Geek Mental Help Week 2016

Starting again on October 3rd 2016, 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.

New articles and entries

To add a link to an article or blog entry, follow the README guidelines and submit a pull request.

Other Submissions

On Priority

by Stefan Koopmanschap

“This article is too late. There is a reason it is too late though. I decided to set my priorities, and this article had a lower priority, in order to try and avoid depression. And that's what is being written about here.”

Friday

On burning out

by Marc Jenkins

“Earlier this year, I burnt out. It's horrible, partly because it's invisible. It's hard to self-diagnose. I also share a few things that have helped me since.”

My 5 Tips for Geek Mental Help Week 2016

by Sam Hutchings

“Here are 5 simple tips Sam uses to help improve his mood and calm his anxiety.”

Managing Tech Job Stress When 9-5 is Unrealistic

by Kim Maida

“There's no magic bullet for job stress when overtime is an expectation, but we have more control than we think regarding the way we work, interact with the people around us, and engage in self-care. Tech workers share what gets them through these tough periods.”

You

by Chris Gibbons

“A retrospective look back at several issues that have plauged me and how I think I’ve overcome them.”

Geek Mental Help Week

by Peter-Paul Koch

“Mental health problems are not necessarily about profound traumas and serious disorders; they can also sneak up on people who’re otherwise decently balanced. Also, my story has a happy ending.”

The Unspoken D Word That Eats You From The Inside

by James Greig

“Looking back at my experience of depression as a graphic designer, and the day I knew I had to quit my job.”

Enough Vacation — An Individual Goal

by Anselm Hannemann

“Respect your brain and body by giving it time to relax and recover. About finding the appropriate vacation time.”

Reasons and Care

by Charles Roper

“A review of Matt Haig's Reasons to Stay Alive and some thoughts on those who care for sufferers of mental illness.”

Thursday

On Drama

by Neil Studd

“How I cope with the constant arguments that break out in my Twitter feed, and my fears with how I’m perceived.”

Positivity Space

by Ben Bodien

“We’ve been hard at work on a side project that helps people focus and look back on their positive thoughts — little things within each day that they feel grateful for. Regular journalling of positive details in your life has been shown to measurably improve your happiness, alertness, determination, energy levels and general mental well-being. The site is in free open beta, all entries you make are only ever visible to you alone, and your feedback would be treasured.”

Combatting stress and worry with CBT

by Holly Davis

“Over the last 6 months, I have experienced periods of anxiety and worry and had also noticed an increase in OCD tendencies. Small things like misplacing something or not being able to remember something would niggle at me for longer than was healthy.”

Anxiety is normal

by Ross Wintle

“The people around you, your family, your colleagues, your friends, all probably have anxieties. You may never know it. Go easy on them.”

There’s No Line in my Timesheet for Panic Attacks

by Chad Gowler

“When every hour of a developer’s time needs to be accounted for, how do we give people the space to be unwell?”

Wednesday

Workaholism: the other side [2016 update]

by Sarah Gebauer

“Last year I wrote how my parent’s workaholism still affects me as an adult. This year I want to write an update to see how far I have gone. I fight my neurodiverse traits too, so I wrote a section dedicated to them.”

Bereaved

by Laura Kalbag

“It’s weird how normal it is, but it doesn’t stop it feeling really weird.”

Hey, how are you?

by Mike Bell

“Like most conversations do it starts with a “Hey, how are you?.” What people don’t know is the mental twists that my brain goes through in the split second it takes me to answer.”

Modern Mindfulness

by Joe Bell

“1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their lives, but even in a world where our ability to connect is always growing, there's still a social stigma around talking. Joe will be speaking about personal experiences, and how in more recent years modern technologies (from social networking to online dating) have influenced the lives of us all.”

Change Your Internal Narrative and Filling The Half-Empty Glass

by Darren Beale

“If you, like me, suffer from stress & anxiety you need to know that you’re not weird; it’s a tendency baked into all of us. The key to overcoming it is to understand what is going on. It’s then a lot easier to come up with coping strategies. Tactics for beating stress and anxiety (that work for me.)”

