Mental Health Forum

Children's Mental Health and Screen Time: Understanding the Risks and Finding a Balance

In today’s digital age, screens are a significant part of children’s lives. From smartphones and tablets to computers and televisions, screens offer a plethora of entertainment, educational content, and social interaction. However, excessive screen time can have adverse effects on children’s mental health. Understanding these risks and finding a healthy balance is crucial for fostering optimal well-being in young minds.

The Impact of Excessive Screen Time

Research has shown that excessive screen time can negatively affect various aspects of children’s mental health and development:

  1. Increased Anxiety and Depression:

    • Social Comparison: Social media platforms often present idealized versions of life, which can lead to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem in children who compare themselves unfavorably.

    • Cyberbullying: Online interactions can sometimes lead to cyberbullying, which has been linked to increased anxiety and depression among young people.

  2. Sleep Disruptions:

    • Blue Light Exposure: The blue light emitted by screens can interfere with the production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep. This disruption can lead to difficulties falling asleep and poor sleep quality.

    • Overstimulation: Engaging with stimulating content before bed can make it harder for children to wind down, affecting their overall sleep patterns.

  3. Reduced Physical Activity:

    • Sedentary Behavior: Prolonged screen time often results in a sedentary lifestyle, which is associated with various physical health issues and can impact mental well-being.

    • Limited Outdoor Play: Excessive screen time can reduce the time children spend outdoors and engaging in physical activities that are beneficial for mental health.

  4. Impaired Social Skills:

    • Reduced Face-to-Face Interaction: Excessive screen time can limit opportunities for face-to-face interactions, which are vital for developing social skills and emotional intelligence.

    • Dependence on Digital Communication: Relying on digital communication may affect children’s ability to navigate real-life social situations and handle conflicts effectively.

Finding the Right Balance

To mitigate the potential risks associated with screen time and promote healthy mental development, it’s important to find a balance. Here are some strategies for managing screen time effectively:

  1. Set Clear Limits:

    • Daily Screen Time: Establish and enforce daily limits on screen time based on age and developmental needs. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than 1 to 2 hours of recreational screen time per day for children aged 6 and older.

    • Screen-Free Zones: Designate areas of the home, such as the dining room and bedrooms, as screen-free zones to encourage more face-to-face interactions and promote better sleep.

  2. Encourage Healthy Content:

    • Educational and Age-Appropriate: Choose content that is educational, age-appropriate, and aligned with your child’s interests. Many platforms offer educational programs and apps that can be beneficial.

    • Co-Viewing: Watch and discuss content together to ensure it is suitable and to provide guidance on how to interpret and engage with what they see.

  3. Promote Alternative Activities:

    • Physical Activity: Encourage participation in physical activities, such as sports, outdoor play, or family walks, to balance screen time with movement.

    • Creative Hobbies: Foster interests in non-digital hobbies, such as reading, drawing, or playing musical instruments, which can provide cognitive and emotional benefits.

  4. Model Healthy Screen Use:

    • Lead by Example: Demonstrate balanced screen use by setting limits for yourself and engaging in non-digital activities. Children often mimic the behaviors they see in adults.

    • Family Time: Prioritize quality family time and activities that do not involve screens, such as board games, cooking together, or outdoor adventures.

  5. Monitor and Discuss Screen Time:

    • Regular Check-Ins: Have regular conversations about screen time and its impact on your child’s feelings and behaviors. This helps them become more aware of their usage and its effects.

    • Adjust as Needed: Be flexible and adjust screen time limits based on your child’s needs, their emotional well-being, and any changes in their behavior or routines.

While screens can offer valuable resources and entertainment, excessive screen time poses risks to children’s mental health and development. By understanding these risks and implementing strategies to manage screen use, parents and caregivers can help children develop healthier habits and promote overall well-being. Encouraging a balanced approach to screen time, fostering alternative activities, and maintaining open communication are key to ensuring that technology enhances rather than hinders children’s mental health.

Imperfectly Perfect Campaign’s Global Efforts to Challenge the Narrative around Mental Health

They are some of the worlds most recognised faces across entertainment, sports and corporate getting behind the Global Efforts of the Imperfectly Perfect Campaign founded by 1 Photographer whose aim was to change the ‘face’ of Mental Health & Challenge the Narrative around out.

The overarching aim of Imperfectly Perfect is to change the face of mental health by dismantling the stigmas associated with it. These stigmas tear at the very fabric of society where the very elemental courtesies for human decency are forgotten and eroded.

