Do you have a difficult time relaxing because you can’t stop thinking about things that happened early and what is going to happen later? Do you find it difficult to get motivated to do things that you used to be excited about? Are these symptoms of anxiety or depression or just a lack of sleep? How can you tell?

Anxiety and depression are very similar. They can be caused by the same things and can have the same symptoms. It is very easy to confuse the two and mistake which one you are suffering from. It can be especially difficult to tell when you are suffering from both. For you to find the right kind of help, it is important to understand what is affecting you and what it is indicative of.

Women’s Health has published a quick seven-question quiz to help you differentiate your symptoms and categorize them as depression, anxiety, or neither. It is for educational purposes only to help you better understand your symptoms and should not replace a diagnosis from a medical professional. Please visit NAMI.org for information on how to find a medical professional near you. Visit Women’s Health to take the quiz.

Photo by Elina Krima from Pexels

Undergraduate Computer Science students at highly competitive institutions, such as the one at which I teach, live with a tremendous amount of stress. Courses are fast-paced and extremely rigorous, often requiring algorithmic thinking skills as well as strong programming ability. Students in large classes may feel like a nameless face, especially if they are members of historically underrepresented or marginalized groups. And outside of school, there is often pressure to get a job at a top software company, many of which typically have extremely competitive and selective hiring processes.

A certain level of stress is good and is part of the learning process, yet now more than ever, we are seeing Computer Science student stress turn into distress. Students often feel that they are unable to cope with their workload and the pressures they put on themselves, in addition to the pressures they feel from society, their peers, and from their families.

To that end, it is critical that Computer Science instructors signal that they care about their students’ mental health and create environments in which students can get the support they need. At the very least, instructors should ensure that students know about campus mental health resources such as counseling services, peer-to-peer hotlines, etc., by listing them in their course syllabus and in easy-to-find locations in course discussion boards and learning management systems.

Getting students to know about resources is the easy part: getting them to use those resources is trickier. An important step for instructors is destigmatizing their use and indicating that it is perfectly okay to ask for help when it comes to mental health. Students look to their instructors for guidance in both academic and life-related issues, and it can be very effective for instructors to make in-class announcements reminding students about these resources. Instructors who are not comfortable making the announcement themselves can invite representatives from student wellness groups to talk about these resources. Regardless of who does the talking, demonstrating to the students that this is important enough to mention during class goes a long way.

In my classes, I not only remind students about campus mental health resources, but I also state publicly that I live with a mental illness and see a therapist. I make it clear that I’m happy to meet with students if they’d like to discuss their mental health concerns with me. I know from discussions with colleagues that not everyone is as comfortable with being as open about this as I am, but this revelation certainly signals that I care about this topic as well as my students’ mental health. It is not easy to stand in front of a room full of 300 undergraduates and tell them about my mental illness, but later in the semester when a student tells me “I started using the campus mental health resources because of what you said in class,” then I know I’m doing something right.

Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels

Experts agree that fasting in moderation can be very beneficial, however, the trend towards extreme fasting has many experts worried. With the stigma around male anorexia, it also leaves many wondering if the male-dominant Silicon Valley culture is masking anorexia with scientific and technical terms to make it more socially acceptable.

Dr. Tiffany Brown, a postdoctoral fellow at UC San Diego Eating Disorders Center, explains that anorexia is very much considered something that just women suffer from and “people still have a difficult time recognizing similar behavior in men as problematic”.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been publicly promoting extreme fasting, including a three-day water-only fast. Dr. Valter Longo, director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, told The Guardian that he believes fasting can be very beneficial, but he strongly advises against extreme fasting like Dorsey is promoting. When popular tech celebrities begin endorsing these types of extreme eating patterns, it can be very difficult for people to see them in anything but a positive light – a way to be as productive (and get as rich as) these people they admire. The reality is, these extreme diets may be very dangerous or lead to health issues that people don’t anticipate, as an increase in gallstones.

To learn more about this extreme fasting trend and its dangers, read “Extreme fasting: how Silicon Valley is rebranding eating disorders” published in The Guardian.

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels

Bethany Kassar, a licensed clinical social worker and executive director of Outpatient Services at Summit Behavioral Health told The Daily Mail that she has seen a rise in eating disorders in young boys. Young boys are under a lot of pressure to achieve a certain weight and physique because of society's image of the perfect male body, as well as to be the "correct" weight for various sports.

The situation looks to be improving, though. Between 2010 and 2016, the number of men admitted to a hospital for an eating disorders rose 70 percent. Prominent male celebrities like Eminem, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Carter, and Robert Pattinson have all come forward about their own body image and eating disorder struggles, helping to break the stigma around males seeking help for eating disorders.

To learn more:

• "More Men Are Seeking Help for Eating Disorders Than Ever Before" - Men's Health
• "Male eating disorders are on the rise especially in teenagers - but experts say these celebrities are helping to crush the stigma" - Daily Mail
• "Eating Disorders in Men & Boys" - National Eating Disorders Association

Photo by Padli Pradana from Pexels

But in 1841, a wealthy woman from the East Coast began a campaign to change all of this. Dorothea Dix had just returned from being treated for tuberculosis in England. While she was there, she met many social reformers and became interested in the “lunacy reform movement” which was raising awareness about the conditions of asylums. She returned to Massachusetts and began investigating the conditions of the local population with mental illnesses. What she found angered her greatly, so she wrote a scathing “Memorial” to the state legislature calling out the horrible conditions and mistreatment. She also called for the construction of a facility designed to care for those with mental illnesses. Her words worked. In 1845, a joint committee of the state houses convened to examine the issue and later passed a bill based on Dix's recommendations.

Dix did not stop there. She continued campaigning for the next 40 years for mental health reform in all of the Eastern states and internationally in Canada, Scotland, and Russia. She helped found mental hospitals, schools for those with disabilities, and training facilities for nurses. She even spoke with Pope Pius IX and convinced him to build a new hospital for the mentally ill.

While there is a lot of controversy over asylums and mental health care hospitals, there is no denying that Dorothea Dix's compassion for others drastically improved the living conditions of an incredible number of people. To learn more about Dorothea Dix and her work, visit A Mighty Girl's blog post Dorothea Dix: The Compassionate Crusader Who Revolutionized Care for the Mentally Ill.

Besides lost workdays, depression also leads to increased health care costs and reduced productivity at work. The CDC estimates that in a 3-month period, patients with depression will have 11.5 days of reduced productivity in addition to the 4.8 lost workdays. Many employees may quit when they cannot get the mental health support they need at work. CBSNews reported that replacing an employee that quits costs more than you might think. For a mid-range employee, replacing them can cost 20% of their annual salary. It jumps up to 213% of annual salary to replace an executive. Depression is expensive for employers!

More research is needed into how employers can most effectively improve the mental health environment at work. However, there are a number of strategies that the CDC recommends pursuing like holding depression recognition screenings, utilizing confidential self-rating sheets, training supervisors to recognize mental health issues, and making sure that all employees have access to mental health treatment through employer-provided health insurance benefits.

