Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome
Take the #AmericaIsKind Challenge today! Here’s How:
–On social media SHARE an ACT OF KINDNESS someone has done for you, or that you have witnessed, with #AmericaIsKind
–PAY IT FORWARD by doing a random act of kindness for a stranger
–TAG 3-5 friends to take the #AmericaIsKind Challenge
OR
–Take the full 30-day #AmericaIsKind Challenge, where we are practicing gratitude and kindess every day for a month. You can find the daily gratitudes, acts of goods, and highlighted charities HERE. You can jump in or out any day…whenever you find the challenge is the perfect time to begin.
Today is Day 20 of the 30-Day #AmericaIsKind Challenge:
Our theme today is MENTAL HEALTH, and our Charity of the Day is: Johns Hopkins Study for the Treatment of Major Depression
“Current popular antidepressant medications have significant adverse side effects, with up to 50% of patients failing to respond fully and as many as 30% remaining completely resistant… This study could help establish an alternative.”
–-Tim Ferris, Author of 3 #1 NYT/WSJ bestsellers (The 4-Hour Workweek, etc.), investor, human guinea pig, and champion of this ground-breaking research. He is also a person who fights depression, and his post Some Practical Thoughts on Suicide is well- worth reading and passing on to anyone you know who is struggling with mental health issues.
Gratitude: “I am grateful for my mental health.”
After a 14-month battle with Major Depression, I am very grateful to be solidly in recovery. With the help of a great doctor and therapist, my treatment worked. But that isn’t the case for many who suffer from depression. It is a condition that kills, and it must be fought with research like this study at Johns Hopkins. If you do not suffer from depression or another mental health issue, please pause for a moment to be grateful–and reach out to help someone who is suffering.
Good: Be a friend. Send a free Blue Mountain e-card to a friend who is struggling with depression. Let him or her know you care and are there to listen and help.
Good: Silence is the enemy of recovery; the more we talk about the reality of depression, the fewer people it will kill. Read and share Tim Ferris’s post Depression: How You Label Determines How You Feel and Some Practical Thoughts on Suicide. .
Good: Plan meals. A person who is dealing with depression is a person who is seriously ill and needs support. They need help with things like dinners and errands, just like someone dealing with another serious medical condition would. Take them a meal, or a few meals. Better yet, take them a meal and sit down and eat it with them.
Good: Offer concrete help. For a depressed person, doing the things that can help them recover feels impossible. If you have a loved one you suspect is dealing with an undiagnosed mental health issue, offer to find a doctor and therapist for them, make the appointment, and go with them (if they want you to.
Good: Consider donating to our Charity of the Day Johns Hopkins Study for the Treatment of Major Depression
Need more kindness & gratitude ideas? We have them.Find the other days of The #AmericaIsKind Challenge HERE.
During the year I explored 30 religions, I found KINDNESS and GRATITUDE present in every faith. In spite of our many differences, these qualities unite us.
Later, through a yearlong battle with clinical depression, I discovered that practicing KINDNESS and GRATITUDE are two of the scientifically-proven ways to defeat depression and increase happiness.
Coincidence? I don’t think so!
I came up with the #AmericaIsKind Challenge as a way to inspire the practice of kindness and gratitude, unite Americans with the things we have in common, help others who may be struggling with depression, and to remind us all America is kind because Americans are kind.
For daily inspiration & ideas, follow Reba Riley, author of Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome: One Woman’s Desperate, Funny, Healing Journey To Explore 30 Religions By Her 30th Birthday on:
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