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Post by Admin on Sept 13, 2016 14:45:03 GMT -4
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Post by Brandon Brooks MS3 on Sept 13, 2016 22:26:11 GMT -4
Society has a huge problem with the "Man" Role. Many men believe that they are "weak" or even less of a man if they seek help for depression or anxiety. I appreciate how Urban said that he is not the "Lone Wolf" because several men are afraid to vent about their feelings. Society is beginning to recognize that mental health is not a weakness, but a disease. Futhermore, it's healthy for successfull people to take a break from their jobs. Many people get caught up in their work, and they become overloaded. In busy and stressful countries (i.e. America) it's healthy to take medicine and to help balance our mood and emotional stability.
BB MS3
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Post by Omar Ansari - MS3 on Sept 13, 2016 23:19:45 GMT -4
In today's world, being successful is measured with the number of accolades one can achieve. However earning such accolades can come at a costly price for individuals who push their health to the limit. Once the body and mind can no longer cope with the amount of stress associated with being successful and achieving certain goals, it will begin to shut down. Unfortunately, as seen with Urban Meyer’s career, several other professions are just as demanding, if not even more. The whole alpha male ego makes it harder for certain individuals to admit they are suffering from a true mental illness. They become so consumed in their job that they forget to care for themselves. Eventually, this develops into health issues such as anxiety, depression, and OCD. With more achievements one begins to reach, they become less aware of the detrimental affects their body is suffering from as a result of reaching these milestones. The first step in recovering from the mental illnesses is acceptance. Admitting something is wrong will help transition into the process of treatment with the proper medication and therapy. If done properly, such as in Urban's case, a healthy balance in one’s life can lead to even more accomplishments, without the negative consequences.
OA-MS3
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Post by oluwasola olawuyi on Sept 14, 2016 11:12:07 GMT -4
Taking care of our mental health is a very common problem in our society. Mental illness is very common even among the successful individuals in our country today and seeking help for it is perceived as some kind of weakness. This article shed some light on how seeking help for mental illness can improve our productivity in whatever we do. The article gave an illustration about a popular college head coach, Urban , who got obsessed with his career and neglected his mental health leading to problems in his career, family and his life in general. Neglecting our mental health , according to this article , explains the reasons why people in highly demanding profession, eventually end up being mentally ill. This is an important lesson we should all learn from and the society should be educated to learn to seek help for mental illness whenever it is needed.
O.O (MS 3)
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Post by Huong Nguyen on Sept 14, 2016 13:01:19 GMT -4
The disparity between recognition and treatment of mental illness reflects key challenge faced by mental health patients. In the example of coach Meyer, his mental illness was recognized by his wife due to her experience and knowledge as a psychiatric nurse. However, because of his debilitation to accept it as an illness, Myer dismissed his anxiety and fixation as signs of weakness and failure. He refused the help that he needed. Even after the trip to the hospital in 2009, when Meyer collapsed with a severe chest discomfort and “convinced he was dying,” he still battled to accept that he is suffering from mental illness. Despite the efforts and support from his wife and kids, Myer was able to break out of his resistance only after he accepted. He stopped ignoring his illness. He accepted it. He addressed it. Raising awareness about mental health is necessary but one’s self-realization and acceptance are key to treatment.
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Post by Vani Zutshi, MS4 on Sept 14, 2016 15:04:05 GMT -4
This article displays a clear example of the stigma surrounding mental health issues and how they are looked upon by many people as weaknesses rather than actual medical issues. When Coach Meyer's wife tried to help him with his problem, he wasn't able to accept it. He was in denial and thought that people that have anxiety or depression are just weak and need to "suck it up", per se. However, when he finally accepted he had a problem, he was able to move forward in life and be a better person for himself as well as for his family. Not only that, but also he was able to get back to coaching which was what he loved to do without letting it consume his life. It's important for people with these psychiatric problems to not only accept the truth and accept their condition, but also for their families to be supportive the way Coach Meyer's family was. They had his back the entire time, and this was what made him successful in moving ahead.
VZ (MS4)
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Shashank Varakantam, MS4
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Post by Shashank Varakantam, MS4 on Sept 14, 2016 15:14:21 GMT -4
Coach Meyer showed qualities of anxiety and depression as a kid, as they refer to in the article when he was upset after striking out in high school. It shows that he always had these traits but they were never an issue until he had a more high-stress job that brought these qualities to light in a bad way. He was always a high achiever and was always "high-strung" as they mention in the article. This goes to show that people in the community need to be made more aware and need to be educated on mental health issues. That way, if someone sees that a family member may be headed down a mentally unhealthy path, they can find ways to resolve these issues at a younger age before they get out of hand as they did with Coach Meyer. He may have benefitted from therapy earlier in his life rather than having a strict father that expected a lot out of him. It is likely that he would have found better ways to deal with his anxiety if he had professional help when these signs first started showing. This article still shows that it's better to get help later than to never get it at all, though. He was still able to resolve his issues and do well later in life when he finally got some help.
