It was Swinney, just checking on him. That was the moment, Foster says, when he decided he was ready to try, although he didn't share that on the phone call. He wanted to take some time to be sure.

A few days later, he called Swinney. He was ready, he said. Swinney beamed and told Foster he could go at his own pace, and if he's able to play only 10 snaps a game, so be it. Foster had a place on the team.

More here:
'Is this my life now?': Clemson defensive end Justin Foster's -- and my -- struggle with long-haul COVID - ESPN

Being a new mom is a blessing, but it's also challenging in so many ways. Taking care of your new baby is all-consuming--so all-consuming, in fact, that you often forget to take care of mommy. Personal style takes a back seat, because, hey, baby doesn't care what you look like, right? But at one point, YOU did.

Jenny Greenstein of Your Soul Style thinks you should again. Now. Because your style is a vehicle of self-expression and empowerment. I'm a firm believer that we are at our best when we feel our best and that begins at our core," she says. Mind, body and soul must be aligned."

Easier said than done, right? Not if you've got this (pregnant!) sylist extraordinaire (and lucky for us, WRNY style contributor!) on your side. Below, she talks about how a little Style Coaching"--yes, you can actually hire her!--can make you look better...and feel way better.

Why is postpartum such a tough time for women when it comes to fashion?

During a pregnancy, women's bodies go through many changes from both a physical and emotional perspective. While most women don't expect to recover and bounce back to their 'old selves' immediately, they have to contend with embracing a new lifestyle, a new postpartum body and a new busy schedule that doesn't allow much time for self-care. Personal style is typically one of the behaviors that winds up suffering the most, as many don't feel it is a priority to worry about what to wear" when they have a newborn to tend to. Closets become neglected, and women rely on wearing the same old thing" daily to be both comfortable and easy.

How is this related to self-esteem?

Unfortunately this starts a downward spiral into compromised self-esteem. Many of my clients reach out to me when their baby is 6 months to 1-year-old, recognizing they have a closet full of either maternity clothes, items that don't fit, or a pre-pregnancy wardrobe that hasn't been updated in 2 years. Plus, many women are still not back to their 'old body.'

Women connect with me when they are finally ready to accept their new shape, and start paying attention to themselves again regardless. While some are still struggling to lose the 'baby weight' and others stuck with a stale wardrobe, I work with my postnatal clients, easing them through this transition to find empowerment again, using style as one of the vehicles to get there. My philosophy is based on the platform that mind and body must coexist in harmony and this includes how we present ourselves to the world. I help bring my clients back to life to become their best selves in order to be strong role models for their children.

How is this an issue that touches upon both the physical and the mental?

Women in our society pay lots of attention to keeping their bodies in check through diet and exercise, and once a pregnancy takes place (pre and postnatally) we wind up having to surrender since so much of the physical adjustment is out of our hands.

Even though the change is a physical shift, it affects every part of our being. Not feeling good in our bodies domino-effects into our moods, energy level and overall state of wellness. Getting dressed becomes another casualty. Personal style is a silent way of communicating who we are and what we are all about, and if things are not in balance on the inside, it will become evident in your appearance. Fortunately there are strategic ways of coping. I help my clients in getting back to the alignment of both, whether during a pregnancy and/or afterwards.

What is style therapy"?

Similar to talk therapy, where a person becomes mindful and aware of their own behavior patterns, Style Coaching is a form of therapy. While style is an extension of an inner self, feeling unstable can offset the alignment with the outer self. How we present ourselves to the world is contingent upon our emotional state. Together we break down any barriers and explore the deeper layers, by evaluating body image, self-esteem, style preferences, and style choices so I can provide techniques on how to compliment your shape, personality and taste. Whether you're going through a break-up, lost weight, gained weight, recently had a baby, are pregnant or just looking to discover your Style Personality," my goal is to help you find an authentic sensibility and provide guidance on how to use style as a vehicle of confident self-expression and empowerment.

Tell us about the style coaching services you're providing for new moms.

Style Coaching: This 1-1.5-hour session helps to create a strong foundation by assessing individual style goals/needs. I evaluate how your appearance interrelates with the emotional states you experience on a daily basis. Through a series of questions and exercises, we identify your Style Personality." Some of my clients find themselves lost after a pregnancy and birth, and need help finding a way back to their core before they can understand how to present themselves through fashion choices.

Closet Cleanse: Here, we move through your closet together and detox, get organized and set-up a closet to feel good about. We go through your entire (seasonal) wardrobe and answer things like: When is the last time you wore this? How do you feel when you wear this? Does this item really fit anymore or are you saving it for when you lose/gain weight?" After a pregnancy, women wind up with clothes that either don't fit, or with styles they don't love anymore since most don't invest heavily into new clothing when pregnant. Through this exercise, I provide tips and techniques on how to efficiently style what remains in your closet after removing what's 'toxic.'

Shopping: We go shopping (or I shop for you) to find those essential new pieces.

(Note: These can work a la carte, or as an all-inclusive service.)

What's the biggest frustration that your new mom clients have when they come to you?

Contending with a new body, and how to dress it. While waiting to lose those last 5-10 lbs. (or more) postpartum, women neglect purchasing anything new, putting things on hold until they reach a goal weight. This leaves my clients with an uninspired closet with clothes that don't really fit. I work very closely with my clients to teach them styling techniques that complement their new shape using their existing detoxed wardrobe, and offer shopping strategies on how to buy items that will work for now and later to ensure longevity in investments. There is no excuse for not having a wardrobe that you love and feel good in. No matter what size or shape you are. I work with all budgets, big or small.

What does it mean to detox" your wardrobe?

Women typically hold onto clothing for emotional reasons, whether they are waiting to get back to an 'old body,' they envision themselves in styles they see on others to replicate a specific image, or they feel guilty getting rid of pieces they spent money on and have rarely worn. Unfortunately, this lands us in predicaments where we have too much merchandise that doesn't work. Either things don't fit right, they can't make the style they were inspired by work into their own 'Style Personality,' or they just don't like the item anymore.

