On Incendiary Emails from a Friend, Colleague, or Loved One…

Take a second. Breathe. You don’t know how they actually meant what they said (unless it’s a pretty clear f^&k you… then that’s a topic for another time :) ). Respond with no emotion and be very matter-of-fact. After you’ve cooled down, then it would be the time to schedule a phone call or a face-to-face. When you finally do get to hear their voice, be straight up, direct, firm, kind, and without frustration or expectation—so you don’t put them on the defensive, making it more difficult to have a conversation with the best possible outcome.
Afterward, you’ll have your answer: “I ain’t NEVER emailing this person again.” “We can work on this together.” “I’m cutting this person off.” “I need to __.” “I need to ___, but I’m also not taking crap from them either.” This list goes on and on.

Communication in theory is simple but it’s pretty damn difficult. You’re talking two different: frames of reference, upbringing, learned habits—good and bad, communication styles, and kinds of wants and needs.

Communication takes practice and sometimes it’s painful, but that’s no reason to bury our head in the sand or to play the avoidance game. That island called Loneliness is suffocating and no place for a human being.

Making Plans for a Non-Existent Future

Anxiety (non-clinical; non mental illness) lives in the future. Worrying about scenarios that will never come to pass lives in the future. 

BUT hope can also live in the future. Development of a system for healthy habits lives in the future. 

The difference between the future filled with anxiety and worry and the future filled with hope and healthy habits… Anxiety and worry live exclusively in the future whereas hope and healthy habits are anchored in the present moment. 

Planning for a future is okay as long as we plan with a specific allotment of time and not an endless cycle of thoughts on combinations and permutations as to how it’s all going to go. Non-clinical anxiety and worry is wasted energy and can be addictive. Hope and healthy habits anchored in the present must be cultivated and worked at and be constantly at the forefront of one’s mind: “Keep working hard and stay in the moment. Don’t go to that bad place, yo!”

It can be like walking a tightrope at times but your faith that everything will be okay (and it will be) as long as you stay in the moment is like a net that will save you every time and prevent you from breaking bones and your body the next time you fall (and you will… it’s inevitable). 

The i'Mpossible Project (55) with Nate Crawford

This is the fifty-fifth edition of The i’Mpossible Project: A series where anyone can share a personal story of inspiration or an event in life where they overcame tremendous odds. Everyone has a powerful story to tell and something to teach the world. Here we have Nate Crawford with Chasing Butterflies
---

I stand here, the end of May in the yard of my rented farmhouse. My three sons are standing around me. They are young and have the whole world in front of them, all of the awe that children have. They are six, two, and one, wide-eyed and curious, taking in life the way it should be. And, of course, they notice the butterflies. There are three of them flying in the air. And we run and we chase them. We chase these former insects now in their full beauty, trying to capture them, but not really because that would take away from the fun, from their beauty. So, we chase.

And as we chase, I forget where I am—fully engrossed in the moment. I am one more young child simply trying to touch the untouchable. The butterflies get away and we laugh and fall in the grass and simply enjoy the moment.

As I sit in this moment, I look up and see the window to my bedroom, the one I share with my wife. That room was the scene of a much different moment just a year earlier.

* * * 

“I can’t live like this. I can’t live with you,” my wife said, barely able to look at me.

I was crushed, destroyed. I looked at her and knew she was serious. She had never threatened divorce before. She had always said that we would make it, but I had finally become too much. My depression was destroying not only me, but her as well. She was afraid it would take my kids down too.

I have battled depression for my entire life. I had my first anxiety attack when I was seven. I have always had thoughts that the world would be better off without me, but when I was eleven, I started to indulge in suicidal ideation, meaning that my thoughts became more pointed and vivid. I had thought of how I might harm myself, how I might end my life. As a teenager, I thought this was normal—I mean, we always hear about how moody and weird teens are. They are not supposed to have these thoughts, though. No one is. But, the counselor that my parents sent me to saw me as everyone else did…a good student, a good kid, not a problem, maybe a little moody. I was told to go and that I did not need counseling.

