Men's Mental Health: Breaking the Silence

June is Men's Mental Health Awareness Month, bringing attention to the struggles many men face but rarely discuss. Working with special needs students and being married to someone diagnosed with mental illness in his sixties has taught me valuable lessons about compassion and understanding.

• Mental illness includes many conditions beyond schizophrenia, such as bipolar disorder, anxiety, PTSD, and autism
• Depression is more than sadness; anxiety is more than worry; OCD is more than obsessions
• Men in middle age to older ages particularly struggle with identifying and expressing their feelings
• People with mental health conditions often deal with mood swings even while on medication
• Early diagnosis and support can make a tremendous difference in quality of life
• Being intentional in our communication and practicing kindness is essential when interacting with those struggling
• Listen without judgment and create space for vulnerability

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Mindful Monday
• 5:48 Men's Mental Health Awareness Month
• 10:05 Living With Mental Illness
• 15:21 Being Kind and Intentional
• 20:28 Sponsor and Listener Shoutouts
• 25:21 Closing Thoughts and Subscribe Request

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Bow, chicka, wow, wow, good evening party people. Welcome to another episode of Mindful Monday and Elkivate your Life. I am your hostess, with the mostess L as in the letter L and key as in the key to your heart. All right, so let's get into it. On this Mindful Monday, june 2nd, I hope everyone had an amazing weekend. It was definitely a hot one out there, especially on Saturday, a whopping 95 degrees in the Tri-Valley area, and so, yeah, working on my tan, you know, getting in some pool time Went to an adult prom and I'm happy to report that my hubby and I won best dress couple, so that was kind of cool.

Speaker 1: 1:19

So, topic for this evening very interesting, because I was trying to think about what I was going to talk about tonight. I had a lot of ideas swirling in my head and then I remembered May was Mental and June is Mental Awareness Month for Men. So I thought how appropriate for me to talk about this topic because it hits so close to home for me, and I'm hoping to talk to some people further on Wednesday about this, although I have to tell you, as most of you know, most of my loyal listeners out there shout out to my loyal listeners. Thank you for listening. Listening, I work as a special ed aide and special education aide, special education assistant, para support I don't know, I don't know what you, you, we have so many titles. But the reason that I'm bringing this up is because I work with students of special needs. I also work with gen ed kids, but most of my needs and aid is for special education kids, and so Mental Health Awareness Mental Awareness Month is so relevant to me because of the different personalities that I work with, and I've been doing this three years now.

Speaker 1: 3:28

And I have to tell you, if I haven't told you in my previous episodes, that even though I don't talk about politics or religion, I do touch on the topics just a little bit when we talked about celebrating Eid or Easter or what have you. But in this case it's so important to me because a lot of the kids that I work with, you know, have these challenges and face these struggles every day. And I have to tell you, I firmly believe, that God called me to do this, because I've always been referred to as Mama Elkie, ever since I can remember, from my kids friends to you know, the kids at school, even when I worked in customer service sales and I had a team. They the younger people on my team called me Mama Elkie, and so it just has become sort of my nickname and it definitely fits, because if I know you and you're close to me and you're hurting whether it be you're sick then I want to know how I can help you feel better. Like, are you drinking tea, are you taking vitamins, do you have Vicks? You know I'm the one that's going down the list of all the remedies to help you, to make you not feel like you're suffering.

Speaker 1: 5:11

I don't like to see people suffer, and so this topic is very relevant, not only because of you know the kids that I work with, but I am married to somebody who also suffers I don't want to say I don't know if suffering is the right word faces these challenges on a regular basis, and so I have really made it a point to learn about mental illness and what that looks like and what it means, and I have to tell you it's not just like schizophrenia, like some people might think. It also falls under bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder. There's a variety of different PTSD, autism, so many different things. So I just kind of wanted to talk about this because I have made it a point to learn more about it, because I am married to somebody who, you know, was unaware of these things until his sixties, uh, until after we got married he got diagnosed and it it's very interesting to see, um, someone like my husband be diagnosed with this at such a late age and then me to work with kids in middle school who have these struggles, and it just brings you know, it raises the question of it's amazing that he managed to complete school, complete high school, get a high school diploma, get good jobs, become, be able to socially interact with others people when they found out that my husband's diagnosis, when he shared it on social media at I can't remember if it was 60 or 61, maybe 60 because he's getting approaching his 62nd birthday, anyway, approaching his 62nd birthday.

