Mental Health
Mental wellness is not just the absence of a diagnosable mental illness. Having good mental health helps us cope with the daily stresses of life in a healthy way, allows us to maintain positive relationships, engage in healthy activities, and enjoy life. We can maintain good mental health by:
- Staying socially active
- Eating nutritious foods
- Exercising regularly
- Getting enough sleep
- Avoiding alcohol and drug abuse
From Our Collection
Mental Illness
While many people experience feelings of anxiety and sadness or great stress at some time in their lives, it does not mean that they have a mental illness. A mental illness is a health condition that changes how a person thinks, feels, or acts (or all three) and causes the person distress and difficulty in functioning.
Each mental illness has its own characteristic symptoms. However, there are some general warning signs that might alert you that someone needs professional help. Some of these signs include:
- Marked personality change
- Inability to cope with problems and daily activities
- Strange or grandiose ideas
- Excessive anxieties
- Prolonged depression and apathy
- Marked changes in eating or sleeping patterns
- Extreme mood swings
- Excessive anger, hostility, or violent behavior
- Abuse of alcohol or drugs
- Thinking or talking about suicide or harming oneself
Sources: National Institute of Mental Health, and Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General
Help Is Available.
Call 988 if you need to talk to someone.
Dial 911 if you have an emergency.
Locate a Treatment Facility
Screening Tools
Self-Help Groups
- Advocacy Unlimited
- Alternatives to Suicide
- Emotions Anonymous
- Join Rise Be – Warm Line for Emerging Adults
- Join Rise Be: A Peer-Run Initiative for Young People
- Mental Health Connecticut
- National Alliance on Mental Illness
- National Alliance on Mental Illness - Connecticut
- National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse
- Toivo Support Groups
- Youth Recovery CT
Apps
Calm
A mental health app designed to help you manage stress, sleep better, and live a happier, healthier life.
Happify
Brings you effective tools and programs to help you take control of your feelings and thoughts.
Learn MoreHow We Feel
A free app to help people better understand their emotions and find strategies to help them navigate their emotions in the moment.
iChill
A free app that teaches six wellness skills from the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM)® and Community Resiliency Model (CRM)® to help you manage sensations associated with trauma and stress, enhancing your well-being.
Learn MoreMindShift CBT
Uses scientifically proven strategies based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help you learn to relax and be mindful, develop more effective ways of thinking, and use active steps to take charge of your anxiety.
Learn MoreSpiral Up
A free neuroscience-based app that helps you process emotions and release stress in minutes.
Learn MoreUCLA Mindful App
With this easy-to-use app, you can practice mindfulness meditation anywhere, anytime.
Learn More
Videos
- Hiding In Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness by Ken Burns (Well Beings)
- My Life is Worth Living: Animated Series on Teen Mental Health (Cook Center for Human Connection and Wonder Media)
- Ways to Help Your Lonely Teen (Clay Center for Healthy Young Minds)
- What Is Mental Health? (ADAA Webinars)
- Why We Need To Talk About Men’s Mental Health (McLean Hospital)
- You Are Not Alone: Helping People Navigate Mental Health Care (McLean Hospital)
Podcasts
Trainings
Fact Sheets
- 5 Myths About ADHD Drugs
- Adolescents and Trauma
- Adult Stress: Frequently Asked Questions
- After a Disaster: How to Help Child Victims
- Anxiety and Depression in Children
- Anxiety Disorders
- Behavior or Conduct Problems in Children
- Body Image
- Coping with Stress Checklist
- Coping With the Stress of Layoff and Unemployment
- Depression and Older Adults
- Depression: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment
- Helping a Teen Cope with Stress
- Military Mental Health Matters
- Psychotherapies
- Resource Guide for Behavioral Health 2023 in Ukrainian
- Resource Guide for Behavioral Health 2024
- SAD: Seasonal Affective Disorder
- Self-Care for Mental Health
- Suicide In Youth
- Suicide: Frequently Asked Questions
- Teenagers With Eating Disorders
- Understanding & Helping a Suicidal Person
- What Is Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?
- Women's Mental Health
Curricula & Lesson Plans
- My Life is Worth Living
Cook Center for Human Connection
- Nurturing My Mental and Emotional Health
From NIDA
- This is Your Brain on Depression
From Dana Foundation
Research & Data
- Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System - CT Department of Public Health
Reports & publications from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System include: Adverse Childhood Experiences in CT, Behavioral health risks in specific districts, smoking data, and more.
- Connecticut Data Collaborative
Users may search by location or topic. Topic selections include: Civic vitality, Demographics, Economy, Health, Education, Housing, and Safety. The Health category includes data sets on mental health, treatment admissions, substance use, mortality, and tobacco use.
- Connecticut SEOW Prevention Data Portal
Search, view, and access 200+ indicators relevant to substance use/misuse, mental health, suicide, gambling, and social determinants of health. Explore 30+ data sets relevant to behavioral health, each with multiple visualization capabilities, downloadable data, and metadata.
- Cornell Research Program on Self-Injurious Behavior in Adolescents and Young Adults
This site includes a variety of publications - bibliographies, fact sheets, reviews of academic literature - on self-injurious behavior.
- CT 211 Counts
Data for Connecticut 211 calls listed by category - including Healthcare, Mental Health and Addictions, Housing & Shelter, and more.
- Hospitalization Statistics - CT Department of Public Health
This site includes summary data & tables for causes of hospitalization, by age grouping & gender. Includes mental disorders.
- Mental Health - CDC FastStats
Provides access to data on morbidity, health care use, mortality, and other related data and links.
- Mobile Crisis Reports-CT
Reports include Mobile Crisis episodes, number of children served, volume of episodes, demographic data and more.
- National Institute of Mental Health: Statistics
Provides prevalence statistics for various mental disorders.
- PubMed
PubMed comprises more than 20 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher websites.
- SAMHSA Data
Find data and reports on mental health, substance use treatment, and drug use from sources that include: the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS), National Mental Health Services Survey (NMHSS), and more.
- State Lifeline Reports
These reports examine call volume and answer rate for each state to the 988 Lifeline Network Crisis Centers.
- Suicide Statistics from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Connecticut
This page provides a table of the number of suicides by age, gender and year. The table in Fiscal Year Statistics includes a column on the number of suicides by year.
- WISQARS (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System)
WISQARS is an interactive database system that provides customized reports of injury-related data.
- Young Adult Statewide Survey (YASS)
The Young Adults Statewide Survey (YASS) was a two- phase, social marketing driven behavioral health survey of young adults(18-25).
For more information about the Young Adults Statewide Survey, contact: sussman@uchc.edu