Leslie Glass's Blog, page 341

Vulnerable Youth Plead: Adults Can Do Better

From Science News Daily: Kids who faced daunting barriers to success in the classroom had a clear message for University at Buffalo researchers who asked them as young adults to look back on their experiences with maltreatment, homelessness and their time in school: Adults can do better.

“It’s as though they’re asking us as adults not to give up on them, to stick with them,” says Annette Semanchin Jones, an assistant professor in UB’s School of Social Work (SSW) and lead author of the paper with colleagues Elizabeth Bowen and Annahita Ball, who are also assistant professors in UB’s SSW.

In a novel study that explored the youths’ experiences at the intersection of the systems intended to address multiple stressors and adverse experiences, the research team’s findings suggest that even the most vulnerable kids could point to specific adults who made a difference in their lives.

“Whatever our roles might be — teacher, social worker or child welfare worker — we have to take that role seriously and understand its importance.”

Semanchin Jones says the study’s participants spoke often about professional service providers, family members and other adults who fulfilled those important roles and had a positive impact on youth.

“There is room for these systems to identify and mobilize that support in a structured way so adult providers can be there for youth,” says Semanchin Jones.

Communication Is Critical

“It wasn’t stated explicitly but in the analysis it was obvious that we also need to work better not only within these systems, but across these systems,” she says. “We need to find better ways to ensure youth don’t fall through the cracks. Improving communication would allow different systems to share goals and data and create teams that include the youths among their members.”

The team’s study, published in the journal Children and Youth Services Review, began as an informal discussion about various projects involving each of the researchers’ work. Semanchin Jones’ research focus is child welfare. Bowen is an expert on homelessness and homeless youth. Ball’s expertise is in school social work services and positive youth development.

“We realized that in many cases we were talking about the same group of youth,” says Semanchin Jones.

Although existing research has frequently examined educational outcomes for youth who experience homelessness and there is a separate body of literature looking at educational outcomes for youth in foster care or who have been maltreated, few studies have examined how all of these obstacles affect school performance.

Since vulnerable youth often interact with multiple systems at once, the researchers combined their areas of expertise and used a cross-systems framework to explore possible protective factors and interventions as well as other elements that might hinder educational outcomes.

They interviewed 20 participants between the ages of 18 and 24. The group was diverse in terms of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Researchers asked them to recall and describe as much as possible their experiences with these various systems.

“Interviewing the participants as young adults provided a unique perspective,” explained Bowen. “They were not very far removed from childhood, but they were also able to reflect on their education and earlier experiences in insightful ways as emerging adults.”

They noted several key factors as barriers to a good education:

Participants said they often felt completely on their own, as if they had raised themselves.
They felt a lack of control and that the various systems made decisions about them, not with them, like where they could live and go to school.
Instability and mobility across all aspects of their life, including residential, school and placement instability, often caused problematic absenteeism and disrupted social networks.
There was a general lack of trust. Youth stressed the need to have a safe person to discuss maltreatment at home or in a foster home, bullying and other behaviors, but often didn’t know what to disclose and with whom they should share the information.

Semanchin Jones says the research team is building knowledge with this initial work. Different areas contributed to the problem’s complexity. By combining their different areas of research, the researchers can search for effective ways to address that complexity and work to improve educational outcomes.

In a second paper recently published in the journal Youth & Society, the team explored the participants’ transition to adulthood, a crucial time period for seeking stability and pursuing educational, career and relationship goals. The team is also exploring the ways in which schools’ existing student support services may be able to intervene differently or earlier to better address youths’ needs.

The research team is completing another study examining many of the same questions from the perspective of service providers. They also hope to do larger quantitative studies, but the rich data offered from the youths’ perspective is providing concrete strategies and recommendations that can serve as important information for service providers.

“We need to hear from youth who tell us, ‘We’ve been through this and here’s how you could have been more helpful,'” Semanchin Jones says.

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Navy SEAL Shares Top 7 Tips For Overcoming Fear

From Erika Prafder @ Yoga Empires: Most of us are afraid of something, whether it’s failure, commitment, public speaking, or simply breaking out of our comfort zone. But more often than not, the fears that trap us and hold us back are rooted not so much in reality, but in the stories we tell ourselves,  says Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL and the author of the new book, Mastering Fear: A Navy SEAL’s Guide (Portfolio, August 2018).

“We literally build a mental case for ourselves in our heads that in most cases is not true,” says Webb.

“Fear is no illusion. Fear is real. But, far too often, we focus on that awareness of danger, and by focusing on it, we magnify it, causing it to expand until it starts filling the space in our heads.” The result? “Rather than our mastering fear, fear masters us,” he says.

However, certain practices, including yoga and meditation, can help us “flip the switch” and see fear as a friend rather than a foe. For Webb, his daily yoga practice has enabled him to cope with the stress of combat, losing many friends, and healing from a debilitating back injury from a SEAL Team skydiving accident.

“Focus, breathing, and meditation have helped me overcome my fear of transitioning back to life outside the military, given me the structure I was missing since leaving the SEAL Teams, and helped me focus on my business and writing,” he says.

The next time you’re feeling weak, afraid, or powerless, here are Webb’s 7 top tips to help you find the courage to surpass whatever might be holding you back, so you can move toward new opportunities and experiences.

Webb credits his daily yoga practice with helping him cope with the stress of combat, losing many friends, and healing from a debilitating back injury from a SEAL Team skydiving accident.
7 Tips For Overcoming Fear
1. Think Positive, And Make Fear Your Ally

The ability to self-monitor and redirect your interior dialogue is what takes you from a victim mentality to a proactive mindset, or from blaming others to taking ownership of your situation—and taking positive steps to change it. It takes you from being at the mercy of circumstance to being the master of circumstance. It is what allows you to master fear.

The next time you experience true fear or anxiety about whatever shark is swimming your way—that big bill that’s due soon, an important meeting, a difficult conversation—don’t waste time or energy trying to stop or evade the fear. Instead, use it. Embrace it. Make it your ally. Rather than telling yourself, “I am not worried,” ask yourself, “How can I use this static charge to sharpen myself?” Take a deep breath, then another. The challenge is real, not false, but it is its own size, and no larger, and you are up to the task. You’ve got this.

2. Trust Your Gut, And Don’t Be Afraid To Make Mistakes

Decisions aren’t made in the head—they’re made in the gut. The gut is where your intuition resides, deep down inside. And for too many of us, that voice isn’t always easy to hear. The only way to build your intuition and to make its voice pipe up is by exercising it. Know that you might not get it right every time. This is a good thing. Nobody likes making mistakes, but they teach you how to better hear that quiet, intuitive voice that lives in you.

3. Rehearse For Adversity

Navy SEALs are taught to mentally rehearse for adversity, because if you rehearse something fear-inducing in your mind, when it actually happens, it doesn’t seem so scary. I do a lot of public speaking, and I often close my eyes and imagine myself going through the first 30 seconds with the audience. I also imagine some worst-case scenarios, like a heckler, and rehearse some contingencies, which makes it much easier to avoid stage fright.

I remember listening to a story about Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time. His goggles flooded during an Olympic competition; however, he had mentally rehearsed this happening before and had a contingency plan already in place. So when it happened, he already knew what to do. He counted his strokes to determine when he should do his flip turn, which he performed flawlessly, and went on to set a world record in the process.

