Let them help you

With no schools or teachers in his life, he turned to articles, particularly anything he could find on science. He began to conduct his own experiments in the basement of his family home, and he taught himself how to take apart and fix any kind of watch. At the age of fifteen he apprenticed as a telegraph operator, then spent years traveling across the country plying his trade. He had no chance for a formal education, and nobody crossed his path who could serve as a teacher or mentor. And so in lieu of that, in every city he spent time in, he frequented the public library. One article that crossed his path played a decisive role in his life: Michael Faraday's two-volume Experimental Researches in Electricity. This article became for Edison what The Improvement of the Mind had been for Faraday. It gave him a systematic approach to science and a program for how to educate himself in the field that now obsessed him--electricity. He could follow the experiments laid out by the great Master of the field and absorb as well his philosophical approach to science. It's an out-of-body kind of experience, like the dissociative episodes. Ashley cut her eyes to Patty, who nodded in acknowledgment. The young woman continued, Anyway, all of these events have, I think, pointed me in a direction for a career. So, that's the next good thing to happen this year. I'm going to try to major in counseling so I can understand the ways these internal dialogues go haywire, and maybe help people with keeping them under control. Ashley read over her index card. And really, that's the third best thing to happen to me this year: I finally have a future I can `see' details about. It's been a long time coming, but as I look back on what Dr Matt and I did on our `walk to Alaska,' and as I see how far you guys have come, I have enough information to envision that future. I don't have to just survive anymore. I can grow and build things. You could make a list of things that you could do to help yourself.

You can write down the names and numbers of people who would be able to help you. You may find it helpful to include the good things in your life or things that you are looking forward to as part of the plan. There is no set way for how a crisis plan should look. You can access their crisis plan template at papyrus-uk. Papyrus and Mind both also have information and ideas about making a `crisis box'. The idea of a crisis box is that it is filled with items that you find comforting and distracting and help you feel better. You can use it when you feel anxious, stressed, or suicidal. You can fill it with anything positive and supportive such as: You could also do this using an app on your phone, such as the Stay Alive app. For the rest of his life, Faraday would remain his role model. Through articles, experiments, and practical experience at various jobs, Edison gave himself a rigorous education that lasted about ten years, up until the time he became an inventor. What made this successful was his relentless desire to learn through whatever crossed his path, as well as his self-discipline. He had developed the habit of overcoming his lack of an organized education by sheer determination and persistence. He worked harder than anyone else. Because he was a consummate outsider and his mind had not been indoctrinated in any school of thought, he brought a fresh perspective to every problem he tackled. He turned his lack of formal direction into an advantage. If you are forced onto this path, you must follow Edison's example by developing extreme self-reliance. Under these circumstances, you become your own teacher and mentor. You push yourself to learn from every possible source. I can thrive.

I hope you can tell how pumped I am to understand how our thinking either messes us up or sets us free. I'm only now realizing how much people like Dr Matt and my professor at SFA, Dr Traewick, know about this process. They use these scientific methods to show clients how to understand, AND CONTROL, their thinking. If private thought can be controlled better, anything is possible. We've seen it in this group, haven't we? Darrell exclaimed Amen, and this time he wasn't fooling around. Ashley nodded her thanks. All these good things happened this year because of the efforts of all of us to engage in authentic verbal interactions. That word--authentic--was one of the first words Dr Matt taught me when I was 15 and started therapy with him, and from that point forward, authenticity has been my goal for living, both the way I live inside my head, and out in the world. The Stay Alive app is a suicide prevention resource with useful information and tools to help you stay safe in crisis. In addition to the resources, the app includes a safety plan, customizable reasons for living, and a LifeBox. Here you can store photos and memories that are important to you. It's important to remember that difficult times do pass and with some preventative planning and courageous conversations, you can get through. Supporting Staff Experiencing Mental Health Problems It's time for every employer to recognise their responsibilities and affect change, so that the UK becomes a world leader in workplace wellbeing for all staff and in supporting people with mental health problems to thrive at work. The importance of better management of staff wellbeing and mental health has been building in recognition since publication of the reviews on health and wellbeing in the workplace by Professor Dame Carol Black (2008), Dr Steve Boorman (2012), and Stevenson and Farmer (2017). Organizations and businesses are recognizing that valued and supported staff are far more likely to deliver the best outcomes for a business. Workplaces that genuinely promote and value wellbeing and good mental health and support people with mental health problems are more likely to reduce absenteeism, improve engagement and retention of employees, increase productivity, and benefit from associated economic gains. If employees experience mental health difficulties whilst at work, it is important that they are appropriately supported by their manager. You read more articles than those who have a formal education, developing this into a lifelong habit.