Just being open about mental health in the workplace can also make a big difference. Stew Friedman, professor at the Wharton School of Business and founding director of the Wharton Leadership Program, told Morra Aarons-Mele of the Harvard Business Review, “The conversations you instigate and your awareness in choosing topics of discussion are an important piece to the process of change. Openness encourages executives to share more about their own experiences, and that normalizes the experience of others.”

You can learn more about the costs of workplace depression in the Harvard Business Review article, “We Need to Talk More About Mental Health at Work”, and on the CDC’s Workplace Health Promotion website section on Depression.

I look up to these two actors for their acting prowess, of course. But what really made me a fan is how both have opened up about their battles with anxiety and depression. In twin articles in Men’s Health Magazine, Reynolds and Johnson share honest, thoughtful, and open explanations of their mental health struggles.

Johnson has shared on Twitter his own personal struggles recently. He went further and shared the story about how his mom struggled with her own depression and attempted to take her life when he was younger.

You wouldn’t imagine it with the swagger and charm he exudes, but Reynolds shares he’s nervous and anxious before every appearance. Sometimes his anxiety is so severe, it leads him to very dark places.

The bravery to be open in a competitive arena like Hollywood is pretty astounding. These two public figures, people just like us, struggle with mental health issues and aren’t afraid to share it and seek treatment. I’m proud to have them as my heroes.

For more information, check out these articles about Reynolds and Johnson: - Ryan Reynolds Talks Anxiety in ‘New York Times’ Profile - Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Opened Up About His Battle With Depression - ‘Depression Doesn't Discriminate’ - Dwayne Johnson Shares How Depression Has Affected Him

The American Psychological Association (APA) gives these recommendations for dealing with Chronic Stress:

Set limits. Tap into your support system. Make one health-related commitment. Enhance your sleep quality. Strive for a positive outlook.

Above all else, meet with a licensed mental health professional who can help you develop an effective strategy for your specific situation and needs. For more information on Chronic Stress, read the APA’s article, “Stress Won’t Go Away? Maybe You Are Suffering from Chronic Stress”. You can learn more about Sergio Caltagirone in his own words in “Chronic Stress and a Life: How Stress Almost Killed Me”.

The year was 1990, and I was seven years old. I grew up in a rural area surrounded by trees, fields, and lots of greenery. I didn’t know it at the time, but this could have been one of the best gifts I got during my childhood.

According to a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), access to green space in childhood is associated with stronger mental health in adults. The researchers found that a child growing up near greenery was associated with up to a 55 percent lower risk of mental health disorders as an adult.

Kristine Engemann, the biologist who led the study, cautions against making a definitive link between these two conditions, however. She says the data is purely correlational. That being said, the study is based on nearly 1 million people in the Danish Civil Registration System. The data provided is so detailed that the PNAS paper was able to weight, compare, and limit other conditions like social-economic status and location.

It turns out, you don’t have to grow up in a rustic area like me to experience these benefits. Even urban dwellers surrounded by green spaces have the reduced risk. So, there’s no excuse - it’s time to walk to the park!

You can access the entire details of this peer-reviewed paper titled “Residential green space in childhood is associated with lower risk of psychiatric disorders from adolescence into adulthood” online. Otherwise, stop by this NPR article for a detailed summary.

Bipolar disorder is debilitating, but treatable. Some of the most common symptoms are periods of depression mixed with periods of mania, a decreased need for sleep, uncharacteristic thrill-seeking behavior, and alcohol or drug abuse. You can learn more about the symptoms of bipolar disorder and the film about Irons’ life in the article, “5 Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder You Should Know” by Men’s Health.

“As with most phobias, avoidance is not the best solution,” says clinical psychologist Anna Kress, Psy.D. “In fact, avoidance typically reinforces the fear associated with a phobia.” This proved true for Brady, and her symptoms did not improve even when she avoided eating with others. Her realization point came when she was watching a movie on TV where two characters were eating in a restaurant, and she had a panic attack just seeing a fictional depiction of a meal out. She knew she had to deal with this.

She started being more open about her struggles while getting help, and even discovered that her mother suffers from the same thing. Brady is not at the end of the road yet, but she’s proud of the progress she is making. Learn more about what deipnophobia and what Brady experiences in her own words, 'I Have A Severe Phobia—Here's What It's Like'.

Please Help

The 2019 Mental Health in Tech Survey is now open. The survey is completely anonymous. Please take a moment to help OSMI and our work by filling out the survey. When you are done, please share the survey with others. The more responses we get, the better the data we have to help with our work. https://osmi.us/survey2019

Milano felt as though no one knew what she was going through. Her doctor dismissed her symptoms and her co-workers did not understand her pain. She finally reached a breaking point and went to the emergency room at 2am one morning asking to be committed.

Through this process, she found angels in her psychiatrist and therapist. They helped her see that she has value, that her symptoms are real, and that she has the bravery to face this illness.

Milano is now an activist working to help spread information and encourage people to talk about mental health. Her focus: “Let’s rededicate ourselves to talking about mental health. Let’s demand that our lawmakers pass policies that open — not restrict — our access to mental health services. Let’s remind each other that no one should have to face these challenges by themselves.”

You can read more about her journey in her own words in TIME’s article “Alyssa Milano: How I Came to Terms With My Anxiety Disorder”.

Many people suffering from depression can also get stuck worrying about how a past event went. You can help distract them by taking them out to do something that is both mentally and physically engaging, like taking a walk or going to an exercise class.

Equally important are the things you should not do or say to someone who is struggling with depression. Make sure you are not framing your statements in a way which places blame on them for being depressed. Depression is a medical condition, and it is not their fault. Do not tell them they need to try harder or ask them why they don’t want to get better.

To learn more, check out the article “What to say (and not say) to someone who is depressed”, published by NBC News’ Today which has some great suggestions for reaching out and supporting your loved ones.

Bass got the idea to start The Bandana Project while talking to a friend at another university. Their professor had recently lost a son to suicide, and the class wore white bandanas on their backpacks to show support. The Bandana Project volunteers wear a lime green bandana on their backpacks to signal that they are willing to be a mental health resource and that they are carrying cards containing contact information for campus and local mental health support organizations. The bandanas also help make mental health more prominent on campus, and Bass hopes this will help remove some of the stigma around talking about mental health or seeking assistance for mental health issues.

The Bandana Project has been spreading to other campuses around the United States. To learn more about how Bass started the movement, check out the Verona Press article, “VAHS grad leads mental health awareness movement at UW-Madison” or visit The Bandana Project’s UW-NAMI website.

A second study shows you should try to get in at least two hours of movement in every day, so plan some breaks into your next extended sitting session or find some exercises you can do to stay active while sitting at your desk.

Read more in the article: Sitting Too Long Could Put Your Brain Health at Risk.

