Someone asked me yesterday what I’ve been up to. Not in a checking-in way. In the normal, conversational way people ask that question. What’s new? What have you been working on? I didn’t have an answer. Not a real one. Not one that felt truthful. It’s not that I’ve been doing nothing. It’s that I’ve been doing everything. Today alone — and it’s not even…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #8 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. This is the last Mental Health Awareness Month post. And it’s the one I’ve been most careful about writing. Everything else this month — the shame, the…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #7 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. Let’s say you’ve done the hard part. Let’s say you’ve had the honest conversation we talked about last week. You’ve admitted — to yourself and to someone…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #6 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. I’ve been building up to this one all month. Not because it’s the most complicated post to write — it’s actually the simplest. No frameworks, no clinical…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #5 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. When most people picture depression, they picture sadness. They picture someone who can’t get out of bed. Someone staring out a rain-streaked window. Someone crying for no…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #4 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. I used to wear my sleep deprivation like a badge of honor. Four hours a night? Five if I was lucky? That meant I was working harder…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #3 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. For most of my life, I had a very clear and very wrong idea about what strength looked like. Strength meant handling your own problems. It meant…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #2 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. Most of us don’t talk about shame. Not really. Not with any honesty or transparency. We’ll talk about depression, anxiety, addiction, burnout — we’re getting better at…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Entry #1 IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. There’s a voice in my head. Actually, that’s not accurate. There are several. And if you’re reading this, I’d bet good money you have them too —…
Mental Health Awareness Month – Introduction IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a mental health professional. I’m just a person who loves you and has been through some things myself. If you need professional help, please start here. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. And every year, the internet does its thing. Pretty graphics. Soft pastel campaigns. Carefully worded corporate statements about “prioritizing well-being.” Hashtags. Webinars….