One stigma utilizes a language that proposes that Mental Health starts and ends quickly. Snapping out of it is a phrase often heard as a satisfactory treatment in the torrential battle of mental health disorders that engulf lives.

The scars of mental health disorders are very real and behind a face that from the outside you think is doing okay, there is a conversation we do not want to hear or listen to.

“Have you ever hated yourself and your life so much that you wanted to kill yourself? I have. [Robb Mack]

Isolated, given labels that epitomize citizens of the world who may lack intelligence, creativity and any sense of positive value, who battle a silent enemy. Every moment, minute, hour of the day, they fight, fight a battle that leaves them bereft, broken and exhausted.

"I have to fight. This Negative Self Harm talk, fear, doubt, insecurity demon that tells me "its all pointless, why bother, stay in bed it's never gunna get better, give up already […] and on and on and on." [Jeremy Jackson]

Stop for a moment, if this were someone you loved, your brother, sister, wife, husband or friend how would you champion them in their constant battle.

By changing the culture and challenging the perceptions of Mental Health Awareness, Imperfectly Perfect captures the essence of humanity by helping the world to see there is a serious issue that has no barrier of fame, fortune, social status, creed, beliefs, ethnicity or age. Their innovation is centred with founder, Glenn Marsden who captures the visceral emotion frame by frame, tear drop by tear drop. Glenn's heart knows, truly knows the plight through personal experience.

With that heart he is breaking ground and forging new paths. Join Imperfectly Perfect, and some of the world's most influential public figures to build a legacy - your legacy that surpasses time. A legacy that provides education, healing, support, advocacy and public awareness so that the conversation around mental health disorders normalizes, enabling your children, grand children and future generations to live without stigmas attached to mental health. imperfectlyperfectcampaign.org

Find us across all of our Platforms; https://linktr.ee/imperfectlyperfectc...

'You can do anything you put your mind to' with Angelica Bridges

The expression “multifaceted” is just one of the many ways to describe Angelica Bridges.

Angelica who hails from a small town in the USA and began her leadership and philanthropic aspirations at the age of 16, when she was crowned, Miss Missouri Teen made her bold move to Los Angeles, California to pursue her entertainment and educational dreams. She is is perhaps best known for her role as “Lt. Taylor Walsh”, on the international television series, “BAYWATCH”, The show which would go on to become, “The Most Watched Television Show in the World; and aired in 142 countries but has featured as an actress, presenter, model and spokesperson for some of the biggest shows and networks in the world as well as some of the most iconic publications inc. Maybelline, BMW, Geico, Nivea, Bally, Lexus, Mitsubishi, MTV, American VH1, E Television, The Young Hollywood Awards, Fox News, NYPD Blue, That 70's Show, Veronica Mars, The Bold and the Beautiful and countless more.

She lives for philanthropy and has dedicated her life to animal rescue as well as humanitarian causes regularly donating her time to many other charitable; non-profit organizations besides her own foundation, AngelicKitchen.org which prepares and donates meals to the homeless and those in need of food in Los Angeles.

Listen in to this amazing episode as we hear where it all started for Angelica, the drive it took to leave her small home time to head to the bright lights of Hollywood to pursue a career in Entertainment whilst also throwing herself deep into studying Communications at UCLA.

We delve deep in to a story that is so much more than what people see on the external and who the person truly is, and not who people think she is from an on screen persona.

We also hear of her passion for giving back with her humanitarian efforts, her passion for mental health advocacy and her upcoming film 'Sarogeto' from Award Winning Director Nico Santucci which is filled with relevant and thought provoking subjects including mental illness, and depression.

To find out where you can find Angelica, simply click the links below: Foundation: http://www.angelickitchen.org/ IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004774/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 Socials: @angelicabridges Sarogeto: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6943138/

To find out more information about the Imperfectly Perfect Campaign, our Global Efforts and how you can get involved, simply head to our official website at imperfectlyperfectcampaign.org

A big thank you to our Voice-Over: Mike Christensen (thevoicemonkey.com)

The Imperfectly Perfect Campaign MAGAZINE is HERE !

Something that we have been working on in the background with the team is the Imperfectly Perfect Campaign’s magazine to coincide with our Virtual Academy for the Youth of Tomorrow !!

Each month we bring you the very best in interviews and conversations around Personal Growth, Mindset, Business, Confidence, Body Image, Social Media, Sexuality, Community & Connections, Mental Health, Health, Wellbeing and Self Care with some of the biggest names across Entertainment, Sports, Business & Wellbeing.