I help women let go in order to become their full selves. This means getting rid of things that just don't work. They could be beautiful pieces, they could be expensive, and it may have looked amazing on that famous actress you bought it because of. The bottom line is that if you don't feel good in it, its gotta go! Together we discover what works on an individual basis, and this is where women start to become empowered by their own choices and feel confident in them.

Photography by Your Soul Style.

Visit link:
Postpartum Style Coaching - Motherly Inc.

5 Sep 2021

Uganda drew with Kenya in their opening match in round two

The Cranes host Mali in their second game

Coach Milutin Sredojevic discusses his teams qualifying chances

Uganda had been absent from the CAF Africa Cup of Nations for 39 years when Milutin Sredojevic steered them back to the competition in 2017. That was in the Serbian coachs first coming as the Cranes coach, a post he has now returned to with the aim of guiding them through the qualifying competition for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

This is actually the third time that Ive coached in Uganda, he told FIFA.com. The first was with Villa Sport Club. We did really well, with some players earning moves abroad. Then I came back to coach the national team in 2013. We developed the side and reaped our rewards in 2017, when we reached the Africa Cup of Nations. It was a historic achievement for the country.

My recent appointment to the job is the biggest challenge of my whole career, especially with the national team going through a transitional phase and the captain, Denis Onyango, having announced his retirement. The team needs time in these World Cup qualifiers to gain experience. Hopefully, we can get some positive results and rebuild.

Uganda have been drawn with Mali, Kenya and Ethiopia in Group E of the preliminaries for Qatar 2022.

You have to go into every qualifiers or competition with big objectives, said Sredojevic. Were in a tough group. We might be in a transitional phase, but weve got to play with a lot of ambition and show the full potential of our players to achieve positive results. We have to show that were a competitive team. We want to be in the fight to win the group. We know its going to be tough and that the little details will make all the difference. We have to acquit ourselves well and pick up points to get to where we want to go.

Uganda kicked off their campaign with a goalless draw in Kenya, a game in which the odds were against them, as Sredojevic explained: The players gave their all despite being up against a team thats just finished their season. Most of our players have been resting, so its a positive result for us.

It was hard to get the players fit for such an important game. Kenya kept hitting long balls for [Michael] Olunga, but we managed to keep them out.

Uganda can expect a tough test in their second outing in the group, at home to Mali, one of the strongest sides in Africa right now. Win this game and Uganda will give their chances of topping the group a massive boost.

After Kenya away, weve got Mali at home, said the Serbian coach. Its going to be hard, especially as our players have had a lack of game time. Thats why weve had to work hard to reach the right level in terms of competitiveness, mental attitude, fitness, and tactics. Our performance against Mali will show if weve got our preparations right.

I believe in the work weve done and the players weve got to reach the level we need and get the results our fans expect.

Few coaches have as much experience of African football as Sredojevic, who has also worked in Ethiopia, Egypt, South Africa, Sudan, Rwanda, Zambia, and Tanzania. During the course of his club and national team coaching career, he has spent time in 24 countries on the continent, accumulating a vast amount of expertise in the process.

So how does he plan to put it to use for Uganda? Ive got a lot of experience of coaching in Africa and I can anticipate what might happen on the pitch. I think I can help these young players to mature and push them to perform at their very best in aid of the team. Ill do everything I can to help Uganda do well.

The rest is here:
Sredojevic: Uganda have to be ambitious - FIFA.com

Jordan Cain was a teenager when he began drinking.

It started innocuous enough for the Longmont native, as is the case with many young people experimenting with alcohol in their high school years. But things didnt stay that way.

He developed an alcohol use disorder, and soon he was drinking just to stop himself from going into withdrawal. At some point, he began using cocaine to stay awake. For 12 years, people in his life tried to talk to him about his addiction, but he would brush off their remarks.

I was drinking very heavily. And I think for my generation, or at least the people I was hanging out with, it was just a normal amount, Cain said. I did drop out of college. I was in a lot of trouble off and on the entire time with the law. I found myself in some pretty messed up relationships, where not only were alcohol and drugs being abused, but I myself was being abused.

Cain said he didnt think much of his first DUI. It never occurred to him that alcohol was really an issue, much less a debilitating disorder. Sure, there were problems, but he was still holding down a steady job.

It wasnt until his second DUI about six months later when he took it as a sign from the universe, or the courts, that maybe it was time to take a deeper look at himself.

I think that was kind of the point where I knew I was going to be facing jail time, he said. And I knew this might be the best chance I have at drying up being away from toxic people, toxic environments and really using jail to my benefit as a first step in starting to be sober.

Cain moved to Summit County after his release from jail. Today, he is more than 2 1/2 years sober.

Cains addiction isnt unique. Hes just one of millions of Americans with a substance use disorder. What is special about his story, and others like him, is he found a way out.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention generally defines alcohol misuse as more than one drink per day on average for a woman and more than two per day for a man. The center further defines binge drinking as four or more drinks for a woman on a single occasion and five for a man.

But in some circumstances, that misuse can be difficult to spot.

Steve Howes is a Michigan native whos lived in Summit County for the past 15 years, and hes currently eight months sober. He said growing up in a family with heavy drinkers played a major role in his addiction. Later in life, it was societal and professional norms.

I just grew up around drinking, Howes said. Most of my aunts and uncles are all alcoholics. Thats something I took up with them. They were allowing me to drink as a young teenager, and I drank heavily with them on the weekends and stuff. I guess at the time I thought it was normal.

And since I work in the trades, every day after work you get home, you go out with the boys and you start to drink with them. Thats what youre supposed to do.

Tucker Limbruner grew up in Breckenridge and was exposed to heavy drinkers at a young age at his fathers restaurant. He started drinking in high school, picked up marijuana in college and later added cocaine to the mix, but hes been sober for more than two years.

