What does mental health look like and how is our local community providing support online? This week on Mind Tap, we talk with a clinical psychologist and the founder of a local non-profit organization, to explore mental health challenges and the role community is playing in offering a powerful online mental health resource.
For most of us, I think it’s safe to say that when the topic of mental health comes up, we think about it in terms of extremes.
Dr. Cameron Staley, a clinical psychologist at Idaho State University’s counseling and testing center, shared with me that this kind of thinking can deter people from getting help.
“So I think a lot of people think about “do I have a mental illness or not? Do I have a mental health disorder, or not?” And it’s like, “if I have a disorder, then I should get help, if I don’t have a disorder, I don’t need help.” I think that maybe black and white thinking about mental health is in and of itself a barrier to getting support and mental health care. I think the key thing is I want people to recognize that mental health is universal; that we’re all going to need support, and struggle at times. I would want to live in a world where people say, yeah, I go see a personal trainer, just like they might say, oh yeah, I go see a personal counselor.”
Dr. Staley explained to me that there are several types of impairments to consider when talking about mental health, which include impairment in occupation, relationships, education, and daily living. When it comes to overcoming those impairments, we all only have a certain amount of time and energy. With that limited energy, some might prioritize academics, while others could focus more on sports or their social life. What we decide to prioritize can affect other aspects of our mental health, where success in one area might lead to thinking that we should be able to handle mental health concerns on our own, as well.
Dr. Staley mentioned that knowing that you’re not alone in mental health struggles could, at times, be all someone needs to get through those struggles. Adam Walz saw the same need for knowing you’re not alone when he started his nonprofit organization called Sunlight Now earlier this year. Sunlight Now is based online, with most of their community members living in South East Idaho. I asked Adam about Sunlight Now.
“What we do is try and connect with these people, build relationships with them through community. I mean, one of this simplest ways, we have a Facebook group where we put them together, and interact with them, and just try and create a situation where people are getting used to talking about what they’re going through, because lot of times, what we’ve noticed is that mental illness makes it really difficult to talk about your mental illness. It makes people not want to talk about the thing that they need to talk about most so that they can start working through it. So we’ve tried to create an environment where it’s really normal to talk about these things, and what we’ve found is that the more people start to open up, even in a digital setting, even if it’s just in a Facebook group, the more likely they are to reach out when they’re actually having a crisis.”
By creating this community, Sunlight Now and their crisis response team are able to help individuals find and connect to mental health resources when they’re having a hard time doing that themselves.
Personal loss was the inspiration behind starting this organization. When his brother-in-law committed suicide, it seemed to Adam that this should have been preventable. Adam told me that his brother-in-law Kanden was still going to work, and still had a group of friends that he regularly spent time with making things appear normal. However, that didn’t mean that everything was fine.
Adam shared with me that, “He (Kanden) profoundly wasn’t okay, right? But we didn’t know what to do. Y’know, he was so good at acting like everything was okay right? And it’s like, in that moment, even if you know he’s lying, what do you do?”
This huge loss that Adam and his family experienced is exactly what Sunlight Now is aiming to prevent in the future.
Dr. Staley shared with me that there are many different options for helping us prioritize our mental health.
“For some people, they just may need a really high quality self help book about depression, or anxiety, or autism. Or they might find an online community or forum where that really fits their needs. Or they’re able to talk openly with their friends or family. Others may need a more formal therapy group, others may need one-on-one counseling, others may benefit from medication, or a combination of some of these things, but there is a range of options out there. So if you’re struggling, that doesn’t mean you need to be in therapy. Therapy might be helpful, but there’s a whole range.”
Thanks to guests this week. It’s been really insight and powerful learning about how community can play a role in tackling mental health challenges. Join us next week on Mind Tap, where Scott will be investigating the Wim Hof Method and how sensory experiences can be used to manage our mental health.
To find out more about Sunlight Now, you can check out their website
Further explore the mental health services provided to ISU students
