lismentalhealth-blog
Mental Health in Library & Information work
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The #LISMentalHealth chat will occur on twitter on February 2, 2017 @ 2 pm PST / 4 pm CST / 5 pm EST / 10 pm UTC (which also happens to be February 3, 2017 at 9 am AEDT because time is a magical thing)
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All of my Spoonie Student Resources - Updated Spring 2017
For my student followers (and anyone else who could benefit from this info).
We’re (for the most part) a few weeks into our semesters now, so I thought it would be a good time to share some spoonie student resources. I’ve written quite a bit on these topics over the past few years, so it feels relevant to collect all of that info in one place. So, here we go, all of my spoonie student resources/advice, organized by category.
General Advice/Tips:
general advice on studying and academics
a collaborative list with concussedperspective
exam week tips
A professor’s wise advice: “You don’t get extra points for trying extra hard.”
Communicating with Professors and others:
“Brief” guide to talking to your professors about your chronic illness/disability (I called it brief, but it’s actually rather long…)
Communicating chronic pain in educational settings
Reflections on how I learned to communicate my pain and disability
Remember to say Thank You
Remember your perspective is not universal
Surviving Campus Life:
Dorm living and roommate advice
dealing with sensory issues on campus
A more-portable shower chair alternative
Dealing with the Disability Services Office:
What are my accommodations?
Do I use a testing center?
How did I get a reduced course load?
Productivity & Time Management:
done list
Some Encouragement:
For students with sleep disorders
Why Accommodations Matter (also a bit of a story about how things can get better as a disabled student)
Picking a School:
general advice on picking a school
reflections on disability services during my graduate school search
affirmations that I used during my grad school search
Educationally-relevant Assistive Technology:
pencil/pen grips from hair curlers
Levo book stand
Overview of speech-to-text tools
Options for computer input: pointing devices (part 1 & part 2)
math without handwriting
Workrave: a tool for managing computer use time
my study space (from my old apartment, features several pieces of assistive tech)
AT you shouldn’t buy (because you can get it for free!)
Low cost eye-tracking
Using low cost eye-tracking to write computer code
Email templates:
request for disability-related meeting at beginning of semester
textbook info request template
Example emails:
Online training I couldn’t complete
Housing Concerns
Asking for a shuttle schedule
Email I drafted for a fellow spoonie returning to classes after surgery
I’m sorry I can’t stay awake!
Oral Exams
Basics: what are oral exams and why might they be a good accommodation?
General advice on prepping for oral exams
How do math exams work with process vs. theory?
Do I prefer written or oral exams
Art & Other Reflections on Academic Ableism
“So what you mean is…”
“All students are welcome here”
Intro programming text is super ableist
Ableism in systems vs. people
Some personal experiences & reflections that may help you feel less alone:
Nobody waits…
Bureaucracy at a new school (and a follow up!)
Non functional door openers
Non accessible IT resources
Poor accessibility on campus
Elevators and invisible illness/disability
Jokes in poor taste
Scholarships and reduced course load
Brainstorming academic accommodations pre grad school
Some reflections on academic ableism
ableism in final exams
ableism in grad school search
more academic ableism
yep, I had a research meeting in my pajamas
writing from a place of frustration: should I be a student?
Reflections on negative experiences with disability services
You know you’re a chronically ill college student when… (an attempt at humor)
Please feel free to share this (and/or any of the posts linked here) if you find it helpful!
Also, if there are other topics you’d like to know (more) about, feel free to send an ask. (No promises on when I’ll have time to write a full post, though.)
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Jan 30-Feb 3, 2017
Reminder, LIS Mental Health week is coming up soon! For more information, go here: http://tinyurl.com/LISmentalhealth17
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LIS Mental Health Week January 30-February 3, 2017
Ways to participate
LIS Mental Health week aims to raise awareness of mental health among library and archives workers.
http://tinyurl.com/LISmentalhealth17
If you’re having a mental health emergency, please call 911 or a crisis hotline (USA, Canada, UK, Australia).