4. Go Beyond Your Comfort Zone, But Not Too Far

You’ll never get anywhere by simply staying in your comfort zone. I learned this in BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training). BUD/S is a months-long grueling selection process involving a “Hell Week” where you go almost a week with just a few hours of sleep. It’s brutal and has a high dropout rate. I learned quickly, after the best athlete quit one morning, that it was a mental game, not physical. Out of 220 guys, I was probably in the worst physical shape of the bunch, but I pushed through it. The point of this training is to stretch your comfort zone so that you can tolerate your circumstances with equanimity, even under the most extreme conditions. Just like in yoga, the goal is not for you to push yourself too far physically, but to take yourself right up to the edge mentally. Beyond that push point, whatever you’re doing becomes counterproductive. Yet if you fall short of that point, you’re not challenging yourself enough.

5. Understand That Safety Is An Illusion

If you think you can achieve and maintain genuine safety, then you’ll never risk anything—and you’ll never really live. Once you understand that complete safety will forever be out of your reach, it frees you to embrace those risks that are worth it, and to do so with passion and abandon.

6. When Opportunity Comes, Grab It

Sometimes, when an opportunity comes our way, we blow the chance to jump on it because we feel we’re not ready, or not prepared enough. This is something we saw again and again in the sniper course when I was a Navy SEAL. Some guys would lie there forever, prepping and prepping—and never take that shot.

Don’t miss out on what could be the greatest experiences and opportunities of your life because you feel you’re not ready. Ready doesn’t mean you’ve removed all uncertainty. Ready means you’ve suited up and mounted your horse, and now it’s time to ride.

7. Define What Matters To You

There are only two things we know for sure: We’re alive, right here, right now; and at some point, this is all going to end. We cannot afford to waste a single hour. To gain mastery of our lives, we need to treat each hour as if it’s the only one we have left. Ask yourself, “What really matters to me, and what would I do differently if fear weren’t holding me back?” Then, start implementing those changes right now.

Did you know the 12 Steps, which have helped millions find recovery, can also help you recover from a past trauma? Check out our latest book, Find Your True Colors In 12-Steps.

The post Navy SEAL Shares Top 7 Tips For Overcoming Fear appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

The Courageous Fight To Fix The NBA’s Mental Health Problem

From ESPN:

LOS ANGELES — I WAS JOSTLING for position with a gaggle of journalists and losing ground, sandwiched four-deep in a sea of bodies during media availability at the 2018 NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles.

It was hardly an ideal environment to broach such a sensitive, personal topic as mental health, but Cavaliers forward Kevin Love had hinted three weeks earlier in Cleveland that he might be ready to share. At that time, I was interviewing Channing Frye in the Cavs’ locker room regarding his depression following the deaths of his parents, while Love, sitting at the adjacent locker, listened intently to our conversation.

“We all go through something,” Love said, cryptically, as I stood up to leave.

Now Love was perched on a dais in a ballroom at Staples Center in front of a long, flowing black curtain, fielding innocuous questions regarding his workout regimen. I navigated my way to the front of the pack and lofted Love a couple of warm-up questions regarding Frye. Once Love acknowledged that Frye’s candor was “an important step” toward putting a face on mental health, I had my opening.

“Have you ever,” I shouted above the din of the All-Star media day madness, “sought professional counseling?”

Suddenly, silence. The incessant chatter at surrounding podiums persisted, but in the vacuum of Kevin Love’s space, everyone stopped, turned … and waited. Love fixed his eyes on me, hesitated ever so slightly, then straightened his broad shoulders and leaned into the microphone.

Mental health in the NBA

Each day this week, we’ll have a new story in our five-part series on mental health issues in the NBA.

“Yes,” he answered firmly.

So began Love’s public journey as the NBA’s unofficial (and eloquent) spokesman on mental health. The willingness of Love and DeMar DeRozan to step out of the shadows and reveal their struggles has set the NBA on an important path of self-discovery. It has prompted the National Basketball Players Association to hire Dr. William Parham as its first director of mental health and wellness, and it has convinced commissioner Adam Silver and union head Michele Roberts that hammering out a comprehensive mental health policy needs to be a priority.

Yet there remain many obstacles to confront, chief among them the stigma attached to mental health that prompts many players to suffer in silence. There’s another critical sticking point: The union insists that mental health treatment be confidential, but some NBA owners, who in some cases are paying their players hundreds of millions of dollars, want access to the files of their “investments.”

Confidentiality, says Love, has to be non-negotiable. Without it, he says, he never would have become comfortable enough to announce from that All-Star dais that he was seeking treatment.

Within seconds of Love’s declaration that day, I frantically gestured to NBA senior vice president of communications Tim Frank and communications director BJ Evans to arrange a private moment with the Cavs forward. That private moment turned into 25 minutes of earnest discussion behind the curtain (literally) of one of the most accomplished players in the game.

While LeBron James, Kevin Durant and James Harden fielded queries on the most delectable wine, the coolest dunks and the best cities for sushi, Love and I sat in the players’ sanctum directly behind them, unpacking one of the most prevalent issues facing the NBA — and society as a whole. While Love explained that most of his social anxiety occurred off the basketball court, newly minted Hall of Famer Steve Nash, happily oblivious to the weighty topic we were addressing, playfully launched soccer kicks the length of the ballroom.

“I have anxiety, but I also come from a family with a history of depression,” Love told me on that February afternoon. “It’s difficult to talk about. It’s difficult to confront. I finally had to say to myself, ‘Your whole life these things will affect you, so how are you going to manage it?'”

Love’s struggles were one of the worst-kept secrets in sports. Three months earlier, he had experienced a panic attack during a game against the and had to abruptly leave the court. He also left the team in January following a game against Oklahoma City, prompting then-teammates Dwyane Wade and Isaiah Thomas to confront him regarding his mysterious illness. Love, however, says he did not have a panic attack during the Thunder game.

Both incidents provided excellent fodder for gossipy NBA wives — and their husbands — who eagerly dished on Love’s mental health during the endless stream of All-Star cocktail soirees. While the outpouring of support was heartening once Love publicly announced that he was suffering from anxiety and depression, behind the scenes, mild derision and skepticism lingered. A small number of Love’s teammates weren’t buying the mental health excuse for his bailing on the team in the middle of a game. The withering criticism was piercing — and proof that the stigma of mental health remains alive and well behind closed doors of NBA locker rooms.

Love is acutely aware of that stigma. The topic of mental health was never discussed among his family members, despite a history of depression that he believes has been passed down from generation to generation. Love says anything but “just sucking it up and dealing with it” was perceived as weakness.

“The last thing this should be is taboo, but that’s what it is,” Love told me during All-Star Weekend. “I think about my dad [former NBA player Stan Love], coming from that generation. You don’t talk about anything. You hold everything in.”

How, I asked him, did his father react to Love’s revelation that he struggles with anxiety?

“We’ll see,” Love said with a shrug. “I haven’t told him yet.” (Turns out, Love doesn’t speak with his father all that much.)

Love’s candor was both striking and surprising, but when I brought up the November panic attack in the game against Atlanta, his demeanor changed. His answers became clipped and evasive, his jawline tightened, and his eyes darted around the room, as if hoping to navigate a hasty exit. It became clear that this was too much, too soon for Kevin Love. We agreed to revisit the subject later, when he was more comfortable.

“Yes, thanks,” he said, visibly relieved. “I think that’s a good idea.”

Three weeks later, a text message from Love popped up on my phone. He had decided to reveal his struggles on The Players’ Tribune. “I felt,” he later explained to me, “I needed to address this in my own words.” In the piece, Love detailed the panic attack during the Hawks game, which he said “came out of nowhere.” He acknowledged that he was dealing with family issues, having trouble sleeping and feeling the weight of expectations regarding Cleveland’s season. That, he said, became a “perfect storm” of issues that left him with his heart racing, unable to catch his breath. Love wrote that when he left the court, he was “running from room to room looking for something I couldn’t find.”