When I was a kid, I thought it was kind of the norm for most people, Limbruner said. Living in Breckenridge, you are exposed to a vacation lifestyle at all times. I kind of realized as I got older that its not really a vacation all the time.

Unhealthy perceptions of alcohol and other substances, among numerous other factors, contribute to the more than 20 million Americans with a substance use disorder, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. More than 70% of that total have an alcohol use disorder.

Some mountain towns have a higher percentage of heavy drinkers, according to a June 2020 Katz Amsterdam Foundation and FSG survey of eight communities, including Summit and Eagle counties. About 45% of adult respondents reported binge or heavy drinking in the 30 days prior to taking the survey, compared with a national benchmark of 18%.

That likely has something to do with a culture of heavy drinking and drug use that has pervaded the community. Its no surprise that visitors coming to Summit County or other resort areas would include substances in their routine. Theyre on vacation, so why not check out a local brewery or stop into a dispensary to see what all the fuss is about?

But experts say that blas attitude often carries over to locals.

I think any place that is a resort area where the economy is based on visitors and on tourists, were going to have that kind of culture, said Jeanette Kintz, clinical director of Summit Womens Recovery, a womens outpatient addiction treatment center based in Dillon. People come here on vacation, and they come here to have a good time. Alcohol is often a good part of that, and with the legalization of marijuana, its made Colorado more of a hot spot.

Then what happens is and I hear this story all the time people who move here for a season to work at the resort, and then theyve been here 20 years and their substance use continued along the process. Some folks slow down, but its that work-hard, play-hard mentality.

What work residents are doing may also play a part. Those working in accommodations and food services (16.9%) as well as the arts, entertainment and recreation (12.9%) industries are among the most likely to have a substance use disorder, according to a 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Tourism and outdoor recreation is far and away Summit Countys biggest industry, making up as much as 65% of the economy, according to a September 2020 community profile prepared by the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments Economic Development District.

Casey Donohoe, a mental health navigator with the Family & Intercultural Resource Center and part-time bartender at a locals watering hole in Breckenridge, said she frequently sees individuals with substance use disorders. She said people often come into the bar in search of human interaction, which she attributes to difficulties making friends in a transient community.

There are countless activities and events one can go to in Summit County to meet people, but youll find booze at most of them.

According to the Katz Amsterdam Foundation and FSG survey, 83% of Summit County residents agreed that alcohol is important to social life.

In the beginning, its tough, Howes said about trying to get sober. Youre constantly around it. You walk down Main Street, and at every restaurant people are sitting outside drinking. Anytime you go rafting, youre in a raft with a cooler full of beer. You go skiing and everybody goes drinking afterward. Every festival here everyone is drunk. Its in your face. You cant get away from it.

A National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism surveillance report published earlier this year revealed that alcohol sales increased nationally between March and December 2020 compared with the prior three-year average. Likewise, marijuana sales in Colorado increased by more than $443 million in 2020 and crossed the $2 billion plateau for the first time.

Over the years, one of the things I hear often about the reasons people drink are boredom and structure, addiction counselor Susanne Neal said. COVID took away everybodys structure going to work, the time placement of everything during the day. Routines were pretty much uprooted where people didnt have to do anything, and isolation, feeling depressed, some of those mental health issues really reared their head.

But the impact of the pandemic on substance use disorders will likely take some time to unravel.

Data provided by the Summit County Coroners Office shows there hasnt been a major increase in substance-related deaths, with 10 last year compared with an average of 9.8 over the past decade. Also last year, there was a 1% decrease in the number of clients enrolling in the Family & Intercultural Resource Centers Mental Health Navigation program who listed a substance use disorder as their primary reason.

I had a few clients who admitted because they were out of work, didnt have anything to do and were getting paid unemployment, its kind of the idle hands thing where they increased their alcohol and drug use, Donohoe said. The uptick, for me at least, wasnt as big as I thought it was going to be.

But as things begin to return to normal, some experts believe there could be a surge of community members seeking help.

We dont know yet what its going to look like going into winter, Kintz said. My guess is well start to see more people seeking treatment.

Its never easy to tell when someone will recognize they have a problem and seek help.

Thats the confusing part to people, Neal said. If theyre going to work, still holding a job, still married, havent lost their kids, havent got a DUI its very hard to wrap your head around having a problem.

Substance use disorders can manifest in myriad impacts on a users life, and often it takes some sort of inciting incident for someone to seek treatment.

For Cain, it was his second DUI, 75 days in jail and severing ties with old friends that helped him get clean. Howes was driving home drunk from a friends birthday party, ran from the police and woke up on a strangers lawn to the sound of police sirens approaching. Limbruners family staged an intervention, and he shipped off to in-patient rehab that night.

All three are on the road to recovery, and if theres one commonality, its the fact that, sooner or later, they decided to ask for help.

Its OK to not be OK, as they say, Limbruner said. I know some people are really scared to reach out. They dont want to feel weak; they dont want to feel vulnerable, especially with people they dont know. But to reach out is probably the strongest thing anybody can do. I didnt get help until I asked.

Treatment certainly wont look the same for everyone, but there are plenty of resources in the community to help out. There are numerous therapists, support options at the Summit Community Care Clinic, active Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous groups, and other resources that mental health navigators at Building Hope Summit County and the Family & Intercultural Resource Center can guide residents toward.

For those facing financial barriers to treatment, Building Hope offers mental health scholarships, which allow community members up to 12 free therapy sessions.

Any type of professional treatment can help, but those in recovery said having a network of sober friends can be incredibly helpful, as well. Cain, Howes and Limbruner all take part in Fit to Recover, a weekly class at CrossFit Low Oxygen in Frisco meant to help connect people in recovery with others who know what theyre going through.

Building Hope also offers substance-free events, which feature fun and free activities where community members can meet new people and speak openly about mental health issues.

Those in recovery say taking that first step is whats important.

