Saturday, May 3, 2025

Conference May 15: “Facing Our Fears: Managing Anxiety about Life’s Uncertainties”

Facing Our Fears: Managing Anxiety About Life’s Uncertainties

Virtual Ability’s 14th annual Mental Health Symposium will take place on May 15, 2025.  The theme of this year’s Conference is “Facing Our Fears: Managing Anxiety About Life’s Uncertainties.”

Fear is a built-in human reaction. Fear of large carnivores, fire, dark, starvation, and strangers likely contributed greatly to the survival and early evolution of humanity. The modern world has given people even more causes for fear: community violence, biased public institutions, horrific war, climate change, racism, gender violence, and artificial intelligence, among many others. Fear can at times be useful, but it can also negatively impact the quality of life for some people. Disabling fear is a treatable condition. The varied causes and levels of intrusiveness of a fear demand individualized therapeutic approaches. The broad theme of this conference allows us to look at the topic of fear from a number of different perspectives.

The Symposium will take place in the virtual world of Second Life, at the Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability island.  The conference will also be live-streamed on Virtual Ability’s YouTube page.

Virtual Ability hosts this annual Symposium to share information about mental health and mental disabilities with the general population. Within our cross-disability community we have members who deal with a variety of mental health issues. Not only is this an opportunity for our community members to learn more about topics related to mental health from experts they probably would not have a chance to meet otherwise, it allows the general public to attend a professional conference at no cost. The current schedule for the conference is here: https://virtualability.org/mental-health-symposium-2025/


Friday, May 2, 2025

Displays and Exhibits for Healthinfo Island for May 2025

In Second Life, you can teleport to any of the eight displays and exhibits using the SLURLs in this posting. Click on the poster with the same name as the title of the poster set, and you will get a notecard that contains all the text of the posters plus descriptions of the images.  If you click each poster, you will get a private message with additional information and live links.

NOTE: May is Mental Health Awareness Month. All the posters this month are about mental health.
**The 2025 Mental Health Symposium is May 15. The topic is "Facing our Fears:  Managing Anxiety about Life's Uncertainties." Two exhibits that are specific to the Symposium are #6 (Facts About Fear) and #7 (Anxiety Disorders). Check them out! Here is the symposium schedule:
https://virtualability.org/mental-health-symposium-2025/

Mental Health Awareness
Mental Health Awareness
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/195/158/22


Basic Facts About Depression
Basic Facts About Depression

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/190/181/24


Music and Mental Health
Music and Mental Health

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/172/155/22


How to Get Mental Health Help
How to Get Mental Health Help
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/114/79/24


Signs and Symptoms of Poor Mental Health
Signs and Symptoms of Poor Mental Health
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/98/40/26


Facts About Fear
**Facts About Fear
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/50/28/28


Anxiety Disorders
**Anxiety Disorders
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/24/23/30


Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar Disorder
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/21/63/32

Central Pavilion of Healthinfo Island
Check out the calming breathing exercise on the back wall!
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/128/126/24

Thank you to Mook for help with the posters this month.