SV (MS4)
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Post by Njoud Jweihan on Sept 14, 2016 17:53:37 GMT -4
The effects of mental health on the human mind and body are often disregarded. This especially holds true when the pressure to remain strong is not for one's own sake, it is for family, friends, and millions of viewers watching, waiting for a win or lose. Coach Meyer started out with a passion for football and coaching, but this soon turned to be a burden even though his team was winning. He failed to enjoy the games his team won, the trophies, and the applause. He only wanted more wins, and more importantly, he did not want to be undefeated. This not only consumed him, but it drifted him away from his family and anything else but football. When this obsession got out of hand, initially and as society expects out of a coach, he told himself he has to remain strong. Coach ignored the sleepless nights, the constant anxiety, and the drift from his family until he had to go to the hospital for chest pain a physical symptom that Coach Meyer did not expect to stem out of a mental health issue. After his wife educated him about anxiety and OCD, he started to pay interest and wanted to know more.
Education is the first step to seeking therapy in my opinion. Once Coach Meyer educated himself about what is happening with him, he could finally see that there is a solution, and it was as simple as talking. The road to sublimation really began as Coach was reading books about past experiences that resembled what he was dealing with. Not only was he on the path to recovery and peace, but he started to take an interest in teaching his team about how the mind works. He realized mental health is critical. Not only can mental health cause a deterioration in physical health it can cause an isolation that many cannot escape.
Being a buckeye fan myself and a graduate of The Ohio State University, I was truly happy to see how coach went back to pranking his wife and respecting her career as a psychiatric nurse, spending quality time with his children, and becoming a teacher and an example for his team and other coaches. Coach Meyer is an example for cultures who still do not believe in seeking help for mental issues. In countries that still do not have widely mental health resources due to low demand for the field, there are many cases of undiagnosed and untreated cases. These cases could be solved and patients' lives could be turned around just like Coach Meyer's was with education and awareness.
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Parthener Pinder (MS3)
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Post by Parthener Pinder (MS3) on Sept 14, 2016 18:53:08 GMT -4
Urban Meyer, like many men, thought when it comes to mental illness, many men feel it is better not to talk about mental illness and that not talking about mental illness will make it go away. Urban Meyer’s wife, who is a psychiatric nurse, was persistent about him getting some help for his mental illness. She was concerned about him and wanted him to seek help. However Meyer always made excuses pertaining to why he could not seek. He feared that needing help mentally was seen as a weakness, especially since he was an athlete. In general, athletes are viewed as tough, unfazed, and dependable. Many Americans expect athletes to be there for the sick, not the ones who are sick.
Over 43 million Americans suffer with mental illness, a large portion who are men and athletes. How can we as a society continue to turn a blind eye on mental illness in athletes? How is doing that helping them? We as fans support our favorite athlete(s) when they are playing their respective sport, but we need to support them when they are not playing and are battling with health issues as well.
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Post by Muneeb Ahmad MS-3 on Sept 14, 2016 20:12:23 GMT -4
An intriguing article that describes the vulnerabilities of people or persons that we, the public, generally don't presume, perhaps due to their station in life or apparent 'success'.
The author, Brandon Sneed, describes Coach Meyer's initial unwillingness to attend to his mental and psychological state, which, after continued neglect, deteriorated to the point where Coach Meyer required medication to sleep every night. He was subsequently diagnosed with esophageal spasms, secondary to anxiety.
Ultimately he was able to wean himself off Ambien, but only after transforming his thinking patterns and routines.
The most overlooked part of Coach Meyer's improvement was his devotion to faith. I think that faith is an often overlooked tool in addressing psychological well-being, though it is a tool that physicians neglect or hesitate to recruit. Support from family and colleagues was also essential. However, the most critical admission was Coach Meyer's himself: that the mind needs to be trained as the muscles need to be trained. That is, condition your psychological well-being as you would condition your physical well-being.
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Post by Cyndi Odipo MS4 on Sept 14, 2016 22:22:08 GMT -4
An interesting read! It is intriguing to see how one in a demanding profession could easily succumb to the pressure of the occupation. Always willing to sacrifice time, relationships, and even health in order to succeed. Growing up in this country I have witnessed how the culture drives a person without caution into a path of working overtime in order to get, or remain ahead. With multitude of demands and responsibilities it is easy to become a victim, relying on a limited number of vacation days throughout the year to reset and relax. Such a life path could lead to some form of mental illness, anxiety, panic attacks, or depression for instance. These are more so felt in times of difficulties, and challenges that inhibit the current trail of positives or advancement. As one may note, Mr. Meyer took the game losses to heart, ultimately contributing to his depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. However, the steps he took to redirect himself were commendable, and should be an example to others.