As much as possible, you try to apply your knowledge in some form of experiment or practice. You find for yourself second-degree mentors in the form of public figures who can serve as role models. Reading and reflecting on their experiences, you can gain some guidance. You try to make their ideas come to life, internalizing their voice. As someone self-taught, you will maintain a pristine vision, completely distilled through your own experiences--giving you a distinctive power and path to mastery. To learn by example is to submit to authority. You follow your master because you trust his manner of doing things even when you cannot analyze and account in detail for its effectiveness. By watching the master and emulating his efforts. SEE PEOPLE AS THEY ARE: SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE This amazing man--she gestured to Dr Matt but addressed the group--you know I tease him a lot, but he's the real deal--so when he keeps talking about how we're a `verbal community' that generates sound ideas and rewards--and punishes action and talk in line with those values, I want to understand what he means, and now, I'm really beginning to see how that works, and is working. I'm not ashamed to admit that very little goes through my head that does not include what and how you guys would think about it. It's an ever-present group session going on inside there, and it helps me. These days, it's even hard to think back to when I didn't have that help, and I thank you, Dr Matt, and all of you guys, for being so present for me that even when I'm 3 hours away, what I learn in this room stays with me. I debated with myself whether to include this next example in my address, but I decided to go ahead and use it now to show my fascination about verbal behavior. Last month at the student union at SFA, the entertainment night was a stage hypnotist. The guy was hilarious, but after I thought about it, what the guy was doing was serious: deadly serious. He picked six people from the audience who he knew were highly suggestible, because they did exactly what he asked them to do in a `group suggestion. ' They were asked to imagine their two joined hands had melted into one hand that couldn't be pulled apart. And, amazingly, these six people couldn't--or at least didn't--pull their hands apart until he gave a `release' cue. Whether that person has an episode of depression or anxiety, they become burnt out, or they have any other mental health issue, how you, as a manager, support them can make all the difference to both the person concerned, their colleagues, and their work.

In a 2019 survey by Time to Change, 60% of participants reported that discrimination and stigma are as damaging, or can be more damaging, than the symptoms of their mental health problem and 54% of participants report that they are impacted most by such stigma in their place of work. There is a very real need to promote a culture of openness around wellbeing and mental health. Addressing the Stigma of Mental Ill-health In September 2019 Deborah Lee, the Chief Executive of Gloucestershire NHS Foundation Trust, spoke in an NHS employers podcast about her experience of mental health and burnout. In the podcast (go to www. Her disclosure is likely to have had a positive impact on others that listened to her speak; If people know their managers will be open and supportive, it reduces the stigma and unnecessary shame that comes with mental health problems. Deborah encourages leaders and senior board members to develop organizational cultures that prioritize the mental wellbeing of staff and enable open discussions of mental health saying: `one of the responsibilities of leaders is not just to lead the organisation you are in, but to recognise you set the tone for leadership more generally. Talking About Mental Ill-health Often the greatest obstacle to our pursuit of mastery comes from the emotional drain we experience in dealing with the resistance and manipulations of the people around us. If we are not careful, our minds become absorbed in endless political intrigues and battles. The principal problem we face in the social arena is our naive tendency to project onto people our emotional needs and desires of the moment. We misread their intentions and react in ways that cause confusion or conflict. Social intelligence is the ability to see people in the most realistic light possible. By moving past our usual self-absorption, we can learn to focus deeply on others, reading their behavior in the moment, seeing what motivates them, and discerning any possible manipulative tendencies. Navigating smoothly the social environment, we have more time and energy to focus on learning and acquiring skills. Success attained without this intelligence is not true mastery, and will not last. THINKING INSIDE In 1718, Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) went to work as an apprentice in his brother James's printing shop in Boston. One of the people was a guy I know from the dorm.