Mental Health Awareness Month Part 1

0:00 Hey, hey, hey, cousins, Ken folks, get on in here. You know what time it is. Time for your favorite podcast and mine, Curly under Construction. I am your host, King Hub. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. It's good to have you back here with us, cousins and Ken folks. I have a great show for you today, and we're gonna just We're not gonna pause. We're not gonna get into any preliminary liloquies or anything of that particular nature. We're gonna jump right on into it now. As most of you know, the month of May it's mental health awareness months. Now, you all know that this is a topic that is nearing dear in my heart. This is a topic that you and I have had a discussion on before. We're having another discussion right now. This is part one of two, right, this is part one of two. This is going to be a two part episode. But we're gonna delve in. We're gonna talk about we're going to get into all the little idiosyncracies dealing with mental health awareness. Now, you know as well as I do, cousins, a Ken folks, especially those of you who are of Generation X, who are of my generation, you know that as well as I do that anything dealing with mental health awareness or any type of mental illness, mental awareness, mental anything dealing with denner with the mind. We are told or raised coming up that that is something that isn't spoken of. That is something that is

1:36 pushed under the table, pushed under the rugs, so to speak. That is something that you were told that, hey, ain't nothing wrong with me, I'm not crazy. Or if you're going to see a therapist, ah, man, you they're gonna put you in the crazy house. Or if you had was dealing with anything you were told hey, especially as a black mail, you would say, hey, you're a man. You ain't supposed to show no type of weakness. You know, beat yourself on your chest and you push that down and you just keep pushing through it. We'll pushing through it. Isn't always easy going forward, isn't always easy. Dealing with it isn't always easy. Taking it and put it in it on the back burner isn't always easy. Taking it and putting it in a little box in the back of your mind with the lock on. It isn't always easy because you can only put so much into that box. You can only push that down so far. You can only push so much into the back of your mind until at some point it's going to come out. You all know, just as well as I do. There's an old saying pressure busts a pipe.

2:58 Well, the same thing goes with your mental wellness. You can only take so much trauma, so much hurt, so much pain, so much sadness, so much of anything that you deal with that deals with you mentally and emotionally, and push it down, lock it up to the back of your mind and whatever the case may be, until it comes out. And a lot of times it doesn't come out in a good way, and sometimes it can affect you in the long run, but that's the way it's coming out, because see, those particular things and dealing with mental wellness can come out so wrong. Like we've talked about before, cousins and kenfolks, when things go wrong with your eyes, what do you go see? You go see an optomologists, ophthalmologists, I'm sorry. When things go wrong with your ears, or your nose or your throat, you go see an ear nose and throat doctor. Your body itself, you go see your doctor. You're a physician. Things go wrong with your car, you go see a mechanic where things aren't too right with your mind and your emotions, It's okay to go see a therapist, someone that you can talk to about that who can

4:29 help garner and gather and give you the tools that you need to be able to walk through those things. It's okay to do. So it's okay for us to ask for help. We're so hell bent on this to society, to saying that we've done everything on our own and we pull ourselves up from our bootstraps. And I'm the only one who did this. But nobody does anything in this world without help. No one, regardless if whatever it is, if whatever you set out to achieve you do, or whatever the case may be. No one, and I mean no one can do or do anything in this world without some kind of help. And we all need it, whether we want to admit it to ourselves or not. But that's the first thing. We have to be able to admit it to ourselves that we need help. We do, we do. We can't be so blind or so wanted to put up with things of the status quo just to keep going.

5:44 It's nothing wrong. We keep going and keep pushing forward. But you have to know when your body and your mind is telling you something's not right, and we need to be able to deal with this because it comes out so wrong, it comes out in a negative way, or it can even goes as far as affecting you physically. Yes, cousins and king folks, you can deal with so much mentally and emotionally until it would literally make you physically ill. I'm not telling you what someone just told me, Cousins of king folks. I'm i'm I'm i'm a i'm a I'm a witness to that. I've been through that it's happened to me, and that is a scary, scary thing. Cousins and kin folks. I'm here to tell you it is this other saying that I'm about to bring up. It also may sound cliche, but it holds true. It's okay not to be okay. You have to be okay with knowing that and and and and admit it to yourself that hey, I'm not feeling today, I'm not having it a good day today at all. You have to be able to do that and understand that you're not okay and take the time or do what you need to help you

7:14 deal with that in a positive manner, get through with get through it so that you can be able to move forward without it affecting you in the long run or going forward, or affects you even more than it is at that particular point. Because I'm here to to tell you depression is real. Depression is real. We all can go through any form of depression. It doesn't have to be lined up with being bipolar or paranoid, schizophrenic, or anything of those particular nature. You know, those people just have that that do suffer with those particular disorders. You know, it's a real thing. And for those and I applaud those who know that and who set out to do what they need to do to get help with that and ongoing help with that so they can live and function and have a productive life each and every day.