If a person is thinking that alcohol is an issue for them, theyre 90% of the way there toward taking that first step, Cain said. Thats what it was for me. Id been told by so many people during that decade-plus, Stop, stop doing this. Even so much as getting in trouble all the time because of my addiction and the way I was behaving. That wasnt enough. What it took was for me to say, This is enough.

For anybody thinking that they have a problem with it, or maybe questioning it, theyre so close. Theyre almost there. And they can do it, and its possible. Its so possible.

Read more from the original source:
Party town: How an alcohol-centered culture is impacting the community's mental health - Summit Daily News

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The past decades have brought about a change in attitude towards the concept of exercise and how it benefits our body. Nowadays, we make it a point to allot some hours of exercise in their daily routines.

The most common types of exercises are walking and running and doing these can boost your mental health. Running outdoors lessens the feelings of isolation, depression, stress, and anxiety while improving your sleeping habits.

It transforms your brain for the better

Running is good for your body and mind. It strengthens the former and exercises the latter. With ahealthy mind, you will learn how to focus more and feel more determined to overcome any obstacles that come your way.

You can also gain a different viewpoint of significant and minor challenges in your life while seeing your potential in managing these. Running can help strengthen your will and determination by exposing your body to nature and physical activity.

Missing out on these sessions will affect your daily routine. When you give in to exercise, you will allow more energy in the different parts of your life.

Running can initiate changes within your brain. A study that involved obtaining scans of competitive runners discovered that there were links between the areas of the brain associated with working memory and self-control and the frontal-parietal network.

The researchers of this study have attributed this to the cognitive demands and enhanced cardiovascular ability to run. Moreover, they also established that running might have something to do with the production of healthy cells in the brain.

They believe that running and other forms of exercise are some of the main causes related to the development of new cells in the brain in a process called neurogenesis. Experiments on animal subjects have shown thatdistance runningcan improve cell production.

Further research has also shown that running and training can offer significant brain benefits. There was also a report that focused on individuals involved in interval training and those engaged in a moderately healthy lifestyle.

This report showed that the former (who happened to be athletes) showed the most notable improvements. From this, we can say that running can enhance your ability to easily and rapidly shift between activities that involve mental functions.

Its the best way to spend more time working out

Those who run every day agree that when they run, they can immerse themselves fully in their thoughts and take a break from their studies. Since running relaxes the brain, it is especially beneficial for students.

If you get assigned plenty of homework as part of your education, you would need a break from writing once in a while. If you feel like you dont have enough time because you have too much work,try this online essay serviceby EduBirdie. You can turn to this service only you need online help in writing high-quality content. Since this is a professional service, you can spend more time doing other important things like studying your lessons or going for a run for your health.

It improves your mood to keep you motivated

If youre a regular runner, you would know that running gives you an emotional boost. This is whats called the runners high, a sensation that stimulates feel-good emotions to reduce your stress and elevate your mood.

Researchers in the past believed that the positive feelings that emerge during running happen when the body releases endorphins. But recent studies have shown that endorphins dont pass from the blood to the brain, but they help prevent you from feeling pain in your muscles.

These studies have shown that biochemical substances called endocannabinoids are the ones responsible for feelings of euphoria that are usually associated with runners high.

Endocannabinoids are substances similar to cannabis the body produces naturally. Unlike endorphins, they play a role in neurological communications in the brain.

It will make learning easier, especially if you have help too

Running will surely make your life easier as it will promote the health of your mind, which is essential for your education. As a student in college, you may notice yourself feeling more alert and clearheaded while studying.

But if you struggle with other aspects of your studies like writing essays or other written coursework, you can seek help online. For instance, you canhire law essay writers in the UKfrom Uk.EduBirdie. No matter what your course is, this service will accommodate you.

It helps reduce the risk of depression

Knowing what running improves will make you feel more motivated to make this activity part of your daily routine. Many of todays students indulge in running to enhance their physical and mental fitness.

After immersing yourself in this activity, you will realise that it makes you feel better. You will see an improvement in your mental energy, mood, emotions, and more. All of these lead to the following positive effects:

To further support the concept that running has several benefits to health, a chapter in the 2019 handbook calledSport and Exercise Psychologystated that there is a substantial amount of evidence that supports exercise in the treatment of depression and other mental disorders.

Of course, you dont have torely solely on running if you suffer from depression. This is a serious condition that you need to combat with various medical and alternative approaches.

Conclusion

Including running in your life will boost your overall feeling of happiness. This is a way of making both your mind and body feel better. Running has many incredible benefits on your mental health.

Cory Shilling worked as the college magazine writer and editor and he was popular across the university for his writing skills. Now he works as a full-time professional writer and is one of the top-rated writers for an essay writing website, having served students from all parts of the world. His hobbies are reading literary fiction, playing volleyball and watching anime

Excerpt from:
Five main reasons that running has a positive effect on mental development and study success - AW - Athletics Weekly

August 31, 2021 6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Forex trading can be a highly profitable way to compound your money. When you trade in the forex market, there are no restrictions on what kind of assets you buy and sell or when the trades happen. It is a simple way for people looking to get into trading at first glance without any overheads and low starting costs as it doesn't require purchases like stocks do; all thats required is that you sign up online and start trading.

Although forex trading can be seen as a high-risk, speculative endeavor, there are many potential benefits such as the ability to hedge against fluctuations in your local currency and make money on global markets regardless of where you live or what language you speak. It's important for beginner traders to not only understand how forex works but to have a proven rule-based strategy that beginners can pick up and execute with ease, says Deflorio.

Check your emotions at the door

Deflorio says after coaching 1,500-plus students, Successful traders need to understand that trading is a game of probabilities. It can be easier said than done when it comes to controlling our emotions, making trading decisions from a place of sound judgment, and staying detached from the outcomes of each trade.

If you are new to trading, one of the most valuable skills to learn is emotional intelligence, where you have a strong ability to understand and manage your emotions. Stay calm and composed, avoid revenge trading or impulsive trades, and ask yourself if you are listening to your heart or head.

