Self-advocacy is a mental health conversation we need to be having. We have more awareness than ever, and yet more than half of adults experiencing a mental health condition are still not getting help.

This Mental Health Awareness Month, instead of repeating what everyone already knows, I am asking a different question: what should we be talking about that we are not talking about? The answer this week is self-advocacy, the active practice of being on your own team, not just in a doctor's office but in your relationships, in your inner dialogue, and in the moments where you already have the tools but forget to reach for them.

This is the first episode in a May series exploring the conversations we need to be having. If you have ever had the tools and the knowledge but needed a bridge between knowing and doing, this episode is that bridge.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL DISCOVER:

• Why awareness alone has not closed the treatment gap, and what it takes to close the distance between knowing something needs to change and actually taking action
• The difference between self-abandonment and self-advocacy, and why they are two sides of the same coin
• What self-advocacy looked like in my own healthcare journey, including the advocacy that happened before IV ketamine assisted therapy became an option
• Why advocating for yourself in a doctor's office or therapist's room is an act of Self-Love, not an act of defiance
• What self-advocacy sounds like in your closest relationships, especially when keeping the peace has become more important than telling the truth
• What happens when you start examining your own thinking, and what to do when your mind builds stories and presents them as facts
• One question you can ask yourself in any moment to interrupt the pattern and start being on your own side

Connect with Lulu:Website: https://www.luluessey.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lulu.essey/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucille-marie-essey/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lulu.esseyThis is an inside job. Please share this episode with people you love. And subscribe while you are here 💛