Distress stemming from situational problems, immediate crises, and longstanding mental health concerns can make everyone feel scared and isolated. We even feel helpless when we see friends or loved ones experience mental health problems too. In order to help empower you and those around you, we here at Clark University Center for Counseling and Personal Growth have put together a Mental Health Toolbox to meet those overwhelming needs. We hope that this library of resources can be used in conjunction with your therapy or simply to gain some relief, direction, and self-help.
We also seek to benefit from the wisdom of Clark students. If you have found a website, app, video, or national organization that you found particularly helpful, we would like to know. Please send any ideas to the CPG Director.
- Read it first, If you are thinking about suicide
- Help Dealing with Your Suicidal Thoughts: Suicide help
- What To Do When You Feel Suicidal
- Operation Reach Out (an app for when you are suicidal)
- TED Talk — JD Schramm: Break the silence for suicide attempt survivors
- TED Talk — Kevin Briggs: The Bridge Between Suicide and Life
- Statistics on Student Suicide: Crisis on campus
- Freakonomics Radio: The Suicide Paradox
- Get Help Now for Suicide: Know the signs
- Get Help Now for Suicide: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
- The Nature of Suicide
- NPR Series: Suicide Crisis Series
- Helping Others (Psychological Footprint)
- Self-Care When Helping Others
- Who is suicidal:
- Who is depressed:
- Who is anxious:
- Who is having a panic attack:
- Who has an eating disorder:
- Who has PTSD:
- Who was sexually assaulted or has a history of sexual abuse:
- What to Say to a Rape or Sexual Abuse Survivor
- How To Help a Friend or Loved One Who Has Been Sexually Abused
Physical Abuse
- Abusive Relationships (RAINN)
- When Love Hurts
- The Frontlines of Intimate Partner Violence (Simmons College)
Sexual Assault
- What To Do If You’ve Been Raped
- Surviving the Long-Term Trauma of Sexual Violence (New York Times)
- Self-Help Guide For Survivors of Sexual Violence
- Male Survivors of Sexual Assault and Sexual Abuse
Childhood Trauma
- Overview about anxiety disorders and treatment
- Difference between normal anxiety and an anxiety disorder
- What you should know about anxiety
- How to Stop Worrying
- 5 Powerful Steps to Calming Your Anxiety
- 5 Things to Remember if You’re An Anxious Person
- Facing Your Fears: How To Build a Fear Ladder
- Overview on Panic Attacks
- Overview on Panic Disorder
- How Meditation Can Help Anxiety
- Treating Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders:
- Part 1 – The Power of Anxiety
- Part 2 – Treatment and Recovery: One Patient’s Story
- Part 3 – Medications and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
- Part 4 – What Is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy?
- Part 5 – Implementing Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
- Part 6 – Complementary Approaches
- Scott Stossel: My Age of Anxiety
- New York Times article “The Snake in the Garden” about anxiety:
- Glass People (College-Age Anxiety)
- 5 Apps to Help You Cope With Anxiety (Huffington Post)
- Best Anxiety Apps (2016)
- Understanding OCD
- Treatment for OCD
- Overview about depression
- Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA)
- TED Talks — Andrew Solomon: Depression, The Secret We Share
- TED Talks — Kevin Breel: Confessions of a Depressed Comic
- “Darkness Visible” (article) by William Styron
- “Anatomy of Melancholy” (article) by Andrew Solomon
- Coping with Depression is Hard (comic)
- Exercise To Boost Your Mood
- For Depression, Prescribing Exercise Before Medication
- Meditation and Depression
- Light Box Therapy
- Hyperbole and a Half: Adventures in Depression
- Overview on Bipolar Disorder
- What Do You Want to Know About Bipolar Disorder?
