Building on the Momentum from Mental Health Awareness Month
Throughout the month of May I had a handful of opportunities to share my story in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month. Each of these opportunities was unique and targeted a different audience, but every opportunity provided a new platform for me to be real and raw about my story and experiences. I enjoyed these occasions and am inspired to find ways to continue to partner with others and share my story and experiences beyond Mental Health Awareness Month.
My first big placement of the month was a short, few minute segment on TMJ4’s The Morning Blend Talk Show where Molly Fay took an opportunity to highlight the importance of Mental Health Awareness Month and gave myself and another mental health advocate, Dolores, a platform to discuss NAMI Greater Milwaukee and the annual NAMI Walk that took place virtually this year. The NAMI Walk is the primary fundraising event for the association every year, and helps raise money and awareness for mental health services in the local community such as peer-to-peer or family-to-family support groups for those affected by mental illness, as well as police de-escalation training and in school education about mental health and wellness.
I was both excited and nervous to openly share my diagnosis on local television. Even as someone who is so public with my story, there are still groups of people who know me but haven’t yet heard about my experience and diagnosis yet. These large scale opportunities can be overwhelming, but extremely rewarding. I practiced my opening message and prepared a few minute explanation of my experience and diagnosis, and then took the leap of faith and went live on the show!
I was blown away by the host, Molly’s dedication to reading my blog ahead of time and knowing some of my background. She set a perfect stage for me to share the most important aspects of NAMI and why fundraising for the cause is so important, while also providing people with a bit of insight into who I am and how open I choose to be with my mental health story. Check out the clip here!
A National Day of Hope For Those Struggling With Mental Illness
Shortly following that opportunity I was on a company-wide virtual panel for Mental Health Awareness Month at work. This was the first official mental health conversation that the company has had at an ‘all hands’ level, and it was so inspirational to see hundreds of colleagues and other professionals on the line empathizing with so much of my experience and finding incredible value in some of the tips and tricks we shared as panelists.
To give you a few of my key takeaways:
Stop multitasking. You think it’s helping make you more efficient, but it’s harmful to your brain and creates an inability to close the loop on conversations, meetings, projects, or ideas successfully.
Set boundaries. While you’re working from home you need even more distinct boundaries that create a separation between work and home. Have an ‘office space’ and dedicate that area to work time, while leaving sacred spaces such as your bed or couch for the enjoyable times - not when you’re in an 8 hour day of meetings.
Modify your expectations. Working from home during COVID-19 has a multitude of challenges for everyone - each of them unique to family makeup, home setup, etc. By adapting your expectations to suit your new normal you can help avoid negative talk such as telling yourself you’re not productive enough or beating yourself up for taking time for yourself with a long lunch or a late start.
Working from home, especially for this extended time is challenging for everyone, myself included. I find my mood and sense of productivity and accomplishment changing daily. Rather than allowing myself to ride the roller coaster of emotions, I work to set and maintain boundaries while also giving myself the grace and space to feel a range of emotions right now. Beginning and maintaining a conversation about mental health in the workplace is so important, especially as we continue to navigate a pandemic and a new form of work life for everyone.
The last official opportunity I took part in during Mental Health Awareness Month was an Instagram live conversation with a former colleague. This was the most laid back and informal conversation, but also quite possibly the most fun opportunity I’ve had so far. We spent an hour talking about my life pre-diagnosis and some of those early warning signs that I can only identify now. I talked about my episode and how my life drastically changed after that event. We even talked about stigma and how it displays itself differently in different communities and cultures.
Bipolar Brought Balance goes live with @moody_michelle talking about mental health
Each of these conversations is an opportunity to reach someone in need. An opportunity to make someone feel less alone, and educate along the way. My experience is only one perspective, of many with mental health diagnoses. I’m grateful for Mental Health Awareness month and want to honor the opportunities for collaboration that it created, but I also want to find a way to continue these important conversations throughout other months of the year.
Since Mental Health Awareness Month ended I have been fortunate enough to take part in an Instagram Live and Youtube Series about people with bipolar disorder, as well as film a podcast episode for the new show called Stories of Hope with Jayc. During the month of August I’ll be presenting as a part of the UW Madison’s 31 Days of Women Leadership Learning, and am hoping to continue securing more opportunities as time goes on. My story and my journey are a part of my life daily, but finding ways to continue to share the story regularly for those who don’t have first hand experience is important.
If you have ideas for how I can continue sharing my story, or opportunities that I can submit myself to for writing, speaking or collaborating - please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Mental health is important for us all - diagnosis or not. The more we share stories of diagnosis and first hand experiences, the more we can normalize mental health and create space for others to come forward and share their experiences too.