Swarbrick is not only encouraging others to be open about mental health, but she has also opened up publicly about her own struggles with mental health. “I see my psychologist regularly. I have a history of anxiety and depression. I'm the one-in-six New Zealand adults who has been diagnosed with a "common mental disorder" at some point in their lives.”

This came just a few days after the New Zealand Chief Coroner released their annual suicide statistics. “They are the highest they've ever been. Each of those figures is the life of an incredible person with whānau and friends who'll be experiencing immense loss. Each of those numbers is a tragedy,” says Swarbrick.

Read more about Swarbrick’s stance on opening up about mental health in the NZ Herald’s article, “Chlöe Swarbrick: There's a responsibility to be frank and real about mental health”.

“If my supervisors had never sat me down that day, I don’t know if or when I would have started therapy. I don’t think I ever would have brought up my mental illness to them either. Bringing such a personal part of my life into the workplace just seemed unnecessary and unnatural. Mental illness is an uncomfortable topic to discuss with anyone, let alone someone whose respect and trust you’ve worked to earn,” Koski says. Yet because of her bravery in opening up, she now has support at work and is able to get the resources she needs to manage her mental health.

Koski is now an advocate for mental health awareness making presentations at work and even becoming the president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Spokane.

After one of her presentations, a co-worker told her, “You’ve just said what I can’t say yet,” and these kinds of interactions inspire Koski to continue talking to others about leading a full life and improving mental health. “It's been incredibly empowering, and it's reminded me to keep fighting the stigma surrounding mental health.”

Read more about Koski’s experience in the Women’s Health article, 'How I Told My Boss About My Depression'.

Admitting you have a problem and getting help is not an easy thing to do, and often, it is not a socially acceptable thing to do, but McDaniels has a new outlook. “Therapy is the most gangster thing anybody can do for themselves. Going to therapy is the most powerful move that you can make that will help you heal, solve, or alleviate the stress and struggles of the battles with depression,” he says.

McDaniels is now an advocate for opening up and sharing your feelings. He is has been doing a lot of interviews and spreading awareness that we need to get rid of the stigma around mental health. “Most of all, I want to keep talking about it. When you break your calf, you talk about it until the cast is off and the healing is done. I want people to talk about mental health in the same way,” McDaniels says. He has even come up with a rhyme to help you remember: “if you don’t admit how you feel, whether good or bad, you will never heal.”

Read more about McDaniels in the Men’s Health article, “Darryl 'D.M.C.' McDaniels: Admitting Mental Health Issues Isn't Soft — It's Powerful”.

We have been busy! We have spent the spring and summer! Volunteer & speaker Jenna Quindica went to Heartifacts conference, and also spoke at Docker in a partnership with OSMI and went to Dockercon 2018 representing OSMI! Joe Ferguson gave a keynote during WordCamp Dayton, gave his mental health talk at Mid-Atlantic Dev Con and PHP Detroit. Matt Trask spoke at WordCamp Kent. Nara Kasenberg gave a mental health keynote at Mid-Atlantic Dev Con. Volunteer J.D. Flynn also spoke at PHP Detroit about mental health. Arthur Doler spoke at NDC Oslo.

So far in 2018 OSMI has sponsored php[tek], Midwest PHP 2018, PHP Detroit, Mid-Atlantic Developer Conference, Madison PHP, Cascadia PHP, Wave PHP, Southeast Ruby, Southeast PHP as well as covering speaker travel costs to various events!

We'll do all our shopping via Amazon, and now you can support Open Sourcing Mental Health whenever you purchase anything from Amazon.

Amazon Smile is a program where Amazon donates a small % of every sale to a non-profit of your choice. There is no extra cost to you! Just remember to shop Amazon from our Amazon Smile Link.

It's Tuesday, which means I'm heading to my weekly women's recovery group. Here's what makes this scenario interesting: everyone in the office knows it. They don't just know I'll be out for the next two hours. They know that I'll be sitting with a group of women, talking about my sobriety.

How do they know? I told them.

Here's my story: like most people struggling with mental illness, I've spent the majority of my life feeling deeply uncomfortable in my skin & in this world.

At various times in my life, that manifested in different ways. Early on, it was eating disorders & body image issues. Later, it was addiction. Then in recovery, without my self-destructive crutches, it was chronic & persistent depression.

Then, by some stroke of good fortune, I found freedom. From both my conditions (mostly) & the shame around them (90% of the time). Mental well-ish-ness, if you will.

Is it too corny to say I fixed my buggy mental code? Or does it only become too corny when I try to draw a parallel to open sourcing by saying a large community of helpers contributed to fixing my buggy mental code?

Alas, it happened. And with it came another kind of freedom: I got comfortable speaking about what my experiences & what I do to stay well-ish.

Now I do any chance I get. Why? Because I think it is extremely important to change the conversation about mental health.

The change I want to see? More solution-oriented empowerment.

We need to acknowledge that we're all humans. As such, we all have brains & nervous systems. And, due to some combination of nature & nurture, some of us just happen to have a few glitches in our systems.

It doesn't mean our systems are unsalvageable. It just means we have to do a little bit of work to figure out what's going on.

But we can do that work.

Then, once we do, we can share the solutions we've found. We can say things like "Hey, going to support groups really helps me. The one I like best is on Tuesdays at noon. Can we figure out a way that I can be offline for a couple of hours midday Tuesday?"

By doing so, we give other people permission to pursue their own solutions.

And here's something that's really magical: we all get to honor where we are on our journeys. Some of us haven't found the solutions that work for our unique circumstances yet. That's not just okay, that's exactly where all of us start.

That's when we get to say things like, "I saw that OSMI has a booth at the conference I'm going to. I'm going to stop by & talk to them to get some resources."

Pretty cool, eh?

About the author: once upon a time, Keely worked in digital marketing, where she discovered a love for open dialogues about mental health. She then worked as a Recovery Coach before merging both worlds & founding Mental Health Mugs. If you’re on board with starting a more positive conversation about mental health, you can get a mug at www.mentalhealthmugs.com. If you use discount code OSMI, you’ll get 10% off your order + 10% of the purchase price will be donated to OSMI!

After seeing a variety of Eastern and Western doctors, Gregg had no answers, but was still struggling to relax. After suffering for 5 years, Gregg spent some time investigating his symptoms online and discovered a book that changed his outlook on his symptoms and gave him a way to positively address them. Barry McDonagh’s book, Dare, introduced Gregg to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which centers around developing personal coping strategies to change unhelpful patterns around the anxiety rather than stopping the anxiety.

“Cognitive behavioral therapy was a game-changer for me, and remains a game-changer. I find it calming to know that wherever I am, I don’t have to wonder if I have a pill nearby; I just know I can do these exercises, and it's going to become manageable”, Gregg says. “CBT is really a miracle. I've seen it help a lot of people, and one of the reasons I’m speaking out is that I don’t feel like enough people know it.“

Gregg is working on becoming more open about his mental health strategies and hopes to help others learn about CBT. “…mental health issues don’t always feel good. But they don't have to ruin your life, either — they can really be the doorway to better stuff.” Read Jordyn Taylor’s interview with Clark Gregg on Men’s Health.

