Scott is a professional, inspirational speaker and mental health advocate. Scott speaks about the importance of acknowledging mental health in society and encourages techniques to overcome the everyday mental obstacles that hold us back in life. Scott travels across the country speaking to audiences ranging from high school students to adults while sharing his own story of hope and resilience in learning to overcome depression.
Breaking the Stigma Surrounding Mental Health Challenges
Sadness and depression are often confused for each other, but they are two separate things. When someone is sad, it does not always mean they are depressed, but prolonged sadness can turn into depression. To determine if it’s depression, one should pay attention to the longevity and severity of the feeling. If the sadness is lasting for weeks or months and is interfering with daily tasks, then it could be depression.
Mental Health Challenges and the Stigma Attached
Mental health challenges such as depression, anxiety, OCD, and bipolar still have a stigma attached to them, leading people to feel like they can’t openly talk about it. To break the stigma, it’s important to normalize these conversations and help others understand that mental health challenges are a normal part of life that every human will deal with in some capacity.
How to Support Someone Dealing with Depression or Anxiety
It’s important to remember that mental health issues are complex and can manifest differently in different individuals. What might seem like a minor issue to one person could be a major challenge for another. When someone shares that they are dealing with depression, it’s crucial to validate their feelings and provide a safe space for them to talk about it. Rather than judging or offering unsolicited advice, it’s better to just listen and offer support.
While it’s great that friends and family members want to help, the best course of action for someone dealing with a mental health challenge is to seek professional help. Receiving a proper diagnosis and getting professional advice is crucial for making progress and overcoming the challenge. While friends and family can provide support and help someone find a professional to talk to, taking advice from anyone and everyone can lead to confusion and make the challenge worse.
Social Media Addiction: A Growing Concern
Social media addiction is a growing concern in today’s society, especially among younger generations. The overuse of social media has led to a society where people are unable to function without their phones and are unable to have conversations without referring to them. This is an addiction and it needs to be addressed. One way to tackle this issue is by setting boundaries and limiting screen time. This could involve creating a designated phone-free period in the workplace or setting clear cut boundaries for personal usage.
Overcoming Negative Self-Talk and Seeking Help
Depression and anxiety can be difficult to acknowledge and manage, especially when faced with the fear of judgment or stigma. John’s personal experience highlights the importance of speaking up and seeking help when dealing with mental health challenges. Keeping emotions bottled up can lead to deeper, more harmful consequences and it’s important to reach out to loved ones and seek support.
Negative self-talk can have a damaging impact on one’s sense of self-worth and mental wellbeing, leading to negative feelings and actions. In today’s society, there’s a push to prioritize certain people and industries over others, but John emphasizes that everyone matters and is enough.
Remember: You are Enough
It is important to remember that you are good just the way you are and there are people who care and can help you. However, it can be difficult to find those people in today’s culture and environment. To connect with the right people, you may need to put up boundaries or filters with those who bring negativity into your life. Recognizing and acknowledging negative self-talk is crucial in preventing it from taking over. You can counter negative thoughts with rational ones and take inventory of your thoughts three times a day to stay balanced and in control of your mental health.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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