...Honors Talk Series...
"Mental Wellness When the Rest of the World Doesn't Seem to Care"
Speaker: Laura Johnson, FLCC Book Nook
Even in the best of times, there are those among us who
struggle with mental health and wellness.
And you might be one of those people.
Add to this the idea that we are, and have been, living in some
difficult times. What we end up with is the raw fact that many of us are looking about for support, for coping
mechanisms, for answers, and for acceptance. Too often the world seems unable or unwilling to give those things.
I consider myself a fairly happy person, but there are times
when I really struggle to understand why I feel the way I do or what I can do
about it when I am feeling less than my best self and I have no idea why. I have chronic pain, so I somewhat understand things
that are hard to explain to others (and sometimes to ourselves) because others
can’t see them.
I struggle with it, and yet I know that it doesn’t come
close to how someone who suffers from depression must feel. I want to be better equipped to help myself
when I need to so that I can better support those around me who need me to be a
good advocate for them and, so I can understand, so I can be a reliable member
of their support network. Even when
times are dark or hard or a struggle, we need to know that we are not alone and
we need to find ways to help ourselves and each other.
Because we all know that sometimes it feels like the world
doesn’t understand us, doesn’t see us, and has no idea how to help us or even
that we need help. Often, we are right.
Like my own chronic pain, mental un-wellness is often an
invisible struggle and as a society we aren’t often terribly good at understanding
things we can’t see. Broken bones we
understand. A cut arm we
understand. Colds and headaches we
understand. But mental health? That one is hard. Not only is it often invisible, but it
manifests itself in ways that seem ‘easy’ to fix for those who aren’t suffering
from it. Just go outside. Just talk to more people and make friends. Get
more sun. You have no reason to be
unhappy, so cheer up. Just do the thing.
Have you tried not having the flu?
That’s what it seems like these sorts of suggestions or
statements are saying. None of them
acknowledge the difficulty or uselessness of doing any of those things if the
problem is beyond our personal control. If
you just. Can’t. Some call this not having enough spoons. Some call it
having demons. Some use the official
names from the DSM-V. Some make jokes about it. Some just smile
and say they are okay because they are so tired of trying to explain. And some don’t call it anything at all, because
why bother?
But we HAVE to bother.
All of us together. And that
means talking about it. So, we are
gathering to do just that. Laura Johnson
knows these things all too well and she will share her thoughts with us and
guide us in discussion.
Wednesday, 9/29, 5:00 – 6:00
Room 2310 with masks on (capacity 24)
Or come remotely via Webex.
Speaker: Laura Johnson, FLCC Book Nook
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