Dec 6, 2023 | Mental Health Ministry, Stronger Together Support Group
Hello friends,
One of my favorite things about our group discussions is that we get to go pretty deep into mental health topics that don’t come up in conversation often enough. It’s good also to step back on occasion to “see the forest through the trees,” as the saying goes. All the topics we discuss are about people, after all. It’s not about illnesses, or treatment paradigms, or biases, or strategies; it’s about the people in our lives, and about ourselves.
We’re going to watch a beautifully composed 7-minute video to bring this point into focus on Thursday. It’s the story of Kevin Love, who you may or may not be familiar with as a longtime star player in the NBA. His story is both extraordinary because of who he is and how he has shaped his life in response to mental health challenges, while also being entirely ordinary and relatable because of the honesty with which he talks about these challenges. He sums up his approach as “putting all my cards on the table.” Deal!
Our warm-up question for this week:
What is your favorite game to play, whether a sport, a card game, or anything else?
See you soon,
Alex
Nov 29, 2023 | Mental Health Ministry, Stronger Together Support Group
Hello friends,
A couple of weeks ago we explored how culture can shape our assumptions about mental illness. This week we’ll explore a related topic: how behavior and mannerisms influence our assumptions about mental health and well-being. This is a good time to discuss this topic because as many of us know, the holiday season is a time when people can experience both “high highs” and “low lows” in mental health.
We’ll watch a brief but powerful video about checking in with others, which was developed in partnership with a mental health organization called Samaritans. Hopefully we’ll have a candid and compassionate conversation about our own experiences with mental health symptoms and how they are or are not understood by others.
Our warm-up question for this week:
Describe your favorite dish from Thanksgiving in mouth-watering detail. Bonus points if you also describe an “epic fail” dish!
See you soon,
Alex
Nov 21, 2023 | Mental Health Ministry, Stronger Together Support Group
Hello friends,
First off, thank you so much to Sampson for stepping in and facilitating last week’s conversation. I am so grateful for the support!
It’s Thanksgiving week as you surely know, so instead of our normal Thursday evening discussion we’ll have a brief (usually 30-minute) “holiday check-in” Wednesday at 7 p.m. instead. There’s no predetermined discussion topic, just an opportunity to see how everyone is doing, offer an encouraging word of support, and maybe swap a recipe or two. It’s a wonderful way to add a little joy to your day.
We still have a warm-up question this week, so get ready!
Making small talk can be fun for some people, and awkward for others. What’s a “go-to” question you use to initiate small talk with someone you don’t know well?
See you soon,
Alex
Nov 15, 2023 | Mental Health Ministry, Stronger Together Support Group
Hello friends,
We have many preconceptions about mental illness that we may or may not be aware of—who it affects, what it looks like, how it should be addressed—that are ingrained in us through the images we see, the voices that get (or don’t get) elevated, and the many other ways in which mental health is represented in our society. These preconceptions can make it a lot harder for some people to get the help they need when facing mental health challenges because they invite stigma, intentionally or otherwise.
This can be especially true for people in cultures where mental illness is not yet widely regarded as a treatable illness, for men who have been trained to suppress emotions to avoid projecting weakness, and for people of faith who have been taught that seeking help “apart” from God is a betrayal of religious conviction. In today’s conversation we’re going to hear from one person for whom this was the reality of seeking help for mental illness. Some questions to consider as you watch this 9-minute video:
- Do we have an assumption about what “being mentally ill” looks like? How has that changed over time?
- What role does culture play in determining who does or doesn’t get help for mental illness?
- Do we have a problem with mental illness education and awareness being overly represented by people from some cultures or backgrounds?
- What preconceptions do we have about mental health that intentionally or unintentionally create stigma?
Our warm-up question for this week is more of an activity than a question:
Choose one person in the discussion and tell us something you appreciate about that person. The more specific you can be, the better!
See you soon,
Alex
Nov 8, 2023 | Mental Health Ministry, Stronger Together Support Group
Hello friends,
However many decades ago, post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, was a relatively unknown form of mental illness. There have since been massive public education campaigns on PTSD and how it can affect people who experience significant tragedies, particularly soldiers involved in war. In the however-many-decades since, education efforts have increased awareness to the point that you often hear people jokingly or half-seriously talking about having PTSD, similar to how people often talk about depression and anxiety.
Awareness is good, but it’s a double-edged sword: we throw around mental illness labels like PTSD too frequently and unseriously, and as a result we may think we know what PTSD really entails, but probably we don’t understand it as well as we should. The result is both a tendency to self-diagnose (don’t do this!), as well as dangerous misperceptions about how the illness actually affects people (stereotyping and prejudice… don’t do this either!).
How do we address these risks? First, we actively seek to learn, even when we think we already have the right answers. Second, we actively seek to listen with compassion and curiosity to those whose lives have been directly affected by mental illness. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do in this week’s discussion, starting with a brief but highly informative video on PTSD inspired by a mental health advocate who has lived with the condition. Another great opportunity to become more educated and to expand our capacity to empathize!
Our warm-up question for this week:
Would you rather be good at writing books, or writing songs? What’s one book or song that you wish you could have written?
See you soon,
Alex
Nov 2, 2023 | Mental Health Ministry, Stronger Together Support Group
Hello friends,
We’ve talked before about the virtues of journaling for promoting mental well-being, but there’s a slightly different form of writing that has been shown to be especially powerful for helping people recover from traumatic situations and generally “getting out of our own heads.” It’s called expressive writing, and it helps us make better sense of ambiguous or otherwise anxiety-causing thoughts and feelings. Once we make better sense of them, it’s easier to move forward.
It sounds simple because it is! We’ll start this week’s discussion by watching a brief video about the power of expressive writing and how to get started with the practice. From there we’ll reflect on when and how writing/journaling exercises such as this one have (or could have) made a positive impact on our well-being. We might even try a mini-exercise together during the discussion!
Our warm-up question for this week:
Flashbulb memories are vivid, long-lasting memories about a surprising or shocking event from the past. What’s a flashbulb memory from your childhood?
See you soon,
Alex
