Brings categories: a young person

Cyberbullying

Posted on by eve

In the last few years, cyberbullying has become an umbrella term for lots of negative behaviour online.

What is cyberbullying?

Essentially cyberbullying is bullying online, and it can take many different forms. Sometimes it is easily recognisable and others not so much.

It can be 24/7 with seemingly nowhere to get away from it. One of the drawbacks of the connectivity in our pockets is we’re always accessible.

Generally, cyberbullying doesn’t happen in isolation. It tends to be a part of traditional bullying. The bully is often someone known to the person on the receiving end of it. This is even if the activity seems to be done anonymously.

Cyberbullying can take obvious forms such as name calling, putting someone down or abusive comments on posts, images or videos. Then there are less obvious forms, only really felt and understood by the person on the receiving end of it.

What is mental health?

Posted on by eve

Mental health is something we all have. It is an essential part of all of us. It includes our thoughts and feelings, how we are getting on with other people and how we manage day-to-day life.

In this article, you will find:

What is ‘good mental health’?

Having good mental health is about feeling positive about ourselves, or sometimes just good enough. It’s about being able to do the things that matter to us. Just as everyone has physical health, everyone also has mental health.

The state of our mental health doesn’t stay constant. It changes, often in response to things that are happening in our life.

Grief and loss

Posted on by eve

When someone close to you dies it can be gut-wrenching and confusing. Your emotions will be all over the place while you get a handle on what happened.

You can’t bring them back, but you can find ways to be easy on yourself during this hard time.

What is grief?

Grief is a natural, human reaction to loss. When you lose someone close to you, there is a period afterwards of mourning. Grief is the emotional and physical feelings you get as you mourn.

Ask Jigsaw: My daughter suffers from anxiety

Posted on by eve

My daughter suffers from anxiety, it often stops her from leaving the house and doing activities. She can become severely panicked and stressed if she has to start something new, or just visit a friends house. She loses sleep the night before, cries, hyperventilates and becomes extremely agitated.

For example, she asked to do a summer camp and she looked forward to it for weeks beforehand right up until the night before. Then the panic sat in, she focuses on the worst possibilities of what could happen. This then brings on a panic attack, sometimes we can calm her back down and she manages to go through with the activities but sometimes it overwhelming for her. She panicked so much for the summer camp that she ended up not going as she was too distressed.

I am very worried as she approaches her teenage years that this might only get worse. Do you think that she would benefit from talking to someone such as a counsellor to help with some coping mechanisms? Or what should we do for this?

-Zay

Hi Zay,

It can be really distressing when we see young people experiencing anxiety. Our natural instinct is often to protect them from experiencing it as much as possible. You are right to look at how to address your daughter’s anxiety now to try and prevent it from escalating.

Ask Jigsaw: Loss of confidence

Posted on by eve

I’ve always been an anxious person but over the past year I have noticed myself it has gotten worse due to certain experiences. I never had a lot of confidence in myself and this is showing a lot more now and family and friends have said it to me which makes me break down each time.

Over the past few number of months my confidence has declined hugely both as a person but also confidence with my body image as comments have been passed. The constant thoughts of ‘I’m worthless and useless’ run through my mind nearly everyday when I look at myself.

Since I was younger I always put on a brave face and always had a smile on my face just to meet the expectations and perceptions that people had of me, but I’ve come to a point now where I cannot physical do it anymore, it was all to please other people!

Overthinking is another thing my mind is constantly going at 100 miles an hour. I always wanted to make an appointment and to speak about this in person but every time I do talk about or even think about it I completely break down. I just want to try and fix this because it has affected relationships and aspects of life hugely as I am isolating myself from the people I love but unfortunately I just don’t know how so, it would be great if you could give me some advice and ways I could overcome this!
Thank you!

-Flower 21

It sounds like there’s been a lot going on under the surface and it’s become too much to keep in anymore. While it can be hard to hear from other people that they’ve noticed you don’t seem as confident, they must really care about you and want to see you feel more comfortable in yourself.

What is bullying?

Posted on by tzJ3t6

Unfortunately, being bullied is a relatively common experience. ‘Bullying’ means repeated actions with the intention of causing distress.

In a recent survey of over 19,000 young people in Ireland, 39% reported they had been bullied at some point. However, despite being something many of us go through, people often try to hide that they’re being bullied. This can make it even more isolating and distressing. Bullying is never acceptable.

In this article you will find:

What bullying is

Bullying can be obvious, like physical violence, verbal abuse, or humiliation. But there are also less visible versions of it, such as emotional bullying or exclusion.

Bullying could be any combination of these:

  • Verbal put downs
  • Embarrassing you
  • Exclusion
  • Damaging or stealing belongings
  • Racial abuse.

Bullying can be a very isolating experience and has a negative impact on our self-esteem.

Uninest name Jigsaw as their Charity Partner for 2020

Posted on by tzJ3t6

We are so delighted to have been named as the charity partner for Uninest Student Residences for 2020.  The partnership is being launched today, Wednesday 29th January. 

Uninest provide the best living experiences for students in Cork and Dublin, offering stylish, secure and sociable student living. For more information, visit unineststudents.ie.