Men, let's talk about depression, panic attacks, mental health and suicide. As men, we don't talk about these things. And we need to. NBA's Kevin Love & DeMar DeRozan have done us a great favor by writing and talking about their panic attacks and depression this past month. I'll link to their articles below, along with some other important resources for men regarding mental health and self care below too.
Cleveland Cavalier Kevin Love wrote a blog post earlier this week titled Everyone is Going Through Something, where he details his recent panic attack on the court and his subsequent work with a therapist. Here is a terrific quote from his post: "Everyone is going through something that we can’t see. The thing is, because we can’t see it, we don’t know who’s going through what and we don’t know when and we don’t always know why. Mental health is an invisible thing, but it touches all of us at some point or another. It’s part of life." Please take the time to read Kevin Love's blog post in full at this link. Then check out DeMar DeRozan's interview about depression below.
Toronto Raptor DeMar DeRozan tweeted on February 17, 2018 at 3:00 a.m. in the morning as he was in Los Angeles for the NBA All-Star game: "This depression get the best of me..." What followed this tweet was a wave of support for DeMar. He shared in an interview: “It’s one of them things that no matter how indestructible we look like we are, we’re all human at the end of the day,” the 28-year-old Raptors all-star said. “We all got feelings . . . all of that. Sometimes . . . it gets the best of you, where times everything in the whole world’s on top of you." Read more at this link. Then check out the Man Therapy link below.
Kevin and DeMar's openness inspired me to finally write this blog post about men's mental health. Unfortunately I've known too many men friends who have taken their own lives. I want to share with men that you don't have to go through mental health challenges or addiction or loneliness on your own. There are resources out there. One great resource to explore is a website called Man Therapy, which I encourage men to spend some time on now at this link: www.mantherapy.org
Men (and women) if you ever feel like you're even starting to think about suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 and visit their website at www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
I'll close this blog post by simply encouraging men to not try to do life on your own, particularly when times get tough. Connect with friends. See a therapist as needed. We cannot do life on our own. We need community. We need each other. Keep going! Don't give up!
Be well,
Mike
p.s. I plan to blog about Work-Life Happiness at least weekly in 2018. I'd be honored if you'd subscribe to my blog's emails on my website at: www.mikepritchard.com/subscribe.html
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