"Inspiring" Refugee Health Plenary, Preserving Human Touch… Review and Selections: Stress Doc Potpourri

I have mostly been finishing up my next Amazon e-book, Fierce Longing…Fiery Loss:  Relearning to Let Go, Laugh & Love:  Through Resiliency Poetry and Shrink Rap ™.  Hopefully, it will be published sometime in August.  It’s definitely a book from the heart, initiated by pain and loss, yet on the path of healing and hope.

In between, I led a couple of speaking/workshop programs, one for a Lutheran Ministry and, just this past Thursday, a Plenary at a Refugee Summit in Richmond, Virginia.  Both programs got rave reviews.  Let me share the latest testimonials:

Statewide Refugee Mental Health Summit/Richmond, VA; Practice Safe Stress: Using Humor in the Face of Stress, Burnout, and Conflict -- Plenary Speaker; 1 hour; 75 attendees

Jul 8, 2016

MG,

Thank you so much for inspiring our participants in the 3rd Statewide Refugee Mental Health Summit with your wit and humor as well as helping set the tone for the rest of the day.  Your topic Practice Safe Stress: Using Humor in the Face of Stress, Burnout and Conflict was just the right choice.  I believe you have felt their response -- how much they enjoyed it, as well as how much they need it, so they can effectively carry out their job of helping others.  The strength of our initiative depends on these people who champion our cause for refugee mental health. I can’t thank you enough for coming to be our plenary speaker.

Sincerely,

Eva

Eva  P. Stitt, Ph.D.
Refugee Mental Health Analyst
Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services
Office of Cultural and Linguistic Competence
-----------------

HI Mark,

It was a pleasure spending time with you and I really appreciated your presentation. I will discuss your presentation with our trainers.  I will keep in touch,

Deborah  C. Moore, RN, BSN, MPH
Nurse Manager II, Senior
deborah.moore@vdh.virginia.gov

Hampton-Peninsula  Health Department
3130 Victoria  Blvd., Hampton, VA, 23661
Office (757)315-3779
416 J Clyde Morris Blvd., Newport News, VA 23601
Office (757)594-7903

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Preserving Human Touch… E-book on Amazon:  Synopsis, Review, and Two Selections

Of course, I’m still promoting my new Amazon e-offering, Preserving Human Touch in a High Tech World:  Writings, Raps & Rhymes on Stress Resiliency, Burnout Recovery, and Digital Sanity.  While certainly not a runaway best-seller, sales continue apace, with six five-star reviews!  Embracing the path of shameless marketing, here are two selections from PHT…:  a) a Q & A written for Workforce Magazine, Workforce Q & A:  Seven Highly Effective Habits of Trust-Expanding Organizations, and b) in light of all the recent shootings, a Resiliency Rap on a tragedy in the workplace:  “Learning from the Fatal Flaw.”

Here’s a brief synopsis and a thought-provoking review:

Preserving Human Touch in a High Tech World...

Is Live on Amazon/Kindle:

Writings, Raps & Rhymes on Stress Resiliency, Burnout Recovery, and Digital Sanity – a Passionate and Playful Mix of Meaning and Magic...and Burnout Battlefield Experience!

Check out the Amazon e-book as well as the provocative cover; please consider reading/reviewing.  Nice price:  $3.99!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GIPXVH4/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb

Synopsis:  An insightful and inspiring guide for self-discovery and heart-to-heart connection, Preserving Human Touch... is the painful, playful, and soulful outpouring of a one-of-a-kind – stage and page – "word artist."  For example, Mark Gorkin, LICSW, the Stress Doc ™, is pioneering the field of psychologically humorous "rap music," calling it, of course, – Shrink Rap ™ Productions!  (Would you expect any less from a “Motivational Psychohumorist” ™?)  Whether poetry or prose, purposeful or poignant, the language is colorful yet clear – a tapestry of meaningful substance and magical style.  This ingenious synthesis is best captured by the “Stress Doc’s” ™ quest to be the Dr. Seuss of Stress for Adults (and kids of all ages). 