Love revealed that he was seeing a therapist and benefiting greatly from that decision.

In a subsequent interview with ESPN this past Wednesday in Los Angeles, Love provided more details about that panic attack. After he ran from room to room in a total panic, he says, he finally collapsed on the floor of the locker room.

“My heart was jumping out of my chest,” Love says. “I couldn’t get any air to my lungs. I was trying to clear my throat by sticking my hand down my throat.

“It was terrifying. I thought I was having a heart attack. I was very scared. I really felt like I was going to die in that moment.”

Love says Cavs trainer Steve Spiro came in and found him splayed on the floor. “He was trying to calm me down, but he didn’t know what to do,” Love says. “He asked me, ‘What can I do to get you some air?'”

The team transported Love to the hospital. All his vital signs checked out. His heart was fine. His teammates were confused, and angry. “They had no idea what was going on,” Love says.

As of Wednesday morning, Kevin Love had received more than 4,000 emails in response to his first-person essay that shared details of a panic attack he suffered earlier this season. He says the response has been amazing and has him looking to the future.

And Love wasn’t quite ready to tell them, just as he balked when the two of us sat behind the curtain in Los Angeles.

“I was really bothered why I couldn’t finish our conversation during All-Star,” Love told me after the The Players’ Tribune article. “I went back home and asked myself, ‘Why am I still hiding this? Why can’t I come clean?'”

Kevin Love is hardly alone. assistant coach John Lucas, a retired NBA player who has struggled with addiction and now runs a wellness aftercare program for athletes, estimates that more than 40 percent of NBA players have mental health issues, yet less than 5 percent of them are seeking help. (Asked if he thought Lucas was overstating the problem, Parham, the players association’s director of mental health and wellness, answered, “Not in the least.”)

Those issues, Lucas says, can directly lead to alcohol and drug abuse.

“It’s an epidemic in our league,” he says. “I’m talking about everything from ADHD to bipolar to anxiety and depression.”

After canvassing dozens of coaches, owners and general managers, it’s clear that mental health issues have touched every NBA franchise. It is also clear that far too many players either choose to ignore their symptoms or fail to treat their mental health issues with the same diligence they would a broken wrist or a knee injury.

“I’ve got three guys on my team — two on medication,” one Eastern Conference coach told me. “Some days they’re fine. Some days they aren’t. I’m trying to be as sensitive as I can, but I’m not a doctor or a psychiatrist, and sometimes I’m asked to be.”

Perhaps the thorniest problem facing NBA teams is not identifying who needs help. It’s convincing those players they need help. “We can offer all the services in the world,” explains GM Danny Ainge, “but if they won’t use them, we can’t help them. Too many of these guys don’t realize how badly they need help until it’s too late.”

The public revelations of Love, Frye and DeRozan are a positive development, and so are the dozens of anonymous players who have chosen to get help without going public. Yet the multiple-time All-Star who intermittently abandons his bipolar medication because he hates the way it makes him feel still hasn’t come to grips with the severity of his current mental state. Nor has the veteran guard who insists that his “anger management” problems do not constitute a mental health issue.

“People carry it differently,” Love explains. “Everyone has to come to their own conclusions when to address it. One of my favorite [TV shows] of all time is ‘The Sopranos.’ I’m sitting there watching it, and James Gandolfini is going to see a therapist. He’s telling her, ‘F— this, I don’t need this,’ and by the end, he’s like, ‘I can’t get enough of this.’

“That’s a little bit how I feel right now.”

KEVIN LOVE’S COURAGEOUS decision to share his story — “If you don’t think that takes courage, then you don’t know the NBA mentality,” points out Hall of Famer Charles Barkley — has spawned a new layer of awareness and acceptance. Yet the enormous encumbrance of managing a professional career remains. The pitfalls include teenagers suddenly coming into millions of dollars with friends, family and strangers angling for a cut. There’s unrelenting scrutiny and pressure to perform. Then there’s the expectation to exude an aura of toughness and invincibility.

The curious case of the Sixers’ Markelle Fultz, the No. 1 pick in the 2017 NBA draft, left many scratching their heads. A prolific scorer at Washington, Fultz suffered a shoulder injury, developed a mysterious hitch in his shot and missed most of his rookie season. Was it physical? Mental? A combination of both? Fultz’s mindset became clearer after he posted this on Instagram in July: “Depression, anxiety and panic attacks are not a sign of weakness. They are signs of having tried to remain strong for so long. 1 in 3 of us go through depression, anxiety or panic attacks at least once in our lifetime. Would you share this on your wall for at least one day? Most people won’t. To those who do — thanks for sharing the support. Let those who struggle know they are not alone.”

Parham, a psychologist and director of Loyola Marymount’s School of Education’s Counseling program, says mental health is “a human issue, not a basketball issue.”

His goal is to not only destigmatize mental health issues but also to identify their origins. Too often, Parham says, patients are treated for their symptoms, either with medication or coping mechanisms, not the actual causes of their mental health struggles. Parham illustrates it this way: If the smoke detector goes off in your home, you don’t grab a stool, pull down the detector and take it to get fixed. You locate the source of the fire and address that.

“That shrill noise doesn’t suggest that it’s not working,” Parham explains. “It actually suggests that it is. Anxiety, depression, panic attacks are all human smoke detectors indicating that something else is going on.”

“Too many of these guys don’t realize how badly they need help until it’s too late.”Celtics GM Danny Ainge

In 2001, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente studied more than 17,000 patients to determine the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACE), including physical, emotional and sexual abuse, physical and emotional neglect, domestic violence, parental substance abuse, parental separation or divorce, household mental illness, suicide or death, and crime or an imprisoned family member.

“An adverse childhood experience can be anything from seeing your parents bickering to witnessing a drive-by shooting,” Parham says. “The findings were that two-thirds of the American public had anywhere from one to four adverse experiences before the age of 10.”

That baggage, if left unchecked, is lugged through the teenage years into adulthood, accumulating symptoms along the way. According to the pyramid established by the study, adverse childhood experiences can lead to disrupted neurodevelopment, which can lead to social, emotional and cognitive impairment, which can lead to adoption of health-risk behavior (such as drugs and alcohol), which can lead to disease, disability and social problems. The final layer of the pyramid for untreated mental health concerns is death.

“I can tell you much of what I’m dealing with is deep-seated,” Love confirms. “It goes way back.”

Love says shortly after The Players’ Tribune article came out, he visited his brother in Portland. “I didn’t know if he’d want to talk about it,” Love says. “He told me, ‘I remember when you were young, and you’d either have these rage fits, or we’d lose you for a couple of weeks and I’d just leave you alone.”‘ During those stretches, which Love calls his “dark times,” he’d stay locked in his room, shades drawn, and speak to no one.

Through more than 20 interviews with current and former NBA players, a recurring theme that emerged was the false public perception that because professional athletes are famous and wealthy, their lives are idyllic.

“You think when you come from a difficult environment that if you get out and you make it to the NBA, all that bad stuff is supposed to be wiped clean,” DeRozan says. “But then this whole new dynamic loaded with stress comes your way.

“People say, ‘What are you depressed about? You can buy anything you want.’ I wish everyone in the world was rich so they would realize money isn’t everything.”

Parham says those worries are punctuated by the fact that elite athletes, particularly men, are reared in society to “keep it tight, pack it in, don’t share emotions.”

“When you add a layer of celebrity,” says Parham, “now you have a double whammy. If an elite player starts talking about ‘stuff,’ he feels in danger of being traded or not being re-signed or losing endorsements. So the conclusion becomes, ‘Better to stay quiet.'”