The article also goes on to describe the original investigation and the key points:

Question:  How frequently do US adults use prescription medications with depression as a potential adverse effect and is use of these medications associated with concurrent depression?

Findings:  In this cross-sectional US population-based survey study conducted between 2005 and 2014, the estimated overall prevalence of US adults using medications with depression as a potential adverse effect was 37.2%. The adjusted percentage of adults with concurrent depression was higher among those using more concurrent medications (e.g., estimated 15% for ≥3 medications).

Meaning:  Use of prescription medications with depression as a potential adverse effect was common and associated with a greater likelihood of concurrent depression.

Always consult your doctor about side effects and remember you can talk to your pharmacist at your local pharmacy. I've had several conversations with mine to discuss side effects and warning signs. Don't forget to include your doctor in these conversations as well.

It’s important to note the data only contains information from people insured by Blue Cross Blue Shield, so while it is a large data set, it is not necessarily representative of the population at large. Additionally, the increases could be due to more people coming forward with their symptoms rather than an increase in depression.

You can learn more about the findings from Women’s Health, or you can view the survey data directly on the Blue Cross Blue Shield website

“I was running from room to room, like I was looking for something I couldn’t find. Really I was just hoping my heart would stop racing. It was like my body was trying to say to me, You’re about to die. I ended up on the floor in the training room, lying on my back, trying to get enough air to breathe,” he recalls of the game.

Afterward, he started going back to his old ways of burying his mental health and ignoring it, but then questioned: “Why was I so concerned with people finding out?” He took this new found feeling and decided to meet with a therapist.

Love realized, “… it’s kind of strange when you think about it. In the NBA, you have trained professionals to fine-tune your life in so many areas. Coaches, trainers and nutritionists have had a presence in my life for years. But none of those people could help me in the way I needed when I was lying on the floor struggling to breathe.”

The therapist helped Love talk through his issues off the court that were affecting his ability to perform on the court. Digging down into the layers, Love realized how much he had been burying and even how much pain and anxiety he had been harboring from his grandmother’s death.

Love now meetings with his therapist whenever he is in town, saying “…it’s not some magical process. It’s terrifying and awkward and hard, at least in my experience so far. I know you don’t just get rid of problems by talking about them, but I’ve learned that over time maybe you can better understand them and make them more manageable.”

Love has noticed other players, like DeMar DeRozan opening up about mental health and hopes to do the same, saying “..creating a better environment for talking about mental health … that’s where we need to get to.”

Read more of his story in his own words on The Players’ Tribune.

The next thing I wanted to do was pay homage to the OSMI round logo. I’ve always loved our logo and I felt like that was the next tattoo for me. Right before php[tek] 2018, I got the badge logo done.

The next step is to continue the mental health sleeve I started. There’s no telling how big I’ll go, but it’s a nice start; maybe I’ll add some color next.

While the semicolon will remind me to relax and breathe, the hands together remind me we’re all stronger than the fear that keeps us from talking about mental health openly and honestly. Since OSMI has been such a big part of my life the past year, it felt right to place it next to the semicolon.

Do you have a mental health related tattoo? Share it with us on twitter or facebook. We’d love to see it and hear your story!

“It feels heavy,” he says. “It literally makes my muscles and body feel weighted. I feel sluggish and low energy.

This quote from the article resonated with me because when I’m about to fall into a bout of depression, this is how I feel. I’ve come to notice the trigger and can often pull myself out of it, but not always. It’s an important realization for me to notice these types of triggers so I can actively avoid them as much as possible. My typical solution is to go out and visit a user group, go to lunch with friends, or go to a casual event to hang out. This gets me out of the house and exposed to the sunlight and other humans.

The two most important parts of the article:

Go to your doctor.

See a professional, get help. If a doctor makes you feel shameful for seeking help, find another doctor.

Find someone you can talk to

This doesn’t have to be a doctor or therapist. You have to make that decision for yourself. What works for me at the moment is talking to my best friend who doesn’t suffer from issues but wants to understand what I’m going through. The other person I can talk to is my wonderful wife. She puts up with me, so she is going to be the first to notice issues even when I don’t right away.

Find your people.

Read the full article

"Regardless of who you are or what you do for a living or where you come from, it doesn't discriminate, we all kind of go through it. If I could share a little bit of it and if I could help somebody, I'm happy to do it." -- Dwayne Johnson

Johnson often turns to exercise when his depression hits, saying, “For me, the going to do something, it sounds boring and cliche, but it is what it is with me, I gotta hit the gym." Studies have shown being active can decrease a person's risk of depression by 19 percent, but recognizing depression is an important first step. “Took me a long time to realize it but the key is to not be afraid to open up. Especially us dudes have a tendency to keep it in. You’re not alone,” Johnson tweeted earlier this year.

Read more about Dwayne Johnson opening up about mental health in “The Rock on Depression: 'You've Got to Talk About It, and You're Not Alone'” in Men’s Health.

Michael Van Ameringen, MD of McMaster noticed difficult to treat patients with severe social anxiety disorder and a lot of depression started to go out of their homes when they began playing Pokémon Go. “This led me to wondering if this game had the ability to be used as a mental health treatment, even though it wasn’t intended to do this," Van Ameringen said.

Others in the field agree. Kara Fitzpatrick, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, noted in 2016: "I see Pokémon Go being useful with my socially anxious and agoraphobic patients in two ways. It really gives them a set of tools and reasons to meet people. It is a naturally structured experiment where it draws people in to connect and is partially reinforcing, which is the best mechanism for rewarding behavior."

While long-term study is still needed, initial studies, like the one that Van Ameringen and colleagues presented at the 2018 American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in New York City, show positive improvements. Combining video games and mental health therapy will be an exciting area of study in the coming years.

Visit MD Magazine’s site to learn more about Van Ameringen’s study.

The 2018 Mental Health in Tech Survey is now open. The survey is anonymous. Please take a moment to help OSMI and their work by filling out the survey: https://osmi.typeform.com/to/xztgPT

This was my first time attending — let alone speaking — at a WordCamp event. I gave the afternoon keynote, "The Open Source Talk that Changed My Life Wasn't Technical", which is my own story about how I found OSMI and became a volunteer. If you are familiar with PHP conferences, it is quite common that the event does not reimburse speakers for travel or lodging. This is one of the main reasons OSMI spends much of its fundraising money on covering expenses for speakers to go to events they would otherwise not be able to attend. I’m grateful to all the OSMI supporters for their donations that let us send speakers to events. Speaking at events like WordCamp Dayton is the cornerstone of how we can get our message out. We not only reach the local attendees and sponsors, but many times attendees take our message back to their companies and we get feedback about their companies being open to our message. It’s heartwarming to hear about companies taking our message to heart and that employees can feel comfortable discussing mental health with their colleagues.