Bestselling author Jack D. Schwager interviewed dozens of top traders across most financial markets. In his book Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders, his findings from his interviews boiled down to the same essential formula: solid methodology plus proper mental attitude equals trading success. This is the exact mindset that Deflorio and his company Onyx Forex stand by. Given that emotional responses are a natural occurrence in human biology and psychology, no forex trader is immune to them. By having enough awareness, you will learn not to trade out of emotions such as greed, fear, ego, or euphoria as it can come with devastating financial effects and leave you feeling nothing but discouraged.

Seek guidance to avoid costly mistakes

Having a teacher, mentor or guide has been the backbone of many successful careers for generations. When you first begin to explore the currency market, you will stumble across many free resources such as courses, programs or YouTube tutorials. After realising you may be left with more questions than answers, you may find yourself asking yourself should I invest money to learn how to trade?

Stanley Druckenmiller was mentored by George Soros and is now a billionaire hedge fund pioneer. Paul Tudor Jones was mentored by Eli Tullis and is now another billionaire hedge fund manager. It goes without saying that in order to not only grow, but grow at an exceeding rate, guidance from an expert is necessary if youre in it for the long term.

Deflorio, founder of e-learning platform Onyx Forex Trading, sees a gap in the education market for beginner traders, stating, Because there is a massive hole in the industry for beginners, the learning curve is simply portrayed as being too long and too complicated. When we cracked 500 global members, this is when I realized that there is a massive market for beginners who want guidance and results without being promised a broken dream. Deflorio from Sydney, Australia has profited over 370k trading throughout the global pandemic through practicing what he preaches to his customers, hundreds of whom have been able to replace their weekly incomes at their traditional jobs and start a new career in forex trading.

Compounding growth

A compounding growth forex strategy is a gradual capital growth strategy that allows you to turn your earned profits into further profits, similar to a snowballing effect. While this strategy is preferred by some traders, many dont have the patience to implement this kind of long-term strategy but Deflorio from Onyx Forex Trading says this is the most crucial element needed to turn a small initial capital into six figures.

American investor and CEO of Greenhaven associates, Ed Wachenhein says "Compounding is powerful. Warren Buffett did not become one of the wealthiest men in the world by suddenly striking gold in a single highly successful investment, but rather by compounding the value of Berkshire Hathaway at a 20 per cent or so rate for 45 years. If an investor can achieve an average annual return of 20 per cent, then, after 45 years, an initial investment of $1 million will appreciate to $3.6 billion."

Deflorio also uses a compounding approach in his trading strategy, explaining, We realized early on that if we could help everyday people simply mimic our working strategy and break it down in a simple and easy to understand way, we would naturally grow the business. A seemingly small or insignificant event can have an astoundingly large impact if it happens over and over again, as proven with Deflorios results as well as those with his customers.

The forex market is the largest financial market in the world, larger than the stock market, with a daily volume of $6.6 trillion, according to the 2019 Triennial Central Bank Survey of FX and OTC derivatives markets. Given the high liquidity of the forex market, meaning it can be easier to trade than other financial instruments, it is becoming increasingly appealing to those, including myself, who are looking for a lucrative way to earn money from anywhere in the world, with nothing but your laptop and WiFi.

Deflorio has been involved in the forex market for over five years and his company Onyx Forex Trading are the market leaders in beginner trading education.

Note: Forex trading is subject to risk and readers should do their own due diligence. Entrepreneur Media does not endorse any such investment.

Read more from the original source:
Here's What You Need To Know Before You Start Trading - Entrepreneur

Original artwork by Ella Johnson for Voices of YouthThis story was written by Conner McBryde as part of the Kalamazoo Voices of Youth Program. The art work of the hug is by Voices of Youth participant Ella Johnson. The Voices of Youth program is a collaboration between Southwest Michigan Second Wave and KYD Network.

On a sunny Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. Elizabeth Collins, 13, walks into her bedroom, sits at her desk, and logs into a Zoom meeting session with her therapist.

Im on neutral grounds about therapy when Im in my room talking to someone who listens to me, says Collins, who struggles with anxiety, ADHD, and grief associated with the death of a grandmother with whom she was very close.

Her bedroom is a judgment-free zone, she says, and the mental health therapy she receives there helps her.

Therapy itself can be very helpful, says Collins. Its nice to talk about anything and everything, ranging from things I was excited for, to how I felt or issues I was having. After going to therapy, I was glad I went.

Professionals say they are working to make access to mental health services for young people better but some teens say its not always easy to find and get started. They also say there is still an age-old stigma attached to receiving treatment and that is felt by today's youth.

Elizabeth Collins has found that therapy has helped her.I mostly see the stigma spread on the Internet, with many people saying things such as mental health problems are just the new trend and arent real, says Collins. Or Ill see someone claim someone else who isnt OK mentally be it depression or anxiety be insane or a danger to society.

She says thats stupid, for one, because it shouldnt be there.

There shouldn't be a stigma about receiving help, she says, With the stigma attached to every aspect of mental health, it can be incredibly harmful to those affected by it. It can inhibit peoples ability to reach out for help due to fear of the stigma.

Georgia Hutton, a 15-year-old Kalamazoo resident who has struggled with anxiety since her parents divorced several years ago, says she thinks theres a lot less stigma attached to seeking therapy than there was when she started a few years ago. She says she's talked to people who told her they went to mental health services and they were ashamed of it.

I was really scared to do it at first because this was like four or five years ago. And it was really stigmatized at the time. But ever since then its become a lot less.

She says she thinks that now its less about how people are treated when it comes to the stigma and more about how people treat the idea of therapy.

It's not commonly talked about so if you talk about it people treat you differently, Hutton says. If anything, the stigma is about talking about therapy more so than therapy itself or going to it.

Georgia Hutton says she thinks there is less stigma attached to seeking therapy than there has been in the past.Christopher Aguinaga, principal of Loy Norrix High School, says, I dont think the stigma has changed. I think teenagers by default want to fit in so the attitude (towards stigma) has changed.

