Please join me and my co-host, Dawn Helmrich, for the fourth episode of “Shining Light on Shadows: A Candid Conversation About Mental Health.” Our guest will be Bryan Miller, the former restaurant critic for The New York Times.
Our focus will be on coping with and managing depression in the workplace. Bryan spent almost fifteen years in a high-profile job, struggling through debilitating depression. Dawn and I will both share our own experiences with managing depression in office-based settings and while working from home. We’ll also touch on the role pharmacology can play in managing depression.
We’ll be live Thursday, March 28 at 7pm ET / 6pm CT. If you can’t watch the show live, you can watch the recording at your convenience on this website or the links below.
You can watch the recording here or or watch the recording and comment on social media: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram
As Bryan wrote in his blog post, “For those grappling with depressive illness, life is largely about showing up. Social interactions can be exquisitely painful, and much of one’s time is taken up contriving ways to avoid them. Depression gives no quarter. It tracks you everywhere, ever tightening the vise of its own intensity. One of the most trying challenges for anyone afflicted with serious depression or anxiety is coping in the workplace.” He goes on to describe his first day dealing with depression with an excerpt from his book, "Dining in the Dark: A Famed Restaurant Critic's Struggle with and Triumph over Depression."
As Dawn wrote in her blog post, about her colleagues at United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County, “I was afraid that if my boss and others knew what I was going through they would think I wasn't capable of doing my job. I was afraid that they would realize my sick time wasn't sick time, but time I needed to care for my mental well-being. I was terrified that I would be seen as less capable and I would never advance in my career.”
In the blog post I wrote for this episode, I added my own perspective, focusing on a specific incident when the depression was so bad, I stepped away from work I was doing with the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region. This was back in 2007. It’s a story I’ve never shared with anyone before and the only time I’ve confided in a boss / colleagues about my mental health challenges.
We launched this twice a month show (the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month) in order to help reduce the stigma associated with mental health. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be joined by friends and colleagues who are working through or have worked through their own challenges, practitioners who can speak to some of the issues faced by their clients and advocates who can talk about a range of different issues.
Click here for Bryan's blog post, “Shining Light on Shadows: The Onset of a Depression that Almost Took Everything”
Click here for Dawn's blog post, “Shining Light on Shadows: Compassion and Empathy in the Workplace” Click here for my blog post, "Shining Light on Shadows: Depression in the Workplace and When Working From Home"
The show is produced by Digimentors on a pro bono basis.
Resources
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Helpline
800-950-6264 Or text "HelpLine" to 6264; nami.org
Mental Health America Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org; mhanational.org Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) National Sexual Assault Hotline 800-656-HOPE (4673); rainn.org