Resources for Mental Health

Autism Spectrum Disorder:

Defense Mode: Why They Seem So Stuck & Shutdown All The Time
A detailed explanation of “Defense Mode,” the state of overwhelm where individuals on the autism spectrum feel threatened, shut down, or stuck due to stress and sensory overload, and how it affects behavior and coping strategies.

ADHD:

ADHD Coaching: What Is It And How To Find An ADHD Coach
A practical guide from the Attention Deficit Disorder Association on finding an ADHD coach, outlining how to identify your coaching goals, search directories (like ADDA’s professional directory and others for qualified coaches), connect with potential coaches for introductory calls, and choose someone whose experience and approach fit your needs.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
A concise description of the NIMH page on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): A basic overview of ADHD as a common developmental disorder marked by persistent inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that begins in childhood and often continues into adulthood, including how symptoms present, why NIMH studies it, and available informational resources on diagnosis and treatment.

Anxiety:

3 Steps of Anxiety Overload – and How You Can Take Back Control | Lisa Damour | TED
A TED talk by psychologist Lisa Damour outlining the three steps of anxiety overload — how the body reacts, how thinking amplifies fear, and how tools like controlled breathing help regain control.

Hope Starts With Us: Stress, Anxiety & Coping
A NAMI Hope Starts With Us podcast episode where anxiety researcher Dr. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary and NAMI CEO Dan Gillison Jr. talk about understanding stress and anxiety, reframing them as usable emotions, and exploring practical coping tools like mindfulness, emotional awareness, and healthy tech use.

Hope Starts With Us: Living With Anxiety and Thriving as Young Adults
A NAMI podcast episode where young adults share their personal experiences with anxiety and discuss coping strategies and mental health education to help peers thrive.

How to Calm Your Anxiety, From a Neuroscientist | The Way We Work, a TED series
Neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki explains how to calm anxiety using simple, science-based tools like breath work and movement to shift the nervous system and turn stress into something useful.

How to Help Someone With Anxiety
A Mental Health First Aid guide outlining how to assess for risk, listen without judgment, offer reassurance, and encourage professional and self-help support when helping someone experiencing anxiety.

Study finds loneliness and anxiety fuel smartphone and social media addiction in ‘night owls’
A University of Portsmouth news article summarizing research showing that young adults with later sleep-wake patterns (‘night owls’) are more likely to develop problematic smartphone and social media use because loneliness and anxiety drive compulsive device engagement.

What’s normal anxiety — and what’s an anxiety disorder? | Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter
Dr. Jen Gunter breaks down how normal anxiety differs from anxiety disorders, explains the brain’s threat response, common symptoms, and why understanding and treatment matter.

Depression:

How Do Depression and Anger Interact?
An article explaining the complex relationship between depression and anger, including how anger can be both a mask for underlying depression and a consequence of depressive symptoms, and why recognizing this interaction can improve assessment and treatment.

Hygiene Indifference: The Symptom We Don’t Talk About
A clear, concise summary of the NAMI blog post: “An exploration of hygiene indifference as a frequently overlooked symptom of mental health conditions, highlighting how neglecting basic self-care tasks like showering or brushing teeth can signal deeper emotional struggles.

Life with High-Functioning Depression: Functional Does Not Always Mean Healthy
A NAMI blog post about living with high-functioning depression that explains how functioning well outwardly doesn’t always mean someone is healthy, emphasizing the hidden struggles beneath apparent success and normalcy.

The Reality of “High Functioning” Depression
An honest look at how high-functioning depression can hide behind productivity and success, revealing the quiet, internal struggle many people face while appearing “fine” on the outside.

Bipolar Disorder:

Hope Starts With Us: Living with Bipolar Disorder
A NAMI “Hope Starts With Us” podcast episode where the host and guest Gabe Howard discuss living well with bipolar disorder, share his firsthand experiences and efforts to reduce stigma, and explore supportive approaches and hope for those affected.

Understanding Bipolar Disorder
A NAMI overview of bipolar disorder explaining it as a mood disorder marked by significant shifts between manic/hypomanic and depressive episodes, how it affects daily functioning, and the importance of understanding, support, and treatment.

Writing to Spread Awareness about Bipolar Disorder
A first-person NAMI blog post where the author uses their lived experience with bipolar disorder to educate others, reduce stigma, and advocate for broader awareness and understanding.

Schizophrenia:

A tale of mental illness — from the inside – Elyn Saks
Elyn Saks shares her personal journey of living with schizophrenia, including hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals and how she has pursued recovery, purpose, and professional success despite severe mental illness.

