Geek Mental Help Week 2015
Starting again on October 26th 2015, Geek mental help week is a week-long series of articles, blog posts, conversations, podcasts and events across the web about mental health issues, how to help people who suffer, and those who care for us.
Follow @geekmentalhelp and share #geekmentalhelp. Make a submission for this site on Github.
Articles and blog entries
To add a link to an article or blog entry, follow the README guidelines and submit a pull request.
Health as Personal Brand
The personal brand is not equivalent to the person behind it. On selfcare, wrist pain, and burnout.
Workaholism: The other side
Neurodiverse person's view on growing up with a workaholic parent.
Depression In a Nutshell
Its Geek Mental Help week. Let's help each other get help. Leslie’s talking about his experience with depression, the incredible pressure in the industry to hide our humanity, and how to find a way through your own mental health struggles.
How To Increase Workflow And Reduce Stress With Nature Sounds
Everywhere we go, from ground to sky, we are surrounded by noises. Cars, planes, trains and people are just a few examples of what can be heard throughout any city or town. These noises stimulate our ears almost 24 hours a day, and few choices are available to us for avoiding them — one being specialist equipment, such as noise-cancelling headphones. Being aware of the noises around you will increase your comfort and ability to work more efficiently.
When Food Is Personal
“I really wish I wouldn’t have gone down this road when I has 20. At the time it looked like a viable plan to handle my insecurity, my fear and shame and whatever else I tried to handle. It was a bad plan.”
Digital Perfectionism
“We care about our products, projects and clients. Each new venture is an opportunity to demonstrate our latest skill, approach or technology. To facilitate this we can fall into the habit of setting ourselves impossible standards – over-optimistically relying on multi-tasking and squeezing in the extra hours to meet them. Except rarely do we actually meet these standards.”
The Summer of '15
One of the hardest articles I've written: I spent this summer battling with depression so I wrote my story to share, as well as some advice to try and help those in similar situations. I think it is important to talk about it, so this is the start of my conversation.
Social Anxiety
“I wonder if all I’ve done here is to describe why introverts frequently describe being social as tiring. Extroverts have no problem with any of this — but people like me, and maybe like you, have some things they can’t do automatically, and that’s the tiring part.”
(Re)discovering Myself
“Over the past twelve months that driven and ambitious person that many of my friends would recognise has slowly faded. My ability to enjoy life and experience happiness has become increasingly suppressed. My curiosity has dulled. It’s like I’ve become detached from the world around me. Left to observe, but not truly experience the joys of life.”
Some (Irrational) Things I Have Been Sure Of in the Last Month:
“I begin to see where all my mother’s seemingly irrational rules and restrictions came from, growing up. I imagine that having children while struggling with these panicked thoughts could indeed lead someone to constrict tighter and tighter around the people in their lives.”
Dealing with loud and silent burnout
We’ve all experienced that burnout moment. It’s that moment when we’ve got nothing left to give but keep trying anyway, when we’re left without much more than a shell to live in and motions to go through.
We’re fried and broken and wish desperately for our work to make sense, for our energy to come back, for things to be fun and as they were. In such moments all we want is for our work to feel like our work and not like torture.
“Are you all right? You’re a little gray,” our friends and loved ones say with concern. “You should get some rest.”
(Re)discovering myself
My personal struggles with depression and why it's important for our industry to talk about mental health.
Social Anxiety
"I will leave you hanging, because it never occurs to me to wonder why you have your hand raised."
Podcasts & Audio
To add a link to a podcast episode or other recording, follow the README guidelines and submit a pull request.
A disussion on the quality of life (Work/life balance)
A discussion with the members of an Open Source CMS community, Umbraco talk about the quality of life in a general discussion in order to achieve a healthy mental state, by balancing the constant battle between Work & Life.
Events
To add an event, follow the README guidelines and submit a pull request.
MCR Geek Mental Help Week
An event about mental health issues, how to help people who suffer, and those who care for us.
Talks:
- I am Jack's Medulla Oblongata presented by Gem Hill
- Alone in a room of thousands presented by Mike Bell
- This Is My Body And I Live In It presented by Claire / Chad
- AMA with Katie Sutton presented by Katie Sutton
MK Geek Night Mental Help Night 2015
2014’s inaugural Geek Mental Help Week was a successful and significant week-long series of articles, blog posts, podcasts and events across the web highlighting mental health issues within the creative and dev community. We were delighted to be able to host a special MK Geek Night as part of the week’s events. Geek Mental Help Week 2015 commences on 26th October and Milton Keynes Geek Night is privileged to once again host MKGN Mental Help Night, this year on Thursday October 29th.
More resources
Places to get support. To add a link, follow the README guidelines and submit a pull request.
Devs and Depression - WindyCityRails 2013
A moving personal presentation by developer Greg Baugues given at WindyCityRails 2013. Greg details his personal struggles with bipolar and ADHD, the signs and symptoms he faced and the resources he used to overcome his challenges.