A Very Special Story to Celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month

05/20/20 • 51 min

Today we sit down with Alejandro, who shares his long and painstaking mental health journey. From Sexual Abuse to growing up as a part of a Religious Cult, he paints us a picture of what it was like going through it all and coming out a strong individual. With years of effort and help from college professors to non-profit organizations he has come out of it all stronger. This month we celebrate Mental Health Awareness, approximately one in five adults in the United States, 43.8 million, or 18.5%, experiences a mental illness in a given year and approximately one in five youth aged 13–18 (21.4%) experiences a severe mental health disorder at some point during their lifetime. Many national organizations such as NAMI, Mental Health America, and other affiliates spotlight Mental Health Month to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and to stop the stigma associated with mental health disorders.

You can also check out my daily gratitude posts on our Instagram page @Covid19andmi as well as our YouTube channel Covid19andmi. Let’s be givers of smiles as we share our isolated goodness. Thank you for listening and I hope this helps you in some way!

Previous Episode

Living with Anxiety Disorder during Covid-19

Today we talk to Jennifer on zoom and discuss what it's like living with O.C.D., Anxiety as well as Depression during and before the stay at home order. We define the differences between Anxiety and Anxiety Disorder. We also talk about the importance of being kind to ourselves during this scary, unknown, situation. I reached out and asked Jen for her perspective on a few questions, such as; "How has dealing with work life and home life changed since the start of Covid?", "What was living with Anxiety Disorder like before all of this?" and many more.
We also open up an exercise for anyone listening to look into Exposure Therapy (with the help and supervision of your therapist). It has been working well for Jennifer and it could possibly help you too. You can also check out my daily gratitude posts on our Instagram page @Covid19andmi as well as our YouTube channel Covid19andmi. Let’s be givers of smiles as we share our isolated goodness. Thank you for listening and I hope this helps you in some way!

Next Episode

How We Can Have Meaningful Interactions During This Time with Dr. Sage

This week we sit down with Dr. Sage Schuitevoerder, who has extensive training in empirically supported therapies ( “gold standard” of treatments) for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder such as; Prolonged Exposure Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). Dr. Sage dives into the male perspective and seeing another outlook of this virus that "shut down" this world along with Individuals who live in solidarity through this time. In the discussion he helps us understand a new way of creating meaningful interactions considering we can no longer just walk outside and give our friends and even family a hug when we need. We ask for different ways to cope with this new life transition for people who live on their own. Please join us in this meaningful conversation as we seek acceptedness during Covid.
For more information about Dr. Sage feel free to head over to his website http://www.sagephd.com/
As always we open up and exercise for all of our listeners. This week I give you some ways to get out of the monotony of Covid! For the list I give in this episode please head over to our resources page on our website @https://covid19andmi.com/my-resources/post/70541/15-things-to-do-to-get-out-of-the-monotony-of-covid . You can also check out my daily gratitude posts on our Instagram page @Covid19andmi as well as our YouTube channel Covid19andmi. Let’s be givers of smiles as we share our isolated goodness. Thank you for listening and I hope this helps you in some way!