Month: September 2018

Worth Living Official DJ Scratchley Q

Worth Living Top 10 Countdown – Future House

Music is a great form of therapy. Music has the power to help express our emotions even when we might not have the exact words to do so. Music is there for us through the good, the bad, the struggles, the achievements and celebrations. Enjoy the Worth Living Top 10 Countdown!- Scratchley Q

10. Branches – Nora En Pure

9. Werk – CID

8. Go Ahead and Jump (Dareston Remix) – Miiilo & Leah Devine

7. Sweet Child of Mine – Sean Norvis & Kp London

6. Lost My Way – Max Nikitin

5. Don’t Know About Me – Marshall Star

4. Fine Day – Keanu Silva

3. Alive – Streex

2. Turn Off The Lights – Chirs Lake ft. Alexis Roberts

1. Desert – Dusty Rockers

Worth Living Ambassador and UK Lead Frankie Samah

Hi I’m Frankie and I’m from Wales, UK.  I am a psychology teacher and postgraduate education psychologist. I am a women’s right activist, working with women’s aid to raising awareness and to break the silence. I am a mental health advocate and writer. I believe in counteracting the stigma around mental health and we should begin with the ideology. Instagram- Frankie Samah www.frankiesamah.com

Dear Anxiety,

I never imagined that I would write this letter to you, I imagined us growing old together with years of tears and resentment.

I always felt like you controlled me as if you were stronger than me, you had the ability to change my mood in seconds, you were able to overpower feelings of joy and happiness and turn me into a person who couldn’t control their breathing or their thoughts.

You came with me everywhere; to the shops, to work, to my daughter’s school events, you were stuck to me pouring poison into my mind.

You first showed up a long time ago, I thought you were trying to protect me, I thought you were trying to stop me from trusting the wrong people, from being hurt by people I thought loved me, you taught me to be hyper-aware of everyone.  It started with a whisper, a gentle voice of self-loathing and gradually it became louder and louder.  I started to listen to you more until you had your wish that I was paranoid of everyone. You made me believe even my loved ones hated me, and you drowned out their voices of them telling me they loved me, that they cared.

I feared to be around everyone. I was afraid of what they were thinking of me. I was scared of people’s reactions to me, so I learnt to block out their voices.  I could become invisible in rooms full of people.  I was paranoid if I spoke to people I would say the wrong thing.  I would look back at each event, thinking what did I say, did I act in a way I might regret?  The questions went over and over in my mind. I could never relax with you around.

You made sure that I was alone, that it was just you and me.

I always tried to make your voice smaller, I’d overeat, I’d abuse myself, I tried medication and therapy and talking, but still, you made me paralysed with self-doubt and filled up all the space in my brain.  On the worse days, I couldn’t read a book; I couldn’t concentrate at work, I couldn’t laugh for fear. When I fell in love, this was something new for you; you had more ammunition to attack me, I wasn’t good enough for him, I wasn’t pretty enough, he was going to leave.

I stopped allowing myself to dream in case you destroyed them too.

People were asking- where is the person you use to be?  The truth was I didn’t even know, I suppose I was now scared to be me.

It was only when I couldn’t take anymore, I was left with a choice, it was either you or me.  So, I choose me. I found a voice, talking about you through words, communicating about how much room you consumed in my mind, about what we have been through together, I gave you the power to make you believe I was worthless, that I was unlovable, now I was going to take it back.

Slowly but surely I turned that fear into faith, belief in myself.  I stopped worrying hours of my life away.  I stopped being afraid of tomorrow or what disaster could happen, tormenting myself won’t prevent the bad things from happening, it’s only going to stop me from enjoying the good.

I am learning every day that I like me, yes I make mistakes, I am not perfect, but I am human, and I am worthy of kindness, and I love with my whole heart.

So, pack your bags and leave because you were part of my past but you’re not invited to my future.

You don’t get to define me anymore.

