Amir Satvat

[Content warning: mental health, distress, thoughts of giving up]

I’ve been receiving more messages than usual lately from people who are questioning everything – their identity, their worth, their will to keep going.

When that happens, my first response is always the same, and it should be for all of us: please connect them to real mental health resources. Our community has them, and there are professionals who are trained to help in ways most of us simply are not.

But I also want to say something more personal.

No matter how low I have ever felt in my life, my mother and father always told me something that never left me. They told me that I had value every single day because of what I meant to them. That whether they were here or gone, I would always be special, because I was special to them.

I hold onto that.

And I hope you know this, no matter who you are: there is someone who feels that way about you.

And if you are in a moment where it feels like nobody does, then please hear this from me, as clearly as I can say it:

We are connected here. And I care about you.

We talk about a lot in this community. Some of it is light. Some of it is serious. Lately, a lot of it has been very serious. I worry about all of you more than you probably realize – joblessness, financial stress, illness, uncertainty about the future.

But the thing I worry about the most, every single day, is that someone who reaches out in that kind of pain might decide to give up.

I’ve been talking about mental health more because these messages are coming in much more often now.

So I’m asking all of us to be mindful of it.

Most of us are not mental health professionals or trained in social work or support. We cannot solve everything. We cannot fix every situation. But there is a wide space between doing nothing and solving everything.

In that space, we can listen, we can respond, we can guide people toward help, and we can remind them that they matter.

And sometimes, that is enough to help someone get through one more day.

Please take that seriously.

As always, our community’s mental health and support offerings:
https://lnkd.in/eC4JMB5f

I cannot remember a time in my life when more people around me were scared or anxious about more things, more of the time.

I still find it eerie that so many family members, friends, colleagues, and community members are carrying all of this in their heads 24/7, yet in most settings, in most places, throughout most days, nobody talks about how they feel. It is like some giant charade where we all pretend the anxiety, pressure, uncertainty, and sadness are not sitting right there under the surface.

Here is my observation from literally talking to tens of thousands of people over the past four years: nearly everybody is anxious and worried about something in this moment, even most of the people who present as tough, unaffected, or afraid of nothing.

We should make it easier for people to be more honest and conversational about these feelings in more spaces. That can be healthier and better for about 100 reasons.