When I reached college, I began to have sleepless nights caused not by study or partying, but because I was so fidgety and my mind moved so fast. My suicidal thoughts became more and more vivid to the point that I did not know if I could control the urges. I finally went to a counselor who immediately sent me to get meds. I was misdiagnosed as having a depressive episode. My anti-depressants caused my mind to race so fast, that I could not keep my legs still, and my hands twitched constantly. I could not live like this and yet I could not stop taking my meds. I was not depressed anymore, anyway.

For the next several years, I battled my demons but kept them hidden. I fell in love, got married, finished a master’s degree and was in the middle of finishing my doctorate when my depression began to overtake me again. I went to my doctor who prescribed another anti-depressant. It did nothing. He upped my dosage. I still felt nothing but pain. He upped my dosage once more. My pain, hurt, suffering increased. I was dying inside and doing so quickly. My wife saw it. My doctor upped my dosage again.

Finally, we came to the point where she told me that she could no longer live with me. She might love me, but living with me had become so unbearable that our love could not sustain it. She issued me the ultimatum: “Get help or I’m leaving.” I told her that I was simply doomed to my depression, but I called a counselor and saw him the next week.

When I saw the counselor and began to talk, he stopped me and asked if I had ever seen a psychiatrist.

“No, no one has ever said I needed to,” I told him.

“Having the experience of an anti-depressant not working on you should have caused your doctors to send you to a psychiatrist rather quickly,” he replied. He also went on to tell me that I was not simply in the midst of a depressive episode (“episodes” do not last years). I had something else and I needed to be seen by a psychiatrist. I called my doctor immediately and after a fight, he agreed to send me to a psychiatrist.

After two sessions with my psychiatrist, she diagnosed me with bipolar II disorder with an anxiety disorder on top of that. I was depressed, but also anxious and my depression came with hypomanic episodes. It felt good to have a name for what I was going through, to have something to fight, to deal with. I knew I would never get rid of my bipolar II, but I would continue to fight.

* * * 

Ten months later, I sit in that yard, with my three sons, and enjoy the moment. I am not cured, am not ok. I still have much to deal with in my life and with my diagnosis. However, I am on the track to getting better, to recovery, to managing my symptoms. I know that my life will not be perfect but moments like this, times when I chase butterflies, make it all the more important to fight for my life.

My wife walks out and yells, “Lunch, boys.” We get up and run inside, fueling to chase butterflies another day.
---

BIO: Nate Crawford is the Executive Director of Here/Hear, a nonprofit that works to give hope to those with mental illness and their loved ones. He is a regular contributor to The Mighty and blogs at www.herehear.org.

***

You can find more stories like Nate's in The i’Mpossible Project - Volume 2: Changing Minds Breaking Stigma Achieving the Impossible, now available for pre-order (click here). 50 authors. 50 inspirational stories of managing and overcoming mental health obstacles.

The first 200 people to pre-order will get a “thank you” in the front of the book, a free ebook copy of the book The Gospel According to Josh: A 28-Year Gentile Bar Mitzvah, and a free ebook copy of The i’Mpossible Project - Volume 1: Reengaging With Life, Creating a New You.

Giving for the Sake of Giving


Because it feels good. Because it’s a healthy distraction. Because you’re leaving this place better than when you found it. 

Any non-altruistic thoughts should point toward self-refinement and better giving-habits so we can then be more useful to others. 

It’s an interesting karmic cycle that goes well once we put away the thoughts, “Well what about me?” “When is it my turn?” “How come they don’t __, even when I do __ … aren’t they grateful? Sheeeee-iiit.”

They’re probably grateful. And they may even suck at showing it … but that ain’t none of your concern. Do you boo-boo. And let everyone else do them. It’s not easy and it sounds simple, but it takes a damn lot of practice and probably some wild mental acrobatics while you’re getting started. 

Stay the course. You can have everything you want as long as you have foresight and patience. Foresight that you’ll get nowhere trying to do everything on your own and for your own benefit. Patience that your physical and emotional needs will be met as long as you give of yourself and stay away from self-serving and self-defeating thoughts

I’ll say it again: Do you boo-boo. And I’ll do me.