Love Frankie

Sent from my iPhone

Click here to Reply or Forward

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Worth Living Ambassador Beth Allen

Beth Allen is a Mental Health Advocate, and an active video blogger who aims to be informative, fun and truthful whilst showing life with Mental Illness. Having suffered in silence for 10 years with GAD, Emetophobia, Anorexia and Depression, Beth is 100% committed to showing the world that it’s okay to not be okay.

New Horizons – first holiday since recovery!

Hello there, my friends! How are you this week? For this video I want to take you on a journey – this is my first holiday since starting my recovery in early March this year (2018).

Worth Living Ambassador Tylia Flores

Tylia Flores is a 23-year-old born with cerebral palsy. Although her condition has affected her mobility, it has never affected her will and determination to make a difference in the world. Through her many life challenges and obstacles, she discovered her passion for writing. Tylia’s goal in life is to share her stories with the world. In doing so, she hopes to help others with disabilities realize that they too have the potential to make their dreams come true.

How Writing Got Me Out of a Dark Place

I was 15 years old when my life changed forever. I was a freshman in high school and I didn’t know the direction I was going to go in life like any 15-year-old girl would be going through at that age.

The only difference with me is that I have other obstacles and challenges that make me unique. I was born with spastic cerebral palsy (CP) for short, but I had never allowed my disability to stop me from living an average life as a human being.

As a teenager, I was involved in many different sports like baseball and basketball and loved to travel the world as a kid, and I still do to this very day. I was always an overachiever in school always got straight A’s and B’s no matter what.

But once I got to high school, I had started having difficulty with my grades. I lost my childhood friend to a brain tumor. I was very lost and had a dark cloud over the head all the time and often blamed myself for my best friend’s cancer and it was hard for me to deal with.

I was lost in my battle with depression, but I didn’t go to counseling or anything like that. I just kept it silent as I was going through grief and pain and I didn’t say a thing about it to anyone. I faced it alone and every day I wondered where my life was going to in the next couple of years and how was I going to cope with everything going through at the time. In my freshman year, I barely passed any of my classes that year.

So, the summer comes along, and I was still struggling with depression. I was still lost in the clouds and then I went back to school. I started off on the wrong foot so my parents decided to home school me. I started to see that people that I thought were my friends weren’t. My boyfriend at the time dumped me on Valentine’s Day, so I found myself to be alone, and I couldn’t escape it. Until one day I was at the Branes and Noble store with my dad drinking a Starbucks coffee and I started to imagine myself signing books of my own. Then I went home and started to write the sentence of my book, James Ticking Time Bomb and got it published at age 16. I got my grades up and I was able to get out the dark place. I completed high school with a 3.7 GPA and now I’m in college. I advocate for cerebral palsy and mental illness since awareness needs to be brought to all things. I also thank writing for changing my life and giving me a purpose.

You can follow Tylia on her social media

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Stompingoncpwithtylia/

Twitter https://twitter.com/stompingoncp1

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/stomping_on_cp_with_tylia/

Worth Living Ambassador & New England Lead Kim LaMontagne

I share my personal story of being a high functioning business woman balancing a career and family while fighting (and hiding) major depression, anxiety and persistent suicidal thoughts. By sharing my story, I help individuals find the courage, power and strength to accept and love who they are and rise above the fear, stigma and shame of mental illness and talk openly about it. I fought my battle alone because I was afraid of stigma. Especially in the workplace. No one should suffer alone.

Unaddressed Mental Health and Presenteeism in the Workplace: What Does Presenteeism Mean and How is it Affecting Your Bottom Line?

More than 14 million U.S. workers fall within the category and diagnostic criteria for substance dependence (Jacobson & Sacco, 2012) and millions more suffer from mental illness. Substance abuse, mental illness, and stigma in the workplace cost employers millions in “lost productivity, measured by increased absenteeism, workplace accidents and healthcare costs” (Jacobson & Sacco, 2012).