Or as a recent mystery reader of Preserving Human Touch...commented in an Amazon review:

Powerful Stuff!  The StressDoc goes poetic!! For years, Mark Gorkin has been mixing laughter, learning, and lucidity (the Three L's!) in tackling the tough issues of stress manifestations in human encounters. In this wise e-book, Mark applies his considerable poetic talents to diagnose and propose remedies for our love-hate relationship with ever more invasive technology. Ranging from on-the-job burnout to adolescent cellphone fixations, Mark's lyrics strike home at the funny bone, while using his psychological savvy to suggest ways in which we can reassert Mastery over the Machine. It's a unique twist on the self-help book, perfect for those crazy enough to be reading work emails at four o'clock in the morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Workforce Q & A:  Seven Highly Effective Habits of Trust-Expanding Organizations

Q.  Dear Workforce:  How do we repair broken trust? As a facilitator of leadership training, I know trust underlies a foundation of success. But what practical fixes does this entail?

--Trust Deficit, HR training analyst, Colorado Springs, Colorado

A.  In this time of organizational restructuring, rapid operational-technological change and economic uncertainty rebuilding trust is definitely a challenging and not uncommon task.  However, all levels of management can take the lead in this rebuilding process if they follow some basic principles and key strategic steps.  Much of my thinking has been influenced by The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything, 2006, a book written by Stephen M. R. Covey, the son of the renowned organizational guru and author, Stephen Covey.  In fact, for the son, the foundation of successful leadership is achieving results in a way that inspires trust.  There’s an atmosphere of transparency and two-way communication, and employees believe their talents and efforts are contributing to the present and future success of the company.  A final leadership core practice:  leaders take more than their fair share of blame and give more than their fair share of credit.  Or, as was noted in The Speed of Trust:  when things go well look out the window; when things go wrong look in the mirror!

With the above framework, and the assumption that there has been some recent loss of trust, here are “Seven Strategic Steps for Rebuilding Organizational Trust”:

1.  Hold a Focus Group.  One of the best ways to begin a healing and trust building process is a meeting, or a series of meetings, that allow people to appropriately share their concerns or vent frustrations about people or processes that have contributed to a destabilizing or trust-eroding organizational atmosphere or culture.  Of course, you need a skilled and objective facilitator.  When employees see that management doesn’t get defensive during this exchange and acknowledges broad concerns, participates in a genuine give and take and, in timely fashion, takes meaningful problem-solving steps, trust levels begin to rise.

2.  Acknowledge “Hidden Agendas.”  When possible, “speak the unspeakable,” that is, bring up the 800 lb. gorilla in the room.  Being transparent doesn’t mean you have to put everything on the table, but certainly share appropriate information about problematic issues or about what is and is not in your immediate control, along with what information you do and don’t have.  (These last two issues are particularly salient when there are rumors about a possible restructuring or downsizing.)

3.  Talk Straight and Ask Good Questions.  Try to get to the point without too much digression or over-explanation as this diminishes your credibility with an audience.  When possible do some preparation; precision of language commands attention.  If this is an issue, what keeps you from talking straight – fear of consequences or being wrong, fear of hurting others, wanting to be liked, a duplicitous environment, etc.?  Conversely, ask good questions.  The essence of a good question: a) humility:  “I don’t have all the answers” and b) openness:  “I really would like to hear and learn from your point of view.”  Remember, when a person is communicating with high emotion, he or she likely still feels misunderstood.

4.  Don’t Bad Mouth Others Behind Their Back, Especially Folks No Longer in the Company.  All “behind the back” talk does is fuel employee mistrust:  “What do (or will) people say about me when I’m not around (or when I retire)?”  And if people are talking negatively about a current employee, encourage people to talk directly with the person; offer to mediate (or to find a mediator) when appropriate.

5.  Don’t Overpromise and Under Deliver; Keep Your Commitments.  As I like to say, beware of being motivated by egoals, that is, when your goals are driven less by the needs, demands, resources and challenges of a situation and more by ego and false pride.  Remember, as Covey notes, when you make a commitment you build hope; when you keep a commitment you build trust!

