Tag / Mental Health

by tracycpoetry

Hard Lessons from Chronic Trauma

Our neurobiology can be unforgiving.

For me, daily bullying during my entire K-12 education made being disdained, relentlessly teased, ignored, isolated, spit at, and harassed in multiple other ways my “normal”.

As a young adult,the long-term relationship I chose recreated that “normal”.

It’s been almost a full decade now since I started taking steps to get healthy and live out a “new normal” for myself.

But I am learning the hard way that changing the situation is not the only thing needed to truly heal from the trauma.

Through a lot of prayer, reflection, and therapy, I recently had a “hindsight is 20/20” moment and realized that some actions and words toward a few people in my life that I love so much were probably some unconscious self-sabotage caused by my stubborn neurochemistry trying to drive me back to old “normal” of being hated and alone.

Though the damage caused to those relationships may never be undone, I thank my Maker for each new day to live and learn and to do whatever it takes to heal and to never again cause such pain.

And I am putting this out there with a hope and a prayer that someone reading this may be spared from learning this lesson the hard way.

Maker God, my old ways haven’t worked my whole life. Please do a new thing in me today!

by tracycpoetry

Thoughts on Mental Health

It’s Mental Health Awareness Month.

People who deal with mental health issues (a good percentage of us – actually) are sometimes referred to AS their illness, rather than people WITH an illness. Some examples of this are “He’s a schizophrenic” or “She’s an addict”.

A diagnosis of mental illness should NEVER be seen as a person’s identity OR as an automatic life sentence to misery and struggle.

There is ALWAYS hope for recovery!

by tracycpoetry

In The Middle of Changes

I wrote the comments below to share on LinkedIn. But I am sharing them as a blog post as well because the principles of navigating change and respect for those in the midst of change apply to so many areas of life….

If a job doesn’t fit, it is still a great organization and you are still an amazing professional and person. Professional growth and personal growth are rarely linear and are sometimes rife with unpredictable stops and starts.

I have had seasons where I’ve stayed with the same organization for 5 to 15 years. But in my most recent 4 years, I have worked for 4 different organizations. I am learning that is not failure. It is simply what life demands and how growth looks sometimes.

I left one of my most amazing work families (who still remain some of my closest friends) to try something I had never done before… only to find it was not a fit.

During my father’s illness and death I completely stepped away from leadership roles for a season to give my self time to care, grieve, and heal.

Next…. A brief season back on the frontlines of healthcare reminded me why I was drawn into the fields of Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety in the first place. I have a unique gift for seeing what needs to be changed in healthcare and for bringing people together to make those changes. And now I am ready to use that gift again.

I share my story to challenge all of us to not be hard on ourselves during times of change and transition.

Also…. If you are a recruiter or other hiring leader, I challenge you not to quickly toss a resume or CV aside if you see frequent role changes or a short length of stay in a position. Sometimes, knowing when it is time to go shows more professional excellence than staying.

by tracycpoetry

Mental Health vs. Physical Health

Now, don’t get me wrong….

I believe each individual is responsible for taking care of ourselves, physically and mentally in the best way possible for our own good and the good of those around us.

A person with a severe peanut allergy is ultimately responsible for getting the treatment they need, carrying an epi pen, and managing their triggers. But sometimes that sneaky peanut exposure breaks through.

What if people treated physical illness like so many treat mental illness? Imagine this with me…. Someone at the grocery store accepts a bite of a delicious looking desert from “the sample lady”. They ask if there are any nuts in it and are told, erroneously, no. The shopper takes a bite of the treat and next thing you know she begins coughing, panicking, turning beet red, and collapses to the floor.

What if the people around instead of trying to help said, “Oh, she’s faking it. Allergies are all in your head.”, “Kids, let’s get away from here – that woman’s crazy. Her hand hit one of you as she fell – it’s not safe to be around her”, or “It’s her own fault for taking the sample. Let’s just let her face the consequences”.

I’m exhausted right now from dealing with some recent triggers of my own. So I will leave it right there.

But please join me in trying to spread some understanding….