Burnout

by Andy Bell

“I talk about my struggle with Burnout in the first half of 2016 and how I overcame it.

Tuesday

How to survive OCD

by Adam Shaw

”Everyone claims to be “a bit OCD’ these days. I’m sharing my story to show how debilitating OCD actually is, and to give hope that recovery is possible.”

Geek Mental Health Week

by Sarah Parmenter

“I’m nothing special, my story is nothing remarkable and nothing that hasn’t happened to thousands of others like me in one form or another. My mental-health however, is my unique story. ”

My Life Reboot 18 Months On

by Darren Beale

“18 months after a complete stress related breakdown. How I am getting on, what has worked, what do I still need to work on?”

Help! Living with mental illness

by an anonymous author

“My wife struggles with depression and health anxiety. Both I think are rooted in passing of her father unexpectedly almost 10 years ago. ”


Monday

Don Draper’s Depersonalisation Disorder

by Andy Clarke

“My theory is that, like me, Don suffers from ‘depersonalisation disorder,’ caused by the trauma he suffered earlier in life and that affected his behaviour and shaped him as the person that we know.”

Beating Imposter Syndrome

by Si Jobling

How a few cheeky acronyms can beat low self-confidence in a demanding profession.

The battle with yourself

by Neil Studd

“Beneath the surface, I’ve been fighting a string of internal battles, some of the hardest of my life. I still don’t truly understand them, and many of them I’m still not ready to talk about. But I’m learning that I needn't face them all alone.”

On Being Generally Anxious

by Max Manders

“Sharing my discovery that I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder, what it is, and how I’m getting on.”

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Events

To add an event, follow the README guidelines and submit a pull request.

Aberdeen PHP User Group

Aberdeen PHP User Group aims to provide a regular meeting for developers in Aberdeen and the surrounding areas to get together and discuss just about anything in and around the PHP Community.

This month we are focussing on mental health, with a fun quiz, a short talk, open discussion alongside the usual PHP news, tip of the month, beer, soft drinks and PIZZA!

MCR Geek Mental Help Night

Gem Hill and Mike Bell have organised MCR Geek Mental Help night, “An evening of discussion and talks around mental health in tech/geek spaces and culture’ at the Autotrader offices on 1st Street, Manchester. Tickets are free and available now.

If you’re interested in giving a longer talk, facilitating a discussion or similar, drop them a line at gemma.hill1987@gmail.com or hello@mikebell.io.

Girl Geek Tea Party

Also at the Autotrader offices on Sunday October 9th, Manchester Girl Geeks are hosting a Girl Geek Tea Party. Topics include:

  • Liv from Liv’s Recovery Kitchen
  • How apps can manage mental health
  • A workshop on 30 days of happiness
  • How mental health impacts physical health and vice versa
  • Talks on sleep, suicide, and more

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Podcasts & Audio

To add a link to a podcast episode or other recording, follow the README guidelines and submit a pull request.

Resources and other recent articles

To add a link, follow the README guidelines and submit a pull request.

On #GeekMentalHelp week

by Gem Hill

On Geek Mental Help week and being scared.


A series of posts by Mike Talks

The ultimate taboo

“Introduction to my series reflecting back on mental health.”

My experiences

“I talk frankly about some of the painful experiences that are my background to mental health.”

Counselling and roads to wellness

“I talk about my experience with counselling, and other roads on the journey to wellness.”

Depression, the powerful dog who sneaks up on us

“I talk about a friend named Richard and his battle with depression.”

“I regret to inform you.” The suicide bombshell

“I talk about the suspected suicide of my best friend, and the suicide of a colleague.”

How do you talk to a friend who has depression?

“I talk about how you can stay involved with friends who are battling depression.”

Finding support

“I talk about how you can find support for your mental problems.”

Mentally checking in

“Reflecting back on a low point, as I struggle to deal with a year marked by death of friends and family.”

The long grief. Five years on…

“Reflecting back on a 5 year journey of grief over the death of my best friend.”

This site is hosted on GitHub pages. If you’ve a link to an article or blog entry, a podcast episode, an event or a helpful resource to add to this site, clone, follow the README guidelines and submit a pull request.

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