<div dir="ltr"><div>It seems like I've been around mental health issues all my life. I've seen it with friends, family, and co-workers. The recent high profile suicides, including murder/suicides bring to the forefront questions of when do we intervene? how do we intervene? how do we recognize a dangerous situation? Clearly these issues are not being handled well by the mental health professionals and to a certain extent their hands are tied by legal issues. So, we the community, the friends, the family have to be able to step in somehow and help. Sometimes that means being a friend and helping through difficult financial or emotional times, helping to think through faulty assumptions or paranoia, and sometimes to absolutely insist on seeking professional help. <br>
<br></div>So, that's how I saw the discussion developing, but these are tough issues and may well be beyond the scope of an informal lunchtime talk about difficult co-workers.<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jun 2, 2013 at 1:02 PM, Chris Weyl <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cweyl@alumni.drew.edu" target="_blank">cweyl@alumni.drew.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Jun 1, 2013 at 7:52 AM, Matthew Harris <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:admin@mattharris.org" target="_blank">admin@mattharris.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="overflow:hidden">I would like to talk about:<br>
<br>
If mental health is a disease or is it actually a learned behavior.<br>
Basic nature vs nurture discussion</div></blockquote></div><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">I think that's a separate discussion, one I'm happy to let the AMA and the folks who put the DSM together handle :)<br>
<br>I think what Rick and Duke are talking about is "how do we manage mental health issues when working in a field that depends ~100% on our brain?"[1] Given the stigma still surrounding mental health and how much of an impact it can have on work and life, I think it's an excellent BoF suggestion.<br>
<br></div><div class="gmail_extra">For instance: How many of us get migraines and lose afternoons or entire days to them, and how many think a couple tylenol will "make it better"? How many of us are fighting with serious, clinical depression, have at one point, or know (and maybe lost) people with it? How many of us have felt crippled with anxiety over work projects or life issues? OCD? ADHD? Bipolar?<br>
<br></div><div class="gmail_extra">How do we create supportive workplaces that both allow us to support and maintain our mental health goals and those of others, while still getting the job done? What do we need to do to make these things complimentary, not competing, ends?<br>
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) is a powerful tool and covers some of these (e.g. migraines), but people cannot and will not get the support and help they need if they feel stigmatized. That can only change when *we* change, and accept that not all personalities and brains work the same way, even our own... and that's OK.<br>
<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"> -Chris<br clear="all"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">[1] And wicked vim skills, of course. Just saying.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br></font></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><div class="gmail_extra">-- <br>
Chris Weyl<br>Ex astris scientia
</div></font></span></div>
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