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The following was written by and from the perspective of Tom Vellner, a staff member at BuzzFeed.

In my final therapy session before I would move from Boston to New York, and after eight months of hard work sorting through my anxiety, my therapist said to me, “You have all the tools you need to nail this.”

“Do I???” I said, second guessing everything before I made the leap to a new city. But it’s been almost two years since that last session — and she was right. Whenever I find myself feeling anxious, I recall a tip or mantra from our sessions that calms me down. They’ve become second nature at this point.

Here are the tools I find most helpful on a daily basis:

Talk to yourself like you would a friend.

It only took one session for my therapist to say, “Let’s work together to figure out why you’re so hard on yourself.” She didn’t need much time to realize that I put a lot of pressure on myself and try to please other people too much. So, she advised me to talk to myself like a friend. I would never say, “Everyone will hate you if you don’t go to that party this weekend,” to a friend if they really needed some time to chill, so why would I say that to myself? To quote RuPaul, “If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?”

Say irrational thoughts out loud.

If I’m ever having a completely irrational thought when I’m by myself, like, “I shouldn’t have texted [person] — they probably think I’m so clingy and they’re going to tell all of their friends how weird I am,” I say it out loud so I can hear how it really sounds and challenge it with logic. It was just a text! It’s easy to go ’round and ’round in your mind, convincing yourself you are, in fact, the clingiest person to have ever walked the planet, but actually hearing the words come out of your mouth lets you realize how absurd that idea actually is. Moral of the story: Don’t believe everything you think.

Focus on your breathing.

Whenever I feel my mind getting crowded with stressful thoughts, my therapist told me to stop for just 10 seconds — whether I’m on the subway, in bed, or wherever — and focus on nothing but my breathing. I stare at something in front of me (not concentrating on it, just using it to anchor my vision) and focus on each inhale and exhale. It brings me back to the moment, and helps me get to the bottom of whatever is stressing me out — instead of overanalyzing, I’m just letting the emotion arise naturally and present itself to me.

Learn to say no.

Like I mentioned earlier, I used to care way too much about pleasing everyone around me. I was afraid to say no — whether someone was asking me for help or inviting me to an event. I thought they would be sad or angry or disappointed with me if I didn’t say yes to everything, until my therapist said something so simple that I remember on the daily: “They’re adults. They can handle it.” If your mental health would benefit from saying no, say no. If the person is upset with your decision, they just have to deal! It’s not on you to manage their emotions.

Move your body when you’re anxious.

One of the first things my therapist told me to do to ease anxiety is to get up and move — whether that means walking, running, going for a ride, or just dancing around your living room. Sitting in the same place stewing in your anxiety isn’t doing you any good. Moving your body will help clear your head, boost your endorphins, and channel all of that nervous energy into something active. Anxiety usually makes me feel trapped, so by walking around the block, I give my mind and body the sensation of forward motion: I’m not stuck, I’m progressing.

Recognize what can set you off.

If you know that being around a certain person or going to a specific place will trigger your anxiety, take steps to prepare emotionally (if you can’t avoid the situation altogether). Come up with ways to refocus your energy and attention. For example, try as I might, I know that I’m going to feel a little anxious when I’m in a crowded movie theater or Broadway show, so I try to make sure I can get the aisle seat so that I feel less trapped, or I bring a little something with me that I can fidget with in my hand, like a stress ball.

Practice “child’s pose.”

I’m not a regular yogi, but my therapist taught me that whenever I’m feeling anxious, an easy yoga position I can practice at home to soothe my anxiety is child’s pose. All you have to do is kneel, sit on your heels, and stretch your arms out in front of you, letting your head relax onto your yoga mat or a pillow. Nothing feels better than a good stretch in the morning, so I actually look forward to doing this pose when I wake up. If only all exercise could be done in bed.

Replace “but” with “and.”

When I first started seeing my therapist, I had just moved in with my boyfriend, which (spoiler!) is a big life change. I said something to her along the lines of: “I’m so glad I moved in with him, but I really miss having my own space, so, like, what gives? I thought this is what I wanted.” She asked me, “Why does it have to be a ‘but’?” My desire for more alone time, she explained, didn’t negate my decision to move in with my boyfriend. Replacing “but” with “and” (“I’m so glad I moved in with him, and I miss having my own space”) allowed me to make room for both emotions, instead of driving myself nuts like, “WHAT IS THE TRUTH?” I was able to shift my focus from conflict to resolution: finding ways we could still be independent in our shared apartment.