Becoming Who I was Before Schizophrenia — Or Should I?
NAMI personal blog in which a person in long-term recovery from schizophrenia reflects on how the illness changed her identity, shifts her goal from reclaiming her pre-illness self to embracing growth, empathy, purpose, and gratitude in her current life.

Celebrating My Daughter’s Life and Schizophrenia Recovery
A NAMI caregiver’s personal story celebrating her daughter’s long journey through schizophrenia — the struggle with symptoms, the turning point with proper treatment, and the meaningful recovery and life lived despite ongoing challenges.

Each and Every Day 2021 Documentary on Suicide Prevention Awareness
A documentary offering a heartfelt look at daily life with schizophrenia, portraying personal experiences, challenges, and resilience.

Eleanor Longden: The voices in my head | TED Talk
A TED talk by Eleanor Longden recounting her decades-long journey from a schizophrenia diagnosis and distressing voices in her head to recovery and self-understanding, showing how listening to and reframing those voices with compassion helped her find meaning, resilience, and empowerment.

Hearing Voices and Turning Them Off Through Meditation
A NAMI personal-experience blog about using meditation, alongside medication and therapy, as a coping tool to help lessen the impact of hearing distressing voices and gain relief from intrusive internal experiences.

Hearing Voices Others Can’t: How A Growing Movement Fights Mental Health Stigma | Think | NBC News
A YouTube video visually illustrating the metaphor of “living with the black dog” of depression to deepen understanding of what it feels like to experience and cope with persistent low mood.

Healing Trauma: How To Start Feeling Safe In Your Own Body with Dr Bessel van der Kolk
A family shares forty years of lived experience supporting a loved one with schizophrenia, highlighting challenges, triumphs, and the evolving mental health system from a caregiver’s perspective.

Hope Starts With Us: Schizophrenia and Coping with Comedy
A Hope Starts With Us podcast episode where NAMI CEO Dan Gillison Jr. talks with advocate and influencer Kody Green about his lived experience with schizophrenia and how humor and comedy help him cope, spread awareness, and support recovery.

I am not a Monster
Cecilia McGough delivers a TEDx talk titled ‘I Am Not a Monster,’ sharing her personal experience living with schizophrenia, challenging stigma, and advocating for empowerment and support for students with the condition.

Meta-Analysis IDs Best Psychotherapy Interventions for Schizophrenia Relapse Prevention
A summary of a network meta-analysis showing that family interventions, family psychoeducation, and cognitive-behavioral therapy are among the most effective psychosocial treatments for reducing relapse risk in individuals with schizophrenia when added to standard care.

Research Weekly: Early Intervention Programs Are a Cost-Effective Method to Treat Schizophrenia
A research summary highlighting a U.S. modeling study that found early intervention in psychosis programs for individuals with first-episode psychosis can improve outcomes—fewer hospitalizations, more years of employment—and be cost-effective compared with standard care.

Schizophrenia & Psychosis Guide: Care, Advocacy, Engagement
A NAMI guide that provides recommended terminology and communication strategies for discussing schizophrenia and psychosis with clarity, empathy, and respect, aiming to reduce stigma and improve care, advocacy, and engagement for individuals and families affected by these conditions.

Suicide Prevention Awareness:

Breaking Through: Combating the Silent Suicide Crisis in Men’s Mental Health
A NAMI Hope Starts With Us podcast episode recorded at NAMICon 2025 where panelists share personal journeys and expert insight to confront stigma, address the silent suicide crisis in men’s mental health, and highlight resources for awareness and support.

Changing The Conversation About Suicide
A NAMI blog article calling for open, stigma-free dialogue about suicide by sharing personal insight, highlighting the role of structural support and mental health resources, and encouraging compassionate conversations and advocacy.

Hope Starts With Us: Life After Suicide
A NAMI “Hope Starts With Us” podcast episode where the host speaks with a guest about life after losing a loved one to suicide, exploring the emotional journey of grief, coping strategies, available support, and how to hold onto hope while navigating loss.

How to Help Yourself and Others with Suicidal Ideation
A NAMI guide offering practical strategies for recognizing and responding to suicidal thoughts in yourself or others, including when to use crisis resources like the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and how to provide compassionate support.

Is someone you love suffering in silence? Here’s what to do
A heartfelt video titled Is Someone You Love Suffering in Silence? offering guidance on recognizing unspoken emotional pain and how to gently reach out with understanding and support.

Trauma/PTSD:

Can we edit memories? | Amy Milton
A TED Talk by neurologist Amy Milton explaining how recent research suggests our memories aren’t fixed and exploring ways scientists might edit or weaken the emotional impact of painful memories without erasing the events themselves.