8:16 So my head goes off to all of my our cousins and ken folks who deal with those disorders each and every day. And I'm not gonna say sickness. I'm not saying sickness. I say disorders because say it is a disorder, but depression, it's also a disorder, and it's very real. Cousins and ken folks, It is very real. I can just really just sitting and thinking back, you know, and being transparent with our cousins and kin folks, which you know I try to always do. I can think back to three key points in my life where I know I dealt with depression, that I was in a state of depression, but I didn't realize it at that particular time. The first time when I was nine years old, when I had an accident in front of my grandmother's home outside playing with my cousins and we were playing tag and I was pushed into a ditch full of broken beer bottle glass and I'm not going to go into all of the gory details, but let's just say that was a life and death situation. I'm still here. God chose to bring me through that and to heal me,

9:46 and I'm so thankful for it. But the aftermath after that was what happened to me. It played back and forth in my mind because that was a trauma I didn't expect. Then again, I'm nine years old, I don't know how to deal with the emotions of it. And then on top of that, I'm out of school for the rest of the school year. Because this happened during spring break, so I'm out of school the rest of my school year. And I enjoyed going to school at that particular time, and I couldn't go anywhere. I couldn't go outside with my friends. And when you know, those few friends that my mom did let come see me, they couldn't be there along because my mom was afraid that as most boys like me were, you know, we were rough and tumble boys, you know, we you know, want to start horse playing and and and so forth and whatnot. And my mom was afraid that that I get hurt again.

10:41 So I was isolated, and I didn't know how to deal with it, you know, although I had a TV in Maroon, video game system, books, but I still didn't feel like myself the second time, the second situation that I dealt with, I'm gonna come back to that one that a later time. I'm gonna save that one for for part two. So y'all, y'all bear with me Cousin's again, folks. I, I uh, it's a it's a hard one and I'm gonna talk to you all about it, but I'm gonna save that one for part two. If y'all okay with it. If y'all work with me, if y'all y'alls hanging out with me, cousin the kid, I promise you I'm going to to bring you in on that one. Just let me look back to that one. Okay.

11:39 So I'm gonna make this next one part the second one. So the next one was I found out I doubt what was dealing with depression was after the loss of my mother. I had a three year stretch of things that I had dealt with that with each were life changing things, but all three of it. But this was the last. This was the straw for me that broke the camels back. This was the things that I didn't even realize that took me over that edge, you know, in my mental in my mental health. And it took a friend, a really good friend, to say, hey, you're not yourself. I'm like, what are you talking about.

12:26 They're like, you're not you. I'm like, yes, i am. I'm still being I mean, you know, I'm laughing, I joke all the time. I'm still doing everything that I was doing. But no, you may be doing that and I can see it, but it's not in your eyes. You laugh, you smile, you joke, but there is no joy in your eyes. And I've known you long enough to know that you're not you. I think you may need to go talk with someone. I'm like, Oh, you just tripp I don't want to hear that mess. You you tripping. But the more I thought about what they said, the more I realized it made sense because I really didn't feel like myself.

13:18 I really didn't at all. Cousins again, folks, and I needed to be able to deal with all of the different emotions and everything that I was dealing with because I really had no direction at that time. I didn't realize it. I was still working. We're in the middle of the pandemic during this period, during this time, and I'm still working and everything. But I mean free fall and didn't even realize it. I mean free fall mentally and emotionally. So I'm grateful for that good friend who pointed that out to me and got me to take a hard look at me, because then I was able to move forward and find my wonderful therapist. But that's only a part of it. But you know, but I talked to a couple of different ones, but then I found one that just seemed to settle with me in my spirit, with me that seemed to be a good fit for me. And the more I talk with them, the more it I felt comfortable to where I was able to develop that patient doctor bond with and they began to help give me the tools to need to what I needed to deal

14:50 with the current trauma and pain that I was dealing with at that time, and then some past ones that I hadn't dealt with at all. And that's very important, cousins and ken folks. We cannot continue to allow past traumas to dictate our present and our future. We can't. We can't those traumas from our childhood or even early adulthood can continue to stay with us, to linger at us, to fester like poison until it will find a place to destroy us, you know, and destroy what relationships we have or we're building on whatnot, because they can and we not even realize it, and we're not even realize but that's the catalyst of it. We have to take the time, we have to take the approach of being able to take care of our mental wellness and and to uh help us help ourselves. We have to be able to do this it's this. This is not a game, y'all.