When it comes to negative stigmas, Gretchen Grappone, a licensed clinical social worker and consultant with Atlas Research in Washington, D.C., has identified seven main types that are barriers to people trying to access mental health treatment.

Grappone has said she is happy in her work but has struggled for many years with depression. In a Spring 2017 article for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, she wrote, Besides my symptoms of depression, I faced an additional barrier to school, employment and inclusion in general: unhelpful attitudes from well-intentioned health professionals. In other words, stigmas.

The stigmas she identified involving professionals and others are:

Public stigma This happens when the public endorses negative stereotypes and prejudices resulting in discrimination against people with mental health conditions.

Self-stigmaThis happens when a person with mental illness or substance-use disorder internalizes public stigma.

Perceived stigma The belief that others have negative beliefs about people with mental illness.

Label avoidance This occurs when a person chooses not to seek mental health treatment to avoid being assigned a stigmatized label. It is considered one of the most harmful forms of stigma.

Stigma by association This occurs when the effects of stigma are extended to someone linked to a person with mental health difficulties. It is also known as courtesy stigma or associative stigma.

Structural stigma Institutional policies or other social structures that result in decreased opportunities for people with mental illnesses are considered structural stigma.

Health practitioner stigma This takes place any time a health professional allows stereotypes and prejudices about mental illness to negatively affect a patients care.

Stigma, prejudice, and discrimination against people with mental illness can be subtle or it can be obviousbut no matter the magnitude, it can lead to harm, Borenstein writes. People with mental illness are marginalized and discriminated against in various ways, but understanding what that looks like and how to address and eradicate it can help.

He says public, self, and structural stigmas have a very negative impact on teens self-esteem and social life, and they can create barriers in places like schools.

Emotional disorders can profoundly affect areas like schoolwork and school attendance, according to the World Health Organization. Social withdrawal can exacerbate isolation and loneliness.

Despite the negative perception that therapy may have among some people, there has still been an increase in the number of young people who seek out treatment, whether that be through medication, counseling, or other means.

Data from a study of national trends in mental health care for teens (ages 12-17) showed that from 2005 to 2006 and from 2017 to 2018 there was an increase in the use of outpatient mental health services by 9.2 percent for each of those periods. The study was done by Ramin Mojtabai, of the Department of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Mark Olfson, of the Department of Psychiatry at Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University.

My first experience with therapy was pretty good, Collins says. I remember being told that my mother had signed me up for therapy only hours before I had to log in (to Zoom) for the appointment. I was slightly apprehensive at first, being as I didnt know quite what to expect. My therapist was very kind, she was patient and always made sure I was comfortable in the situation.

Hutton says she has been in therapy since seventh grade and Ive had three therapists, so its taken a lot of trial and error for me. But its really just like, changed my life because its just been completely helpful.

She says that when her mother suggested therapy to her, she didnt want to do it. But then she had a sort of breakdown.

I have anxiety and depression, clinically diagnosed, Hutton says, and it was really bad before I was able to get help.

So she ultimately asked for help.

The main two triggers for her in middle school were having a dip in her grades. Hutton has been an all-A student. Those made me freak out. And then also when I was in middle school, that was when my parents got their divorce. So that, along with my grades was a huge source of anxiety for me

She said therapy helped clear her mind. It allowed her to talk fully about her experiences with someone who had an unbiased perspective about the situation. And to just have someone to help me break it down and understand what Im going through, how I feel? Like that really, really helped. And it essentially saved my life at a certain point.

While therapy is helpful to some, that is not the case for everyone. Like Toxic Hayes, 16, in Kalamazoo, who saw a therapist off and on since he was 15. He has struggled to deal with a very religious family that has not accepted him as he works to discover his sexual identity. He created the first name for himself as he works to discover himself.

I was really just hoping for it to help me cope with things, he said. But he has had limited success. I know it's all just about finding a good therapist that you trust. But even after seeing three different therapists, none of them had worked.

Of finding a therapist who works for a person and their situation, Hutton says, Its like a guess and check math problem.

Toxic Hayes is working to discover himself.For some, access to proper care is difficult because it may be too expensive and their family doesnt have insurance to cover it.

Without insurance, most people may have to pay for therapy out-of-pocket, according to information provided by the Michigan Counseling Centers. That can be anywhere from $30 to $250 per one-hour session.

Another reason therapy might not work for some are the personal boundaries that people have. Being able to discuss their emotions and issues is no big deal for some people. For others, it can make them feel uncomfortable or weirded out.

I just thought it was weird to talk to a stranger about personal issues, Hayes said.

Some people are prevented from getting the help they need, one therapist says because they dont know where to turn.

Teens often dont know where to turn or how to get connected to therapy, says Tim Henson, director of clinical services for children at Community Healing Centers of Kalamazoo. Some teens that are already feeling alone and disconnected may also struggle to reach out on their own.

Teens may find help at school. The Kalamazoo Public Schools have many ways to access a therapist or some form of mental help. With their student services provides information about a wide range of services such as LGTBQ+ support, career counseling and mental health services (social workers, psychologists, and counselors). Professionals also say information can be found at physicians' offices, local health care clinics, or mental health agencies.

Schools can play a big part in helping young people find their way to needed mental health services. Some possibilities may be introduced through health or psychology classes. Teachers and counselors who are trained in the subject may provide guidance.

Rita Raichoudhuri, superintendent of Kalamazoo Public Schools, is also making an effort when it comes to mental health services in school. In the fall of 2019, teachers started to get more training to help students cope with mental health issues. The training is intended to help teachers improve their skills so they can help young people in a way that integrates that information with students' subjects.

Overall, school-based services demonstrated a small-to-medium effect in decreasing mental health problems, write researchers Sanchez, Cornacchio, Poznanski, Golik, Chou, and Comer.

While it has started to improve in recent years, students have their own opinions on what could be done to better improve schools' response to mental health concerns.

