There is a real conversation that needs to be had around mental health and emotional resilience – but it may not be in a language you recognise.
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Launceston has been the training ground for a new way of identifying and talking about emotions and is tackling mental health head on.
MYTERN is an emotional language toolkit that arms students with easy-to-understand metaphors to help them identify and combat their emotions.
The language was developed by former Launceston school teacher Jane Foster, who wanted to try and find a scientifically-proven way to help address mental illness and trauma at the start of the cycle.
“The way we deal with trauma is at the pathological end,” Dr Foster said.
“All of our treatment for mental health starts at the end, after the trauma has occurred, I wanted to try and find something that would address this trauma at the start.”
Statistics from BeyondBlue show that half of all life-long mental health problems begin in children before age 14.
The statistics also show one in seven young people aged 4-17 will experience a mental health condition in any given year and 6.9 per cent of those in that age bracket had suffered from anxiety in the past 12 months.
Dr Foster said MYTERN was partly an acronym that stood for “take emotional responsibility now” and used easy-to-understand metaphors for children and adults.
“We can’t be happy all the time, so, the only thing we can change is the language. Once I identified it I began to create a metaphor, to change culture and our response to emotional stressors and challenges,” she said.
WHAT IS MYTERN?
MYTERN uses the analogy of two roads and a steering wheel to help people identify their emotions.
One one hand is the green road, which is smooth and straight; on the other hand is the red road, which has rocks and is bumpy with lots of curves.
On the red road might be emotions such as feeling sad, angry, scared or jealous. While, on the green road might be emotions such as happy, confident and generous.
Dr Foster said the main message of MYTERN was simple: “there are no bad roads.”
“A glass of water is not a heavy object, but if you hold it for 10-20 months, or years, it becomes heavy. It is the accumulation of all these small things that leads to anxiety and depression, not one big event,” Dr Foster said.
“MYTERN teaches you how to empty that glass, to deal with those emotions effectively, and not to throw the glass away.”
Dr Foster said it was impossible to eliminate stress and challenge from people’s lives but MYTERN educations people of all ages to create health out of everyday stressors.
“By tackling the problem at the ground level individuals don’t end up feeling overwhelmed, but in control,” she said.
SCIENCE BEHIND THE WORDS
To back up her words, Dr Foster conducted a qualitative and quantitative study for her PhD in 2014, which examined how MYTERN could reduce anxiety in university students.
The study gathered data through surveys of wellbeing, that the students completed. In addition, interviews were also conducted with the participants, with the students being split into three groups.
One of the groups was a control group, one of the groups received “intervention” using the MYTERN strategy with a DVD and mini-manual and the third group received the DVD, mini-manual and a daily MYTERN SMS.
During the study, four out of 20 university student participants reported using the MYTERN system had stopped them from considering taking their own life.
“I created this to be a preventative,” Dr Foster said.
The study revealed that it was through a combination of feeling disconnected (both positive and negative), anonymity and being the recipient of a regular positive response via the daily MYTERN SMS, a feeling of connection was generated within the participants.
Dr Foster said the results of the survey supported her argument that MYTERN would increase the students’ psychological wellbeing, life satisfaction and resilience, and decrease psychological distress.
The MYTERN study was conducted over 10 weeks, and Dr Foster said the results provided a scientific foundation to build on her work.
ADAPT, NOT REACT
Norwood Primary School was one of the first schools to be a pilot site to engage with they MYTERN system.
Since then, there are now 16 primary schools in Northern Tasmania who have adopted the language, three secondary schools and three child care centres.
Primary schools that use MYTERN are:
- Norwood Primary School,
- East Launceston Primary School,
- South George Town Primary School,
- Perth Primary School,
- Trevallyn Primary School,
- Waverley Primary School,
- Evandale Primary School,
- Glen Dhu Primary School,
- Longford Primary School,
- Youngtown Primary ,
- Port Dalrymple Primary ,
- Westbury Primary School,
- East Tamar Primary School,
- Scottsdale Primary School,
- St Leonards Primary School and;
- Bridport Primary School.
The language is also implemented at Scottsdale High School, Flinders Island and Cape Barren District High School and Campbell Town District High, as well as at Newstead Child Care and the three Goodstart child care centres in Launceston.
Norwood Primary School parent and Headspace mental health lead Caroline Thain said MYTERN was used in her family once it had been established at the school.
She said as a mental health professional she found MYTERN useful as a strategy that complemented other “evidence-based strategies” but she initially had some concerns about the concept.
“I was concerned initially when I heard the presentation from Jane [Foster] about the use of the word ‘choose’. During the presentation she [Jane] would say you can ‘choose’ your emotions,” Dr Thain said.
However, it is important to note grief and other similar emotions can happen to a person without an active choice.
Those concerns were allayed after speaking further with Dr Foster, who said the language was aimed to equipping children with the tools to help them choose how they respond to stress.
Dr Thain said she definitely could see benefits of using MYTERN with her kids, and they do still use it, particularly with her youngest child Sophie.
“We use it to teach empathy between the kids, it is something they can easily grasp,” she said.
“I think it’s a very easy message that can be grasped across age groups despite developmental differences.”
A SIMPLE MESSAGE
The beauty in its simplicity, is that MYTERN is not just a tool that can be used for kids but can be adapted for use by adults and individuals.
City of Launceston alderman Janie Finlay was exposed to MYTERN through a close friend last year but also through her child’s primary school.
She now uses the method as a way of helping her identify her emotions when she’s dealing with particularly stressful periods in her life as well as using it with her family.
“What I love about it is that it is OK to say you’re on a red road, that you’re in a rocky patch right now,” Ald Finlay said.
“It is just such a simple message that anyone can grasp, it’s just so incredibly simple.”
Ald Finlay said she used MYTERN as an immediate way for her to identify her emotions, which can assist how she responds to a certain situation.
She said she used the language particularly during the recent local government election campaign, because it was often a period of high emotion, from both the red and green road spectrum.
“It’s incredible because it’s really something that has been developed and originated in Launceston, which is really exciting for our schools, students and families,” she said.
MYTERN is available via an app for adults, or individuals. Schools can contact Dr Foster via the MYTERN website to talk about adopting it for their school.
- An information session for parents and educators, or anyone in the community, about the MYTERN language will be held at East Launceston Primary School on Monday, November 19 from 7pm. For more information go to the Facebook event.