LIS Twitter chat #lismentalhealth
February 2 ~ twitter chat @ 2 pm PST / 4 pm CST / 5 pm EST / 10 pm UTC
Link to the anonymous chat relay will be posted here. If you have any concerns about going public with your mental health status, please use the anonymous relay.
Q1. Name and location (if you’re comfortable sharing) #lismentalhealth
Q2. What do you see as the biggest barrier to talking about mental health in LIS? #lismentalhealth
Q3. How does mental health/illness affect your work life? #lismentalhealth
Q4. What kinds of support does your employer offer in the workplace? What support do you think employers should offer? #lismentalhealth
Q5. Have recent political changes in the US/UK/Canada impact how you view mental health care? #lismentalhealth
Q6. What types of self-care help you? #lismentalhealth
Q7. How can people respond to mental health ableism in the workplace? #lismentalhealth
Medication Twitter Chat
Kate Deibel will lead a twitter chat about taking mental health medications using the hashtag #endpillshaming.
Information about the date/time of this chat is forthcoming.
At your institution
Libraries, archives, professional organizations, and other institutions can provide trainings, facilitated discussions, or other opportunities for education, skill-sharing, reflection, and advocacy. You might consider the following:
Bring in a speaker. At your institution, there may be a counseling or mental health unit. A social worker, mental health counselor, or psychiatrist may be willing to come in and speak to library staff. You could suggest a topic like mindfulness or self-care, or ask them what they think would be relevant for workers in your environment. There may also be mental health advocates, such as a chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, in your community. Or, you could bring in the Americans with Disabilities Act compliance officer to talk about the process for getting accommodation, or a representative from HR who can speak about how to use insurance for mental health counseling.
Create a space for reflection and self-care. If there is a shared space for staff, or even an empty cubicle, create a wellness space. This can include signage or handouts explaining programs available to employees (for example, how insurance can be used for mental health treatment, or how to contact an ombudsperson) as well as coloring books, meditation programs, or other materials used for self-care. You can see an example from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners here: https://twitter.com/eminencefont/status/690226806675365888.
Discuss (and adjust) your policies. This can be done at any level, from the whole institution down to individual units or departments. Even small things, like practices around disclosing the reasons that an employee takes a sick day, can make a workplace more welcoming to people experiencing mental illness. Does your institution have an Employee Assistance Program that provides free counseling? Who can help with ADA accommodations at your workplace? Put LIS Mental Health on the agenda for your next meeting, and use this as a chance to discuss how things work, and how they could work better, for staff with mental illness.
Watch the Mental Health First Aid USA for Library Staff webinar recorded for ALA. MHFA trains individuals to help someone who is experiencing a mental health crisis. The full 8-hour MHFA training may be available in your area, but the webinar is a good starting point. If you watch with a group, follow up with a discussion of how this information could be helpful in your workplace, but also what other questions folks have.
Hold a reading discussion. There are many books about mental illness, self-care, and mental health. Whether it is a book chapter or an article, invite staff to read a shared text and then host a discussion. You might consider a chapter from The Psychology of Librarianship, one of the zines on this list, or a story from the Librarian Burnout project.
Share resources. Even if you can’t do an in-person event, perhaps you can share a list of resources or send an email each day of LIS Mental Health week, covering a different topic. Topics could include local resources for staff, links to readings/videos, information about support organizations, and reminders of federal laws and institutional policies related to mental health and disability.
Post to your own blog, etc.
Please do not feel you must self-disclose your own mental health status -- and absolutely do not disclose someone else’s status -- but if you choose to share your story through social media, please tag it with #lismentalhealth. If you post to a personal blog, discuss it on a podcast, or through some other form that’s not immediately hashtaggable, please send it to the LIS Mental Health Tumblr.
