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K-State Today

October 22, 2015

The wellness journey: Emotional wellness

Submitted by Human Capital Services - Benefits

Human Capital Services and Kansas State University are on a journey to encourage holistic well-being in the K-State community. Many K-Staters participated in the university's recent physical wellness challenge. As you improve upon your physical well-being, you also are having the extra benefits on improving your emotional well-being.

According to the Center for Disease Control: Regular physical activity can help keep your thinking, learning, and judgment skills sharp as you age. It can also reduce your risk of depression and may help you sleep better.

As we practice living our best, we should step into working on all realms of wellness.

October is Depression Awareness Month. Depression is a serious medical illness that negatively affects nearly one in 10 adults, nearly twice as many women as men and about 1 in 5 teens, according to a 2010 report from the CDC.

Some symptoms of depression:

  • Feeling sad, empty, hopeless or numb.
  • Loss of energy or increased fatigue, insomnia or oversleeping.
  • Irritability or anxiety causing one to be short-tempered.
  • Trouble making decisions or thinking clearly.
  • Feeling guilty or worthless.
  • Thoughts of death and suicide.

Depression is a serious illness, but is a treatable one. Depression screening is a nationwide public education effort to raise awareness for depression. Locally, organizations provide free screenings and give treatment referrals. For more information on screening tools or to take a depression survey, visit Help Yourself Help Others or the Mental Health Screening website.

The Employee Assistance Program also offers opportunities to assess your mental health, research ways to deal with personal situations and free in-person counseling sessions. This benefit is free to all benefit-eligible K-State employees.