I feel like the talk went really well. I got a lot of good feedback immediately after the talk and a lot of great things were said on Twitter. Speaking of Twitter: I had the chance to meet two more people from Nexcess who were really awesome and took some great pictures during my keynote:

Thanks to everyone who attended WordCamp Dayton 2018. I appreciate all of the attendees who came to see my talk, and thank you to all of the organizers, volunteers, and sponsors of WordCamp Dayton for making this event possible. If you are interested in attending an OSMI talk or event, be sure to check out our OSMI Events Calendar.

Pervasive loneliness can be disruptive to the mental and physical well-being of anyone. For many the feelings of disconnection remain close by despite the growing number of channels linking us to other people. Mounting research indicates how extensive the reach of inner isolation can be, generating a sense of urgency and warnings from former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who called the current climate an “epidemic of loneliness.” The Cut asked several mental health professionals for advice on practical ways one might relieve feelings of loneliness, resulting in a short but informative collection of tangible efforts we can make. Some suggestions offer fast or immediate efforts, such as conversations with people we encounter throughout our day or spending time with some fluffy four-legged friends. While other ideas are focused on intentionally taking the time to know and discover your true self. Survey the full list of valuable suggestions in the article, “7 Therapists on What to Do When You Feel Lonely”.

When I was younger, much younger, I used to take part in public speaking festivals, and I really enjoyed them. Over the years, however, things changed, and inhibitions started to set in as well as severe anxiety. What if I stumbled? What if I started just waffling? What if I completely froze up and just couldn’t go on any more? Looking back now, it’s easy to see that this was the beginning of the anxiety issues that would continue until this day.

When I was about 21, I started to suffer really badly with heartburn, to the point where I’d wake up in the middle of the night in absolute agony. I went to see my general practitioner, and he said he couldn’t find anything amiss. Even an endoscopy was inconclusive, but he put me on medication to suppress the production of stomach acid to see how things would go.

I told a close friend about the new medication a few days later. He asked me to go to the doctor and ask for a different medication, as he was worried the current medication would make things worse with my depression. I immediately got defensive and asked what he was talking about because I didn’t suffer from depression. Sure, I would get a little low every now and then, but I thought that was just normal and everyone was like that.

After that conversation, I started to look back on my life and noticed that maybe he was right, but depression was something that no one talked about. I thought that if there were something there, my doctor would have caught it. Within a couple of years, I noticed I was having more and more depressive ‘episodes’ but still didn’t feel I could do anything about them. I felt that antidepressants were for other people.

When I was living abroad with my wife in Abu Dhabi, I was initially out of work, and I struggled, hard. I’m not an idle person. I can’t just sit around and live a life of luxury. This really started to play on me. After 3 months, I took a job in the local church working as an administrator, and while this wasn’t what I really wanted to be doing, it gave me purpose. A year later, I left that job as our first child was born, and I needed to stay home to look after him. Again, I struggled really hard being at home all the time.

Around this time, my closest friend from back home got in touch with me saying that he’d been to see the doctor. The doctor had diagnosed him with depression and immediately put him on anti-depressants. Towards the end of the call, my friend said that he wanted me to also go see a doctor because he’d seen all of his symptoms in me and was worried. I initially thought that he was just projecting his diagnosis onto me. After all, we were extremely close, but he persisted.

A few days later, I relented and went to see a doctor. I was very skeptical initially, and when the doctor mentioned that he recognized me from church, I almost lost it. I started explaining the conversations I’d had with my friend and how he thought that I was also suffering. The doctor quickly said that he agreed that I was suffering from depression and advised starting straight away on anti-depressants.

Once I got started on medication, things started to look up. I secured a remote job that got me back into the tech field doing support and eventually lead to me taking a role as a web developer - which helped get me where I am today. Medication, however, is not always the silver bullet people make it out to be. When I started on anti-depressants, I had friends who knew about my mental health issues say things like, “Did you forget to take your happy pills today?” It took me about a year or so to start to get a handle on my triggers and learn how to help myself. It’s not just all about medication, it’s also about looking after yourself.

When we moved back to Ireland in 2015, I was unaware of how prevalent mental health issues are in the tech community. It wasn’t until I attended PHP North West that year and sat in on a talk by Mike Bell where he talked about his own struggles with mental health that I realized that it was a much bigger issue. Around the same time, I started to hear of Ed Finkler and the organization he was putting together called OSMI. At the start of 2017, I became acutely aware that the message OSMI was working to spread needed to be brought to Ireland. We’re a small country with a fairly large tech community, and I knew that if I was suffering, there had to be others that were suffering as well. I reached out to Ed Finkler and asked about possibly partnering to try and bring the OSMI message to Ireland. I was immediately welcomed in as a volunteer.

In October 2017, I gave my first ever talk to a user group titled “Looking after your mental health, a guide for software developers”, which was the precursor to the recent talk I gave at PHP Yorkshire with the same title. That night, I had friends from PHP Dublin come up to me and thank me for being so honest and for having the courage to share the message I did. Personally, I don’t really see what I did as being courageous, I see it as performing a public service. I am eternally thankful to the staff and fellow volunteers at OSMI for the help that I’ve received, even in small ways, like the encouragement I received when I was initially struggling to come up with the talk I gave.

Mental health issues affect a staggeringly high number of people in the software community, but together, we can help to overcome the stigma. Stop by https://osmihelp.org/resources, and let’s get started!

Research is showing depression is on the rise. Could it be from the lack of these things in our lives? Forbes contributor, Alice G. Walton, has published a list of simple things we can do to get back to our traditional ways in an effort to improve our state of mind. You can read her thoughts in 8 Things We're Doing Wrong For Our Mental Health (And How We Can Do Better).

"Because teens' online and offline worlds overlap, digital self-harm is a concern for some youth, making online self-harm an emerging area of research," says Susan Swearer, a professor of psychology at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, who also studies bullying.

With studies showing that self-harm is on the rise in certain groups of teens, this is something to keep an eye on. Learn more by reading NPR’s article, “When Teens Cyberbully Themselves”.

We said, “Good morning” to Olivia Liddell at the beginning of her talk, “Overcoming Your Fear of Failure”. Olivia’s message rings true for me, especially as I write this blog. What if this blog post is boring? Olivia, a former public school teacher, taught us how to recognize and overcome our fear of failure. What is a fear of failure?

• Feeling inadequate
• Imposter syndrome
• Procrastination
• Self-sabotage
• Reluctance to try new things

If someone is experiencing a combination of the above, the person may be experiencing a fear of failure. Another way to recognize a fear of failure is with the three P’s:

• Perfectionism
• Procrastination
• Paralysis

Fear of failure shouldn’t keep us from doing what we know we can do. Here’s Olivia’s list on how to overcome fear of failure:

1. Identify your current strengths - and also begin to develop new ones.
2. Build and rely on a support network.
3. Redefine failure and learn from it.

