LIABILITY (Mental Health Awarness Month)

Written by Andi Bazaar, José Schenkkan Joseph | May 14, 2023

“Mental health has become a trigger word in its growing awareness, please do not abuse this term to gain attention or artificial sympathy. Do your research, understand what depression, anxiety and intrusive thoughts are."

May is "Mental Health Awareness Month" this is such a serious topic that still isn’t spoken about enough. If you are suffering, then I beg you please to talk to someone.

Just because you see someone looking happy or confident doesn’t mean they are, they might be trying to hide it. Always be willing to have these conversations because you never know if that will be your last chance to talk to someone suffering.

Let’s get this straight, you matter. I don’t give a shit what your political views are, your religion or if you are rich or poor. Depression and anxiety doesn’t discriminate between these, so if something is wrong, say something.

We lose nearly 45,000 people each year because of suicide, but we don’t give a damn until it hits close to home. So if you know someone who can be suffering, go talk to them. Initiate the talk because they may not be able to.

If you’re looking for a sign to talk to someone, this is it. I don’t care if I never met you or if you’re one of my best friends. I care about you so much and I want you here.

THIS IS A TOPIC THAT’S ALWAYS BEEN WEIGHING ON MY HEART

Mental health has become a trigger word in its growing awareness, please do not abuse this term to gain attention or artificial sympathy. Do your research, understand what depression, anxiety and intrusive thoughts are.

• do not use mental health as an excuse to not work hard, claiming mental health issues is a serious matter and should not be taken lightly. it is not a trend.
• you have the power to affect your mental health, if you are experiencing negative thoughts and strong emotions and seek professional help or at least talk to a friend.

Something I teach my players is positive rephrasing, flip the negative thought into a positive one by taking out the word “no.” This is a skill and takes practice to master, but it is amazing what it does to your perspective, internal voice and as a result your resiliency.

I am raising awareness on "Mental Health Awarness Month" I just don’t think some people realise how much some individuals struggle with this, I have been brought up within a loving family but have struggled with my own mental health in terms of anxiety for a number of years.

I am lucky that I have such a loving family to discuss these struggles and my anxieties with, I just want to share this to help people, I hope this article reaches far and wide to help anyone who may be struggling. I would like to put this out there to remove the taboo about mental health.

"Mental Health Awareness Week" is always full of people giving really generic advice and being generally unhelpful and ignorant while pretending to care, so here’s an article of things which personally help me who has awful Anxiety and OCD feel a tiny bit better. I hope it helps!

The main thing to do is to work out the source of your anxiety, is it triggered by certain things or is it general and unpredictable?

For me it’s around feeling illness, I worry about it all the time. Then if I feel sick or my stomach hurts, it gets worse. It’s not necessarily better or worse if it’s caused by something in particular or if it’s just general, but if you can work out an actual potential cause or something that makes it worse then you have something beyond just anxiety or OCD to work out how to sort and you may be able to help both.

Now the biggest actual advice I can give that helps me a lot is to kind of “scale” your anxiety, so rank it from 1-10 depending how you’re feeling. 1-3 (in my opinion) is “low level”. It’s there, it might be on your mind but it’s not bothering you too much and just doing normal things helps.

Then 4-6 is sort of mid level, this is where you might actually be feeling anxious and getting other symptoms and it starts to impact you. If you feel yourself at this point, work out what distracts you and do it.

• watch something that makes you laugh
• play a game
• do something that occupies your body and mind so there’s less space in your mind for your anxiety
• make sure you’re drinking enough water and also get fresh air even if just by opening a window
• fresh air will help your breathing
  the more regular your breathing the better you’ll feel

Then we get to the high numbers, this is a horrible place to be. If you’re at a 9 or 10 you could be panicking beyond control, hyperventilating and this is the point where for me logic goes out of the window.

When I’m not quite at this level, say I’m not feeling well I can think to myself about how it’s unlikely I’ll be illness or if it’s nervousness about something else I can attempt to calm myself down and balance out the irrational anxiety but there comes a point where this doesn’t work.

If you’re at that extreme level where you’re having a full on panic attack and you’re spiralling and nothing helps, it sounds stupid but get outside and walk preferably with someone.

Fresh air helps as I said. The more you panic, the more shallow your breathing and it’s a vicious cycle of feeling you can’t breathe. If your heart is racing it can make you dizzy and feel ill, so the less you panic the physically better you’ll feel and hopefully that will calm your anxiety as well.

If it’s not hot out, you’ll also cool down which helps. Walking (or any other exercise) gives you something to think about so have a destination in mind to make sure your mind can’t wander.

• being outside in the world and around other people will also help ground you.
• being alone and feeling trapped and isolated will make you 100 times worse and talking while walking is perfect because you’re physically and mentally occupied and you can either talk through your worries and get them off your mind, have some practical advice if there’s a reason you’re worrying or just distract yourself and try and forget about it.

Sometimes this won’t make you completely better, you can be out for an hour or two and not be completely calm but if it can get you down to even a mid level anxiety where your brain is kind of working again and you can do some small things that help distract you I promise you’ll get better.

Using a scale like that helps because instead of just thinking “I’m anxious and panicking,” you can work out exactly how bad you’re feeling and work out what you’re capable of in that mindset.

As with anything, the earlier you notice a problem the easier it is to cure. So when you feel that anxiety starting to appear, tackle it and find something that comforts you then before it turns into something much worse.

Everyone has different things that help, my main ones are walking, getting out and doing things also in person conversations.

I have nothing to help with OCD though unfortunately because trying to tackle intrusive thoughts and rituals is much harder and the more you get worked up about trying to stop them, the worse they get. So I’m no help there but I hope the anxiety advice helped someone.