Fronting our first ever issue is CEO of SMASH Global, Steve Orosco. From Wall Street to Professional MMA Fighter to CEO of one of the most prestigious Sporting Events changing the Fighting landscape in the USA !!

We have a jam packed magazine full of some of the world leading experts and International Public Figures including interviews with Robert Mack, Renee Gartner, Rachael Newsham and more

so to find out more about getting access to our digital magazine, advertising opportunities, simply click the link in our bio to say ‘I want ACCESS to the Imperfectly Perfect Campaign Magazine’ or you can email the team today at info@imperfectlyperfectcampaign.org

Imperfectly Perfect Campaign

https://lnkd.in/gY7AdDh

Willa Amai talks about her new music, mental health and more on the ImperfectlyPerfect Podcast

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We are so excited this week with the release of our upcoming episode for the ImperfectlyPerfect Podcast with the incredibly talented Willa Amai @willaamai

What an absolute honour to chat with an artist at such a young age making waves around the world with her music and songwriting, sharing her gift and openly speaking about her struggles with anxiety to let people know it’s ok not to be ok.

Coming up on the episode, we hear all about Willa’s journey from the age of 12-years-old, being introduced to multi-platinum, Grammy Award-nominated producer, Linda Perry @reallindaperry (P!nk, Adele, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera), where she played a fragment of a piece she had written and told to go back within 3 months with 5 more songs.

Not only did she go back, but with 6 songs.

Perry realized there was much more to this young musician and signed her to the label/publishing/management company she co-founded.

We hear all about her ability to put her feelings in to her songwriting, sharing her struggles with anxiety and using the power of that gift to tell her story which has seen her go on to achieve some amazing respect and recognition in the industry.

At 14, Willa won acclaim for her gently breathtaking rendition of Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again” (recorded with Dolly herself and featured on the talent filled Dumplin’ soundtrack). Esquire praised the duet as “truly exceptional” and “one of the few moments that an accompanying voice is able to keep up with Parton’s.”

Refinery29 hailed their interaction as “a passing of the torch.”

In addition to her duet with Dolly, Willa had the opportunity to join another of her musical influences when Brandi Carlile invited her to perform a duet at the Great American Music Hall.

Now 17, Willa has begun sharing her music with the world, showing the extraordinary depth of her narrative voice and the subtle power of her songwriting.

With her eagerly awaited first album ‘I can go to bed whenever’ releasing June 4, produced by Linda Perry and recorded in Los Angeles at Perry’s Greenleaf Studios with the album’s focus track "Too Close" comes out the same day

We are excited and so should you be !!!

Be sure to head to the ImperfectlyPerfect Podcast via all major podcast platforms including iTunes & Spotify, make sure to subscribe and keep updated when the episode releases.

To find out more information on Willa and her upcoming album, simply head to the links below:

Official Website: https://www.willaamai.com/

Official Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/c/WillaAmai

'When I got diagnosed with ADHD it all suddenly made sense to me' with Paul Danan

From Hollyoaks to Hollywood, Actor and Reality TV Star Paul Danan joins founder Glenn Marsden this episode to delve deep in to sharing his own personal journey discussing his career, opening up about addiction through to recovery and the day he got diagnosed with ADHD to it all suddenly making sense to him in understanding his behavioural patterns in the past.

We also hear how he overcame it to support others by openly sharing his own journey through his own highly acclaimed podcast series, 'The Morning After with Paul Danan'

To find out more information about Paul, simply head to his social platforms @pauldanan and you can find his podcast via all streaming platforms. 

Mel Greig Shares her Body Positivity & Spreads Awareness Around Our Mental Health Roundtable Series

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We had such an in-depth discussion on the Imperfectly Perfect Campaign Roundtable Series this week with @melgreig_ @edensassoon @andrealoganfitness @kimlifecoach and founder @_glennmarsden discussing and being open and honest about keeping it real, embracing body positivity and your imperfections. So much so that Mel led by example after talking on the forum and posted an amazing post to her socials about her daily dose of keeping it real. #bodypositivity

A big thank you to @dailymailau for picking up on this and spreading the message of embracing body positivity and Mel sharing news about the @imperfectlyperfectcampaign mental health forums.

To find out more about our International Roundtable Series and how you can get invovled simply head to the link below:

https://www.imperfectlyperfectcampaign.org/roundtable-digital-series