Anonymous submissions welcome.
Share Resources
If you know of websites, books, zines, organizations, or other things related to mental health that you believe others can benefit from, please share them in this editable document.
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2017 LIS Mental Health Week
Tentative schedule:
January 30-February 3 ~ share blog posts tagged #LISMentalHealth on social media platforms including twitter, tumblr, and personal blogs.
Submit blog posts to the LISMentalHealth tumblr and/or the LISMentalHealth twitter account. Anonymous submissions welcome.
February 2 ~ twitter chat @ 2 pm PST / 4 pm CST / 5 pm EST / 10 pm UTC
twitter chat anonymizer provided by @metageeky. More information coming soon.
Additional resources:
More information coming soon!
For information about the 2016 LIS Mental Health Week, see the write-up by ACRL blogger Maura Smale.
Hosts of the 2017 LISMHW activities are Kelly McElroy and Jessica Schomberg. Thanks to Kate Deibel for setting up the chat anonymizer and to Library Jamie for creating the tumblr site.
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[photo of text reading “Our enfleshment certainly makes us mortal, open to loss, and exposed to suffering. But our bodies are also the agents of our lived experience and subjectivity. An embodied engagement with world is in fact life itself.”] From Misfits: A Feminist Materialist Disability Concept (pdf) by Rosemarie Garland-Thompson.
So I forgot to write up my notes after our LIS Mental Health Week event at my library. Or maybe I didn’t forget – I just kept pushing it aside. I finally today sent off a report about the whole thing to our muck-a-mucks, so I wanted to write a bit about it here, too. Also, I just got another email from a colleague thanking me for something I had sent out back in January – finals is stressful for library staff as well as for students.
Keep reading
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It’s LGBT History Month
here in the UK and the theme this year is ‘Philosophy, Religion and Belief’. As someone who grew up in a religion that didn’t accept my sexuality, I don’t feel like I can tackle this topic in our library display because it hits too close to home.
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How not to manage
It started in the first week I started as a library assistant. I didn't think I'd need any accommodations because I couldn't see anything in the job description that I'd find difficult, other than being around a lot of people, which happens every day every time I leave the house. The thing about mental illness is that implementing coping mechanisms happens every day multiple times a day. You don't even realise that's what you're doing, till you’re not allowed to use them anymore.
In my first week I was asked to take groups on tours of the library. I had to come clean about my social anxiety and say I couldn't do that: not yet, not in a new environment that I'm about as used to as the people I'd be showing round. My boss said that was alright, not to worry, and thanks for telling me.
From that point, my boss appeared to assume the role of my therapist. She'd ask me what I didn't realise at the time were intrusive questions about my mental health, how I was coping, my treatment status, and I revealed it all - it seemed like she was offering support.
The alarm bells started when I referred to my eating disorder and she replied with a smile and “that’s why you’re so nice and slim”, then spoke about how she wishes she could eat less. I let that slide because I’ve had worse and I know people can be uneducated about eating disorders.
She told me I didn’t smile enough, that I didn’t look up from my desk enough, that I didn’t walk around the library enough. I wasn’t enforcing certain rules stringently enough and other rules I was enforcing too rigidly. I couldn’t win. I was being micromanaged, and I was doing everything wrong. I got more anxious and grew miserable.
At the end of my probationary period my boss said she wasn’t letting me pass. She said that I make other staff members feel uncomfortable by expressing symptoms of my mental health problems. I said I hadn’t noticed this, and she said that it worried her that I hadn’t. She said I should know be able to pick up on what my colleagues were feeling. I said I wished the culture would change, she accused me of wanting the universe to change just for me. When this upset me, she told me to develop a thicker skin.