- “Good Grief” (article)
- There’s More to Life Than Being Happy (The Atlantic)
- Resiliency for Personal Growth
- Edutopia: Resilience and Grit — Resource Roundup
- TED Talks: David Steindl — Want to be Happy? Be Grateful
- Laughter is the Best Medicine
- TED Talks: Shawn Achor — The Happy Secret to Better Work
- TED Talks: J.K. Rowling — The Fringe Benefit of Failure
- TED Talks: Matthieu Ricard — The Habits of Happiness
- Tips to Improve Resilience
- TED Talks: Andrew Solomon — How the Worst Moments in Our Lives Make Us Who We Are
- The Road to Resilience
- Healthy Mind Platter
- TED Talks: Brene Brown — The Power of Vulnerability
- TED Talks: Brene Brown — Listening to Shame
- Invisibilia podcast — Entanglement
- TED Talks: Susan Cain — The Power of Introverts
- Dear Sugar podcast — The Wounded Child Within
- Here’s What a Healthy Relationship With Facebook Looks Like
- When Fighting With Your Partner is a Good Thing
- Why We Sabotage Relationships With People Who Treat Us Well
- Cornell Freshman’s Video on Loneliness
- The Real Campus Scourge (New York Times)
- How To Deal With Homesickness Freshman Year
- Homesickness Isn’t Really About Home
- The Top 10 Things I Wish I Had Known Before College (YouTube)
- High School to College Transition: The Freshman Myth (Huffington Post, Part 1)
- High School to College Transition: Academic Expectations (Huffington Post, Part 2)
- High School to College Transition: Social Challenges (Huffington Post, Part 3)
- TED Talks: Susan Matt — The History of Homesickness
- Helping First Year Students
- 26 Ways to Reduce Homesickness Abroad
- Mindfulness Explained
- 12 Ways to Describe Mindfulness for Beginners
- Benefits of Mindfulness
- From OM to OMG: Science, Your Brain, and the Productive Powers of Meditation
- 21 Signs That You Need to Start Meditating
- 7 Insider Tips to Make Meditation Easier
- Think Mindfully
- The Best Meditation Apps (article)
- The Free Mindfulness Project
- Mindfulness Meditation with Jon-Kabat Zinn
- Cornell Research Program on Self Injury and Recovery
- Self-Injury Outreach and Support
- TEDx Talks: Stephen Lewis — The Skeletons in My Closet
- HelpGuide: Cutting and Self-Harm
- Stress Symptoms, Signs, and Causes (Help Guide)
- College Stress(California Polytechnic)
- Stress Management: How to Reduce, Prevent and Cope with Stress
- Stress Resistant Thinking
- Relaxation Techniques for Stress Relief
- Why You’re Tired All the Time and How to Feel Better
- TED Talks: Kelly McGonigal — How to Make Stress Your Friend
- (video) College Info Geek: How to Deal with Student Burnout
- (video) Managing Stress: The Impact of Stress on the Brain
- (video) Can Stress Actually Kill You?
- Test Anxiety (Minnesota State Univ)
- (Video) Test Anxiety: How to Take On Your Exams Without Stress
- Simple, Powerful Mental “Trick” Allows Anyone to Beat Test Anxiety
- The Best Advice for Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking
- Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking
- TED Talks: Amy Cuddy — Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are
- 10 Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Therapy
- Top 5 Mental Health Problems Facing College Students
- TED Talks: Andrew Solomon — How The Worst Moments in Our Lives Make Us Who We Are
- TEDx Talks: Anne Hallward — How Telling Our Silenced Stories Can Change the World
- Invisibilia podcast: The Secret History of Thoughts
- 100 Questions That Will Transform Your Life
- Safe Space Radio
- ULifeLine (resource for college mental health)
- Go Ask Alice (advice column for college students)
- 50 Common Cognitive Distortions
- Harnessing Willpower to Meet Educational Goals
- How To Stay Motivated When You’re Not In the Mood To Do Anything
- Randy Pausch lecture on Time Management
- Defeat Procrastination by Making Yourself Have Fun
- Beat Procrastination by Eliminating Old Choices
- 6 Apps That Block Online Distraction So You Can Get Work Done
- 7 Clever Mobile Apps To Conquer Procrastination
- Rescue Time
- Understanding and Overcoming Procrastination
- Freakonomics Radio podcast: Save Me From Myself (about commitment devices)
- Freakonomics Radio podcast: When Willpower Isn’t Enough (about temptation bundling)