For many people, mental illness is not something they seek support for. They may isolate, feel unsure of who or what to turn to, or even stuff their feelings down to try and appear “normal”. But mental health affects everyone. In part two of this episode, Tiffani and Kirk share what types of support are available and how to navigate through mental health challenges when you are away from your support system.

24/7 Local Crisis Phone Line: 863.519.3744

24/7 Local Crisis Text Line: Text “TALK” to 863.204.3443

24/7 National Crisis Line: 988

If you are in immediate danger, call 911.

Thank you for joining us today for part two of our two part series on the differences between mental health and mental illness I remember whatever I was in graduate school Our one of our professors would say when you have a hammer in your hand Everything looks like a nail right and so it's really easy to self -diagnose you get on the internet and you have everything and so that's why it's so important,

you know identifying in ourselves and you know What are we feeling? How are we feeling? you know reaching out for support but reaching out to the right people and depending on a level of pain that you're feeling,

like you said, maybe what you need is to take a walk. Maybe you need a nap and a snack and to get better about personal boundaries and giving yourself that margin just to be. Maybe you need a friend,

you know, that peer support can be life -changing, right? Maybe you've done all the things that you know to do. You've, you know, opened up your tools. and you've used all the Resources and all the coping skills that you have available to you Well,

there is support so Kirk If someone was thinking well gosh, you know these symptoms or you know these feelings are getting heavier than I feel like I can carry What would be the first step to reaching out for support?

well If you've got close friends and family that would be because it's close to home that primary support system is always good, but there's always what's referred to as the secondary level of support,

and that's reaching out through hotlines and crisis lines. Peace River Center has their crisis line, it's 863 -519 -3744, and that's available for individuals to call about any emotional issue that they're experiencing.

It doesn't have to be about a Baker Act and we'll talk more about Baker Acts in a later podcast but it's just somebody to bounce something off of and we get calls on our crisis line from other professionals who just want to bounce something off of us which is fine.

We need each other's support because we're all struggling through this human condition and having this human experience. together. But sometimes we feel very much alone.

And that can be a challenge in trying to help somebody as well, 'cause there's often, I like to refer to people as sometimes they get prickly and you can't put your arms around them.

You don't want to. So you just, okay, from a distance you can still be supportive and be there. and lots of times it's just saying I'm here for you.

Yeah well I think that right there sometimes there's so much power in knowing you're not alone there's so much power in knowing that you're seen right that the struggle that you're experiencing is valid that your feelings are valid and right now you know we're broadcasting today from the campus of Southeastern University in Lakeland Florida we're on a college campus and I think people forget because there's so much

excitement right in college and going to college. I was the first college student in my immediate family. I was the first person to graduate from college in my immediate family and there's so much excitement but there's also so much emotional transition moving from a high school senior to a college freshman and I know for me I am not from the Lakeland

area. I, you know, hours away from my support system and so there is a big shift, I think, in calibrating to a new environment, right?

Right. So similar experience to you. I'm one of the only ones who went on to get an advanced degree in my family and that's kind of different within a family that's not.

used to that kind of thing. And sometimes there's terms that are not always pleasant to hear as you're going through that. But it is a transition, it's new ground that you're breaking,

which can be scary in and of itself. I'm not originally from Florida either. I'm originally from Massachusetts. And so breaking away even further from the support systems that you grew up around.

is even more risky. And reinventing yourself, reinventing your support network and things like that can be very challenging. And that is very similar to a lot of the students here at Southeastern University or at any of the other college campuses out there who may be listening in.

You know, that's, you know, we're going to be talking about those transitions and those struggles and sharing some of our personal stuff and how that worked for us and how it didn't work for us because,

you know, we still, we stumble and fall as well. We're not perfect. I never want that to be the thought that people have, "Oh, they just think they're perfect." No,

we're not perfect. We make mistakes. I think that that right there is another big issue of like, how do you set realistic expectations. for what happiness feels like right for what your joy feels like for you know you're gonna have minor and major disappointments and how do you reset from those and I think part of that is having a healthy expectation for yourself right because a lot of college students one of my first

jobs on campus was working with students and I see that there's such a high level of stress and a high level of feeling like you have to be perfect And you have to do everything right because you know like me and like you we were carrying the mantle of our family right go to college and so we can talk definitely later in another podcast specifically,

you know about the college experience and how that intersects with mental health But just a few numbers one in three young adults ages 18 to 25 experience some mental illness according to NAMI.