Remember that progress isn’t linear.

I may not be nearly as anxious as I was when I first started therapy a couple of years ago, but I’m only human, so I still have days when I feel nervous or blue. And that’s fine! We’ve all been there. As my therapist reassured me, having a bad day doesn’t mean that all of the progress I’ve made is suddenly null and void. There are going to be ups and downs. Always know that what you’re feeling isn’t permanent, so while it’s here, remember that it’s OK not to be OK.

Read more and find more posts about therapy at BuzzFeed.com.

Starting in prekindergarten, black boys and girls were disciplined at school far more than their white peers in 2013-2014, according to a government analysis of data that said implicit racial bias was the likely cause of these continuing disparities.

The analysis, issued Wednesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, said students with disabilities and all boys also experienced disproportionate levels of discipline. But black students were particularly overrepresented: While they constituted 15.5 percent of public school students, they accounted for 39 percent of students suspended from school.

The disparity was worse for children of color in prekindergarten: Black students accounted for 19 percent of preschool students in public schools, but represented 47  percent of students suspended from preschool. Boys of all groups accounted for 54 percent of the public school pre-K population, but 78 percent of those suspended.

Addressing why disparities in discipline exist, the GAO said research points to bias:  “Implicit bias — stereotypes or unconscious association about people — on the part of teachers and staff may cause them to judge students’ behaviors differently based on the students’ race and sex.”

The report was issued on the same day that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos held two forums to hear from people on both sides of the discipline issue, which has been controversial for years. The forums were closed to the press.

It has long been agreed that discipline disparities exist based on race and disability, but there is no consensus on what to do about it. The GAO report noted that research has shown that children suspended from school lose important instructional time, are less likely to graduate on time, and are more likely to repeat a grade, drop out of school and become involved in the juvenile justice system.

A study of California youth estimated that students who dropped out of high school because of suspensions would result in about $2.7 billion in costs for the state, stemming from lost wages and tax revenue, increased crime, and higher welfare and health costs.

In 2014, President Barack Obama issued guidance to schools in an attempt to end the disparities and to adopt milder disciplinary measures. DeVos has been considering whether to roll back that guidance, and heard from supporters and critics of the measure at the forums. At the first session, DeVos heard from supporters of the Obama-era guidance; the second session was devoted to those who oppose it.

Supporters say the Obama guidance is aimed at stemming the school-to-prison pipeline and allowing teachers and students to find ways to handle disciplinary problems that do not ostracize children or cause them to miss considerable classroom time. Critics say it has led to classrooms that are less safe because troubled students act out in the absence of robust discipline.

The data analyzed by the GAO found stark disparities for 2013-2014, the latest available information. It found:

• Boys as a group were overrepresented. They account for just over half of public school students. But they represented at least two-thirds of the students disciplined across each of six actions: out-of-school suspensions, in-school suspensions, referrals to law enforcement,  expulsions, corporal punishment and school-related arrests.
• A similar pattern was seen for students with disabilities compared to their peers without disabilities. Students with disabilities represented about 12 percent of public school students, but accounted for nearly 25 percent or more of students referred to law enforcement, arrested for a school-related incident or suspended from school.
• Black students with disabilities and boys with disabilities were disproportionately disciplined across all six actions.

The GAO wrote the report after analyzing discipline data from nearly all public schools for the 2013-2014 school year from the Education Department’s Civil Rights Data Collection. The study authors also interviewed federal and state officials, and officials from five school districts and 19 schools in California, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota and Texas. Those locations were selected based on disparities in suspensions for black students, boys, or students with disabilities, and diversity in size and location.

Some school districts reported to the GAO that they had realized the importance of finding alternatives to discipline that “unnecessarily removes children from the learning environment.” The report said:

Officials in all selected school districts reported they are implementing efforts to better address student behavior or reduce the use of exclusionary discipline. For example, officials in all school districts said that they are implementing alternative discipline models that emphasize preventing challenging student behavior and focus on supporting individuals and the school community, such as positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS), restorative justice practices, and social emotional learning (SEL). For example, officials at a selected school district in Texas said they have implemented a classroom management model that uses positive behavior techniques.

