Month: April 2019

I am writing today’s entry on my brand new laptop.  It has been almost 8 years since I have purchased one, so I am pretty excited to enjoy some of the upgrades and new features.  In reality, I would have likely kept using my old laptop forever, but everything was running sooooo slowly, and my lack of patience finally pushed me to get this new one.

Overall, in my life, it feels like I am on the edge of a lot of changes.  As I write this, Spring is almost here, and I am very much looking forward to warmer days.  There are also some personal changes that may come my way, and regardless of what happens I am grateful that I at least get the opportunities to make these changes a part of my life. 

While change can be exciting, change can also be tough.  While the prospect of some of my personal changes is exciting, part of me is resisting changing anything because things are pretty good in my world already.  Why take a risk when there is so much on the line to lose?  What if the changes make things worse instead of better?  What if the changes I make are mistakes? 

For anyone facing mental health or depression concerns, change can also create a lot of anxiety or fear or a wide range of other thoughts.  Change can be scary for anyone, but it may be even tougher when faced with a mental illness.  I think that when it comes to change, no matter what the change is, we need to consider how that affects people from a mental and emotional standpoint.  Again, change can be scary, but there are ways we can make those changes a little easier for everyone.  The first step is acknowledging that with change comes a mental health component that needs to be addressed.

Today I heard about another celebrity passing away, and now a lot of any media I see has that same story over and over again.  Any time a famous person dies it gives me an uneasy feeling, and I want to explore that today.

I will start by saying that the loss of life, regardless of whether they are famous or not, is sad, and I think every human life has some value in some way.  However, I have become increasingly disturbed by what seems like the public’s fascination with famous people’s deaths.  Even worse is when there are reports that someone is not doing well, and it seems like that person is meticulously watched, in case he or she does die.  It all seems very morbid.  It is like everyone is desperately waiting for someone to die so we can feel something.  I just can’t wrap my head around it.

Why all the outpouring of love, memories, and emotions after someone dies?  Yes, that is important, but are we waiting until that person dies to share these things?  Are we loving, reminiscing, and emoting during their life as well?  Maybe so, but that is not something I see a lot of in my experience.  Maybe I am tuning into the wrong type of media, but that is hard to know as well.

And, if you are faced with depression, news like this can add more sadness to an already tough state of affairs.  Perhaps the fact that we hear about these things constantly helps to explain why it seems like depression has reached epidemic proportions.  I am just as guilty as the next person, but I think we are fascinated with too many of the wrong things.  Perhaps if we focused more on our personal lives and relationships, we would spend more time being fascinated with the positive events the world has to offer.

Hello everyone. Starting with this entry, I will now be posting only once a week, with the goal to post on Tuesdays. At this point in my journey I feel that this is the right way to move forward, and I appreciate your support. As for this week, I hope you will use the time you would have been reading my blog post to share some time or kind words with someone, because that is a good way to boost your mental health. Take care and see you next week.

In the last few entries I have been talking about mental health and the workplace.  Today, I want to give you an example of how what appears to be a small incident can lead to a continuous cycle of mental and emotional wounds.  To me, recognizing small incidents is important, because they can add up to a bigger issue with mental health and the workplace.

The incident in question involved an employee being criticized for some work travel expenses.  Nothing wrong or inappropriate was done by the employee, but the employee’s management suspected the employee was not working during the trip.  Unfortunately, it seemed as though management could not move on from this incident, and within a few months the employee went to another team.  Now, it is several years later, and every time an opportunity to travel is presented, the employee is still denied the opportunity to travel, even when an event is in town and would save money for the company if the employee went instead of someone else.  The employee, who keeps pointing out the cost savings potential, has been told that he or she needs to move on from this incident.  Of course we don’t have all of the details of this story, but I find it amazing that management would ask the employee to “move on” when the history of the incident is in his or her face repeatedly!  This is incredibly inconsistent.  This also creates some real trust issues for the employee, because how can the employee trust anyone if it feels like no one trusts him or her?  How motivating or enjoyable can that environment be?  Are there no chances to learn or grow?  And again, this is a small example of how the workplace can create mental and emotional stress or issues for employees.

To me this example demonstrates that we all need to do better, and it especially highlights to me the importance of being as consistent as possible.  Don’t tell someone to “move on” when no else seems to be.  Match your words with your actions and show some accountability and integrity.  Even these simple things would likely make for improved mental health in the workplace.

To keep with the theme of mental health in the workplace, I want to highlight some resources available from NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) on the subject.

I am going to highlight three pages.  The first one can be found here: https://www.nami.org/find-support/living-with-a-mental-health-condition/succeeding-at-work  In general, this page discusses discrimination at work as well as making accommodations at work.  The page also includes links to other resources.  This is a great page for anyone who may be facing these situations.

The next page can be found at the following link: https://www.nami.org/Get-Involved/StigmaFree/StigmaFree-Company  NAMI has a program called StigmaFree Company, and will work with businesses to create a culture where employees’ overall health is valued, including mental health.  NAMI can provide support for corporate led and employee led initiatives, as well as consumer based programs.  This is a great page for any employee or employer who is looking to create a stigma free culture surrounding mental health.

The final page I will mention can be found here: https://www.nami.org/stigmafreeco/resources  This page is related to the StigmaFree Company page, and contains resources on mental health in the workplace.  Here you will find several guides, fact sheets, videos, messaging, and sharable items.  This is a great page for any employee or employer who is looking to learn more about mental health in the workplace and what can be done to improve the culture around it.

While I highlight three pages on here, my assumption is that NAMI and other organizations also have more great information on mental health and the workplace.  The good news is that there is a lot of information available now, and my guess is that in itself is probably a fairly new reality.  It is very inspiring to see all of the resources and support that is out there to help people navigate mental health in the workplace.  Since a lot of people spend a lot of time working, it is important that mental health be a part of the discussion when it comes to workplace culture.