Steve Jobs said, “Let’s go invent tomorrow, rather than worrying about what happened yesterday.” Don’t throw away your shot.

Our second talk of the day was about “Burnout and the Cult of Busy”. Our speaker was Caroline Moore. Self-care is essential for everything, and it’s non-negotiable if you’re managing a health problem. Unfortunately, we’re obsessed with being busy, and we live in a world that facilitates it. There used to be an easy physical barrier called an office, but now there’s Slack, SMS, etc. There’s no such thing as, “Oh, I missed your call.” Leisure is not seen as a necessity of humanity, but most achievements have come from downtime. Put your eyeballs on something else for five minutes and then come back to it. Working long hours and always being accessible aren’t necessary to succeed. Take care of yourself. Talk about your burnout, and tell people you have a problem. Set boundaries at work. Stop feeling guilty. When you state your needs, it encourages other people to do so too. Give yourself permission to be done with tasks, so you don’t feel guilty about clocking out.

Closing out the morning, Zachary Zlotnik spoke about “The Mental Impact of Tech Interviews”. Coding interviews are not accurate, objective, predictive, unbiased, or consistent. Many companies don’t have formal training requirements for employees to become interviewers, and technical ability takes precedence over everything else. Companies end up hiring and retaining “brilliant jerks”, but technical skills are often the most teachable. Coding interviews can lead to imposter syndrome in candidates or even burnout. Which is worse? Going through a toxic interview process or staying at a company? 70% of millennials have experienced imposter syndrome in one form or another. Coding interviews should do no harm. How do we fix things?

• Admit the system is broken.
• Emphasize unconscious bias awareness and empathy.
• Incentivize interviewing.
• Anonymously test new evaluation techniques on current employees.
• Take-home coding assessments should have sensible limits for scope, complexity, time, and deadlines. Don’t let the take-home test take more than two hours to complete.
• Ask your candidate to do a code review.
• No live coding from scratch. Give someone something to improve, perhaps the code in the code review.
• Interviews should be structured and graded with a rubric.
• Limit the number of interviews.
• Raise the soft skills bar.
• Communicate decisions promptly, diplomatically, and professionally.
• Be respectful.
• Ghosting is unacceptable with modern-day applicant tracking systems.
• Collect and monitor interview metrics and statistics.

Beginning the afternoon, Aly Fulton told us about “MomOps and Feelings”. Aly’s story was very personal, and she gave advice for each role in the workforce on how to help parents transition into and out of birthing children:

• Moms/birthing parents
  • Secure childcare ASAP.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
  • Take care of both your mental and physical health.
• Partners
  • Advocate for paid parental leave at your job and take it.
  • Support your partner in any way.
  • Know the signs of postpartum disorders.
• Employers
  • Help make a supportive environment for new parents.
  • Know that new parents aren’t cookie cutters and those needs will vary.
  • Implement generous paid leave.
• Employers/managers
  • Support lactation (“pumping”) needs.
  • Minimize travel or add additional support for traveling parents.
  • Utilize a re-onboarding process. The work environment will change while parents are on leave. Returning parents need to be reoriented.
• Employees/colleagues
  • Offer support or just listen.
  • Don’t push your parental advice on others.
  • Advocate for parental leave.
• Conference organizers
  • Select a talk on parenthood and tech from time-to-time.
  • Provide lactation rooms.
  • Offer quality childcare.
  • Offer low-key events or a family track.
• And more! This list is not exhaustive.

Self-care is often the last thing on a birthing parent’s mind, but it’s important to pause and do something just for oneself. As we learn on airplanes, secure your oxygen mask before securing others’.

Next up was a cognitive distortions workshop. It started with a brief intro of the brain. We were reminded that our feelings are happening in our brains and that our brains convert that information into action. I chuckled at this software-hardware metaphor: The type of language, like English or Spanish, is akin to software, whereas the construct of language itself is akin to hardware. Brains are lazy since they just want to be fed, kept warm, and protected. Beliefs are lenses through which we see the world. At the end of the workshop, we went through two handouts: One lists all the cognitive distortions while the other is a Trial-Based Cognitive Therapy (TBCT) Intrapersonal Thought Record (IntraTR).

Aaron Aldrich’s talk was also very personal as he talked about “Continuous (Self) Improvement: Dealing with ADHD”. We learned that ADHD is often comorbid, usually with depression and anxiety. Getting diagnosed sometimes gives context on behavior. People may experience “Ah ha!” moments: “That behavior isn’t normal, but is characteristic of a disorder!” Aaron found having the diagnosis of ADHD helpful. He told us about “MVP: No-zero days”: days where one just gets out of bed, showers, and brushes teeth, and these days are 100% OK. Living with ADHD means continuous improvement, because this is not a journey with an end.

To end the conference, Tori Brenneison taught us about “Shine Theory 101: The Devastating Importance of Lifting Up Others to Lift Up Ourselves”. First, what is shine theory? It’s the radical notion that other people’s success does not mean your failure. This phrase was originally coined by Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow of the podcast “Call Your Girlfriend”. We live in a culture of competition where everything has become a contest. Ann Friedman said, “Surrounding yourself with the best people doesn’t make you look worse by comparison. It makes you better.” We learned how to deal with resentment:

• Short-term
  • When you’re feeling resentment, accept it in the moment.
  • Calm down, and take a walk. Count ceiling tiles. Breathe slowly.
  • Dwelling in a vortex of negativity is a terrible place, so avoid it.
  • Practice compassion. (Tori’s least favorite tip because it’s the hardest.)
• Long-term
  • Vent frustrations (carefully).
  • Practice letting go.
  • Own your resentment by setting aside a time to be alone and think about why you’re feeling resentful. Take responsibility for your actions.

We also learned how to make friends:

• Tap into existing social networks.
• Don’t (just) follow your passions. Branch out.
• People can tell when you’re not being authentic.
• Don’t use people. That’s terrible behavior.
• Don’t talk down about yourself to your new friends.
• “Fake it ‘til you make it” does not apply to new friends.
• Intentionality is key.

According to science, you should get in touch with your friends at least once every 15 days. Worry about what you’re doing instead of constantly comparing yourself to everyone else because opportunities only come to people who pursue them.

These talks comprised the last day of Heartifacts, and I’m sorrowful to leave Pittsburgh. Conferences like Heartifacts don’t happen often, and we should cherish these experiences when they do. I believe every talk discussed “feelings” in some way, and I am having some feels about this. In August 2019, Code and Supply will be putting on Abstractions, a technical conference that hopes to bring together everyone involved in the software development life cycle, from designers to developers to DevOps engineers to community leaders.

Our first talk from John Sawers was "Hacking Your Emotional API". Imagine slides filled with API endpoints and code implementing the backend. I learned that there are different levels to unpacking our emotions.