Drowning in Empathy: The Cost of Vicarious Trauma | Amy Cunningham | TEDxSanAntonio
A TEDxSanAntonio talk by Amy Cunningham that explores how deep empathy for others’ trauma can lead to vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue in caregivers and helping professionals, and highlights the importance of self-care and resilience.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
A clear, authoritative overview of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from NAMI that explains how exposure to traumatic events can lead to persistent symptoms like intrusive memories, avoidance, mood changes, and outlines treatment options, support resources, and coping strategies.

PTDS Coach Online
A free web-based self-help tool from the U.S. National Center for PTSD offering 17 interactive coping resources, education, and videos to help manage stress and trauma-related symptoms like anxiety, sleep problems, and trauma reminders.

Reclaiming Our Stories From Trauma
A Gottman Institute blog post exploring how past trauma can unconsciously shape relationship behaviors and defensive patterns, and how individuals and couples can rewrite those old “scripts” to foster genuine connection and attuned interaction in the present.

Understanding PTSD’s Effects on Brain, Body, and Emotions | Janet Seahorn | TEDxCSU
A TEDxCSU talk by Janet Seahorn, Ph.D., explaining how post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects the brain, body, and emotions and why understanding trauma’s wide-ranging impact can improve support and recovery.

Navigating Mental Illness:

10 Characteristics of Mentally Healthy People
An article listing 10 common qualities of mentally healthy people — like gratitude, resilience, letting go of anger, self-care, healthy boundaries, and the ability to be happy for others — that reflect emotional balance and well-being.

15 Common Cognitive Distortions
A Psych Central article explaining how cognitive distortions—exaggerated, fact-free thought patterns like filtering, catastrophizing, personalization, and “should” statements—fuel negative thinking by skewing perceptions of yourself and your world and how recognizing these patterns is a first step toward more balanced thought.

Anosognosia: A Big Word for a Surprising Condition
An accessible NAMI article explaining ‘anosognosia’ — a common, brain-based lack of awareness of one’s own mental illness that can make recognizing symptoms and accepting treatment especially challenging.

Bringing it all Together: Integrated Care for People with Psychotic Disorders and Substance Use Disorders, Ep. 128
A CEU podcast where Dr. Delia Cimpean Hendrick explains evidence-based, integrated approaches to diagnosing and treating co-occurring psychotic disorders and substance use, highlighting clinical presentation, risk factors, and multidisciplinary care.

Feeling Good by David Burns
A TEDx talk summarizing principles from Feeling Good by Dr. David D. Burns on using cognitive techniques to improve mood and overcome negative thought patterns.

How to use nature to restore your focus, with Marc Berman
A University of Chicago podcast episode where psychologist Marc Berman discusses how spending time in nature can restore attention, boost mental health, and influence urban planning based on research into how natural environments affect focus and cognition.

Mental Horizons Podcast: “Achieving Excellence in the Treatment of Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder”
Delia Cimpean Hendrick, M.D. discusses integrated, evidence-based approaches to treating co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders and how excellence in care can improve recovery outcomes.

NAMI Basics OnDemand
A free, self-paced online education program from NAMI that equips parents and caregivers with practical tools, insights, and strategies to support and navigate the mental health challenges of youth (ages 22 and under).

The Do’s and Don’ts of Supporting Someone in a Mental Health Crisis
A Healthline guide on supporting someone in a mental health crisis that outlines how to recognize crisis signs, communicate calmly and empathetically, ensure immediate safety, and connect the person with appropriate professional and community resources for ongoing support.

The Mental Health Care System Is Finally Recognizing the Value of Peer Support
A Slate Technology article examining how peer-support models — where individuals with lived experience help others through shared understanding and community-based connection — are being proposed as a way to address gaps in the mental health care system during a worsening crisis.

The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong | Amy Morin | TEDxOcala
A TEDxOcala talk by Amy Morin outlining practical habits that mentally strong people adopt and the counterproductive mental behaviors they avoid to build resilience and emotional strength.

“The Son” And Mental Health
A NAMI media partnership spotlight showing how the film The Son — about a family’s struggle with a teenager’s mental health challenges — is used to raise awareness of youth mental health, early symptom recognition, and the importance of support and resources.

Understanding The Early Warning Signs of Mental Illness
A NAMI article outlining common early warning signs of mental illness—like changes in mood, thinking, behavior, sleep, or social engagement—that may signal emerging concerns and the value of noticing them early to seek support or evaluation.

What No One Told Me About Being in a Psych Hospital
A personal narrative about the author’s unexpected and challenging experience with psychiatric hospitalization as a young adult, revealing the realities of inpatient life, the emotional impact of extended stays, and the need for open conversations about mental health care.