Feeling Depressed, Happy and Other Emotions (Asia Region)

1. What was it like to watch this video? What is your initial reaction?
2. What other emotions can a person have that are not stated in the video?
3. If a person has mood swings, how could their feelings affect communication with other people?
4. Why is it important for someone to identify their emotions? How can a person identify their emotions?
5. What are your key takeaways from this video and discussion?

• Respect participants’ opinions
• Practice active listening
• Use inclusive and gender-neutral terms
• Give everyone a chance to answer share
• Remind participants to be respectful of others and practice active listening

• This discussion may trigger anxiety in participants who are currently or have previously experienced depression. Before conducting the session, be sure to let them know they can talk to you after the session and be prepared to provide referrals to a counselor or health services as needed.
• Be attentive to participants’ special needs. Some participants may need special arrangements to engage in discussions or activities. For instance, you can adjust the physical space to accommodate participants with limited mobility or modify the activity to require less movement.

After five minutes, have everyone gather around two flipcharts or divide a Google Jamboard into two sections. The first flipchart or section will be used to take notes on strategies that a person can use to manage emotions, and the other one is for strategies that a friend or family member can use to support someone dealing with their emotions.

What could the person do to manage their emotions in this situation?

What could the person with them do to support them?

Note: The scenarios can be adapted to reflect different sexual orientations, and language can be adjusted to be gender-neutral by using the pronoun “they” instead of “her” or “him” and using gender-neutral names.

Ask for a volunteer from the first group to read their scenario and present the points noted on the sticky notes. Display the sticky notes on the paper board/flip chart. Ask if any groups with the same scenario would like to add any additional strategies and allow them to add their sticky notes to the paper board/flip chart. Repeat this process for the second and third scenarios.

Once done, complement the contributions with the following tips if not already noted:

What could the person do to manage their emotions in this situation?

• Take a deep breath, acknowledge thoughts that come to mind, and allow yourself to feel the emotions. When the emotions feel intense, write down or document your feelings in a journal, and read them later when you feel better.
• Learn ways to express emotions. For instance, some people might feel better after being angry if they scream into a pillow, or punch it. Some people also feel better after crying.
• If it starts to feel overwhelming, seek support from trusted adults – this can include parents, teachers, a guidance counselor, coach, member of the faith community, or doctors/nurses, or seek virtual counseling or therapy.
• Seek out spaces where you can be heard and hear from others with similar feelings, such as community support groups.
• Practice gratitude and compassion by checking up on friends and/or family, and spending quality time with them.

What could the person with them do to support them?

• Notice the change in their mood through facial expressions or body language, and offer to listen if something is on their mind.
• Validate their feelings, and be understanding of them. For instance, if a friend is depressed, be understanding by not getting mad at them if they don’t come to a party that you invited them to.
• If feeling negatively impacted by a friend or family member’s emotional challenges, distance yourself from them for a time. Once feeling better, listen and be supportive again.
• Practice active listening. If they trust you with their personal stories, listen to them actively, don’t judge, and don’t interrupt the conversation.

Conclude the session by sharing the key summary points below:

During puberty, you may experience many physical and emotional changes as you pass from childhood into adulthood. Many of these changes result from hormones, the chemicals in a person’s body that communicate to certain body parts how to grow and change. Hormones play an important role during puberty, and it’s normal for young people’s bodies to undergo many hormonal fluctuations while growing up.

Mood swings, the quick change of a person’s feelings, sometimes from one extreme to the next, are often the result of increases in certain hormones. This is because hormones affect the limbic system in the brain, which controls the regulation of feelings. So young people might be excited and happy one minute and then feel angry and upset another. Some-times it can feel like the smallest thing can trigger an intense response from a young person going through puberty. This is all normal due to the new levels of hormones in the body. Emotions are normal and remember that there is no such thing as ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ emotions. You are you, not your thoughts and emotions.

Anxiety – A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome.

Burnout – A syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.

Community support – A support that may be organised through family members, friends, neighbors, religious organisations, community programs, cultural or ethnic organisations, or other support groups.

Counseling/Therapy – Falls under the umbrella term ‘talking therapies’ and allows people to discuss their problems and any difficult feelings they encounter in a safe, confidential environment with a trained mental health professional like a psychiatrist, therapist, or counsellor.

Depression – Common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. It causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease your ability to function at work and at home.

Gratitude – The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return.

Mental Illness – Health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illnesses can be associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities. Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviours.

Meditation – is a contemplative practice, used in various religious and spiritual traditions as a means of quieting, focussing and transforming the mind. Meditation cultivates self-awareness and provides the optimum conditions for practicing the skill of mindfulness.

Mindfulness – Being aware of where we are and what we are doing, able to maintain a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens. It means being fully present and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what is happening around us.

Stress – Any type of change that causes physical, emotional or psychological strain. Stress is your body’s response to anything that requires attention or action.

Trauma – An emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, assault, or natural disaster. Immediately after the event, shock and denial are typical.

In partnership with Kahoot!, AMAZE has designed a series of quizzes to spark meaningful conversations and create engaging learning experiences. Peer educators can encourage participants to play this optional quiz from AMAZE on Kahoot! Academy at the end of the session (in-person or virtually) for which participants use a smartphone, tablet, or computer to participate.

Access the Kahoot here https://bit.ly/kahoot_emotionalchanges-puberty
Below is the list of questions in the Kahoot Quiz, and the respective answers are in orange.

1. [True or False] Adolescents experience emotional changes during puberty as a result of new chemicals in the body, called hormones. True
2. [True or False] The best way to respond to a friend who is moody and mean is to lecture them and tell them what they are doing wrong. False, lecturing or telling someone what they should or should not do is not helpful and can make them feel worse. It’s often better to listen more than talk and show support.
3. [True or False] Depression can only affect girls. False, depression can affect anyone at any time.
4. [Quiz] If a young person feels depressed and would like to talk to a trusted adult, select people that might be able to help.
   
   1. Parents
   2. Teachers
   3. Counsellors
   4. Other adults who are respectful, trustworthy, and can listen without judging