Speaker 1: 8:08

Anyway, the reason I'm bringing this up is a lot of us don't know about the struggles that these people face and there is, I mean, somebody knows somebody that is affected by this. Okay, I mean somebody knows somebody that is affected by this, and so I just kind of wanted to send a shout out. Shout out to the men who suffer from mental illness, because it is a thing and the stats are crazy. I was looking over the stats of men, women, the struggles that they face, and, yeah, I just kind of wanted to, you know, send a shout out that there, more than likely, you know somebody, you know somebody that is suffering mental illness Maybe you're married to that person, maybe you live with that person, maybe it's a sibling, a family member, maybe you're married to that person and just really wanted to bring awareness about this topic, because a lot of us don't realize of the mood swings that they have, that they literally battle these things regularly even if they are on medication or on mood stabilizers. They still have to do things to protect their peace.

Speaker 1: 10:10

And yeah, I just think that, the more I read about it and learn about it and educate myself on it, that it's really important to know that there's a large percentage of men, especially in middle age to older ages, that don't you know that struggle, struggle with talking about their feelings, sharing their feelings, identifying their feelings. And I just think it's so important for us to be mindful of how we talk to people, how we treat people, because, honestly, we don't know, we donto-day things that we don't even know about them being depressed or anxious or manic, and sometimes they don't even have the ability to identify their feelings. Sometimes they have like multi-sensory overload and feel unstable or insecure about things but can't communicate that. And because June is the month where we're talking about men's mental illness awareness, I just think that we really need to open our minds and open our hearts to just being more kind and more mindful. More kind and more mindful.

Speaker 1: 12:50

Like I said, depression is a huge factor and it could be something as simple as like loss of interest, or maybe they're tired all the time, maybe they're irritable, sometimes it's, you know, loss of appetite or excessive appetite, phobias, obsessive, compulsive behaviors um, sleeping, concentrating, sleeping, concentrating, you know, just extreme mood swings, mania. There's so many layers to the illness, depending on what they suffer from, and I just think it's so important for us to educate ourselves and be more aware of how we talk to people, how we treat people, especially for the month of June. Let's be kind to the men, just, you know, be more intentional with your words, with your actions. And yeah, I'm kind of wondering are there any people out there that are listening, that want to share about if you have a mental illness? Are you willing to open up and share about yourself and your experience, whether you're older, younger, middle-aged.

Speaker 1: 14:32

One of the things I'm reading is depression is more than sadness. Anxiety is more than worry. Ocd is more than obsessions. Ptsd is more than worry. Ocd is more than obsessions. Ptsd is more than nightmares and, you know, bipolar is more than being manic. It includes eating disorders, about being underweight or overweight. There's also addiction to cravings. Like I said, so many layers, so many things to educate ourselves on and be more mindful and be more intentional and, especially if somebody is going through something, I just would encourage you to don't be afraid to peel back the layers, don't be afraid to allow that person to be vulnerable.

Speaker 1: 15:40

Listen with kindness, listen without judgment, and I would love to know if any of my listeners out there have a family member, friend, loved one, someone that you know that struggles with this, and if they do, how do you interact with this person? What do you do? What does that look like for you? What does it look like for them? Because I can tell you for my husband we're going on two years now and the struggle is real conversations and tweaking the medication or learning new coping strategies and it's opened my eyes to how things could be so different for him if he had someone in middle school in his earlier days what that would look like for him. Luckily, he became so good at masking and being able to direct his energy into sports and refereeing and umpiring, so he found outlets to learn how to become more sociable. Just, I think about this all the time, like what would his life look like if he had somebody in his earlier years to talk to him about social awareness and help him to better his communication styles and learn his triggers and become more socially aware of do's and don'ts? Things like that? It, yes, I just find it such an interesting topic and there's so many people out there that have a mental illness or know someone or are personally, you know, impacted by that, whether it be, like I said, a friend, a family member you know, a spouse, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a cousin, a brother, a sister, a mother and I think it's really important for us to be more kind, be more intentional, be more mindful, since it is Mindful Monday. Mindful, since it is Mindful Monday.