6.  Create a Learning-Trust Building Culture.  In addition to acknowledging a personal mistake in a timely manner, when possible view errors as less a sign of incompetence and more an indicator of inexperience or some immaturity, maybe even boldness.

7.  Extend Trust.  Design rules and procedures for the overwhelming majority of people you can trust.  Grant trust abundantly to those who’ve earned it; extend conditionally to those earning it, while examining the situation, the risk potential and the credibility – for Covey, the competence and character – of those involved for more opportunities to extend trust.

Hopefully, these principles and strategic practices will rejuvenate a climate of trust in your shop and will help one and all…Practice Safe Stress!

(c)  Mark Gorkin  2010
Shrink Rap ™ Productions

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Learning from the Fatal Flaw

In light of another school (or workplace) shooting…

As a Critical Incident Consultant, I’m poignantly aware how unexpected dramas and tragedies lurk behind every corner and crevice of our hearts and minds…and also lie in the shadows of our homes, schools, and places of work.  Out of the quiet, out of The Death of a Salesman closet, Arthur Miller screams:  Attention must be paid!  And sometimes we must risk trusting our gut, risk “overreacting” and being mislabeled, and say something to the right someone…or be the right someone!

Learning from the Fatal Flaw

Did she really take her life over a phone?

Taken from a colleague…now all’s undone!

One woman dead, one torn apart

Guilt spears a throbbing heart

Regret for filing that stolen report

Who is at fault?  Who is at fault?  Who is at fault?

Can one grasp obscure knowledge

On the all too human fatal edge?

To get on the same page, one must leave a stage

Masked by “got it together” pain and rage.

Even with the latest gauge, who knows faux-taupe from beige?

Who is a sage?  Who is a sage?  Who is a sage?

Yet a friend sensed her look, a fearful absent look.

Still her head stayed by the book…

Why didn’t she speak up?

Neither one trusted their gut

“Don’t be a pain in the butt!”

So we doubt?  So we doubt?  So we doubt?

Do we pass in the hall and nod

In a hazy-distant fog

And mouth, “How you doing?”…

But only reminiscing; more simply whistling

Who has time for real listening?

Do your thing?  Do your thing?  Do your thing?

Now so sad; maybe wiser:  are we respecting one another?

Whatever happened to “sister” and “brother”?

Wide-eyed to foreign experience

Energized by expressive variance

Growing through world view deviance.

Will you dance?  Will you dance?  Will you dance?

Is it too risky to share

Without some faith in the air?

Of course, you can’t flip a switch, still

Pull one from a ditch; let another bitch…

The sky’s not falling – more a glitch.

For a culture to be rich, offer a broad-shouldered niche.

Hey, it’s “get real” or be a bust:

Now they might trust!  Now they might trust!  Now they might trust!

© Mark Gorkin  2014

Shrink Rap ™ Productions

-----------------

Purpose of the Poem, Power to the Poet

The poem traces the psychological steps and missteps of a workplace tragedy.  When reporting a colleague – a colleague struggling with well-disguised personal issues – has fatal consequences, there are searing emotional repercussions:  guilt, second-guessing, the questioning of motives, etc.  Even superficial civility comes under scrutiny.  Can “sadder yet wiser” translate into “sister and brother”?  Finally, some ideas for grappling with the refrains of “Who is at fault?,” “Who is a sage?,” “So we doubt,” “Do your thing,” and “Will you dance?”  Most important are closing strategies with “trust”-building potential.

-----------------

Discussion Questions

1.  Have you ever taken an action with which you’ve had regret?  Have you faced your emotions and/or the other person(s)?  What did you learn from the experience?

2.  Have you ever sensed someone being in pain or trouble and not spoken up?  What contributed to your silence?

3.  In a submarine study on problem-solving, it was found that the most diverse groups invariably came up with most creative problem-solving solutions.  Why might this be the case?

4.  How would you create a more trusting climate in a classroom or with a team?

Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a nationally acclaimed speaker, writer, and "Psychohumorist" ™, is a founding partner and Stress Resilience and Trauma Debriefing Consultant for the Nepali Diaspora Behavioral Health & Wellness Initiative.  A former Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, he has led numerous Pre-Deployment Stress Resilience-Humor-Team Building Retreats for the US Army.  The Doc is the author of Practice Safe Stress, The Four Faces of Anger, and Preserving Human Touch in a High Tech World.  Mark’s award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com – was called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR).  For more info, email:  stressdoc@aol.com.