1. The first level includes foundational tools, like how to defer anger for later as well as why not to use the word "should" or the phrase "what you really feel".
2. The second level is about how to deal with emotions on your own. My favorite example was dancing! Moving your body is a great way to deal with emotions because feelings begin in the physical body.
3. The third level is processing emotions with someone else. For example, quickly catch up with someone with an honest "how are you" answer. John said, "Working with a therapist should have no more stigma than bringing in a consultant to your development team." – and he's right.
4. The last level is feeling with a group, and John shared his experiences at the P3 Retreat. The short story is: throw a fit in front of others to process your anger.

John left us with this: "These are not soft skills. These are super hard skills."

Next up was Emily Freeman with "The Intelligence of Instinct". Emily's talk was extremely moving, and I can't hope to replicate its effect in this blog post. We listened to Emily give two riveting stories about being in violent situations and listening to your gut. There's a caveat to listening to your gut, which is that sometimes your gut is a false alarm. Fear and anxiety/worry physically manifest in the same way. Emily detailed the differences between our unconscious and conscious brain. The unconscious brain has cognitive bias and uses heuristics. The conscious brain is an investigator who forms hypotheses and creates algorithms. My favorite takeaway from this talk? "Acknowledge your curiosity and allow it to transition into suspicion."

Right before lunch Aisha Blake gave the talk "Give Feedback Fearlessly". This talk included a fun workshop with groups of four! Aisha asked, "Why do we need feedback?" Some of the audience answers were blind spots, course correction, how we learn, and for perspective. All good answers. If we need feedback, why is it scary and uncomfortable? Feedback is wanting to change or encourage a behavior, not a person. Here are some techniques on how to give feedback:

• Be specific. Keep feedback focused and actionable so that there's a clear path forward.
• Deliver feedback proactively. Try not to let things fester for too long.
• Take a breath. Back up a little. Don't jump in angry.
• Check your bias. Your perception of the issue may not match the other person's lived experience.
• Invite discussion. Don't make too many assumptions about the facts of the situation.

After lunch, we got to see so many hedgehogs on the screen. Laura Mosher gave the talk "Harry the Hedgehog Learns You a Communication". Not only did this talk include hedgehogs but it also included many Harry Potter references. Here were Laura's tips for better communication:

1. Think, then speak. This is the foundation of all communication. Ask yourself the following questions:

   • What do I want to say?
   • Who am I talking to?
   • How should I explain it?

2. Drop the "nots" because while "nots" reveal truth, they can also enable misunderstanding.

3. Drop the "justs." By removing the elitist "just", you make room for growth for others.
4. Watch your phrasing. You don't want it to be self-deprecating, stereotyped, or ambiguous.
5. Praise in public, critique in private.

Before the conference, I was most looking forward to Hayley Denbraver's talk on "From the Ashes: Rebuilding a Career After a Breakdown in Mental Health". To say the least, I was very emotional during her talk. I won't summarize her full talk as it was very personal, but I loved Hayley's advice.

• Know yourself.
• Know your options.
• Know your boundaries.
• Know your strengths.
• Know your priorities.
• Know that you're worth it.

"How Not to Review a Pull Request" by Aaron Goldsmith was easily the most hilarious talk of the day. First, I learned there are four types of code review behavior:

1. Rabbits - timid and questioning, their statements lack conviction
2. Idealists - their way is the right way
3. Spartans - the review is terse and difficult to parse
4. Tornados - indiscriminate and overzealous commenting on everything.

Aaron brought up active pausing, which is taking a step back from now to recognize how a situation is impacting you. Psychological safety was a key point to Aaron's talk. Nobody sets out to do the wrong thing, so we should always trust that our coworkers mean well on pull requests, but verify that this is the case. We are all human. We all make mistakes. We are emotional beings.

The last talk of the day by Jenny Bramble was "Risk-Based Testing: Creating a Language Around Risk". Her message was that if we define shared vocabulary, we can communicate more clearly and precisely because we all know what we're talking about! So what is risk? It could be anything, from something that goes wrong to something awful to a scary situation. Risk is not only the assessment of unfavorable outcomes but it also works to illustrate the likelihood of failure.

All these talks have made me super pumped for tomorrow's talks. I'll be writing about the last day of Heartifacts as well. Talk to you again soon!

We published our 2017 Mental Health in Tech survey results to Kaggle.com, a data science platform: Kaggle Volunteer Cristina Keelan organized a lot of great work around analyzing the results from the survey. Ed Finkler went to Google and did a talk as part of Google's "Talks at Google" program.

Several of the volunteers travelled to sunny Miami in February for the SunshinePHP 2017 conference. Gary Hockin, Ed Finkler, Joe Ferguson, Amanda Folson, and Matt Trask were all speakers at the conference.

In march we premiered our new video "Supporting Mental Health in the Workplace: Creating a Culture of Support" on YouTube featuring Dr. Jennifer Akullian, Dr. Johanna Wu, and Emily Carter as well as our founder Ed Finkler. OSMI invaded the annual MidwestPHP conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota where Ed Finkler, Joe Ferguson, and Gary Hockin all spoke and hung out at the OSMI booth and talked to many peolpe about the organization.

Volunteer Amanda Folson gave a talk "Silence is Deadly" on CoderCruise, a conference on a cruise ship in July. We also started an OSMI podcast that has been slow going, but hopefully we'll be adding hosts soon to get more traction and content produced. We also have volunteers working on an update to our Guidelines for Metal Wellness in the Workplace we hope to release in 2018.

All totalled OSMI volunteers spoke at over 35 events in 2017 mostly in the United States and Canada, but we also made appearances in Europe as well. On average OSMI contributed to the travel expenses on nearly half of these events. Ed Finkler spoke at 20 events, Nara Kasbergen tried to keep up with him clocking in an amazing 11 events. Mark Railton brought OSMI to his local user group in Dublin, Ireland and Allison Tarr spoke at WordCamp Halifax. Nara Kasbergen and Jennifer Akullian were also a part of a panel at the Grace Hopper Celebration.

We also had an amazing fundraiser in 2017. We broke all of our previous fundraising records and raised just over $50,000. Much of our fundraising goes directly to sending these volunteers to many of these events which are not able to cover speaker travel. We also had a direct sponsor to pay Ed to work part time for OSMI each month.

php[world] was the last "big" event where we had many OSMI volunteers in attendance. I personally had a very humbling experience seeing so many OSMI shirts, hoodies, and stickers around the conference. We started a new tradition at events with many volunteers we're going to start doing a big group picture of everyone who has OSMI swag.

I'll leave you with one of the images from #phpworld as it sums up how amazing I feel about the year that OSMI has had. Thank you to every single person that came to a talk, donated to a fundraiser, or told a friend about what we do.

Take care of each other.

"So often, we're so caught up in treading water, and don't notice the others around us doing just the same."

Lena Reinhard's post "On Community" (@lrnrd on Twitter) muses and expands a bit on her past year in relation to community and support. Many of us are exhausted for many different (and similar) reasons. She reminds us that there can be great consolation in community and that we not alone, even if we don't have the emotional resources to engage as strongly with our chosen communities.

