The stigma our society attached to mental health is one I intend to help you all destroy. I want to help you appreciate the impact proper mental health care can have on your life and the lives of others. Anyone can benefit from a little therapy during times of stress, even if they do not suffer from a mental health problem. I want you to be able to recognize when you need a professional and understand that seeking therapy or medical intervention does not make you crazy or weak. In fact, it can make you a more straightforward thinking person than the people who criticize you for it.

1 in 2 Americans will suffer from a mental health disorder over the course of their lifetime.
Let’s work on crushing this ratio.

Watch me explain essay requirements here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvFdJw-LKq0

Writing Requirements:

Journaling is a tool often utilized by therapists to help patients “purge” negative emotions and address negative occurrences with honesty. Writing about bad times can also help you achieve closure or some level of catharsis, even when the world doesn’t want to offer you any.

For your essay assignment, write about a time when something caused you stress and what you did (or could have done) to overcome it. Maybe you could have sought talk-therapy with a professional to help yourself deal with the stress/depression/anxiety associated with this issue. Or maybe the solution was as simple as doing something productive like exercising, confronting the problem, meditating, etc….

This is an essay about you. You are not required to discuss your life’s darkest secrets. Just a negative occurrence of your choosing.

Writing Prompts: (you must address them all)

1. Discuss the negative occurrence which happened to you.
2. Discuss your emotions and response. How did you feel? How did you respond?
3. Could anything have been done to alleviate how you felt (or still feel)? Cognitive behavioral therapy, for example? Talk therapy? Exercise? Maybe doing something productive?
   What are the things that improve your mood?
4. What is something positive that came out of this negative occurrence? If nothing positive came out, what did you learn? Have you achieved any closure? If not, say so.

Remember, journaling your thoughts can offer some catharsis, even if it is subtle.

Technical Requirements:

• 12-point font in either Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman font.
• 1 inch margins (if you are using an older version of word, make sure you do not have the standard set to 1.25 inch margins or points will be deducted)
• Minimum full 3-page length
• Paragraph format with all indentations set to 0 (Your paragraph settings should be set to standard. Do not alter them to make your paper look longer)
• Used spell/grammar check
• No bullet lists, no pictures within the body of the essay, no hyperlinks.
• Double spaced
• Works cited page in APA format (AND in-text citations!!!)

For every missing page, 1.5 points will be deducted. I also reserve the right to deduct points drastically where I see any technical or writing prompt abuse e.g. if you type in bold font (come on!) or if hard-enter your paragraphs to waste writing space. 

Essays will be graded out of 5 possible points. This is an easy paper. Don’t mess it up!


Without fail, students will always wait until the last minute to submit essays, something will go wrong with their computers, and they will email me their essays. If you do this, I will take points off as it is time consuming for me to have to fish-out emailed essays and grade them outside of my grading portal. 

You must copy/paste your work into the text-submission box when you upload your work. This way, I have evidence you completed it on time in the event your file is corrupt.

Your heading must be formatted as follows:

Name
HLT 1353: Section #

Title

That’s it. No cover page. No headings that take up lines and lines of writing space. No hard-entering between paragraphs. I will deduct points if your heading eats up too much space.

Idea example: Let’s say you had to deal with a breakup that affected you for a while. You might have been very sad for a month, had little motivation to get out of bed in the morning, had an increase or decrease in appetite, and had difficulty performing normal, daily tasks (all of which are symptoms of clinical depression, by the way). Address all the writing prompts in regards to your breakup. Research ways in which you might have been able to make yourself feel better (e.g. talk-therapy, exercising to increase mood enhancing endorphins like serotonin, etc.…). Maybe something positive that came out of this breakup was that you met someone more your match. Or maybe you were able to just focus on bettering yourself. Or maybe you’re still struggling with your feelings. Talk about it. Make sure spelling/grammar are on point and your research is accurate.