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
Jan 25, 2024 | Mental Health Ministry, Stronger Together Support Group
Hello friends,
Oxford Languages defines stigma as, “a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.” It defines stigmatization as, “the action of describing or regarding someone or something as worthy of disgrace or great disapproval.” Even the definitions make me cringe.
This week we’re going to watch a quick video about the stigmatization of mental illness: Ending the Stigma of Mental Illness (youtube.com). We can discuss personal or witnessed stigmatization of people with fragilities, especially mental illness, and even the stigmatization of families and loved ones of people with mental illness. This video is made by an organization co-founded by Glenn Close, “Bring Change to Mind” which is working to destigmatize mental illness.
Here is a link to an article that discusses mental health stigma
Mental Health Stigma and The Pandemic | Newport Academy
Our warm-up question for this week:
Tell us about a time when you felt stigmatized or witnessed it, for anything, i.e. age, gender, personality quirks… .
Alex asked me to fill in for him this week, and we all know those are big shoes to fill. Here is the link, and it is the long kind as I don’t know how to make it short like Alex does. Please be patient with mistakes and hiccups. Hope to see you Thursday.
Deatley
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 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
Sep 26, 2023 | Mental Health Ministry, Stronger Together Support Group
Hello friends,
Sometimes the simplest of metaphors help us see an issue from a deeper, more personal level. That’s why we’re going to watch a short video about a dog this week. [Insert joke here about how we’re not dogging it in Stronger Together, or about depression being a “total dog”, etc.]
In this case the “dog” is depression, and if you’ve never experienced what it’s like to live with clinical depression (as I have not), this is a great way to understand it through a different lens. Also if you’re like me and you happen to like dogs regardless of their coat color, you might feel ambivalent about this metaphor… at least until the end of the video.
Our warm-up question for this week:
Describe how your week has been using a metaphor. Similes are okay, too!
See you soon,
Alex