ON SEPT. 25, 2000, Paul Pierce was stabbed multiple times at the Buzz Club in Boston. One of the knife wounds was seven inches deep, just inches from his heart. Pierce underwent emergency surgery for a collapsed lung and later contended that the thickness of his leather jacket saved his life.

The face of the Celtics franchise stunned everyone by recovering in time to play all 82 games that season. As everyone marveled at his speedy physical recovery, Pierce privately grappled with the mental scars of the incident, which took years to heal.

For the first time, Pierce discusses the debilitating bout of depression that left him so unglued that he ordered a 24-hour-a-day police detail outside his home in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

“I was stabbed 11 times,” Pierce tells ESPN. “I felt like I was trapped in a box. I couldn’t go nowhere.

“I battled depression for a year. The only thing that saved me was basketball.”

Long after he was released from the hospital, Pierce remained nervous, jittery, anxious. He couldn’t sleep. The Celtics urged him to seek counseling, but he waved them off. “I thought, ‘I can do this myself,'” Pierce recalls. “I didn’t want anybody else in my business.”

But as the weeks dragged on, moving around in public spaces became almost unbearable for Pierce. The trauma of the event had stripped him of his confidence. His anxiety spiked while dining at Morton’s restaurant in Boston just a few months after the stabbing, when the manager approached him with a house phone and said a friend was insistent on speaking with Pierce. He picked up the receiver, and a menacing voice sneered, “I’m going to kill you.”

“So now I’m really paranoid,” Pierce says. “I don’t want to go anywhere. The police sat in the front of my house for months. I was a mess.

“I think that’s the reason I got back on the court so fast. Me sitting at home thinking about [the stabbing] didn’t work. I went to every practice, sat on the sideline for hours, because that’s where I felt safe. I didn’t want those practices to end because then I had to go back out there in this world that really scared me.”

“I would tell everyone to get the help they need. My depression was bad — really bad. I never want to feel that way again.”Former Celtics All-Star Paul Pierce

Incredibly, Pierce managed to average 25.3 points and 6.4 rebounds during the 2000-01 season. It was a tumultuous season for the Celtics, who won only 36 games and whose coach, Rick Pitino, quit midseason. Pierce didn’t care. Basketball was his sanctuary.

“I couldn’t be near crowds,” he says. “If I got in a crowded place, I’d start shaking inside. It took me years to get over that. If I was walking and someone bumped into me or rubbed against me, I’d freak out.”

Before the 2000 season opener, the Celtics ran a promotion in which they stationed players at the entrances of the arena to greet fans as they filed through the turnstiles. Pierce agreed to be part of it, but when it came time to participate, his heart rate spiked, his palms began sweating, and he started to experience shortness of breath. He was having a full-blown panic attack.

“I told the Celtics, ‘I can’t do this,”‘ Pierce says. “[The second year] I thought I was better, but I lasted about two minutes, and then that panicky feeling started up again. I was sure something bad was going to happen to me.”

In retrospect, Pierce says, he wishes he had listened to the Celtics and talked with a mental health expert. His decision to deal with his post-traumatic stress on his own heightened his depression and isolated him from friends, family and teammates.

“I should have opened up earlier than I did,” Pierce admits. “It was eating me alive. Once I finally started talking to a family member, it helped me.

“I realized, ‘I should have done this sooner.’ I would tell everyone to get the help they need. My depression was bad — really bad. I never want to feel that way again.”

KEVIN LOVE SPENT years trying to ignore, then reconcile, his behavior. When he was young, he says, he was prone to “rage fits” that he couldn’t understand.

“I’m a type of guy who has a very long fuse,” Love says. “I try to be as nonconfrontational as I can, but when that fuse breaks, I explode. Those type of people can be really destructive, and I’m one of these people.

“When I was a kid, I was like that. I was so competitive. As I got older, I started holding a lot of that stuff in. My girlfriend, Kate, saw me going down a little bit of a destructive path, and she told me, ‘I love you so much. I really think you need to talk to someone.’

“But I kept telling myself, ‘I don’t need any help. I’m successful. I’ve gotten this far. I’ve got the best friends in the world.’ But the truth was, there was still a lot that made me unhappy.”

Some of the best players in the league are the most vulnerable because of the inordinate amount of pressure heaped on them to not only perform but also raise their franchises’ level of play.

Former 11-time All-Star Chris Bosh can relate. He recalls the euphoria he felt during the 2006-07 season, when the began flourishing with him as their star and won 47 games.

“We finally got to the point where we’re successful, we’ve got an Atlantic Division title, we’re the No. 3 seed in the East, and we’re right where I always hoped we’d be,” Bosh tells ESPN. “But then, all of a sudden, I wake up in the morning, and I look at my hands, and they’re shaking. I’m just nervous all day, and I’m saying to myself, ‘What the hell is going on? What’s wrong with me?'”

The Raptors brought in a sports psychologist, who implemented relaxation techniques, including meditation. But, Bosh says, all it did was cause him to nod off.

“He didn’t really help me at all,” Bosh says.

That spring, the Raptors were upset in the first round by a veteran New Jersey Nets team led by Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter.

“It’s an epidemic in our league. I’m talking about everything from ADHD to bipolar to anxiety and depression.”Rockets assistant coach John Lucas

Bosh’s anxiety heightened again, he says, when he signed a ballyhooed free-agent deal with the to join LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in 2010.

“I was coming from Toronto, a benign situation,” Bosh says. “I figured, ‘All right, people are going to understand why I went, and they are going to like me.’ That’s all I cared about — that people liked me.

“I go there, and I’m smiling, and everyone is scowling at me. The whole LeBron ‘Decision’ had everybody so mad. I don’t know why, but I caught so many stray bullets being around it. Then we lost [in the 2011 NBA Finals to Dallas], and people were dogging me. I started to get pretty bitter.”

The enduring image of Game 6, the clinching win for the underdog Mavericks, was a distraught Bosh stumbling to the locker room in tears. Videos of him crying went viral, and he was summarily vilified for being “soft.”

“All those people who made fun of me for breaking down, they didn’t understand,” Bosh says. “I put my life into this. I was getting it from all sides, and then we lose. I expressed my feelings, and then they made fun of me for that. I was too honest. I just couldn’t win.”

Social media often serves as a searing spotlight on the shortcomings of players. They are dissected for everything from a botched basketball play to an evening of nightclub revelry. Nothing is sacred — and the vitriol spewed upon them often comes from anonymous trolls.

“Social media is a major challenge for athletes,” Parham says. “It has really begun to take hold of what people say, when they say it, if they say it. You never know what motives people have or who they really are.

“You can counsel players to tune it out, but for many of them, social media is a major way in which they communicate.”

For some athletes, the criticism is so visceral and unrelenting that they have eliminated social media from their lives.

“Poor Kevin Love,” Barkley notes. “Every time the Cavs lost, social media blamed him. You couldn’t watch TV without someone saying, ‘The Cavs suck, and it’s Kevin Love’s fault.'”

Love says the public criticism only compounded questions he already had about himself. “I’m a perfectionist, so I’m hard on myself,” he says. “I don’t pass the mirror test.”

For Love and DeRozan, the journey to mental wellness is evolving and ongoing. For NBA players who resist getting help, the journey remains difficult, lonely, uncertain. Parham insists that confronting their issues will unlock potential they don’t even realize they have.

“With an investment in player wellness, these athletes can perform at an even higher level than they are now,” Parham says. “But they have to be willing. Otherwise, nobody can help them.”

