{"id":281006,"date":"2018-07-30T06:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-07-29T22:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=281006"},"modified":"2018-07-30T06:00:55","modified_gmt":"2018-07-29T22:00:55","slug":"no-man-is-an-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/no-man-is-an-island\/","title":{"rendered":"No man is an island"},"content":{"rendered":"
From left, Nadine Hamilton-Sablan, AJ Mettao, and Glenda S. George-Benavente of the Community Guidance Center. (Bea Cabrera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The line that \u201cno man is an island, no man stands alone\u201d may be clich\u00e9d but is true, especially when it comes to taking care of one\u2019s mental and emotional health.<\/p>\n

AJ Mettao, a behavioral health tech at the Community Guidance Center, certainly believes so. \u201cFirst thing that a person should think about when it comes to achieving a healthy mental and emotional health is that he or she is not alone. It\u2019s a common feeling and a lot of people have those feelings, so never feel like you\u2019re the only one who thinks this way because many people think the same,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I think it\u2019s a normal feeling and the key is to allow it to pass. It only becomes an issue or problem when you hang on to it, when you feed it, and when you keep on giving it life and energy. Many people go through doubts, negative thoughts and feelings of inadequacy. Those are all normal feelings and don\u2019t feel alone. Just let it pass as any emotion should,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Nadine Hamilton-Sablan, director for CGC, said that what we think and feel determine our mental state. \u201cWe always need to have a balance in our thoughts and emotions so that we can better interact with other people\u2026 we are social beings and we have to interact with people so what you think and feel becomes you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you feel overburdened, you need to seek help. People in the community are actually ready to help and just by talking to the person\u2014someone you work with, your mother, sister, friend or anyone\u2014helps a lot,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Mental or emotional health problems can happen to anyone and the way to counter it is to be aware of it as a step toward getting empowered. <\/p>\n

Clinical services officer Glenda S. George-Benavente said that empowering one\u2019s self is important in overcoming mental and emotional problems. \u201cEmpowerment is learning how to cope and experiencing hardships and going through it on your own. Whether it is the right decision or not, you will eventually figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you just have to fall to pick yourself up and then say I can do this, I\u2019ve gone through this and whichever way it was, it was you who made your way up. The support of family and friends will help but doing it on your own and making it marks true success\u2014of being able to overcome life\u2019s challenges,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Mettao echoes George-Benavente\u2019s thoughts about empowerment. \u201cMost of the participants that come in, we empower them\u2026we help them realize that it\u2019s within themselves that they can figure out what works for them\u2026Empowerment means giving them tips like you can do this, check out what works for you. This makes them stronger because of the thought, \u2018Hey, I handled this on my own\u2019 and this makes them realize they are strong and can take care of things.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s the basis of CGC: to empower the community to make you feel like you are in the driver\u2019s seat, you are in control and it\u2019s not one of those things you can\u2019t handle because, at the end of the day, you just need some guidance,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

There are no specific criteria why and how some people eventually have mental and emotional problems\u2014it could be genetics or circumstances\u2014but whatever it is, getting help and support are equally important.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmbrace who you are\u2026we value each and every person for what they bring. We are looking at social support, that\u2019s a big factor in our program at CGC. We are also bringing in cultural activities to help build that foundation so people will have an environment that is continuously growing,\u201d George-Benavente said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimply put, we need one another, we need others to survive and just like the saying goes, \u2018It take a village to raise a child,\u2019 especially on this island that is small, we need all the help we can get,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The Community Guidance Center is a division of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. For more information about its programs, visit them at the second floor of the TSL Plaza in Garapan or call (670) 323-656560-61.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The line that \u201cno man is an island, no man stands alone\u201d may be clich\u00e9d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":281007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3593,140,324,67],"class_list":["post-281006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-supplement","tag-cgc","tag-commonwealth-healthcare-corp","tag-community-guidance-center","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}