Part A: Mental Health Literacy (MHL) Self-Assessment

Evaluate and reflect on your MHL Confidence on each of the five components of mental health literacy.

1a. Knowledge: Use the following scale to rate your level of confidence in your ability to recognize the signs and symptoms of 3 or more mental health conditions.

Explain the rationale for your selected rating. Be sure to include specifics in your explanation (approx. 100-200 words).

I am somewhat confident that I am able to recognize the signs and symptoms of my mental health conditions. The reason for this is that many of my mental health fluctuation are based on familiar patterns that I have been struggling with ever since I was a teenager. Especially, after a traumatic event during 2022, I am now more accustomed to my behavior and coping mechanisms when things fall out of order in my life. The behavioral ques are more apparent to me as they can become repetitive during special times during the year such as when my rom becomes messy, or when my sleep schedule shifts into later during the night.

1b. Stigma: Use the following scale to rate your level of confidence in your ability to provide examples of various forms of stigma related to mental health

Explain the rationale for your selected rating. Be sure to include specifics in your explanation. (approx. 100-200 words)

Stigma can appear in many forms where mental health issues are overlooked and misunderstood. I have personally experienced stigma in the society, within my own head space (self-stigma), and in my family. I am an international student and growing up, studying in Iranian schools has put me into positions to disconnect from my feelings and state of being and to shift more towards academic accomplishments as it was socially internalized to be the most meaningful way of becoming prosperous. Finally, I have internalized this view and I have personally created self-stigma within my own head space that subconsciously pushes me towards ignoring my mental health needs as they are not “real” or as “valuable” as my academic accomplishments. Lastly, an example of stigma within family can be gendered. In many societies, it is normalized for men to show emotions of anger and dissatisfaction whole women are held more accountable to maintain family integrity and to solve problems by being passive and less expressive than men. Therefore, emotions of mothers and daughters in family dynamics are prone to be suppressed by other family members.

1c. Help-Seeking: Use the following scale to rate your level of confidence in your ability to identify and describe 3 or more mental health supports in your school community.

Explain the rationale for your selected rating. Be sure to include specifics in your explanation. (approx. 100-200 words)

Unfortunately, I am not accustomed to many resources available for help, especially for students who are tight with their budgets. However, I have had some experience with campus wellness, there are cousellers available that students can talk to weather about school or other issues. In addition, I have seen “Good to Talk” help line where students can reach in times of holidays or outside of campus working hours. I think Good to Talk cannot be a primary source of seeing mental health needs, but definitely a great source for handling emergency situations and crises times that require immediate attention to the issue occurring.

1d. Helping Others: Use the following scale to rate your level of confidence in your ability to appropriately respond to a friend who is experiencing mental distress.

Explain the rationale for your selected rating. Be sure to include specifics in your explanation. (approx. 100-200 words)

Ever since the start of university in 2020, I have started interacting with people with different backgrounds. I have become more familiar with individuals’ differences in culture, religion, sexual orientation, and mindsets. As a result, I have started to learn and appreciate different perspectives that people hold about different scenarios and I started to detach from my old biases and stigma that I held against certain social dilemmas. I would say I try to be more open to new perspectives and beliefs every day and try to understand people based on their past experiences and how they shaped their personality and opinions. Therefore, I try to analyze the situations and each person based on their own unique circumstances and to malleate my response and advice to their needs and capacity to handle situations. I have understood how some words are more sensitive to certain group of individuals while it may not be perceived the same by another group; hence, I choose my words wisely to convey the same message might perhaps in different tones and formats in order to optimize my message delivery skills.

1e. Prevention: Use the following scale to rate your level of confidence in your ability to select mental wellness strategies or activities that work for you.