The i'Mpossible Project (54) with Shannon Ackerman

This is the fifty-fourth edition of The i’Mpossible Project: A series where anyone can share a personal story of inspiration or an event in life where they overcame tremendous odds. Everyone has a powerful story to tell and something to teach the world. Here we have Shannon Ackerman with Escaping Darkness, Choosing Light

---

Two years ago, if you would have told me I would be alive today and helping change the world, I would have told you that you were crazy. Two years ago, I couldn’t even see myself living to be sixteen, let alone making it to my sophomore year of high school.

At fourteen, I was moving schools and had issues with my paternal father. And I was being bullied at school, which started in elementary school and never really stopped. But it was middle school that had the biggest impact on me. I moved between three schools in three years, the last one being in Florida. The second one I attended in Colorado took the largest toll on me.

People made fun of me, a lot. I was taunted for being poor, overweight and for not being pretty enough. I had a face full of acne, I would shake a lot, and I had a hard time talking to people. I could count the few friends I had on one hand, but there was constant drama. But none of this is what tore me apart.

A few days into March, my mom had picked me up from a cheerleading tryout. In the car, the words spilled from her lips, “Shannon, Uncle John V. committed suicide the other day…” She continued on but I couldn't hear a word she said. I felt like the floor had opened up from under my feet, swallowing me whole. My stomach dropped and I could feel my brain pounding against my skull. Tears welled up in my eyes as we pulled into the driveway of our house. I grabbed my backpack and headed downstairs into my room where I spent the rest of my night.

My uncle John V. wasn’t a blood relative but I had known him since I was born. We’d watch football together and bond over our dislike of the Dallas Cowboys. He was sarcastic towards me, but was sweet to me and I looked up to him. The week he died was the first time I had grabbed a blade and dragged it across my wrist.

My life took a turn. I became isolated from my parents and I’d constantly get into arguments with my mom. I spent the majority of my time in my room and I stopped eating. I would not come out of the house and the only people I surrounded myself with were those who were a toxic part of my life.

The toxic people, I would somehow call “friends” kept telling me that I should “cut a little deeper” or “it should have been you instead” and for a while, I wished it were. I wanted to be dead.

We moved to Florida around eighth grade and I met some amazing friends, some of my best friends to this day, but even then, I still had an eating disorder and I was still self-harming. And finally, I got tired of people seeing them so I took a blade to my thighs, which left countless of scars.

Though my friends tried to help, they had a hard time understanding and this carried on into my freshmen year of high school in Kentucky.

January 31st, 2015, I decided to recover and talk to my parents. I soon started going to my doctor and they recommended seeing a therapist. My therapist impacted my life so much, and we learned about two things that were controlling my life: anxiety and depression.

Throughout my newfound recovery, different medications have messed me up a bit and I have had a few relapses but I am better than I have ever been. And I owe that to my parents, my teachers, my friends, and my family.

Now, as a senior in high school, I am an active volunteer with the Matthew Silverman Memorial Foundation and have created a close bond with the foundation’s executive director who will never know how much she has impacted my life. I received the foundation’s Matt’s Hero Award, which I will forever cherish.

The greatest thing I have learned throughout my journey is that I will be okay… and so will you. I cannot promise happiness, but I can promise that you will be okay. You have a choice, you can let people put a label on you and become that, or you can use your words, and you can move toward something greater than you can ever imagine.

There is good in the world, and good people, and the world is more kind than what it’s made out to be.

We have a choice to be the light in the world, or we can stay hidden in the darkness. Tragedies can occur everywhere, even in our own lives. But please do not give up on the world, on other people, and especially not yourself.

---

BIO: Shannon Ackerman is in the high school graduating class of 2018. She loves dogs, tacos, and the color orange. She hopes to travel the world and help all those around her. Shannon likes to watch bad movies to make fun of them and enjoys springtime.

***


You can find more stories like Shannon's in The i’Mpossible Project - Volume 2: Changing Minds Breaking Stigma Achieving the Impossible, now available for pre-order (click here). 50 authors. 50 inspirational stories of managing and overcoming mental health obstacles.

The first 200 people to pre-order will get a “thank you” in the front of the book, a free ebook copy of the book The Gospel According to Josh: A 28-Year Gentile Bar Mitzvah, and a free ebook copy of The i’Mpossible Project - Volume 1: Reengaging With Life, Creating a New You.