Poetry as Pregnancy: When “The Shrink Rap ™ on Mental Illness” Gives Birth

For the past month, I’ve been on a poetry journey, as it were.  This voyage of verse began with my writing “The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness” for a non-profit, Passion for Change.  PfC educates the media and advocates for a more informed and balanced public portrayal of mental illness.  Along the way, realizing the need for clearer explanation for the Rap’s importance, I recently added this stanza:

Same sex marriage, legal marijuana
Are we all going California?
There’s a case both pro and contra.  Still…
Go west young mind – time-honored mantra.
But one big issue lies undercover
A source of disgrace for nameless “others”
Yet sleepless nights for mothers and brothers…
Hard to wo/man-up in a shame-breeding culture
Must Mental Illness still be the “closeted vulture?”

Simultaneously, I was generating lines about how our multi-hyper, “all-consuming digitocracy” might compromise one’s mental health.  And the ideas and images, sounds and rhythms kept coming:

Still…there’s a “new normal” equality
Of this you must agree:
With “off the grid” anxiety
Patience is now a luxury
And OMG…Everyone is ADD!
So forget “To be or not to be?”
You’re likely viral if not a byte crazy!

This passage proved a conduit to a Brave New World “Trinity” – Time-Numbers andTechnology – along with a Stress Doc ™ neologism – “Social Mediacracy.”  And while trying to capture the different facets of “Getting or Going MA&DD,” the Shrink Rap kept expanding.

Finally, I saw the obvious:  the original Mental Illness Rap had to give birth to a separate poetic progeny.  Initially, seeing the obvious was not so easy; you get wedded to your “baby” until realizing this “brainchild” has grown and is now a potential “mother of invention” or, at least, of procreation.  Now I understood that less (placing limits, streamlining, and sharpening the focus and scope of the original Rap) can be more (producing a better defined and related yet stand-alone second generation Rap).  And isn’t that the essence of gestation and giving birth, no matter the creative arena?

So here is the spanking new rap, (with some of her mother’s genes), “Getting or Going MA&DD:  Media Addiction & Digital Distraction – Four Slices”; consider this the equivalent of baby pictures.  The Rap is followed by the proud smiling mother:  “The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness.”  I can’t think of a more fitting and graceful way to celebrate this holiday season than bringing new life into the world.  Please feel free to provide me feedback and to share with others.  Peace and (en)joy!

Mark
-----------------------------------

Getting or Going MA&DD:  Media Addiction & Digital Distraction – Four Slices

Can We Survive Social Mediacracy?

Today’s new web of complexity
A Siren song to one’s sanity –
Our all-consuming digitocracy
A hyper Facebook Fraternity.
Whether vanity or virtuality
United in distractibility
From a junk food surfing mentality
To tracking texts like it’s the lottery.

The “Dynamic” Duo:  Today’s “Trinity” & Toxicity

Dreading “off the grid” anxiety
We make Google eyes endlessly
At the high and mighty “TNT”
Our Brave New World “Trinity” –
Time-Numbers andTechnology!
Has dopamine toxicity
Numbed you into captivity?

A Not So Brave New World?

In insta-mode most miss the irony:
We’ve become so sedentary
No time for nature, no space for serenity
Tied to a station indefinitely
Being interrupted constantly
Fueled by undercover anonymity
And can’t see your eyes lack of empathy
Triggers “hide & seek” hostility, i.e.
The “e” in e-mail means “escape”-ability
Also, “I seek revenge” animosity
With heat-seeking “e”-missile strategy
Of a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde identity:
A person of seeming civility
Morphs all too mysteriously…
And now stalking your community
A reach out and crush someone cyber-bully!