This is a good reminder, especially as the holidays approach, to be more gentle with ourselves. Maybe we can also open ourselves up to similarly embracing our own vulnerabilities and appreciating the power of connection.

--
Allison Tarr

The NAMI web site has a good article on common signs of mental illness in adults and adolescents. They can include the following:

• Excessive worrying or fear
• Feeling excessively sad or low
• Confused thinking or problems concentrating and learning
• Extreme mood changes, including uncontrollable “highs” or feelings of euphoria
• Prolonged or strong feelings of irritability or anger
• Avoiding friends and social activities
• Difficulties understanding or relating to other people
• Changes in sleeping habits or feeling tired and low energy
• Changes in eating habits such as increased hunger or lack of appetite
• Changes in sex drive
• Difficulty perceiving reality (delusions or hallucinations, in which a person experiences and senses things that don't exist in objective reality)
• Inability to perceive changes in one’s own feelings, behavior or personality (”lack of insight” or anosognosia)
• Abuse of substances like alcohol or drugs
• Multiple physical ailments without obvious causes (such as headaches, stomach aches, vague and ongoing “aches and pains”)
• Thinking about suicide
• Inability to carry out daily activities or handle daily problems and stress
• An intense fear of weight gain or concern with appearance

The article goes on to talk about how to get help, starting with the NAMI HelpLine.

As a non-developer attending PHP conferences over the past few years, I have a unique perspective on the community. I’ve been involved with many different communities and organizations over the years, technical and otherwise. As a whole, the PHP community has been the most welcoming and inclusive I have ever encountered.

This past week I attended my fourth php[architect] conference run by One for All Events; the third I’ve volunteered at. php[world] 2017 was November 15-16 in Washington, DC. If you were a speaker, sponsor, or attendee of the conference, it’s more than likely that I checked you in.

Last year at php[world], I watched Ed Finkler give his Stronger Than Fear talk as a keynote. Words are powerful, and I’m not sure anyone can watch Ed give this talk and not be touched, in some way, by his words. If you haven’t personally experienced mental illness, you likely know someone who has. I’ve since seen Ed give the same talk a second time, and was no less awed by his openness and the enormity of what OSMI is trying to accomplish in the technical community.

While Ed wasn’t in attendance this year, the impact he and OSMI have had on the tech community was glaringly obvious. Even before the OSMI sponsor table was up and running, I saw numerous OSMI branded t-shirts and hoodies, not to mention the number of stickers present on laptops. And, with a direct view of the sponsor table from my spot in registration, I can say once the table was set up, there was a consistent stream of folks visiting the table manned by Joe Ferguson, Nara Kasbergen, and Matt Trask.

Struggling with a mental illness is isolating. And yet, at php[world] it was almost impossible not to see someone sporting OSMI swag; saying, “You are not alone.” That’s the community OSMI is building, and conferences like php[world] are supporting.

-- Kara Ferguson OSMI Volunteer

Photos by Nicole Vassallo Photography

Mike Jones writes about steps you can take to encourage your loved once to seek therapy:

Misconception about mental health and therapy has intensified stigma in society. Your loved one may be aware that they need help, but may be afraid to seek it if they think you will judge or treat them differently. Therefore, it is essential to use non-stigmatizing language when talking with them about their mental health. Assure them that you will support them through the therapy process.

Read more at the NAMI Blog

Welcome to the Open Sourcing Mental Health podcast, each episode is an interview with someone from the tech community that has been impacted by mental health issues.

Sponsor: http://www.nomadphp.com

• Joe Ferguson: https://twitter.com/joepferguson
• Eli White: https://twitter.com/eliw
• Driven to distraction: https://www.amazon.com/Driven-Distraction-Revised-Recognizing-Attention/dp/0307743152

Donate: https://osmihelp.org/donate

Welcome to the Open Sourcing Mental Health podcast, each episode is an interview with someone from the tech community that has been impacted by mental health issues.

Sponsor: https://www.phproundtable.com

• Joe Ferguson: https://twitter.com/joepferguson
• Lindsey kopacz: https://twitter.com/littlekope0903

Donate: https://osmihelp.org/donate

This Has Been Amazing

First, thank you to everyone who donated to our fundraiser, shared a post, sent an email, or told someone about our fundraiser! We couldn't have done this without each and every one of you. When we needed you; you were right there for us, and you stepped up big for us. We went big and asked for five times more than we ever have before: $50,000, and you and our corporate partners have delivered. We are overwhelmed by the support you have shown.

For the first time, we have reached out directly to many companies to help us. CakeDC, Github, Digital Ocean, and Laravel have become our first corporate partners. CakeDC has gone above and beyond by designating a monthly $1,000 commitment for 12 months to go directly to Ed's salary. These companies are a huge reason we have been able to announce founder Ed Finkler will be going full time with OSMI as his day job.

Your support has never been needed more as we transition to having Ed full time.

Corporate Partners

We're Just Getting Started

We'll be doing more outreach, more fundraising, and more speaking to help fight the stigma against mental health in tech.

We've started a podcast! We've released the first two episodes featuring guests such as Eli White and Lindsey Kopacz, with much more to come. Each episode is an interview with someone from the tech community that has been impacted by mental health issues.

We're going to be at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference in October! Our volunteers will be moderating an hour-long panel on mental health in tech. We will also be helping our volunteers get to conferences this fall to speak about mental health in tech. We can't announce which yet, it's not public, but we're incredibly excited!

Our 2017 Mental Health in Tech survey is coming! We'll need you to help share and take our survey once we publish it.

We're increasing our outreach to mental health professionals. Mental health professionals play an important role in advising and providing insight into our handbooks and online resources;we want to continue reaching out to and receiving input from them.

Header image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/konch/3409644310/

We blatantly and shamelessly bought the same gear (or as close as we could get) as our friend Cal Evans and we wanted to share what we're using with you.

The Case

We started off with a Pelican 1500 case to house everything in a very protective environment that we could ship if need be. I also wanted the most obnoxious color I could easily find so I went with the bright orange. It's our own nuclear football! There may be some sticker shock here, but keep in mind this is a water tight case. They're not cheap.

The Microphones

We went with Shure SM58 microphones because they are the gold standard in the vocal world. We're not recording pop songs but we want to record at the highest quality we can reasonably get without buying a recording studio. We paid a little extra to get the XLR cables with the microphones so it was one less thing we had to remember to purchase. The come with a neat little carrying case as well.

The Device

The Zoom H5 is a battle tested device by many podcasters and has proven to be an easy to use workhorse. We have two microphones on the top of the device and we can also record from two of the XLR inputs on the bottom of the device. The H5 supports multitrack recording as well as working as a multitrack interface for common audio applications. The only downside is it will only support a maximum SD card side of 32 GB, not the 64 GB card we bought.

Odds and Ends

We still have some odds and ends to buy: small desktop mic stands, mic flag holders, and a smaller SD Card since the 64 GB card we bought is too big for the H5.