Coral emotional coach
© from the text Coral emotional coach: Eva Latonda © from the illustrations: Maru García, 2020
ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH
Do you know what happiness, sadness, anger and fear are? They are emotions. Everyone has them. Some people find it difficult to change their emotions. These are often people who need to improve their mental health.
This is why it is so good to learn to recognise and understand your emotions, so that when you're older you know yourself better and when you reach adolescence, if you have a mental health problem, you'll be better equipped to face it and even avoid it.
It is very important to look after our mental health: To eat properly, get enough sleep at the right time, use mobile phones a bit less and learn about our emotions and what they are for.
Our environment can play a role in the appearance of suspicious symptoms: family instability, lots of changes at home, the loss of a loved one, etc.
Coral, the main character in our story, has trained from an early age to understand her emotions; when she's sad her cheeks tremble, when she's angry she has a burning sensation in her stomach and when she is happy her arms tingle. This is why she is able to help so much in her therapy team. Her story is a very emotional one, as you will see.
This is a big red ball that bounces and bounces on a slippery surface...
No, it's not a brainteaser. Do you want to know what it is? It's a dream I had when I was much younger. I have had this dream many times, and the following day I would feel really sad. A real pain!
Now I'm a bit older, I have learned that it is absolutely normal to dream the same dream, and that being sad is not as bad as it seems. Like in that film called "Inside out".
My name is Coral. My mother gave me that name because she is a diver and she loves the bottom of the sea. She says that the reefs are full of colours, and when I was born I brought more colour to her life, and that's how I got my name!
Coral is neither a plant nor a rock; it is an animal. It's incredible! Thousands of them join together to form colonies.
Some are hard and others are soft.
I feel like coral because I am a bit of both
If "I am hard", I feel strong and capable of doing whatever I set my mind to.
But when "I am soft", I am more sensitive and I find it difficult to make decisions and every problem seems huge.
It's just the way I am.
My family thought these changes were down to adolescence but it turns out they weren't. I have a bipolar disorder.
Noooo, I don't live in both the poles,
ha ha ha!
What happens is that sometimes I am really happy and other times I am very sad.
I'm very creative. I like to write and act.
The people I talk to in my therapy sessions tell me to follow that path, because art can help me to role-play my emotions and not be afraid of them.
The theatre has been a training ground for me. Using my body to play characters helps me to quickly recognise emotions that might affect me.
And in that way I can get hold of them before
they explode - BOOM
My début (yes, that's what it's called, as if I were a professional actress),), was an anxiety attack, which is a bit like drowning, but you don't.
For the last few months I have been going to a group to talk about all these things.
I am the youngest one there. I am 16 years old and the next youngest is Poli, who is 21.
Poli was hooked on his mobile phone, so much so that he couldn't even sleep, rest or concentrate on anything and he even stopped eating andbecame very ill.
The therapist told me that I am a very positive influence on him and it has made me think:
He loves doing graffiti, so I encourage him to express himself through his designs, and now he is really happy.
Using creativity and imagination has made Poli a little bit happier. Emotions are so important. If it has helped us, I believe it could help everyone.
Like coral resisting the tides, I am going to train myself to become Coral, the emotions coach.
