Image illustrated by Brian D’Cruz Hypno Plus

Did you know that Mental Health Awareness month has been observed each year during the month of May since 1949?  I don’t ever recall there being a time growing up that mental health was discussed as openly until I became an adult. I’m glad that more people are wanting to get help but there are still so many that feel isolated or ashamed about their mental illness.

If you’ve been with me for a while you know I typically discuss my love for all things related to natural hair, my crazy ass kids and wine.  Literally those are the three top things that I feel represent who I am as a person.  But for the last year and a half I’ve also focused on a lot of things outside of my blog.  That would be dealing with mental illness.

For the last three years I’ve been working as a Crisis Consultant for a suicide hotline.  While it is probably one of the most stressful jobs I’ve had, it is also one of the most rewarding!  The majority of my jobs since I graduated from college have dealt with mental illness in one way or another but not as intimately as this one.

I’ve been trying to figure out the best way for a while now to address some of the issues that come up when I’m talking with callers.  I like to just cut to the chase when I’m talking with people on the phone so I figured that would also translate to how I wanted to discuss this on my blog as well.  The only way I figured that would work was if I gave some tips on how to treat people that are dealing with mental illness.   [Read more…]