Tim Henson, director of clinical services for children at the Community Healing Centers of Kalamazoo.I feel like I would have school counselors and teachers have resources and pamphlets for students to take and like, do research with, Hutton says. And there should be required mental health education in classes other than health classes.

Henson says, The biggest misconception is that mental health struggles among young people are rare.

Research has shown that one in every five young people will experience a mental health condition, he says. And, he says teens most common struggles are: adjusting to life experiences, depression, and anxiety.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic and the big move to online schooling that accompanied it has had a big impact on many students mental health, school officials have said. The transition from school in real life to virtual learning has been a disruption that has affected some students grades. And some students concentration wavered during online classes.

My grades were doing good, but then online school hit, Hutton said.

Collins asked, How am I expected to pay attention to school at 7 in the morning when there are so many other things that can distract me?

Therapy can be difficult for young people to access, Henson says, Part of that is due to the fear that parents will find out what a young person talks about. However, therapists should always include young people in discussions about what parents will know about sessions. If a youth cannot get a parents permission, there is a law in the state of Michigan that a youth aged 14 or older may request and receive mental health services and a mental health professional may provide mental health services on an outpatient basis without the consent of a parent or guardian. However, it is limited to no more than 12 sessions or four months per request for services.

Collins says, Therapy is valuable to those who benefit from it. It can be incredibly useful to confront what you're feeling and to have someone there with strategies to help you work through it.

Says Hutton, I think the stigma (towards mental health) is very strange as mental healthcare is just that, healthcare. And it (the healthcare) is extremely valuable and important.

Hayes says, I think it (the stigma) should be talked about more, and then people who have mental illness should be listened to. I think therapy is worth it for some people but it's not for everyone and people should find what works best for them.

Conner McBride, 16, is a Junior at Loy Norrix High School. Her mother is a physical therapist at Bronson Hospital and her father is a chemical engineer at Pfizer. She has a younger sister. Her interests include reading, music, baking and cooking, photography, hiking, and traveling. Sleep makes her the happiest and spoilers for a book she is reading make her the saddest. Her career interest is Executive Chef.

EllaJohnson is a Senior at Portage Central High School. Her passions are art, her many animals, and her online business (selling her art and vintageclothing). She plans to attend collegeat North Central Michigan College, majoring in small business. In her free time, she paints and cares for the un-homed population in Kalamazoo. Her plan for the future includes owning a small business using her profits for philanthropy.

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Voices of Youth: Kalamazoo teens discuss the realities of mental illness and its stigma - Concentrate

For Timothy*, who was a secondary school teacher for four years, the anxiety stemmed from not knowing what exactly he needed to do to perform better or maintain his grade.

Id keep doing more to try to fill that gap, and then the disappointment is when (even though) I keep doing more ... Im not performing (better) than another teacher in another school, he said.

Theyre getting a B; Im getting a C-plus. But Im doing more than them, and they always tell me that Im doing way more than them. So how is this fair?

Mrs Chua-Lim said the grades that teachers get shouldnt be a surprise. Work review sessions should happen two times a year at least, so that teachers can improve after the first review if need be.

But hearing the differing experiences shared by teachers, she acknowledged that somehow when it comes to the actual implementation, there are gaps. Now that we know there are gaps, well then make sure that we plug the gaps, she said.

That means the MOE (needs) to work with the reporting officers. For example, in their training, there is a workshop called managing difficult conversations, on how to say what they have to say.

So that at the end of the day, I may give you a grade, you may not be happy, but you can accept it, said Mrs Chua-Lim.

Several teachers, like Paul*, said there are expectations that they demonstrably show that they can deliver beyond their basic teaching duties in order to get better grades.

This is where people are pressured to stage projects and events that have little relevance to teaching and learning, said the secondary school teacher.

This points to a larger systemic issue: That a lot of the pointless stuff we do, like planning sports day ... should be outsourced to either event vendors or specialty officers whose job is to do this stuff.

Stradling multiple roles, said many teachers, is overwhelming.

To fulfilher other co-curricular activity and committee roles, Lisa said she is sometimes so busy she has to stop or delay her marking and her lessons preparations.

Everything becomes very messy (in class) because I didnt finish marking, then I cant give immediate feedback to my kids, and it frustrates me to be short-changing the children, she said.

I truly hate it each time when it comes to the ranking, and (school leaders) start saying that, okay, look, you havent done this and youre going to get this grade.

It makes you feel like your worth is attached to (the grade) and as if youre not doing (well) enough.

While the stressor and struggles are manifold, sometimes the starting point is whether teachers have asked, or been able to ask, for help.

Most people get into teaching because theres a pastoral side to them, said Chong Pao-er, a counsellor from Shan You Counselling Centre and a former teacher. Theres that caring side to them, and interestingly, I find its that group of teachers who get especially burnt out.

Theres absolutely no limit to what (the teachers) can do in that sense.

In Susans staffroom, frustrations are often put on the back burner. The moment someone says, lets do it for the kids, we go, said the upper-secondary teacher. We tell ourselves, stop complaining, lets revamp this, design that, find resources.

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'My mental health is at an all-time low': Teachers talk of burnout, MOE aware that 'gaps' need plugging - CNA

COVID-19 and climate change and elections.

Add to that Afghanistan, masks, wildfires, and hurricanes, and youve got more than a few reasons to recoil as you travel through your daily life.

If it feels like its too much to handle, there are numbers that back up that current collective stress level.

According to Jillian Hughes, a spokesperson for Mental Health America, more clicks than ever have been coming into online stress indicator surveys.

The number of people screening with moderate to severe symptoms of depression and anxiety in the first half of 2021 is similar [to] the number from 2020 and remains higher than the number of people screening at risk prior to COVID-19, Hughes told Healthline.

In the first half of 2021, 79 percent of people who took an anxiety screening exhibited moderate to severe symptoms, and 84 percent of people who took a depression screening scored with moderate to severe symptoms.

The organizations annual State of Mental Health in America report pulls no punches when it declared, Your mental health is worsening.

