Blog

Distress, anxiety, and anger are just some of the psychological impacts of the climate crisis on the well-being of children and young people worldwide. A recent study, the largest of its kind — asked 10,000 young people in 10 countries how they felt about climate change and government responses to it.

Not having all the answers when supporting a friend experiencing a mental health difficulty is not necessarily a bad thing. Resist the urge to fix.

It’s Movember, the month when we focus on men’s mental health and raise awareness and improve mental and physical health outcomes for men around the world. Some show their support with symbolic moustaches, while others lend their voice to the overdue conversation about men’s mental health.

As a former (recovering?) book snob, I think there are far worse things in life than trading your glasses for earphones and enjoying the escape of storytelling once again.  Mental illness already robs us of so much of the simple pleasures of life.

Recent events have highlighted the need for change in how we do business, manage operations, and provide psychological safe space for the workforce. What we perceived as “working” before, it would seem, is no longer working.

It’s clear that something is not right. What do you do? Maybe nothing – after all, this is none of your business, right? But wait, if someone needs help, you want to be supportive. Then you remember your mental health first aid training, and you know the next step is to reach out. But how?

Twenty-something years ago, after Y2K did not result in the collapse of the modern world, my university campus general practitioner proposed something radical: while I was waiting for an appointment with specialized mental health services, I could access a newly-developed service that would offer Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to me online and from the safety and comfort of my dorm room.

I realize that, while I may have made great strides and had great awakenings in a short time, it has been a long-term process. All my efforts, everything I did to try to help myself, were all steps to getting me where I need to be. It took me a long time to get here but I never gave up. It takes hard work and dogged persistence to conquer trauma, but I got there, and you can too.

I was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder, exacerbated by postpartum depression shortly after my son was born. When I first heard my psychiatrist say I was diagnosed with bipolar I did not want to believe it.