That is very significant because that's telling me that when we go to work, when we go to classes, when we go to the grocery store, most likely the person standing next to you might be experiencing a struggle that you know nothing about.

- Right, exactly, exactly. And even to highlight the point further, the numbers with regard to suicide. According to the American Association of Suicidologists,

they put out numbers on suicide every couple of years or so so that we have an idea. But suicide is the second leading cause of death for our young people,

second leading cause of death, and young people here, they define it as 15 to about 24. and so it's like oh my god the second leading cause of death is people taking their own life and a lot of things are going on brains continuing to develop and there's a lot of things going on there we've got hormones going all over the place we're transitioning life and lifestyles and connecting and it's got to be perfect and

some of the messages that are thrown at us from all sorts of media, and I don't mean to pick on media, but you've got to put that in context. Media is there to entertain us.

The podcast is a media venue to get information out there, but we've got to put it in perspective. It's there to entertain us, and they don't always get it right.

They're out there to tell a story and make it interesting. it engaging and fun. And we've got things like the latest thing with TikTok and people being worried about TikTok and what's going on behind the scenes with TikTok.

And, you know, if you've seen any of the TikTok stuff, I kind of rolled my eyes when I started hearing more and more about it and just kind of looking at what was really going on there. It's kind of like,

really, people are getting images that this is a snapshot in somebody's life that is "perfect" at that moment in time.

Like those basketball shots and all of that, they're on there. I laughed. It's like, well, that's one in probably 54 that they attempted to get right. You don't see all the background stuff.

That's right. That's right. Some statistics. Nami, they had a national survey of 12 to 17 year-olds because sometimes we think, "Oh, it's just, you know, the older people or it's just,

you know, young adults." No, it's everyone. They broke down, you know, by age 12 to 17 and 18 to 25, and the 12 to 17 -year -old population of those surveyed,

3 million really children acknowledged that they had serious thoughts of suicide and then getting into the 18 to 25 range, 3 .8 million.

So it's out there and those feelings are there. And I think it's so important that we validate that those feelings are there. I remember growing up,

if you're having a bad day, somebody would say, "Turn that frown upside down." Or, "What do you have to be anxious about? You're just a kid. Wait till you have to pay taxes." Right?

Right. Different levels of stress though, you know, different ... We're looking at things from, you know, an adult perspective. Well, kids get stressed out too about various things and worry.

And a lot of our younger kids, you know, they look to the adults in their life to kind of gauge things. Again, that social reference framing for a lot of people.

So if you're, if you've got a stressed out adult, you're gonna have a stressed out four year old. And they don't often have the language either to describe what they're going through,

what they're experiencing. So it comes out in acting out ways, they smash things, they yell on the screen, temper tantrums, and then we're like,

"Oh, this, my kid is broken." It's like, "Well, hold on." Or they say, "Well, that's a bad kid." That's a bad kid, right? Well, that's a dysregulated kid. Exactly. So, definitely, I think that that's another topic I would love to highlight as we go through with this podcast series.

One of the things to keep in mind for the listeners and the viewers as we go through is that it's so important to understand the impact of mental illness and mental health.

because mental health affects everyone. You know, if you're here, if you're breathing, you have mental health, just like you have physical health. But understanding how do I support someone? And there are a lot of ways.

As we mentioned, you know, meeting those tangible needs. One of the best ways, I think, is educating ourselves on how do we better understand mental illness. I think sometimes a lot of the decisions that people make are rooted in fear.

- Yeah. - And I think-- there is this fear associated with mental illness because there is the stigma and it feels like oh like I don't understand it so I'm just going to be afraid of it and I think breaking those stereotypes and educating ourselves like what are the terms right what is the difference in mental illness and mental health I think that's a really good starting point.

Yeah yeah absolutely absolutely and you’re right, I think fear is a big driver for a lot of the missteps that happen out there,

whether it be not communicating or communicating too much and being overly sensitive, because there's that other end of the spectrum as well, where the information gets out there and it's very heightened and we're very much more aware.

