Episode 2-Mental Health

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. We are tonight's entertainment.

Hello and welcome to another Double Dutch Rudder podcast. I'm your host, Cory Miller.

And if it wasn't obvious by the first episode, I still don't quite know what the hell I'm doing here.

So if you'll please bear with me, I'm just trying to find my footing here.

Anyway, I got with a couple of friends of mine last night and we had some interesting conversations.

One of the things that came up is a mutual friend that we all have. His name is Brandon.

And he passed away in October 2012. It was very sudden.

And one of the things we discussed last night, and what I'd like to discuss here on the show, is about mental health.

And this is something I think most people struggle to discuss. It's one of those things that can be seen as…

People can feel it makes them seem lesser, it makes them seem broken.

To kind of relate it back to the conversation we were having last night, our mutual friend Brandon,

he's somebody I had known since I was a kid. And he, his personality, he was always willing to reach out and help anyone who asked for it.

He was a very good friend in that respect. But anytime he needed help himself, he never really learned how to ask for help.

Or even let people know that he needed help. And unfortunately I think that's one of the things that did lead to him passing away.

Anyway, I myself did at one point go to therapy. This was back when I got divorced, which was about the same year, same time frame as when Brandon passed away.

I am a huge, huge advocate of therapy, mental health, I think it's important for everyone. I think it can be a benefit to everyone.

Even if you're just "normal", I think it's something everybody can benefit from.

Even if it's not talking to a therapist, I think mental health can encompass just talking to someone, talking to a friend, talking to a loved one.

It doesn't have to be therapy. Though therapy does have its benefits.

The good thing I've seen these days, or at least where I work, is they do see it as an important aspect of health. And they are very supportive of that.

We recently had a discussion on our team about this, about mental health and how important it is.

Every time it comes up, I strongly advocate for it, just having gone through it in my own personal life.

It's kind of funny when we had that discussion, one of our co-workers, found it funny because my boss and I had kind of gone through the same thing.

Not necessarily around the same time frame, but we'd been through the same thing. We'd been through a divorce, and we don't really talk about it very much.

One of our co-workers was very surprised because they were like, "You know, you guys have real lives, and you've been through stuff. You know, sometimes forget that."

And that is one of those things, you know. I think a lot of people, especially if you're dealing with a co-worker or a higher up, you forget that they do have an actual life outside of work.

And that's why, even if it's just a co-worker, if you see somebody who seems to be struggling with something, it's not a bad idea just to check on them, see if they're okay.

You know, it can sometimes, just a kind word, can lift someone's spirits or make them feel like they're not alone.

Because I think that's kind of the biggest thing is when someone feels they're alone, they feel like they don't matter.

And if you can help someone feel like they're not alone, like they do matter to someone, that can make all the difference.

And, you know, that's the best thing you can help for, just trying to help someone, is just making that little bit of difference.

But, anyway, I think that's about all I got. I know these episodes so far have been very short.

I will say these are all so far off the cuff. Probably, probably.

And you all can let me know whether or not I need to start, perhaps start typing these out, because I am doing these just right up the top of my head, which is probably why they're so short.

I need to start planning these out. So I do apologize for that up to this point.

I will do a better job and try and plan these out.

I may also try and not do them quite so early in the morning, where my voice is as dry as it is, even though it kind of makes me sound a little more bassy and I won't say sexy.

I will not use that word with me.

Anyway, thank you for listening to the Double Dutch Rudder podcast.

We will be back next week, hopefully more planned out with a little more personality.

It's kind of hard to do because it's 8 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday and I'm trying not to wake anybody else up.

Anyway, podcast out.

[Music]

[ Silence ]