ROI:  Return on Investment or Ruining Our Intelligence

The new ROI reality:
24/7 availability
Plus cost-cutting “efficiencies”, e.g.
Distant learning laboratories
(Yielding mostly distant memories
And frequent trips to lavatories).
Oh yes, the phone-conference pep rally
A monopoly on monotony
That only boosts consistently
Emotional IQ vacuity
As we send f-2-f to purgatory
Muting real give and take sensibility:
Who needs human intimacy
When there’s interconnectivity.
“Are you kidding me!”…
This is the stuff of absurdity
If not for all the zombie social anomie.
The future question, in all sincerity:
What’s the breakthrough-breakdown boundary
Besides gaming for eternity?


© Mark Gorkin  2014
Shrink Rap ™ Productions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness:  Preamble

Same sex marriage, legal marijuana
Are we all going California?
There’s a case both pro and contra.  Still…
Go west young mind – time-honored mantra.
But one big issue lies undercover
A source of disgrace for nameless “others”
Yet sleepless nights for mothers and brothers…
Hard to wo/man-up in a shame-breeding culture
Must Mental Illness still be the “closeted vulture?”

There is but one reason why
For this fiery hue and cry…
Mental Illness, my friend, this is no lie
Is American as apple pie!
-------------

The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness

When it comes to knowing inner demons
Life’s seasons yield all too human reasons:
Childhood trauma, chronic OCD
Addiction, abuse, brain anomaly
SAD, bipolar, or PTSD…
Finally, rounding out our litany
Baring fall color intensity
And spice of soul variety
DSM disorders of personality.
Oh biochem-branch of our fallen family tree
Will you genome more labels or bloom creativity?

Passion, oh passion
Not just mindless action
Passion, my passion
Sowing seeds of compassion

Can mental illness be a deviancy?
When one out of two, says the CDC
One day’ll show symptoms, predictably.
Now think about that…it might be you or me!

With mental illness most play a blame game
“Get it together, stop being so lame.”
Or we shake our heads: “It’s such a shame”
Now you’re only a diagnostic name.

Passion, oh passion
"Touched with Fire" ** interaction
Passion, our passion
The blazing pain of compassion

MI – Myocardial Infarction
A disease worthy of all our attention.
But MI – the Mental Illness version
It’s only an “in your head” perversion.

With a heart attack, you don’t get no flack
We rally troops and fight the no good plaque.
With a mind setback; wrong side of the tracks.
For the mentally ill there is no slack!

Passion, oh passion
Drives human exploration
Passion, my passion
Moral compass of compassion

This mental health rap is not meant to scare
But we still need to play “Truth AND Dare”
Especially when a family affair
That touches all whether distant or near
And it touches all for whom we care.

Mental illness breeds when slighting human needs!
With meds and counseling we can stop the bleed
With jobs and housing – a chance to succeed.
To change heads and hearts takes both word and deed…
When one breaks out another soul is freed!

Passion, oh passion
Past time for indignation
On beyond compassion
It's time for a decision!

Passion, my passion
A mind’s sacred mission
Passion, our passion
Will YOU commit to action?
---------------

** Touched with Fire" – The title of Kay Redfield Jamison's book, Touched with Fire:  Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament; Jamison, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University Dept. of Psychiatry, also authored the best-selling autobiography, An Unquiet Mind.

© Mark Gorkin  2014
Shrink Rap ™ Productions


Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, is a national keynote and webinar speaker and "Motivational Humorist & Team Communication Catalyst" known for his interactive, inspiring and FUN programs for both government agencies and major corporations.  The Doc is a training and Stress Resilience Consultant for The Hays Companies, an international corporate insurance and wellness brokerage.  He has also led “Resilience, Team Building and Humor” programs for various branches of the Armed Services.  Mark, a former Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, is the author of Resiliency Rap, Practice Safe Stress, and of The Four Faces of Anger.  See his award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com – called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR).  For more info on the Doc's "Practice Safe Stress" programs or to receive his free e-newsletter, email stressdoc@aol.com or call 301-875-2567.