The post The Courageous Fight To Fix The NBA’s Mental Health Problem appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

5 Tips To Help Manage Your Back-To-School Mental Health

From Mashable:

If you’re headed back to school, chances are you’ve already made at least one checklist. Got your schedule? Check. What about your supplies? Check. Talked with friends about which classes you have together? Bet you checked that one more than once. But there’s something likely missing from your list, and it might be the most important thing you take care of all year: addressing your mental health and wellbeing.

Going back to school can be exciting. It can also be terrifying, particularly for teens who’ve already experienced bullying, anxiety, stress, depression, or trauma. In addition to the nerve-wracking aspects of middle school or high school — crushes, grades, cliques — students today are grappling with intense experiences, including natural disaster anniversaries, school shooting drills, and heightened political and social tensions that disproportionately affect young immigrants and LGBTQ people.

If you’re feeling a whirlwind of back-to-school stress and anxiety, there are effective ways to respond, says Theresa Nguyen, a licensed clinical social worker and vice president of policy and programs for Mental Health America. (Nguyen also recently wrote a blog post on this subject.)

“You can control your anxiety …” Nguyen says. “The worst thing you can do is ignore it.”

Here are five of Nguyen’s suggestions for making it through the challenging back-to-school period:

1. Gauge the problem 

Nguyen says that most students are excited to return to school by the end of summer. But for the 20 percent of teens who live with a mental health condition, being at school again may worsen symptoms of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress.

It’s important that any student who feels prolonged sadness or nervousness about school pay attention to important signs, such as stomach aches, trouble sleeping, and irritability. Those symptoms could indicate that you’re struggling with stress, anxiety, or depression. Other clues might be Google searches for terms like “I hate school,” “What is depression?” and “What is anxiety?”

If you want an outside assessment of your feelings and experiences but aren’t yet ready to speak to a friend, parent, teacher, counselor, or doctor, you can use Mental Health America’s free and anonymous screening tool. Nguyen says that 40 percent of those who take the test are under 18, and use spikes during the school year. In other words, you’re not alone.

If the screening indicates you should seek an evaluation from a medical or mental health professional, Nguyen says you can print the results as a conversation starter with a trusted adult or doctor. If you feel uncomfortable talking to an adult, Nguyen recommends speaking with a friend about how to have that conversation.

2. Identify coping skills

Some students might already have a list of coping skills because they know going back to school can trigger emotional and mental distress. For other students, this is a new experience with a steep learning curve. Either way, Nguyen says it’s important to ask yourself a series of questions: What worked before to help you feel better? What made things worse? Can you avoid that?

Asking and answering questions like these will prepare you for the moments when stress and anxiety strike. If you need to learn new skills, Mental Health America’s back-to-school toolkit, which comes out every year, includes practical tips for managing your emotions.

One of the organization’s most popular resources for young people is its “Stopping Stupid Thoughts” worksheet. This two-page document is designed to help you deal with painful thoughts that can warp a person’s mood, relationships, and self-esteem. It offers strategies for telling yourself the things you really need to hear.

3. Get educated

The internet is awash in mental health resources and educational materials. First you might check out stigma-busting websites designed for teens like Seize the Awkward and Half of Us.

Then if you’re interested in mental health resources and advocacy, bookmark the National Alliance on Mental Illness, JED Foundation, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, National Eating Disorders Association, Born This Way Foundation, The Trevor Project, and Crisis Text Line, For health and science research, including details about symptoms and treatment, consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and National Institute of Mental Health.

Educating yourself about mental health is a way to empower yourself, says Nguyen.

4. Know where to draw the line with the internet  

While the internet can connect you to vital information and support, it can just as easily make you feel miserable. Nguyen says it’s imperative for students experiencing psychological distress to know when the internet has stopped being useful or has even become harmful. That line can be hard to distinguish when, for example, posting on an anonymous social media platform simultaneously brings you support from new friends as well as attacks from strangers or bullies.

“If you’ve gone down that rabbit hole and you’re on sites that are not healthy for you, you have to get off, break up, step away from that,” says Nguyen. “Stay away until you’re in a better spot if you’re going to dabble.”

5. Reach out

Nguyen says it’s normal for people experiencing mental health issues to feel unsure about what to do next. But the longer we wait to open up, the worse we feel. She urges young people to reach out to a friend, parent, counselor, coach, or someone else they trust.

It can also be helpful to join extracurricular activities, which provide opportunities to boost self-esteem, learn new skills, and heighten your sense of belonging. But that’s not a simple step for teens who feel alone because they’ve been bullied, are questioning their sexuality and gender identity, or are undocumented.

“For kids who have anxiety, especially if they’re bullied or extra isolated, it’s hard for them to think about how to join a group,” says Nguyen. “They’ve been strategically isolated at school.”

That’s when making connections on the internet can help. School groups like gay-straight alliances can also be a welcoming environment for marginalized kids, and the same may be true of community arts organizations and nonprofits.

“There are some situations where if you’re struggling, please reach out sooner than later.”

“There are some situations where if you’re struggling, please reach out sooner than later,” says Nguyen. That includes if you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts or engaging in self-harm. The same holds true if you’re not sleeping, you’re having strange thoughts, and things don’t make sense. Though rare, that could indicate the onset of psychosis or bipolar disorder.

Nguyen says that by taking action, learning more, and reaching out, teens worried about their mental health can make a big difference in their own lives.

“You got this. You are the expert,” she says. “You can get control, so let’s start thinking about it.”

The post 5 Tips To Help Manage Your Back-To-School Mental Health appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Marijuana’s Effect On the Teen Brain

From The American College Of Pediatrics: Teenagers’ rapidly developing brains put them at high risk of harm from marijuana use. New research reveals the grave risks associated with chronic use of marijuana in adolescents.

Marijuana And THC

The main active chemical in marijuana is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). When marijuana is smoked, THC rapidly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream. The blood then carries the chemical to the brain and other organs throughout the body. It’s absorbed more slowly when ingested in food or drink.13 In all cases, however, THC acts upon specific molecular targets on brain cells, called cannabinoid receptors. These receptors are ordinarily activated by chemicals similar to THC called endocannabinoids, such as anandamide. These receptors are naturally occurring in the body. They’re a part of the neural communication network (a.k.a. the endocannabinoid system). They play an important role in normal brain development and function.

The highest density of cannabinoid receptors is found in parts of the brain that influence:

Pleasure
Memory
Thinking
Concentration
Sensory and time perception
Coordinated movement.

Marijuana over activates the endocannabinoid system. This causes the high and other effects that users experience, including:

Distorted perceptions
Psychotic symptoms
Difficulty with thinking and problem solving
Disrupted learning and memory
Impaired reaction time, attention span, judgment, balance and coordination.20

Chronic exposure to THC may also hasten the age-related loss of nerve cells.21 Numerous mechanisms have been postulated to link cannabis use with attention deficits, psychotic symptoms, and neural desynchronization.22 The hippocampus, a component of the brain’s limbic system, is necessary for memory, learning, and integrating sensory experiences with emotions and motivations. THC suppresses neurons in the information-processing system of the hippocampus. Thus learned behaviors, dependent on the hippocampus, also deteriorate.23

How Marijauana Changes The Teen Brain

Brain MRI studies now report that in young recreational marijuana users, structural abnormalities in gray matter density, volume, and shape occur in areas of the brain associated with drug craving and dependence. There also was significant abnormality measures associated with increasing drug use behavior. In addition to the regions of the nucleus accumbens and amygdala, the whole-brain gray matter density analysis revealed other brain regions that showed reduced density in marijuana users compared with control participants, including  several regions in the prefrontal cortex:

Right/left frontal pole
Right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Right middle frontal gyrus (although another small region in the right middle frontal gyrus showed higher gray matter density in marijuana users).

