Spiritual/energy healing
Some people who are struggling with their mental health find drawing on spiritual energies or forces helpful. This might mean visiting a faith healer whose work involves a spiritual approach, or having faith in the healing properties of a crystal or a stone.
While many people might question the potential for spiritual energies, forces and healers to help them, some young people told us that believing in the power of something outside of themselves can help to ease their symptoms.
What young people have told us:
'I do crystal healing and I think it helped because having something physical to hold and believing it will help you makes you feel better. In a way, it's speaking things into existence so many times that you believe it and it happens.'
'I can carry around my crystals and they make me feel better and give me a sense of comfort.'
'I is something I can do for myself and readily available at any time I needed it. This helps me feel calm and empowered.'
'Cause I felt that the crystal gave me comfort and I felt the energy through my hand help heal me and I knew it was there helping me.'
'It's something that is with me, I can connect with it and believe in the bigger picture. There is a greater force around us and this brings me comfort especially when I look at nature for inspiration, I love trees. Whether it's the placebo effect or not something really comforting happens when I use my crystals.'
'I would encourage them to try it. Encourage them to pick a crystal they feel drawn to and constantly reinforce that we have everything we need inside, the crystals just help us to connect to the aspects of self that we feel are in need of some nurturing.'
'I started collecting crystals mainly because I enjoyed them and how they look. Then I started to get into spiritual healing which is very beneficial. I always feel attracted to certain energies certain crystals give and it overall makes me feel better.'
There isn’t much academic research in the area of self-care for young people who are living with mental health issues. We are trying to find out more about what works for different people so we can better advise other young people what to try.
If you’ve tried this activity when you were struggling in relation to your mental health, please let us know if it helped you and how by clicking on the ‘Did this activity help you’ button.