16:11 Y'all know me, cousins. This is again, this is a topic that's near and dear to my heart, cousins and can folks. We have to take the time to ensure and and make sure that we take care of our mental health without your with without the brain, Without the brain, everything else and the body falters, they say, the hardest, the most important organ. But the heart gets orders from the brain. So we have to be able to take care of that. We have to be able to handle that. We have to be able to talk with someone, get with someone or someone's who will help us understand these things and who will help give us the tools that we need to be able to deal with those traumas, that hurt, that sadness, that pain, and to be able to move past it and to be able to function in everyday life. I want you all to live a life abundantly you deserve, that you deserve to do so, I want you to be able to do so. So this month, this

17:41 is that's what this mone is about. It's an everyday thing, but this moneth is bringing or help bringing awareness to it. This money has helped to bring awareness to that if you know someone cousins and ken folks that it is dealing with any type of mental wellness and mental health issues or some type of depression, or they've even had some type of recent trauma or trauma that you may know of. Help them to know, hey, it's okay not to be okay, it's okay if you have a bad day. It's okay if something's going on, but hey, you need to talk with someone about it.

18:25 Encourage them to do so every chance you get, not saying that you're harboring on it, but just encourage them to do so. Let them know that you love them, that you're here for them if they need to talk, if they need to hug or whatever. Because even on top of that and top of seeing someone and on top of what you're you know, you're doing what you can to help them, you also have to be that support system for them because they need that. Be that support system because they're going to need that during this period of time, and that's what help's gonna help them get through that. That's what's going to help them move forward into healing.

19:08 Yeah, that's what it's going to help them move forward into healing and becoming a healed individual. There are a lot of resources out there online. If you have insurance, your insurance, you know, through your job and everything. I'm sure your insurance covers UH you being able to go talk to a therapist and mental wellness and mental health counseling and whatnot. It's available. It's out there. But let's stop shunning those who have UH are going through a mental health crisis or having a mental health UH setback, or going through a to help trying to figure it out. Don't demean them, don't make fun of them, help them, encourage them, uplift them, support them, because that is what we do as a community. That is what we do as cousins and kinfolks. That is what we do when we're currently under construction. May first through thirty first is Mental Health Awareness Month. Cousins and kin folks, take the time to take care of your mental wellness. This

20:48 is part one of two Cousins a kin Folks. So Part two is coming very soon, so be on the lookout for it. But this is part one of two Mental Health Aware. It's my cousins and king folks. Let's be there for each other. Let's encourage each other let's uplift each other. Let's be there. And if you're going through anything right down, there are tools available. Reach out and try to find you a therapist. Reach out to someone that you love and let them know maybe they can help you. Reach out to if you you know, maybe to your pastor you know from your church home that they make and help counsel you. Or find you a great therapist who can help. But don't sit there and suffer in silence, cousins and kin folks, or try to do what we were taught to do as kids or back then, or do what our parents did, and just take that and push it down and push to the back of your mind and try to push for it through it because it's not good. It's not gonna come out good. It's not gonna come out like you think. It's gonna damage us even further than we already are. It's time for healing. It's time for healing. It's time for healing. This is part one of two.

22:11 Part two will be coming very soon. Be on the lookout for it, cousins again, folks, And we're back to our regular scheduled days this week. We broadcast every Tuesday and Friday, don't miss it. Don't miss it, don't miss it, and you can listen to us anywhere wherever you get your podcasts. Remember we broadcast on Apple podcasts, Google Podcasts, overcasts, podecasts, Spotify Radio, Public Radio, One castro, iHeartRadio, and many many others. If you want to email us here at the show, please do so. You can email us at under Construction nineteen seventy four at yahoo dot com. That is you n d E R s t O you D E r co O N s t r u k t I In nineteen seventy four at yahoo dot com. I apologize about missing up cousins the King, folks. I am very passionate about this. You know that this topic is very near and dear to me, and I'm very serious about it because I want you all healed. I want you all healthy because you all deserved to be so. You all deserve to live happy, healthy lives and not continue to deal with the hurt, the trauma and the pain from past or current traumas or situations. I'm your cousin, and I love you, and

23:41 it's time for us to love each other. I'm gonna get on the body here, Cousins, the king folks before I do. You know our model. It takes a village for us to do this thing and build this thing. And you are all my village, and we're gonna continue to build this thing. You were not together, step by step, one brick at a time, under construction. I'll see you all Friday, Cousins, the kin folks. I love you all. Be good to each other, love each other, and have an amazing day. I'm out Peace,