Countless studies link prefrontal cortex dysfunction with decision-making abnormalities. Further, functional MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies have shown that cannabis use may affect the function of this region.24 Brain imaging with MRI was used to map areas of working memory in the brain and showed similar findings in normal and schizophrenic subjects who did not use marijuana. However, decreases in the size of the working memory areas of the striatum and thalamus, for those who had a history of cannabis use, was more marked in those who used marijuana at a younger age and in users with schizophrenia.25

The Effects Of Chronic Use

In chronic adolescent users, marijuana’s adverse impact on learning and memory persists long after the acute effects of the drug wear off.

A major study published in 2012 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides objective evidence that marijuana is harmful to the adolescent brain. Researchers in New Zealand administered IQ tests to over 1,000 individuals at age 13 (born in 1972 and 1973) and assessed their patterns of cannabis use at several points as they aged. Researchers tested the participants’ IQ 25 years later at age 38. Their two scores were compared as a function of their marijuana use, and the results were striking. Participants who used cannabis heavily in their teens and continued through adulthood showed a significant drop in IQ between the ages of 13 and 38—an average of eight points for those who met criteria for cannabis dependence. Those who started using marijuana regularly or heavily after age 18 showed minor declines.

Before And After Marijuana Use

By comparison, those who never used marijuana showed no declines in IQ.26 This is the first prospective study to test young people before their first use of marijuana and again after long-term use (as much as 20+ years later) thereby ruling out a pre-existing difference in IQ. This means the finding of a significant mental decline among those who used marijuana heavily before age 18, even after they quit taking the drug, is consistent with the theory that drug use during adolescence—when the brain is still rewiring, pruning, and organizing itself—has long-lasting negative effects on the brain.

Other studies have also shown a link between prolonged marijuana use and cognitive or neural impairment. A recent report in Brain, for example, reveals neural-connectivity impairment in some brain regions following prolonged cannabis use initiated in adolescence or young adulthood.27

Another longitudinal study followed 3,385 patients who were between 18 and 30 years of age in 1985 for over 25 years.  Researchers tested verbal memory, processing speed, and executive functioning. 84.3% of the population reported past marijuana use, but only 11.6% continued using marijuana during middle age.  For each five years of past marijuana use, verbal memory decreased significantly.28

The American College of Pediatricians is a national medical association of licensed physicians and healthcare professionals who specialize in the care of infants, children, and adolescents. The mission of the College is to enable all children to reach their optimal physical and emotional health and well-being.

A PDF copy of this statement is available here: Marijuana Use: Detrimental to Youth
For more information, visit The Health Effects of Marijuana Use page on this website.

Keep fast facts about recovery and addiction at your fingertips with our pocket-sized poster book. The Modern Art Of Recovery uses contemporary graphics and bold colors to explain tough subjects like the stages of alcoholism and abuse, what to do in an opioid overdose, and relapse prevention tips.

The post Marijuana’s Effect On the Teen Brain appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Do You Play The Blame Game WIth Loved Ones

There are two parties in the addiction blame game. Those suffering from Substance Use Disorder (SUD) or Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), and their friends, family, and loved ones. Family and friends can be verbally brutal during periods of active addiction. They want their loved one to stop so badly, they do or say hurtful things trying to effect a positive change. They also may have selective memory and focus on the pain loved ones caused rather than the positive results that recovery had brought. Those with substance use disorders may remember harsh words and actions for the rest of their lives even if their family members actually supported them, paid for their treatment, and acted in honorable ways beyond what they said.

Here Are 2 True-Life Examples Of Stopping The Blame Game
Alice And Jennie

Jennie was a heroin addict who drained her mother, Alice’s, resources over a decade and eventually stole her laptop and jewelry. Jennie has forgotten her own actions and the hurt they caused because it was addiction and not her. Unfortunately, she continues to verbally strike out at her mother of not loving or caring for her enough while she was using. Jennie specifically won’t forgive her mother for not traveling 100 miles every week to bring her soft toilet paper when she was in jail on drug charges. Alice feels guilty enough about Jennie’s drug journey, and Jennie anger about the past keeps her nervous and worried about what she should be doing better now.

Alice’s Resolution

Alice goes to Al-Anon to learn not to engage with Alice when she complains. While Jennie is not in emotional recovery, Alice is taking care of herself.

Dan And Peter

Dan is a well-meaning father who constantly reminded his son, Peter, a recovering addict of 13 years, that he has not fulfilled his potential and could be doing so much better in life. This constant rebuke was like opening old wounds for Dan every time they talked or met. In fact, Peter started a small business, is busy and engaged in his community, and leads a successful life that he enjoys to the fullest.

Dan’s Resolution

Dan saw a therapist to ease the tension in their relationship. Dan began to understand that his expectations for his son were the problem. Peter is happy and successful on his own terms even if he isn’t doing what his father planned for him. When Dan stopped talking about his own feelings and accepted reality, they became close friends.

The blame game whatever form it takes is juicy and gets you going. But engaging in it is keeps the conflict, tension and unhappiness going. If you don’t blame others or react when others blame you. There’s nothing to fight about. Game Over.

Quiz: When You’re Triggered What Do You Do?

You’re Dan’s girlfriend and see Dan smoking at a party when he promised not to smoke. You remember that he is a recovering addict and panic thinking crack is next:

Do you remind him that he’s an addict and this is the slippery slope to relapse?
Do you tell him smoking is bad for him?
Do you ask what’s up with the smoking? Just a neutral question. 

You’re Gretchen’s mother. You see Gretchen eying your purse. You’ve just been to the bank and have some cash for errands. Gretchen used to steal this cash for drugs years ago.  Gretchen knows you and that you are about to say something. Do you:

Panic and yell at her to get away from your purse as you have done many times in the past?
Ask her if she needs anything?
Make a point of getting up to move your purse?

You’re Adam’s sister. You hear that Adam is telling everyone he knows that you are to blame for much of what he suffered while an addict. You have that heart-stopping desire to strike back with stories about what he did to you. Do you:

Tell the world that he’s a lying jerk.
Heap some hurt onto him via his girlfriend and Facebook.
Know the blame game is a waste of time, shrug it off. You have your own life to live.

If you picked 3. 2. 3., you know how to stop the blame game. If you picked some other answers, you’re still playing the game, and probably still getting into some fights.

In the Blame Game there are no winners and everyone ends up hurt. Finding ways to stop playing is the best game of all.

Did you know the 12 Steps, which have helped millions find recovery, can also help their loved ones find peace and serenity? Check out our latest book, Find Your True Colors In 12-Steps.

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Recovery Results Appreciate The Progress

How can we measure recovery results? I used to work for someone who would regularly remark, “I really don’t care how hard someone is trying, I only care about the results they get me.” This may be a good line of thinking when it comes to business performance, but it doesn’t apply to addiction recovery and mental health progress. To be realistic about it, trying hard in recovery doesn’t mean you won’t relapse, or deal with other missteps, but it does usually lead to improvement. See, the recovery results are in progress, even when it’s slow.

Recovery Results Measure The Progress

It appears sometimes people get so caught up in the drama of a relapse, or a mental health “episode” they forget to think about the big picture. Take Demi Lovato for example. She had almost six productive sober years when she relapsed. Those recovery results are amazing!! Maybe next time she’ll get 12. I relapsed at 5 years for two weeks. Soon I’ll have six years back. Relapse didn’t mean I actually lost those five years of good recovery results. It meant I was getting better at sustaining long term recovery. The first time I tried to get sober at 21 I couldn’t make it a full year. My recovery results were improving. In total I’ve had eleven years of sobriety, with a two week slip. Those are actually very good recovery results. We should be proud of the progress, not devastated by the setbacks.