Speaker 1: 18:48

Speaking of Mindful Monday, I want to be sure that I give a shout out to my loyal listeners and subscribers. Shout out to Persimmon Dental in Persimmon Plaza in Dublin. Thank you so much for being loyal listener and sponsor. They have been taking care of my teeth for gosh, I want to say 10 plus years now and Dr Lam, teresa, all of the staff, they're all wonderful, welcoming. So if you're looking for a dentist and you're in the Tri-Valley area, check them out. Persimmon Dental in the Persimmon Plaza, located in Dublin on Martinelli Way, and use the hashtag Elkivate. That way they know I sent you, that way they know I sent you.

Speaker 1: 20:05

Shout out to Kara Ky store lovemyartistetsycom. She does video montages where she puts together things for people's birthday and anniversary and includes a lovely song, ballad poem, depending on what you're looking for. She also creates all types of wedding favors. She has some beautiful artwork on her page, things that she's painted and created herself Clothing she has various different clothing, clothing, a laptop bag and boots that I hope to buy in the near future, or my husband will buy me one or both of them. I mean maybe I get one. He gets one Quality leather from Italy. I mean the laptop bag and the boots. If you love purple, black, white, zebra, something unique, you got to check out her page, jeff Parra.

Speaker 1: 21:15

Jeff Parra, thank you. Thank you for your loyal subscription. Thank you for being a loyal listener and friend and thank you for sharing all of your joyous occasions through his job that he loves. Thank you for your teachings in my meditation. It has been a game changer for me. Namaste to Jeff.

Speaker 1: 21:45

Shout out to Kyle Few, professor Kyle, dr Kyle as I call him who is the author of Commitment to Love. Love is a verb. It can be found on Audible through Amazon. It can be found on Audible through Amazon To anyone out there that wants to learn what love is and what it's all about, whether it's loving yourself or loving your significant others. This is a great book, audible to have. I encourage you to go get it. That has been such a helpful tool for me and in my relationships so I can't say enough great things about it. I can't say enough great things about it. Shout out to Mike Kaufman, the water guy for Primo ReadyFresh Hawaiian. Oh my gosh, too many waters. Saratoga. Thank you for being a loyal listener and subscriber.

Speaker 1: 23:03

Thank you to Angie Germer, who is helping to keep my health in check. Angie Germer is a distributor of Thrive through Lavelle and this is an all-natural product. It involves dermal patches, vitamins to help you with your gut health, provide energy, weight management, mental clarity. I know that I've shared her information before and I want to make sure I continue to, because she has lost 57 pounds on the system and I'm on seven pounds in two and a half weeks. And, bear with me, I'm just trying to find her. I want to give you guys her link. So it's Angie Germer, a-n-g-i-e-g-e-r-m-e-r-7-5-7-9-1-7.lavellecom, and I'll see if I can include the link in my podcast for all of you that are interested. She's also. You can find her on Facebook. She's also on TikTok and, yeah, can't say enough great things about the product. Angie Germer 757-917.lavellecom.

Speaker 1: 25:14

Did I include everybody? Did I get everybody? Travis Lemire, thank you for helping me with my podcast ideas. I'm getting ready to use your microphone for my video recording, so stay tuned for that. Thank you to my loyal listener, dory. Shout out to all of my loyal listeners through Fallon Middle School. I appreciate you. And since it is Mindful Monday, please remember. Just remember to be kind, be mindful. Ladies and gents. Remember to like, share, gents, remember to like, share, subscribe. It's as little as a cup of coffee and as much as a happy meal. I mean $3 to $10, you can become a subscriber. Oh, roger Havens, I haven't given up on you, roger. I'm still trying to find you that life partner. So thank you all for listening, thanks for tuning in, and remember to like, share and or subscribe, because it helps the algorithm. I can be found on all the platforms Apple, spotify, youtube and please send in your comments, send in your ideas. I would love to hear from you Until next time. Ciao for now.