Psychology/Mental Health

One easily overlooked aspect of an JET ALT/CIR/SEA's life is the mental health. The vast majority of people in the world will experience some sort of mental disorder at some point in their life. This section aims to address the different ways one can go about coping with stress as well as serve as a tool for improving one's mental health. Of course please keep in mind that showing symptoms/signs does not necessarily mean that you have a disorder. If these signs are intrusive and obstructive to your daily life and if they persist consistently over the course of few-to-several months, please seek out professional and/or non-professional help.

Very simply, the most common types of mental health issues among JET participants are anxiety (social, work-induced, General Anxiety Disorder, specific anxiety, etc.) and depression (Depression disorder, Major Depression Disorder, Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder, etc.). Much of the time, these kinds of things come in groups (ie. Depression and Anxiety) and things may overlap but so can the solutions. As underlined above, just feeling a sense of anxiety, sadness/depression, etc. does not necessarily mean you have a disorder, but please seek help if it is impacting your daily life in an obstructive fashion consistently over several months. It is also very normal (rather it's more concerning if you feel nothing at all) to have these kinds of feelings.

 Mental Issues/Disorders  * These are the psychiatric definitions for the disorders. If you are finding yourself with a couple of the symptoms or you have a sense of what anxiety/depression/etc. feel like, the "Methods" section still can help.

Mental Health Support Resources

"The JET Mental Health Counselling Assistance Programme provides a partial subsidy (50%, up to 20,000 yen per year) for counselling costs incurred through consultation with mental health professionals in Japan not covered by health insurance. The coverage period for this year is 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018. Please submit your application form for the subsidy through your contracting organization by 13 April 2018.

CLAIR also offers a free online service to provide JET participants with mental health assistance from professional counsellors using Web Mail and Skype. Please ask your contracting organisation for further information." (CLAIR newsletter)

http://jetprogramme.org/en/support/