Upgrading the (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness: The Challenge of Criticality…The Criticality of Being Challenged

Once again I’m reminded that when writing something "really good," it’s vital to get feedback from an objective-critical source.  And this time, I even managed to take full bore feedback from my toughest critic:  my 91 y.o. mother (who still manages to do the Sunday NY Times Magazine Crossword.  Living with my brother and his wife, I typically make a monthly family visit.)  I showed her my most recent rap:  A “Passion for Change”:  The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness.  This Resiliency Rap ™ was written for “Passion for Change.”  PfC is a non-profit, 501c organization that educates and encourages the media to provide a more balanced/objective depiction of mental health and mental illness.

During the feedback session, perhaps the clearest sign of “comfortable in my own skin” evolution was being able to consider her heated protest (she was “getting sick” of all the “Passion, oh Passion” choruses) without losing my cool.  In the past, I would likely have channeled my anger and defensiveness by affirming within myself, or attempting to “show her,” the value of my position.  Hey, she could be a daunting adversary.  As a procrastinating teen and young adult, she would pointedly pull from her brainy quiver words of the ancient Roman poet Horace:  To begin is to be half done; dare to know…start!  (And you wonder why I’m such an expert on stress, guilt, and neurosis.)

Today, I could accept her being “convinced” of her rightness without losing my own conviction, trusting my gut as to what “felt right” without the need for justifying, defending, and winning (or winning her over).

She did like most of the creative wordplay sandwiched in between the choruses.  I reduced the number of “Passion” refrains; however I consolidated but did not eliminate them, keeping the best and tossing the rest.  (Actually, I did have to “let go” of a pearl:  The passion in compassion.)

In addition, she enjoyed hearing a tangential musing often shared with speaking audiences, my uncommon take on the “s”-word for “passion."  (It’s neither “sex,” nor “soap opera,” nor the Washington DC-related favorite…”Senator.”  Alas the latter is a bit passé after Mr. Clinton’s memorable performance.  Actually, with a good dictionary, the “s”-word for “passion” is “suffering,” as in “The Passion Play”:  specifically, the sufferings of Jesus or, more generically, the sufferings of a martyr.  Mom even laughed when I couldn’t resist my punchline:  “Imagine all this time I never knew my Jewish mother was such a passionate woman!”  Definitely a groundbreaking and loving, trust-building moment for the two of us.

Letting Go and Designing Flow (with the help of family and friends)

Let’s get back to the theme of the essay.  Mom’s challenging feedback not only shook up the puzzle, it made me mentally restless.  This “constructive discontent” freed a basic recognition:  I had not sufficiently set the stage for the purpose of the poem within the Shrink Rap itself.  (And, yes, I had given more presence to the “passion” choruses than was warranted.)  Suddenly, there was a window for adding more subject matter content, now in machine-gun rhythmic, Tom Lehrer-like fashion.  (Here’s a gift:  google a video clip of this ‘60s Harvard mathematician and satirical-political writer-piano player-singer extraordinaire.)  The second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth stanzas make a case for why we all should be more knowledgeable and passionate about the subject.

Also, noteworthy, I’m definitely dancing on the creative edge in these stanzas: inventing new terms, slipping in a mythical-biblical reference, using genome as a verb and byte for bit.  The rap is substantively, not cosmetically, enriched; no trivial feat these upgrading at the push of a button daze!

I also received on point feedback from CJ, a friend and creative colleague (a talented visual artist).  Her critique motivated a search and design mode for several more descriptive or evocative terms and phrases.  For me, the challenge of creative writing, especially poetry, is weaving meaningful conceptual content into thought-provokingly memorable and, when possible, en-light-ening images, sounds, and rhythms.  The realm of Shrink Rap allows me to truly sew and spread “word artist” wings.  Hope you too will take flight.  Naturally, would love any and all feedback.  Enjoy!

Mark
stressdoc@aol.com 

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A “Passion for Change”:  The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness

 

You say you're ready to "change for passion."

Sure, you’re hip to the latest fashion.
But will you really rearrange your brain...
Ready to work with a "Passion for Change"?

There is but one reason why
For all this “Passion” hue and cry
Mental Illness, my friend, this is no lie
Is American as apple pie!
-------------

The (Shrink) Rap ™ on Mental Illness

When it comes to knowing inner demons
Life’s seasons yield all too human reasons:
Childhood trauma, chronic OCD
Addiction, abuse, brain anomaly
SAD, bipolar, or PTSD...
Finally, rounding out our litany
With fall color intensity
And spice of life variety
DSM disorders of personality.
Oh biochem-branch of our fallen family tree
Will you genome more labels or bloom creativity?