I believe stories like Meyer’s illustrate the importance of a personal health and mind check so to succeed in our endeavors. This is particularly important as technology has boomed over the years, expanding opportunities for people to be more accessible, never entirely resting.
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Post by Derek Childers MS3 on Sept 14, 2016 23:11:31 GMT -4
This is a very good article that deals with a very common issue that millions of people deal with on a day-to-day basis. There are still tons of people in the world today that still think like Urban Myers and think mental illness is a joke and that you need to man up and get over it.
To me this article is a good example in what a lot of medical students have to go through everyday. As a medical student I feel like we are held to a high standard due to our profession just like Coach Myers said in the article. We do care what people think about us and how we preform in school and in the clinic. We think that our preceptors and patients demand use to be perfect and that we strive hard everyday to learn as much as we can to appear perfect in front of our preceptors and patients. When in reality they know we are just students and are still learning. No one is perfect. I feel we get so caught up in everything that we forget to take care of ourselves and we loose sight of why we really got into the field of medicine. Like Coach Myers we need to learn to take care of ourselves and get our minds right.
It good to have a well know coach to come out and admit he finally realized he had a problem that was affecting is life and everyone around him. Hopefully this article will open up more peoples eye and be aware that mental illness is not a joke and can have a huge impact on your life and the lives of others and that there are people out there that can help you.
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Lawrence Takungo MS3
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Post by Lawrence Takungo MS3 on Sept 15, 2016 0:25:56 GMT -4
The high demand of the American society has forced professionals to always seek for more, such that they forget to take care of themselves as the case of Coach Meyer. “I’m not the lone wolf” is a true statement as many people of various professions in America at the moment have undiagnosed mental illnesses because they do not want to visit a doctor. These mental problems are mostly due to the high stress level from high expectation at the job site with increased workload and decreased number of workers, lack of family or friends support in times of problems especially financial or emotional, or soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan wars, just to name a few. From my Family Medicine rotation, almost all patients I saw complained of job related stress, which was contributing to their health problems.
Coach Meyer wanted to be a perfectionist, but no human can be a perfectionist in anything, because human can only do that much, as everything in life is infinite and we only know what we have been able to discover so far. Thus professionals in all fields should be all about intend, and not position or title.
Most men do not often like to go to the doctor, unless they are incapacitated. That goes same with Coach Meyer. He did not listen to his wife when she asked him to seek for help, because he was still able to do his job. However, the fact that he was taking Ambien for sleep was a clear indication that there was a medical problem that needed to be diagnosed to rule out the cause of lack of sleep. Similarly, most professionals do not seek help may be because of fear of stigma or of losing their job if they are diagnosed with mental illness, or the ego of not to feel weak as the case of Coach Meyer.
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Post by Madhav Shyam MS3 on Sept 15, 2016 9:16:24 GMT -4
Whats most interesting to me as an outsider to football, is that his record improved when his mental health was at his best. Its when you take care of your own health with such great care towards mindfulness that you can recognize the needs of others, especially in this case would be his team. In his earlier state he would have told his workers to "man up" and "get the job done" with no respect for others feelings. But him being more sensitive to such issues would allow the team to have an outlet to vent and a different kind of motivator. Knowing you're more in tune with other peoples lives can really help create team chemistry wherever you work, and especially on a sports team, the chemistry is what leads to a solid unit with understandings of each others expectations and limitations. Through his hard work in exploring the other side of the argument by being a stringent man's man of a coach, he has finally learned to see the effects of the other side of letting his wife's psychiatric experiences help him relax and let these other thoughts in. Its like Dr. Antin said, those who say they don't need help, need it most.
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Post by Andrew Yatteau on Sept 15, 2016 9:21:28 GMT -4
This article touches strongly on the stigma of seeking care for one’s mental health. Namely, how people in positions of leadership, those whom others look to and depend on, often have an especially difficult time recognizing and seeking care for their own mental health. When your job is a huge part of your identity, and that job centers on caring for and leading others, it can feel like you must put your own feelings aside and not display any signs of perceived weakness, lest you be perceived as less dependable. Coach Meyer brings up several other occupations where one is expected to be thinking of the well-being of others to the point where one neglects their own well-being. Among those mentioned is doctors, which we should all be aware of. One cannot properly care for others if they can’t care for themselves, so it’s important to be able to recognize and address any problems with your own wellbeing.
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