It's Mental Health Awareness Month and I'd like to share my battles with Anxiety and repainting my past as a "Highly Sensitive Person" or HSP.

Ever since I was young, I was the silent one the shy, unpopular kid who existed on the fringes of the class, you could say I was too shy. I seldom suffered bullying, but mostly because I was invisible.

But what my classmates didn't know was all of the storytelling memories I have from elementary and high school where my best friend and I would go and basically play improv fantasy stories on break from classes in a quiet area of the school where there were no other students.

The worst memory I have from my past was 28 years ago when I was just six years old, a girl in the class liked me and decided to violate my space by giving me a kiss on my rear neck and telling me she loved me and I was just scared as f*ck.

She was pretty much hated across class because she would have instances of losing control of her digestive system during class and everybody made fun of her. This was the early 90s and she said she loved me? What even is love? Six y/o me was terrified.

I was so emotional and overwhelmed that I had my dad tell her not to come near me. Yes, it was that bad. Then after a few weeks, she left the school. The only time I saw her again was around 13-14 years later, she was gorgeous as a 20-year-old.

Back then, I didn't know what it meant to be a "Highly Sensitive Person." I didn't see that I was different, wired differently than my classmates.

I could look in your eye when I see you face to face and know what mood you're in right now, instinctively without having to guess it. I also know when people are lying to me or not being entirely truthful most of the time, there are some strengths to this trait but there are some downsides too. I only recently, at the age of 34 got my driver's license after around 60 lessons. The mandatory amount in Israel is 28.

I had sleepless nights before the lessons and thinking about driving without sleeping was even more stressful.

I even canceled a lesson two times at 4 or 5 AM when I was unwell to drive, there were times when colleagues would call me for a 1:1 and even though I knew I had nothing to worry about, my heart would still beat faster than a horse and my palms would be sweaty.

I remember that one time in 2018 when I sat for a 2:1 with my manager and the HR person and he asked me, "are you okay? You looked in pain for a second there." — the irony of that conversation was that I was given a raise.

If you're like me, it's effortless to find a thing to stress over during your day, but you also claim the benefits of a very sensitive nervous system. You could walk into a room and immediately know what's the vibe of that room. You might also be overwhelmed by lights or sound.

On the other hand, you're detail-oriented and know everything that needs to happen for a job well done. You're also a good leader, but it strains your energies faster than fire consumes a single match.

I literally cried during episode five of "MoonKnight" last week. I can't summon tears by command, that's an actor's feat but I could very quickly think about something that will make me want to cry and I probably will.

Ever since I discovered this trait about myself, I have needed to learn to paint the past in different colors. Maybe like me, people told you to toughen up. Perhaps they told you that you take everything too seriously or that they never meant to hurt you, you are unique.

“I want to be around people that do things, I don’t want to be around people anymore that judge or talk about what people do. I want to be around people that dream and support and do things.” ― Amy Poehler

You're already the dreamer, embrace it.

There's always more to learn and discover about ourselves, for me writing is the best tool to process. For others, it could be therapy. The worst of my imperfections I could never fix by myself.

If you waited for a sign to start a Mental Health journey, this is it. Feel free to share your own stories!

As a kid, I grew up anxious. Didn’t know what that meant at the time, but plenty of memories of my childhood are filled with signs of anxiety. I thought I was just “weird” and never bothered to tell anyone (I assume most of my family figured it out on their own).

In college, it got way worse and was accompanied by intermittent depression. Again, I never recognized it and thought I needed to “suck it up” or “grow up and deal with it.” I was an “A student” in high school and was failing classes constantly in college.

It was my 3rd year of college when I finally hit rock bottom. At this point, academically, I had a (*NSFW*) 2.1 GPA; I started skipping classes, I stopped talking to many of my friends, and I would often lock myself in my room and just cry bc I was in physical/mental pain.

I started writing in a journal about ending my life. I never made a plan, but I thought about the idea. I thought that I was a burden and that no one would miss me and that life would be better for everyone if I were gone. Again, this never developed into an actual plan.

Luckily, I have great friends and family who noticed that I was secluded, crying often and some even found out about what I had written. They suggested I talk to someone, I met with a therapist until I graduated (~1.25 years). I finally learned how to approach my anxiety.

I still struggle with anxiety on a daily basis and those close to me know that some things are harder for me to do, normal daily activities can take a lot of energy or mental capacity but I’m still here and I’m in a better place to take on challenges due to anxiety.

Now I know that it’s ok to be anxious, I never took medicine (I do a lot of mindfulness/CBT) but it’s ok to need it for as long as necessary. However you are is the correct version of you and we all just work at being better every day.

THE MORAL HERE:

"If you’re struggling with these same diseases, it’s alright. Things will get better, no matter how bad they seem and no man is an island. Admitting you need to talk or that you need some help is brave and does not mean you are weak."

If you need help, I don’t mind helping you contact someone (I’m not a professional) or chatting. If your friends/family are struggling, a simple “are you doing ok?” can save someone. Listen to them and help them, I love you all there ain’t nothin’ you can do about it.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO:

• Andi Bazaar (Writer)
• Yevhn Gertz (Director Photography)
• Dr Oliver Schofield, MD (Consulting)
• Dr Seth Gryffen, MD (Consulting)
• Timothée Freimann schofield (Photographed)
• Clayton Euridicé Schofield (Editor/Journalist)
• Scott Wynné Schofield (Publisher)
• Henrie Louis Friedrich (Analyst)
• Jwan Höffler Conwall (Art Interior Design)
• Hugo-licharre Freimann (Ass Director)
• Shot at GQ’s Studios by José Schenkkan and Benjamin Schenkkan Joseph
• In appearance by "José Schenkkan Joseph” (Model)