Additionally, stigma and mental illness negatively impacts other employees affecting workplace morale, productivity and outcomes.
Research reveals that mental health disorders, particularly depression, have a “staggering impact on business productivity in America, greater than physical disorders” (Harder et.al, 2014). This phenomenon has become more common in the workplace but is not well understood or supported. Untreated mental health is a public health concern.

In today’s complex and competitive business market, a company’s most important asset is human resources. “Efficient business relies on the health of the individual worker” (Ajunwa, et. al., 2016). A physically and mentally healthy worker means fewer sick days, decrease in short and long-term disability claims, more productivity and engagement, and less healthcare cost for the company. A mentally healthy workforce is better for the bottom line.

Organizational loss associated with mental health in the workplace is multipronged and includes “absenteeism, presenteeism, and turnover” (Harder, et. al., 2014). Absenteeism accounts for time off from work with no expectation of work responsibility. Among valid reasons for absenteeism, mental health conditions account for a 62.2% of days out of office and accounts for an estimated 7% of global payroll across organizations “which is more than any other disorder” (Harder, et.al., 2014). Although lost productivity and costs associated with absenteeism are staggering, an even costlier issue in the workplace is presenteeism.

Presenteeism is known as “the problem of workers being on the job but, because of illness or other medical conditions, not fully functioning” (Hemp, 2004). Presenteeism can cut individual productivity by one-third and can be even more costly than its counterpart absenteeism. Unlike absenteeism, presenteeism isn’t always apparent. It is simple to process the concept of absenteeism. When an employee is excused from work, productivity is not expected because they are not present. When presenteeism is introduced in the workplace, you often can’t tell “when—or how much—illness or a medical condition hinders someone’s performance” (Hemp, 2004). Presenteeism represents when the worker is there but is not being productive due to outside circumstances. Also known as the working wounded. In the United States alone, the costs associated with presenteeism are $180 billion per year compared to the $118 billion costs related to absenteeism” (Ammendola, et. al., 2016).

The cost and burden of mental health disorders is consistently found to supersede physical disorders when comparing direct (medical / pharmaceutical) and indirect (absenteeism / presenteeism) costs of each disorder. Mental health episodes requiring an employee to open a disability claim are typically longer than for other types of disorders (67 days vs. 33.8 days) (Harder, et. al., 2014). The average major depressive episode lasts for 26 weeks making it the “single leading cause of disability in the workplace” (Harder, et. al., 2014).

Although diagnoses such heart disease, diabetes, or cancer require a company to pay higher direct health care costs, illnesses such as depression and anxiety have lower direct costs. Unfortunately, they usually account for increased loss in productivity because “they are so prevalent, they so often go untreated and they typically occur during peak working years” (Hemp, 2014).

To build a healthier workplace, there must be a team approach to employee health and wellness. The adage of leave your problems at the door is a thing of the past. Since most employees experience major disruptive issues affecting their on the job performance, there must be a comprehensive top down organizational strategy to ensure proper management of employee health to increase retention and decrease healthcare costs. The role of the CEO and leadership within an organization is critical to supporting the success and implementation of a program to support the well-being of employees. When mental health is valued by leaders, appropriate resources become increasingly more available, employees are educated about the resources, usage increase and there is a substantial benefit to the organization and more importantly the bottom line.

Commitment to employee wellness is a topic of organizational discussion that is gaining increased interest in research. Research conducted by Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) shows organizational support to be an “important mediator in
presenteeism” (Garrow, 2016). Specifically, support from the top leadership that cascades throughout the culture of the organization. Business leaders have a duty to help reduce stigma in the workplace, develop a mental health strategy, and consider mental health as an ongoing educational process. This can be accomplished by investing in targeted actions that promote mental health such as workshops, employee education, frontline leader training in mental and collaboration with NAMI just to name a few. Leaders must feel empowered to make the changes required to build and sustain a mentally healthy workforce capable of increased productivity due to positive mental health. It’s good for the bottom line.