To address racial bias, the report said, one school district in California said it had created a leadership team for equity, culture and support services, and developed a district-wide equity plan that includes mandatory training on implicit bias for principals.

Officials from that district also said they had recently changed a policy to increase the consistency of discipline actions across the district’s schools. Similarly, officials at a school district in Massachusetts reported they were working to build awareness among school leadership to address racial bias and the achievement gap through multiyear trainings. Officials we spoke with at a school within that district said they conduct trainings for staff on implicit bias and other related issues to reduce school discipline disparities. As some of the schools and districts we visited have begun implementing alternative discipline models and efforts to reduce the use of exclusionary discipline in recent years, we heard from officials in two districts that there has been difficulty with implementation due to limited resources, staffing turnover, and resistance on the part of some parents.

Read more on the WashingtonPost.com.

National Transgender HIV Testing Day (NTHTD) recognizes the importance of routine HIV testing, status awareness and continued focus on HIV prevention and treatment efforts among transgender and gender non-binary people.

April 18, 2018 is National Transgender HIV Testing Day (#TransHIV). Raise awareness of HIV testing, prevention, and treatment of transgender and gender non-binary people in America. #NTHTD.

Join the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health at the University of California, San Francisco to increase access to comprehensive healthcare for the trans community. They report, “HIV testing is an effective prevention tool that can actively engage trans people in their sexual health and wellness while empowering them to make health choices that improve their lives.”

This important day highlights the importance of this community and the vulnerabilities they face everyday:

• Currently 1.4 million American adults identify as transgender.
• Transgender women are disproportionally at risk for contracting HIV in the U.S.
• There is a research gap in collecting data on HIV+ transgender men; few studies have been done to study this population. 

Nonprofit care providers and advocacy groups can help spread the word about the National Transgender HIV Testing Day by:

• Adding #TransHIV, #NTHTD, and #GetTested in social media updates on and before April 18.
• Using the NTHTD toolkit (see below) to help your organization raise awareness of the April 18 National Transgender HIV Testing Day
• Issuing a press release or write a blog post on April 18th to get the word out.

Learn more on the Capacity for Health’s NTHTD awareness email that includes a social media toolkit.

Resources:

• Visit the NTHTD awareness page from HIV.gov 
• Visit the NTHTD event page from the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health (CoE)
• Watch A Message from Miss Major about Nat’l Transgender HIV Testing Day
• Watch the 2018 National Transgender HIV Testing Day informative video about the curent status of the HIV epidemic among transgender individuals
• Access the NTHTD Toolkit developed by CoE which consists of five modules designed to reflect the most current HIV prevention research and best practices for serving trans and gender non-binary people. Guidelines to increase access and trans cultural competence among HIV testing programs and services are included
• Ver el kit de herramientas en español (pdf) – the NTHTD Toolkit in Spanish

Vote from the finalists for this year’s 2018 Scattergood Innovation Award winner who will also recieve a $25,000 prize!

The Scattergood Foundation defines innovation as the process of translating an idea or discovery into a good or service that creates a new or different value improving the consumer/end user experience. The innovations the foundation seeks challenge how behavioral health care is currently viewed, organized, and practiced through the creation of catalytic concepts, products, processes, services, and/or technologies.

The public voting period ends Tuesday, April 24th at 12 p.m. EST.

Finalists: 

• Storiez: Narrative Healing with Inner City Youth

• Psychosis: Changing Perceptions through Art & Science

• MindRight

• Real Resilience

• Communities of HEALing, a groundbreaking and unprecedented approach to eating disorder recovery

Learn more and vote for your favorite innovation that’s advancing behavioral health equity at InnovationAward.com.

Partnerships are important to help reduce disparities in health and health care. We can best meet the challenges facing our communities by working closely with them to determine the best solutions that meet their needs.

Dr. Mathew Lin, Director of the Office of Minority Health (OMH), encourages you to become a partner in the conversation on health equity by submitting a Partnerships in Action story. The OMH at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is highlighting community partnerships among individuals and organizations that share our mission to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations across the country.

OMH will share your stories throughout the year to highlight efforts that help achieve health equity and improve the health of the nation.