Recovery Progress Is Real Even After Relapse

But back to Demi. I don’t know her story that well, but I know she’s publicly talked about self-harm in the past. We hope that’s behind her. The reality is some people with co-occurring disorders deal with a plethora of behavioral problems. In recovery you have to deal with them one at a time. Particularly if you started using young, and kept using through the crucial development years. Using substances covers emotional disturbances, and the underlying causes don’t go away without a lot of time, treatment, support, rewiring, and practice. Practice, practice, practice. Then, more practice. The recovery results are the will to keep practicing.

Demi Lovato Deserves Praise For Her Achievements

Demi made it almost six years. She’s been championing addiction and mental health as her cause, creating a platform for it, like no one else. She’s been brutally honest about her own struggles and welcomed us into her world to witness to her success, her realities, her bad moments, and hopefully very soon a grand comeback.

Recognize And Acknowledge Recovery Results Are The Progress

I know it’s hard to have compassion when it’s not your disease. Addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing brain disease. No one chooses to have it. Of all the physical diseases, this is the only one which tells people they don’t have a disease. Imagine getting over that. Literally, those struggling with Substance Use Disorder (addiction) have to rewire their brains. They have to do it themselves. There’s no pill to make the disease go away. For this reason, our struggles are harder. Stigma gets us down because if you don’t have this, you can’t imagine what it’s like. And other people’s judgment of your setbacks can set us back further.

For this reason SUD is a disease that requires a lot of compassion. I compare myself in addiction to training a bad dog. It’s when we’re at our absolute worst that we actually require the most love and compassion. It’s totally backasswards but often those with SUD are missing love somewhere—for themselves, for others, from others. Finding the compassion helps us all recognize the accomplishment of recovery progress.

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Taking Mental Health Seriously Is How the Best Business Leaders Protect Their Teams

From Entrepreneur.com

One in five people — including your employees — is struggling with a mental illness.

I live with general anxiety disorder.

Two years ago, I wrote publicly about my struggle with this disorder for the first time. Some of the reactions were tough to swallow. People reached out to me to say, “I thought you had it together.” I was offended because I do have it together, probably better than those people who don’t have to fight against this problem every day. All of the success I’ve earned in my life — starting Alley, speaking on national stages and television shows, building community and entrepreneurship initiatives — happened despite my anxiety disorder.

I’m not the only one. After the article was published, I also received thousands of emails from seasoned entrepreneurs who had built several companies telling me that what I shared resonated with them. They knew the struggle too. Those entrepreneurs and I are living proof that success and mental illness are not mutually exclusive. You have to work a little harder than most to get to your goals, but it’s possible.

Accomplishing those goals isn’t the end of the battle, though. This past June, just three days apart, designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain both lost their lives to suicide. Many people were shocked. These were two successful individuals living seemingly great lives, and yet depression pushed them to their limits.

Here’s the thing about mental illness: it doesn’t discriminate. No matter how glamorous someone’s life appears from the outside, there’s no way to know what they’re dealing with behind closed doors. As CEOs, that’s a reality we can’t ignore. Not just for ourselves, but for our staff. One in five Americans are living with mental illness — that’s 20 percent. There’s no doubt that some of your employees are a part of that statistic. This is real, and we need to talk about it.

I believe that mental health awareness and education should be mandatory in any workplace. Good business leaders are the ones who hire the best talent and give them the support they need to be great, and part of that support has to include their mental health. As leaders, we need to take the time to be empathetic to what our employees are going through, on and off the job, and be prepared to help them be their greatest in spite of those challenges. Over the years, I’ve worked hard to build that kind of support system for my team at Alley. Here are four things you can do to get that ball rolling in your company.

1. Make transparency the norm.

You cannot develop awareness around mental health in the workplace and implement effective policies and procedures to address it if your staff is afraid to raise the conversation. So, build your company to be transparent. Create a culture that allows the subject of mental health to be shared and not buried. Hold focus sessions, and open the dialogue with your team. You have to foster an environment that encourages your employees to speak freely if they are struggling and to trust that they won’t be punished for it.

Related: Maintaining A Healthy Mind and Body Is Key to Finding Balance As An Entrepreneur

2. Really have your employees’ backs.

With mental health issues so common, it’s not a matter of if your employees will ever need support, it’s a matter of when. Your team needs to know that when they open up about their mental health, you will have their backs. So, once the conversation has been started, listen, understand what they’re going through, learn what they need, and reverse engineer how you can help them when the time comes. If people need time off, create an open policy on requesting leave. If they need doctors or therapy, ensure that your health plan is designed to help them access those resources. If they’re looking for work-life balance, hold events and get-togethers that are fun and supportive. Put the processes and policies in place to support your employees when they need it most.

3. Don’t let your office be a trigger.

Employees spend anywhere from a quarter to a third of their lives at work. That time shouldn’t have to feel like torture. Some jobs are stressful, and that can’t be avoided, but that does not mean that the work environment has to be challenging too. Create the kind of workplace where your employees will actually like coming into the office. Of course, cool perks like events and get-togethers and free stuff are great, but it’s also as simple as being nice. It matters so much when you’re kind to people, so make that a part of your company culture on every level.

Related: Do Wellness Programs Make Employees More Productive? The Obvious Answer Is Yes.

4. Don’t feel like you have to do it all yourself.

Because I suffer from mental illness, I am naturally more empathetic to the mental health needs of my staff. But that doesn’t mean I’m equipped to address them all. At Alley, we’ve established partnerships with other brands and companies for resources like meditation facilities and yoga instruction that our staff can take advantage of. If you’re looking for ways to support your staff in their mental wellness, reach out to other businesses in your network for tools, spaces and resources your staff could benefit from.

In business, a good staff can be your best asset. Your company runs because they commit their time and energy to it. So, give them back something more than a paycheck. Get to know your employees beyond their job descriptions, prioritize their mental well-being, and create a system of support they can count on when they need it.

The post Taking Mental Health Seriously Is How the Best Business Leaders Protect Their Teams appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

How Retail Mental Health Could Be Medicine’s Next Frontier

From Forbes:

Throughout his residency and his last three years as a physician in psychiatry training at Mather Hospital in New York, Dr. Tamir Aldad saw upfront how thousands of mental health patients each year were sent home from the emergency room knowing they might not get follow-up treatment for several weeks.

Despite the urgency of care needed amid the nation’s opioid epidemic and related mental health crisis, millions of Americans like the patients Aldad sees are treated first in an ER, but often aren’t able to see a psychiatrist even after being screened for anything from substance abuse or phobias to PTSD or potential risk of self-harm. Aldad says they aren’t sick enough to be admitted so they “boomerang back to the ER in a couple weeks with the same or worse problem than they came in for in the first place.”

“There are 70% of patients with mental illness who are sent home because their symptoms aren’t severe enough to be admitted, but they don’t meet criteria for admission,” says Aldad citing New York City hospital statistics.

In New York alone, Aldad says the wait to see a psychiatrist in an outpatient clinic or doctor’s office is four to eight weeks. And it may be worse in other parts of the U.S. given there is a nationwide shortage of doctors and psychiatrists in particular.

“You could go through the phone book and beg psychiatrists to see them or they could get an appointment to see a psychiatrist on Park Avenue today, but you would need $500 to $600 to see them,” Aldad says.