And now a new web of complexity
A Siren song to one’s sanity
Our all-consuming digitocracy
A multi-hyper Facebook Fraternity.
Whether vanity or solidarity
United in distractibility
Making Google eyes at the “TNT Trinity”
As we deify Time-Numbers-Technology!

Passion, oh passion
A cyber celebration
Passion, our passion
What’s real, what’s illusion?

In insta-mode most miss the irony:
We’ve become so sedentary
No time for nature, no space for serenity
Bowing to 24/7 availability
Sacrificing work-life integrity
Tracking texts as one-armed banditry
Saving face as a cyberbully
Gaming for eternity.
The question for the future…
What’s the breakthrough-breakdown boundary?

Still…there’s a “new normal” equality
Of this you must agree:
Patience is now a luxury
And OMG…Everyone is ADD!
So forget “To be or not to be?”
You’re likely viral if not a byte crazy!

Passion, oh passion
Not just mindless action
Passion, our passion
Sowing seeds of compassion

Can mental illness be a deviancy?

When one out of two, says the CDC
One day’ll show symptoms, predictably.
Now think about that…it might be you or me!

With mental illness most play a blame game

“Get it together, stop being so lame.”
Or we shake our heads: “It’s such a shame”
Now you’re only a diagnostic name.

Passion, oh passion

"Touched with Fire" ** interaction
Passion, my passion
The blazing pain of compassion

MI – Myocardial Infarction

A disease worthy of all our attention.
But MI – the Mental Illness version
It’s only an “in your head” perversion.

 

With a heart attack, you don’t get no flack

We rally troops and fight the no good plaque.

With a mind setback; wrong side of the tracks.

For the mentally ill there is no slack!

 

Passion, oh passion

Drives human exploration

Passion, our passion
Moral compass of compassion

 

This mental health rap is not meant to scare

But we still need to play “Truth AND Dare”

Especially when a family affair

That touches all whether distant or near

And it touches all for whom we care.

 

Mental illness breeds when slighting human needs!

With meds and counseling we can stop the bleed
With jobs and housing – a mind-body is freed.
To change heads and hearts takes both word and deed…
Join Passion for Change; now help take the lead!

 

Passion, oh passion

Past time for indignation
On beyond compassion
It's time for a decision!

 

Passion, my passion

A mind’s sacred mission
Passion, our passion
Will YOU commit to action?

---------------

 

** Touched with Fire" – The title of Kay Redfield Jamison's book, Touched with Fire:  Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament; Jamison, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University Dept. of Psychiatry, also authored the best-selling autobiography, An Unquiet Mind.

 

© Mark Gorkin  2014

Shrink Rap ™ Productions

 

 

Mark Gorkin, the Stress Doc ™, www.stressdoc.com, acclaimed Keynote and Kickoff Speaker, Webinar Presenter, Retreat Leader and Motivational Humorist, is the author of Practice Safe Stress and The Four Faces of Anger. A former Stress & Violence Prevention consultant for the US Postal Service, the Stress Doc leads one-day "Stress Resiliency" workshops for "METRO" Managers and Supervisors of the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA).  "The Doc" is also a Team Building and Organizational Development Consultant as well as a Stress Resilience/Wellness Consultant for international consulting firm The Hays Companies.  Mark leads highly interactive, innovative, and inspiring programs for corporations and government agencies, including the US Military, on stress and brain resiliency/burnout prevention through humor, change and conflict management, generational communication, and 3 "R" -- Responsible, Resilient & Risk-Taking -- leadership-partnership team building.

Email stressdoc@aol.com for his popular free newsletter; info on speaking programs and phone coaching sessions.  And click https://vimeo.com/69053828 for the Stress Doc's wildly pioneering "Shrink Rap" video.

Stress Doc Mantra: "Think out of the box, perform outside the curve (the Bell Curve) and be out-rage-ous!"