The COVID-19 pandemic isnt the only thing raising anxiety levels.

Experts say the stress of that singular situation was challenging enough. When you tack on things such as climate change, wildfires, election questions, and war, it can become too much for most of us.

Its time to recognize that we are wired to cope with acute stress well, but not chronic stress, Dr. Marni Chanoff, an integrative psychiatrist at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, told Healthline.

Chronic stressors, over time, can lead to a depletion of our ability to cope, Chanoff said, and even push us toward or into depression.

With all that is going on in the world, she said, everyone may be feeling some anxiety, stress, or both.

It does vary from person to person, Chanoff said. We all have specific things that worry us more and make us feel a loss of control over our lives.

For each one of us now, there are several potential stressors, she added.

Dr. Cynthia Ackrill, FAIS, a board member of the American Institute of Stress, said this pressure is being felt throughout the country.

So many of us feel out of control, she told Healthline. Half the nation is on fire and the other half is under water.

C. Vaile Wright, PhD, senior director for healthcare innovation with the American Psychological Association, said we could, as a society, be facing a second pandemic: a mental health pandemic.

If the research we are seeing holds, weve got a (mental health) pandemic on our hands, Wright told Healthline.

Part of the reason could be the focus on the current pandemic, she noted.

Part of the issue is that from being in a pandemic, all our focus has been on physical health, Wright said. There has been no Mental Health Dr. Fauci.

Dr. Vivian B. Pender, president of the American Psychiatric Association, said she believes this could be one of the most stressful times for people in recent history.

Virtually no one alive has ever experienced a worldwide pandemic, she told Healthline.

Pender pointed out the fears of parents of schoolchildren, the emotional and physical challenges of working on the front lines, and the constant flow of information on everything as fuel to the fire that can be anxiety.

Whats a person to do?

People are so burned out, Pender said, and what I tell people is that its just so important to take care of yourself.

Experts have a number of recommendations for coping.

Pender suggests doing a self-checkup. Ask yourself how youre doing. Are you tired, anxious, depressed? Use what you see in yourself to take action.

She also recommends limiting your exposure. That means cutting back on your television and social media time.

Especially before bedtime. Sleep is really important, and turning off your phone (and any other device) an hour before sleep will help, Pender said.

Ackrill said people shouldnt assume theyre alone in this battle.

Some of us are more resilient, but most of us are struggling, she said. Dont assume that the person beside you is doing better.

It has taken enormous effort to face all of this, Ackrill added. Nobody has not spent energy on it. Even processing the news. I dont know who can watch the Afghanistan story and not be impacted. No matter what you believe, human suffering is painful to see.

Pender also recommends getting regular exercise. And dont think that means you must sign up for a gym or a sports league.

Rather, find time to get outside and walk or garden anything simple that brings you fresh air and makes you move.

Dont overthink it or overdo it, she said, because all that will do is add stress.

She also urges people not to turn to substances for relief. Alcohol, drugs, or smoking is not the solution, she said.

Chanoff suggests that people focus inwardly. She recommends having daily activities to keep on an even keel.

Focus on finding your own sense of strength, she said.

To do that, she suggests, each day, find some slow, quiet, and still time to connect with your clear, strongest self.

In addition, Chanoff suggests to reach outward. Rather than retreat to your own private world, people should connect with like-minded others to make a difference.

We cannot bury our heads in the sand, she said. Connect actively to help (whatever situation is stressing you out). Finding a community with common values and goals is a good step.

Chanoff also suggests building your own mental health toolbox.

In it, you can have free guided meditations, a balanced diet, and outside time every day.

I am a big proponent of helping people realize they have the power to take control of their lives, she said.

Remember, the experts say, that you may not feel normal because none of this really is normal.

We are dealing with real existential threats, Chanoff said. Climate change, tornadoes, wildfires, and thats just local. These are tricky times.

A good plan, she said, may be to not expect to necessarily feel like you once did, at least not yet.

There are waves of stress, fear, and anxiety coming at us, Chanoff said. Its a lot like grief.

She added that people may need to understand that theyll have harder days than others and not always move ahead in a straight line.

Im finding that now, she said. People are like, OK, I think I can cope. And then other days they are back to I just cant.

While community, friends who can listen, and family who cares all help, sometimes a person needs more.

If youre feeling like your symptoms are impacting your ability to function, if theyre getting in the way of you showing up however you need to show up, you should seek help, Chanoff said.

If you notice changes in mood, sleep, eating, activity, or enjoyment, and it lasts 2 solid weeks, you need to talk to someone, Pender said.

She said people can reach out to caring friends for an ear. But often, a mental health expert is needed.

Her great hope? That this time of mental health instability for many people helps the world understand mental health better and treat it more effectively in the future.

Its totally normal not to feel OK right now, Pender said. I say: Nervous is the new normal.

I hope that helps the stigma decrease and fade away, she said.

If everyone is feeling nervous, perhaps well see less discrimination around mental health, she added, because just about everyone has a mental health challenge right now.

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How to Cope With Anxiety in Our Stressful World - Healthline

Think the London Marathon sounds challenging? Later this month, 400 athletes embark on a 153-mile, 36-hour endurance test in Greece. They tell Nick Rufford why they do it

A competitor in the 2018 Spartathlon

ELIAS PERGANTIS/SPARTA PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB

Sunday September 05 2021, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

Shortly before she collapsed from heat and exhaustion, Sophie Power was having the time of her life. The 39-year-old from Guildford had been running for 36 hours and her sun-scorched skin was caked in road dust. Ice that shed stuffed down her sports bra at a rest stop had long ago melted and she was limping from a swelling in her left leg. Yet the tears that rolled down her face as she reached the finish were tears of joy.

My eyes are welling up now, just remembering, says Power, who was revived by medics at a temporary field hospital. It was just so hard, and it was my first big race after becoming a mother. Suddenly I felt that I wasnt only a mum,

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'Magic in misery': the ultrarunners tackling the Spartathlon, the world's toughest race - The Times