I often do in a lot of my workshops and classes that I went through psychopathology and we have this book called the DSM,

the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, and it's a daunting book 'cause it's like about two or three inches thick and you go through it. And when I went through school, it was a year's worth of study, so two semesters.

And I say, I'm convinced the first semester was to help us all kind of. understand, 'Oh my God, I got that. Oh my God, I do that, too.' Oh my God, I do that." And then you have this list,

and everyone's all fearful. And then by the second semester, you're like, "Pfft, everyone's got this." Or like if you're like me, after my first semester when I took psychopathology, I went home and I'm like,

"Oh my goodness, this is what's wrong with everyone I know." Right, exactly. Which is not a good place to be as a clinician. And so then, like you said, the second semester is so crucial because the first one is realizing how prevalent it is,

right? And I think a lot of times once you realize, oh, I see it everywhere, then you turn around and say, okay, now I see the hope, now I see the recovery,

now I see the treatment options because there is hope. - Absolutely. - You know, there is absolutely hope for recovery, just like physical health has, you know, extra, efficient protocols and treatment modalities,

mental health does too. It does. And it starts with taking the step. It starts with, you know, being willing to say it out loud, I think. Absolutely. And I think, you know,

Peace River Center has this gem here in Polk County, Florida. And I love to highlight it when we bring law enforcement through there. It's called Club Success. Club Success is a program where the clientele members run the program,

Kirk

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and the staff run the background to be support and facilitate things, but it's really the client's program. Really at the client's program, they run everything, which is great.

The clientele are the severe and persistently mentally ill individuals. These are folks that have had... and struggled with mental illness for many years,

and lots of times have been disenfranchised from their families, and they find a new home at Club Success and new support systems.

Just the ray of hope that comes out of that program, that facility, is just amazing. And so it really is telling. because when I do the training with law enforcement the first couple of days they're learning a lot of the basic stuff but when we actually go and visit that site that's a major turning point and getting an understanding of there is hope you know getting an understanding that this is an illness somebody is

struggling with but we can offer hope and the way we approach things the way we talk about these particular issues. can be life -altering and help somebody on their recovery because it is a journey.

Like this is going to be a journey for us, we're talking about a lot of hopes and objectives that we want to get out of sending out this message and I think we've got a good package here that that'll you know come along with us on this journey as we you know explain.

through our podcast and share our thoughts. Sometimes we'll get it right, sometimes we may trip, but hey, we're learning together. That's the big part. And as the viewers and listeners are following along with us,

we encourage you to reach out if there's a topic that you'd like to hear, if there's something that you're interested in, please reach out. PeaceRiverCenter.org is the website for our agency and we would love for you to join this journey with us because the purpose of this podcast is to provide psychoeducation,

provide support, provide a forum to better understand mental health and mental illness and better understand how we can join each other in reducing stigma and creating that platform for people to get support they need.

I think that the national average right now from the onset of symptoms until someone actually begins receiving treatment is 10 years. And that's too long.

I can't imagine someone struggling for 10 years without support and maybe feeling like, well, it's all in my head. Or, well, this is normal.

Or, well, I just need to get over it. And the answer is no. There is support. There are resources available. And, you know, if you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide or having thoughts of emotional distress,

reach out for support. As Kirk mentioned, the Peace River Center Crisis Hotline is 863 -519 -3744. There is support. There are people standing by 24 /7 to provide that resource because you matter and your feelings matter and you are not alone.

- And listen, if you... not from the area, Polk County, there is a national number you can call, it's 988, talk with a counselor through that system.

It doesn't have to be our local number, but we've got local resources for those that are local to us, but I wanna make sure the national number is out there as well, and it's 988,

it's made real simple in these last years. So that's good. So yeah, definitely join us. Glad you joined us if you stayed with us through this entire podcast right now and hopefully we'll have some more good insights and we're going to keep it simple.

We might throw out some jargon every once in a while, but Tiffani and I are a good balance of each other. We can kind of catch that and we'll try to make it so that it's understandable,

palatable, so that it's not over people's heads. So come join us. Thank you. - Thank you for joining us today for part two of our two part series on the differences between mental health and mental illness.

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