References:
Ajunwa, I., Crawford, K. and Ford, J. (2016) Health and Big Data: An Ethical Framework for Health Information Collection by Corporate Wellness Programs, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine

Ammendola, C, Côté, P, Cancelliere, C, Cassidy, J, Hartvigsen, J, Boyle, E, Soklaridis, S, Stern, P, & Amick III, B., 2016, ‘Healthy and productive workers: using intervention mapping to design a workplace health promotion and wellness program to improve presenteeism’, BMC Public Health, 16, pp. 1-18.

Garrow, V. (2016) Presenteeism A review of current thinking, Institute for Employment Studies, Feb 2016, Report 507.
Harder, H, Wagner, S, Rash, J, 2014, Mental Illness in the Workplace.

Harder, H.G., Wagner, S.L., Rash, J.A., Mental Illness in the Workplace: Psychological Disability Management

Hemp, P. (2004) Presenteeism: At Work—But out of it, Harvard Business Review, Available at: https://hbr.org/2004/10/presenteeism-at-work-but-out-of-it.

Worth Living Ambassador and Co-Lead WL Running Amy Leon

Amy is a working single mom, diagnosed with Depression in 2011.

During her initial battle with Depression, Amy found her home with the running community. They provided support, comradery, and a place where she felt she belonged. This was true not only for the local community, but the online community as well. There was no judgement, as many of the people she met were fighting similar demons. During an injury in early 2014, she decided to start sharing her struggle with not being able to run and how that was playing out not only physically but mentally was well.
When her daughter was diagnosed with Depression/Anxiety in late 2017, the desire to continue the conversation regarding mental illness and mental health grew even more.

Amy shares her journey on social media through her blog Screaming Into the Void, as well as through other social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. She hopes that by keeping her journey available others will realize they are not alone. Getting the help you need does not make you weak, it shows how strong you are.

Why I Became a Worth Living Ambassador

I had been searching, over the past few years, for an organization that I could lend my voice to when it came to mental illness awareness.

I had contemplated many, and given my voice to certain campaigns, but something was lacking for me. The ups and downs with conversation about awareness started to wear me down, and once my daughter was diagnosed with mental illness, my desire to speak out became more important to me.

I “hit my wall” with depression in 2011, and have hit it twice more since that time. Both times going off of my medication when I “felt better” and was confident that I had the tools I needed.

I am not afraid to ask for help. Not like I was the first time. Now I know when I am not right. Now I know when my brain chemistry is off kilter. I am not ashamed to say I am medicated, even though my brain wants me to feel otherwise.

The big difference between now and 2011: I know my life is worth living.

Don’t get me wrong. I still have bad days, even medicated. I know that my medication is not going to make me 100%. That’s okay.
Each person experiences mental illness differently. My illness is different from my daughter’s, even though we have the same diagnosis.

Most people think that there is a “generic” way to feel with depression and anxiety, and while there are certain symptoms associated with those mental illnesses that are “generic”, everyone’s experience has differences.

Not that long ago, I saw a call for Ambassadors for Worth Living. I had been following this account for a few years, as I knew the founder. Knowing Keith Anderson (our families have been friends for what seems like forever, and I grew up calling his mom and dad my Aunt and Uncle), it was easy for me to reach out and say that I would LOVE to be a part of his movement, this organization. Bringing awareness to what we experience and speaking out to break the misconceptions about mental illness as an advocate is very important to me, so this is a fantastic fit.

Through Keith, I met up with Shannon Pierangeli (we have been following each other via social media and had no idea we were a part of this movement together, lol), and WL Running Ambassadors was born. I am super excited about this next step, and cannot wait to move ahead with the ideas Shannon and I have been chatting about.

They say you know when you’ve found your “place”.

I’ve found mine.