Do you have a great story of how a community partnership or collaboration is helping to advance health equity or reduce health disparities? Maybe you partnered with an organization to hold a health fair or blood drive. Or, maybe you worked with a local organization to start a community garden. If so, the OMH wants to hear it and share it with others!

Your story should include:

• Details on the activities you and your partner carried out to help advance health equity
• Description of how this particular partnership made a difference in the community
• Suggestions on how others can create a similar partnership or get involved with your efforts

OMH will share the stories on social media and in other communications to highlight efforts that help improve the health of our communities and the nation. 

You can submit your story via email to OMHMedia@hhs.gov using the following guidance:

• 200 words or less
• Include a URL link to your partnership activity or organization’s website
• Include your contact information (phone and email)
• Use Partnerships in Action in the subject line

Individuals and organizations must ensure that they have permission to submit the story from the organization and subjects. OMH reserves the right to edit, fact check, publish or decline any submission.

Learn more at MinorityHealth.HHS.gov.

The nationwide push to reduce prison populations and bolster alternatives to incarceration has largely neglected women prisoners, according to a report released in January by the Prison Policy Initiative.

Spurred by budget shortfalls and prison overcrowding, dozens of states have sought to reverse incarceration growth by modifying long-term sentences and focusing on violent offenders. But these reforms, which retain bi-partisan support, have ignored the underlying issues that result in the incarceration of women, including trauma, substance abuse issues and mental health challenges, according to the report.

The report, which tracked prison population trends since 1978 for all 50 states, found that in 35 states, women’s incarceration rates outpaced that of men. Nationwide, the reports says, women’s state prison population increased 834 percent, more than twice the growth rate for men. Between 2009 and 2015, the number of men incarcerated in state prisons fell by 5 percent, according to the report, while the rate for women fell by 0.29 percent.

“Behind women’s outsized incarceration rates is a justice system that, by and large, ignores the systemic hardships faced by women,” Wendy Sawyer, the report’s author, told Colorlines. “Women are more likely to enter prison with a history of abuse, trauma and mental health problems. On average, incarcerated women are substantially poorer than incarcerated men, and they are much more likely to be the primary caretakers of children.”

According to Sawyer, in eight states, the growth of women’s incarcerated population has hampered efforts to reduce overall prison populations, even as the rate of incarceration for men is on the decline. Michigan, for example, saw the men’s prison population drop by 8 percent between 2009 and 2015, but the state incarcerated 30 percent more women over the same time frame, per the report. In a handful of states—Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada and New Hampshire—women’s incarceration rates are driving state prison growth.

Although Sawyer’s study focused solely on gender, a previous Prison Policy Initiative study used 2010 Census figures to break down national incarceration rates by race and ethnicity. That study found that Blacks are incarcerated at five times the rate of Whites, and that Latinxs are twice as likely to be incarcerated than Whites. These findings mirror more recent studies. A 2016 study by The Sentencing Project found that in some states—Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont and Wisconsin—African Americans are incarcerated at 10 times the rate of Whites. And nationally, state prisons incarcerate African Americans at 5.1 times the rate of Whites.

The report says that the growth is partly explained by the “tough on crime” policies of the 1980s and ’90s. The law enforcement and sentencing changes created by the national “war on drugs” had destructive effects on women. Other studies buttress this explanation. A 2016 Vera Institute of Justice report found that between 1989 and 2009, arrest rates for drug possession doubled for men, but tripled for women.

The Prison Policy Initiative report notes women face a unique set of circumstances in the prison environment. They are more likely to encounter sexual abuse from correctional staff, and they are more prone to experience psychological distress than men. Given these conditions, the report recommends alternatives to incarceration that treat substance abuse issues and mental health disorders.

The report also concludes that states should reclassify criminal offenses that pose little threat to public safety and expand the use of diversion strategies from the first moment of police contact, so that more women will be redirected from incarceration toward rehabilitative treatments and services. For many low-level offenses, for example, the report says police officers should issue citations instead of arrests. And state governments should stop arresting people for failing to pay fines. Instead, the report says, state and local governments should expand waiver systems and community service options.

“States ought to realize that the women in their care are victims as well as ‘offenders,’” Sawyer told Colorlines. “In response, states should be actively developing alternatives to incarceration and directing women toward those programs, something that, incidentally, would have an outsized positive impact on our justice system as a whole.”

Read more on Colorlines.com.