At Mental Health America’s annual conference in Washington D.C., the theme was “dueling diagnoses”— the experience of having multiple medical conditions, typically affecting all aspects of health. Many of the speakers at the conference shared what it’s like to live with a physical illness along with mental health issues. Depression and anxiety are two…
When a group of leaders comes together to talk about mental health, it is likely that the phrase “policy changes” is going to be batted around. In this country, we have so far to go before the complicated, interlaced, systemic problems related to mental health policy are solved, and many leaders in the field have…
By Maureen Mahoney Flawless Intern In June, I attended the Mental Health America Conference with the Flawless team. It was three days filled with inspiration, hope, truth, resilience, education, and a strong sense of unity. By the end of the conference, I was already experiencing a profound connection between what I was learning and my…
By Tre Gabriel Flawless Intern In June we celebrate not only Father’s Day, but also Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month: a milestone that is just as important but perhaps less recognized. Men’s Mental Health Month is especially significant because it is dedicated to reversing a concerning statistic: men are less likely than women to seek…
By Tre GabrielFlawless Intern I have spent the past four years of my life in New York City: The Capital of the World. When I walk the streets of this great city—praised for being a melting pot—I often notice many people struggling who look like me and share my ethnic background. The topic of disadvantage…
By Tre Gabriel Flawless Fellow What is PeaceLove, and what exactly do they do? The 2019 Annual Peace of Mind Storytellers event answered this question: PeaceLove helps people achieve peace of mind. The Storytellers event brings together leaders, experts, and anyone else working to create peace of mind in their own lives and the lives…
At the beginning of the Saks Institute 2019 Spring Symposium, facilitator Elyn Saks quotes Freud: “Love and work…work and love, that’s all there is.” What people want, Elyn reminds us, is to love and to work. For people living with chronic mental health conditions, however, achieving the “work” part of this equation is often not…
Teachers go into education with eyes wide open, aware of its many challenges. They know that the pay might be low, the hours long, the to-do lists seemingly endless, and that they may have to toe the line between caregiver and educator for many students. Until recently, however, teachers wouldn’t begin their careers thinking that…
“I have depression; it does not have me.” – Michelle Williams Depression. What does it look like? That’s a tough question to answer. Depression on the surface can look like nothing more than a typical, “normal” human being. Or, in this one case, maybe even a vibrant, beautiful Grammy-award winning star. Michelle Williams is a…
It’s become a strangely familiar routine. It can be any morning, preparing for a busy day scrambling to get out the door with coffee and keys in hand, when a push notification will pop up on my phone: another celebrity has died by suicide. Every time, I feel a sense of utter shock, disbelief, grief,…