To fill these potentially life-threatening gaps in U.S. healthcare, the 33-year-old physician and University of Chicago Booth Executive MBA student has developed an award-winning startup called Mindful Urgent Care staffed by a team of mental health professionals including psychiatrists to increase mental health access and speed quality and affordable treatment to a population of patients with unmet needs.

For his efforts, Aldad won $140,000 in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business’ New Venture Challenge and Global New Venture Challenge competitions that have launched startups like online food delivery service Grubhub and payment processor BrainTree. He says he’s also landed another $500,000 in funding from additional backers to help him open his first 3,000 square-foot retail clinic in September in New Hempstead, NY. A second 2,000 square foot clinic will open in midtown Manhattan in 2019.

He’s also hearing from additional potential investors he’s not ready to publicly disclose, which could be key to a business plan he has to open 35 centers in the greater tri-state area surrounding New York City in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey in the next five years.

It’s a unique approach to a market not tapped yet by big retailers. Though pharmacy chains like CVS Health and Walgreens Boots Alliance are big into retail health clinics, both confirm they don’t for now have plans to build out or add mental health services.

Such facilities cannot open fast enough. For years now, the U.S. health system has lacked enough primary care providers like family physicians and internists as more Americans with a pent up demand for treatment gained the ability to pay under the Affordable Care Act. And mental health needs in communities across the country are becoming as critical, with no way of filling the void in sight. Behavioral health facilities, hospitals and addiction centers cannot find the psychiatrists they need.

“We face a broad range of mental health issues, including the acute problems of opioid addiction and increasing rates of depression and suicide,” Dr. Darrell Kirch, a psychiatrist and chief executive of the Association of American Medical Colleges said in a report earlier this year on the psychiatrist shortage. There are 28,000 psychiatrists in the U.S., but three in five are 55 years of age or older, AAMC data shows.

But Aldad’s strategy is to meet patient need through a mix of psychiatrists and “physician extenders” like nurse practitioners and physicians assistants with mental health and psychiatric specialties to better triage patients in order to replicate the consumer-friendly Mindful Urgent Care model that will be open 15 hours a day and seven days a week.

Though big chains haven’t yet jumped on the retail mental health clinic concept, there have been other public and private urgent care centers open up in the space.

Psychiatric urgent care pioneers include Broadlawns Psychiatric Urgent Care in Des Moines and a new state-funded effort in North Carolina launched by Alliance Behavioral Healthcare, a managed care organization that asked a group of therapists in Durham to create a clinic, according to a report earlier this year in North Carolina Health News.

“Because we use physician extenders and not strictly psychiatrists, we are able to scale our model,” Aldad says. “By no means are we trying to compete for business and take away from psychiatrists in their practices, but we want to get these patients treatment. We want to give medication and provide simple symptom stabilization so you as a patient has relief.”

For now, Mindful Urgent Care has contracts with more than 30 health insurance companies through the New York psychiatrists that will be staffing and supervising the staff at the retail clinics.

But Aldad is hopeful the model will be attractive to health insurers on a broader scale given the move away from fee-for-service medicine that emphasizes volume of medical care delivered. Instead, insurers emphasize value-based care that encourages patients to get better treatment upfront in a doctor’s office. Such value-based models measure and reward providers based on how well they care for patients, treating them more holistically.

Value-based models reach out into the community to make sure patients get the right care, in the right place and at the right time so it’s quality and low cost. Health insurers like UnitedHealth Group, Anthem and Aetna and many others are now paying out more than half of their reimbursements to doctors based on such value-based formulas so Aldad’s idea should have merit with health plans.

Prices Mindful Urgent Care plans to charge are expected to cost $175 for an initial visit and $80 for follow-up care based on the average of what Medicare and private insurance pays, Aldad says. Most patients have coverage so they would likely pay significantly less based on their co-payments, deductibles and related out-of-pocket costs.

“In value-based care, patient outcomes really matter and what we are instead seeing now is that patients in mental health are costing more and more,” Aldad said. “It’s even more costly if that hospitalization for mental illness is preventable because they couldn’t get in for a medication refill or they couldn’t get into their doctor’s office for an appointment. We have an opioid crisis and we have to proactively trend and work on how to prevent illness.”

The post How Retail Mental Health Could Be Medicine’s Next Frontier appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Having Problems? Reach Out Recovery Helps

If you’re constantly overwhelmed by problems related to addiction and mental health, Reach Out Recovery helps you find answers to your questions and solutions for the issues that plague you. Think of us like the public library where information is free, and all in one place. What could be better? All you have to do is browse the menu below to find what you’re looking for. There are plenty of resources and answers here, so take your time to explore the subjects that interest you. If you have a specific question click on the magnifying glass and start your search. 

You’re Not Alone This Disease Affects 120 Million People

You may be surprised to learn that the effects of substance use are far-reaching and can affect you in many ways. Behaviors like abuse, manipulation, lying, arguing, gaslighting, and stealing destroy family relationships. Financial destruction from substance purchases or revolving door treatments put whole families at risk, as well as unemployment, legal problems stemming from DUIs, and even jail time. Addiction, now defined as Substance Use and Behavior Use Disorders, is a family disease that affects generations whether the loved one is currently using or not.

 Reach Out Recovery Content

Forget the endless Internet searches for reliable information. You can find it all here. Below is an image of our menu which you can access where you see the three bars. The Recovery Daily is our newspaper with five categories updated regularly. Recovery Answers is the latest research from the Recovery Research Institute at Harvard. Teen Health gives you facts and tips on what to do in all kinds of difficult parenting situations. In Substances you can find descriptions of dozens of substances and their effects.

Recovery Topics lets you explore subjects related to addiction and recovery with over 500 original articles that link to each other as well as outside resources. These topics bring awareness and solutions to difficult and confusing problems and have brought insight to millions of people.

And let us not forget the ROR shop. Here you’ll see unique gifts to grow your recovery you won’t find anywhere else. If you’d like something more that Tshirts, we’re for you. Explore the menu at your leisure.

Who Is Reach Out Recovery?

We are real people who have overcome various different addictions. Through recovery, we got our lives back, and now we want to help you. By trade, we are writers and creatives. We search for the latest recovery tips, facts, and tools. Then we translate that information for you in the simplest terms even a fourth grader can understand.

We are not therapists or a treatment center. We will not track you down and stage an intervention. When you browse our website, you are safe. Thanks to recovery, we have restored relationships, peace, and serenity. We simply want to share our strength, hope, and experience with you.

Connect On Facebook

We also have a fabulous Facebook page that is updated daily. We post links to our new articles, inspirational quotes, some fun memes, and heartwarming videos. It’s a respite from the dirt and grime of everyday life, and it’s a great place to find other people who have been through similar problems.

Where To Start On Reach Out Recovery

Many of our visitors begin in one of these popular categories:

Abuse
Adult Children Of Alcoholics
Boundaries
Codependency
Grief
Family
Relationships

Reach Out Recovery is best known for our original content, and our top articles have been read by millions. If you’re not sure where to go, this list of our top ten is a great place to start:

Ten Ways To Break The Narcissist’s Spell
Six Relationship Red Flags
25 Lasting Effects Of Childhood Emotional Abuse
Not Prepared For Son’s Life After Overdose
Gaslighting Tango
Excuses That Keep You Caged
Ten Signs Of Dysfunctional Families
Seven Sneaky Ways You May Be Abused
Six Ways To Know The Ones You Love Don’t Love You Back
Toxic Family Dynamic

Whether you have a family crisis right now, want to learn more about addiction, or are just researching for a “friend,” you are right where you need to be. Welcome.

The post Having Problems? Reach Out Recovery Helps appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.