Please follow Amy on her social media

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@scrmgin2thevoid
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@scrmgin2thevoid
Blog: https://www.screamingintothevoid.ca
Facebook (new page): https://www.facebook.com/screamingin2thevoid/

Worth Living Director of Music & Official DJ Scratchley Q

Worth Living Top 10 Countdown – Creative Carnival

10. She’s a Carnival – Siouxsie and the Banshees

9. Carnival – Quintino

8. Carnival Drums – Olly James

7. Always Carnival Time – Kardinal Offishall ft. KES the Band & Quinn Marie

6. Carnival – Natalie Merchant

5. Carnival – Mikalyn ft. Shawn Brady

4. Carnival – Gorillaz ft. Anthony Hamilton

3. Carnival Hearts – Kayla Diamond

2. Carnival – Our Lady Peace

1. Carnival – Milan & Phoenix

Shannon Pierangeli, WL Director of Event Planning

Shannon is an event planner who focuses on creating event experiences for fitness and health-related businesses. A graduate of the University of Ottawa, she has a degree in Human Kinetics and a Bachelor of Education which allows her to combine her passion for fitness and health education as she inspires others to pursue an active lifestyle. Her website showcases her event history and features a blog addressing hot topics in the fitness and health industry. Shannon is an avid runner and will be launching a podcast called Run For Your Life with a Phoenix-based blogger, Melissa Kahn, which will share stories about the power of running and fitness in maintaining mental health.

Running Makes Life Worth Living

One of my Facebook memories for today came from 2011 when I ran my first Greenboro Run Club 5k practice run in 35 minutes. I feel like I’ve come a long way since that day, in more ways than just my pace.

When I reflect on the last 7 years I realize I’ve experienced a miscarriage, carried and birthed a baby boy, 4 cross-country moves, watched my step-kids graduate from high school, sent two little kids off to school, started a business, made new friends and reunited with old ones, and transformed my life into something new and exciting. One thing that has been constant throughout all of this change is running.

I’ve dealt with depression and anxiety for as long as I can remember. I once failed a math test in Grade 5 and my perfectionist nature got the better of me and I couldn’t cope: I cried myself into a migraine and went home from school sick. That fact that I remember the test was on percentages and was printed on blue paper shows how deep an impact it had. I’ve been through several rounds of counseling and I’ve taken medication. I’ve read all the books and even consulted with alternative therapists. I’ve learned to really tune into who I am and what sets me off.

I struggled with the darkness that loomed overhead for a majority of my life and running has cleared the clouds for me. I look back on the last 7 years and am so thankful for the freedom each step has allowed me to experience. I find myself a little more each time I lace up and hit the trail. Each run is a cathartic experience for me and I release the negativity and anxiety with each bead of sweat. I push up the hills and across finish lines with a new sense of the person I’m becoming.

A few days ago my mom asked me, with a note of disbelief in her voice, if I truly enjoy running.

YES!YES!YES!

Running is my therapy these days. I run outside and breathe the fresh air and feel the sun on my skin and the earth beneath my feet. I can think about everything or absolutely nothing! I listen to music that inspires my pace and I push myself to reach new goals and I just keep putting one foot in front of the other because that’s what life is, isn’t it? Getting up each morning and putting one foot in front of the other. Always moving forward.

One of those goals is to run the half marathon at the Valley Harvest Marathon on October 7th this year. It will be an important 21.2k for me as I have chosen to wear the Worth Living logo on my running singlet. I’ve joined this organization as a Run Ambassador to help promote mental health and to remind everyone that every life is worth living. Especially yours. Especially mine.

Every step I take will be a reminder that I lost a pregnancy and survived. That I wandered in the darkness but found the sun. That I’ve struggled with anxiety but I’m excited for what comes next. Every step I take reminds me of how good it feels to be moving forward. Every step is worth taking just like every life is worth living.

What makes your life worth living?

Are you interested in joining the Worth Living Run Ambassadors for an upcoming race?

Visit http://worthliving.co/wl-run-ambassadors/

You can follow Shannon:

Website and blog www.merakieventplanning.com

Twitter @MerakiEventPlan

Instagram @merakieventplanning