Dec 5, 2024 | Mental Health Ministry, Stronger Together Support Group
Hello all,
Welcome back from Thanksgiving holiday. It will be good to gather together again on Zoom!
Warmup: If you could bring back one superstar of any field for one final performance, who would it be (Babe Ruth, James Dean, Elvis Presley…)?
Nov 16, 2024 | Mental Health Ministry, Stronger Together Support Group
Hi all,
This week we have an article to read instead of a video. It’s short though, so we can read it together if you don’t get to it before the meeting.
The article is “I Have Depression and Anxiety – 8 Things I Wish People Knew About It.”
Please bring your thoughts and questions to the discussion.
Warmup question: Tell us two boring but unlikely-to-be-known facts about yourself.
Sep 18, 2024 | Mental Health Ministry, Stronger Together Support Group
Hi all,
Warm-up question: What are your favorite fall foods and rituals? Your favorite pumpkin patches, fall festivals, and produce stands? (asking for a friend 
)
Kirsten
May 16, 2024 | Mental Health Ministry, Stronger Together Support Group
Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I am grateful to Brian for suggesting the topic for our conversation tomorrow. It reminds me of God’s call to St. James’ for the Mental Health Ministry. Since 2018, our mission for the ministry has been to help reduce the silence and stigma that surrounds mental illness and increase compassionate awareness and accurate understanding of it. In the attached short CBS interview, we hear Patrick J. Kennedy who struggles with Bi-polar and his efforts to reduce the persistent stigma leading to silence and shame around mental health problems. Yes, it takes real courage to talk about family and personal problems. As you watch this short interview, please think about what you would like to have done differently as you encountered people with mental illness, including your loved ones.
Please try to watch this video before our meeting, just in case I am not able to to share screen.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/patrick-j-kennedy-works-to-reduce-stigma-around-mental-health-substance-use-with-new-book/
Our warm-up question for this week:
What is the hardest thing you have ever done? What was the motivation behind that?
See all of you who can make it tomorrow,
Sampson
Feb 15, 2024 | Mental Health Ministry, Stronger Together Support Group
Hello friends,
It’s tempting to think of mental illness in terms of diagnoses, and to some extent it makes sense to do so. After all, by necessity there are commonalities in how people experience clinical depression or any other named health outcome. The problem is that there are wide ranges of experiences “within” a diagnosis; how one person experiences and recovers from clinical depression can be dramatically different from the next person.
This is yet another reason why it’s so important to anchor our understanding of mental illness on the perspectives of those whose lives are touched by it. Through this lens we can begin to appreciate how much diversity there is in mental illness experiences and outcomes. We’ll get a chance to do just this as we watch and respond to a video titled, “Mental Health: In Our Own Words” during our conversation this week. I hope to see you there!
Our warm-up question for this week:
Imagine you were going to take a cross-country road trip anywhere in the world…where would you go, and what kind of vehicle would you want to travel in?
See you soon,
Alex