Suddenly it was a big problem I wasn’t doing the library tours. In addition to this, she said I wasn’t a team player. If I ever asked a colleague to help in a stressful situation, they would gladly support, but my boss would make a note of it. Then use it against me, and tell me she expected me to be able to do these tasks on my own. And if I couldn’t it added to the record of evidence she was building that meant I couldn’t do my job. A union rep pointed out to her that she must have felt I could do the job if she hired me. She replied that she didn’t know about my mental health problems back then, heavily implying that if she did she wouldn’t have hired me.
I kept improving what I did all the time. I pushed myself beyond my comfort zone just to please her and met and surpassed all her expectations, which meant they kept increasing and I kept rising to challenge after challenge. I drew the line at teaching information literacy classes, something that no one on a library assistant contract and salary should be doing. And she’d found my breaking point.
In the end I didn’t pass a further probationary period and she put me on a contract with fewer responsibilities and less pay. I didn’t have the energy to fight anymore. I complained to HR, who seemed to take her side. Then, she left. In the years since I was just doing the same job as before and as all my colleagues but without the anxiety of that boss over my shoulder. The new boss has had no problems with any of the things I’ve done to date. But I’m not as open about my mental health as I used to be.
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(My) Chronic and Mental illness story
(My) Chronic and Mental illness story – it’s hard to separate the two
Posting as part of LIS Mental Health Week 2016. Originally posted here.
About My Illnesses
I’ve written about how diabetes has affected my professional life on Letters to a Young Librarian, but I wanted to go a bit further for #lismentalhealth week.
I have diabetes. As a result, I have to constantly monitor my body, and this includes more than just using my glucometer to check my blood sugar. It’s also important for me to remember that the body includes emotional reactions, and oh hey even happy stress can raise blood sugar. This self-monitoring goes on constantly. Even when I wake up at night. Even when I’m teaching a class or leading a meeting. Even when TSA is doing explosives tests on me at the airport because of my insulin pump. And still, I’ll sometimes miscalculate or forget something. It is frustrating and scary and embarrassing and exhausting.
I also have a thyroid disorder. Actually, I have two: the right lobe of my thyroid gland was removed 20 years ago, the left lobe of my thyroid gland has Hashimoto’s. I have less control over adjusting my own meds with this condition, which has its pluses and minuses. But even well-controlled, it has ongoing risks including brain fog and even scarier stuff.
Recently, I’ve also been diagnosed with depression. Maybe. Or it could be Seasonal Affective Disorder. (Although it seems to have expanded beyond seasonal at this point.) Or maybe Generalized Anxiety Disorder. My therapist and GP aren’t really sure. Fortunately, whatever it is, Lexapro (escitalopram) seems to be doing the trick. It’s taken a very long while to get here though. And by here, I mean: I can acknowledge that my brain was no longer working the way I wanted it to; I can acknowledge that yoga, exercise, sleep, meditation, crocheting, cognitive behavioral therapy, and all the other self-care things I do aren’t enough on their own; and, perhaps most importantly, I can acknowledge that this condition doesn’t make me less human, less worthy of respect and care.
Also, I have ovaries. They don’t really cause problems, but they do have the same hormone release action that the rest of the endocrine system has. Among other things, my ovaries and my menstrual cycle remind me that it’s unreasonable to expect that people will come in and work with the same high level of energy and engagement every day, not even fully abled people. We all go through up and down periods. (pun unavoidable)
About My Illnesses at Work
One of my coworkers will sometimes come into my office and say “Good morning! I’ll come back later.” That’s because she can tell just by looking at me that I’m having a Bad Day. She also knows that she can’t fix my Bad Days. She knows that I’m not mad at her. She knows that I don’t want to be fussed over or coddled. She also knows that whatever work thing she needs from me is going to get a better response when my brain/body are in better condition, so she comes back later. (If it’s a simple hypo / low blood sugar moment, I’ll call her 15 minutes later and follow up. If it’s hour six of a sticky high blood sugar, I’m probably going to be nauseous for the rest of the day and tomorrow will be better.) To me, her way of responding is the ideal.
Other coworkers will come into my office and, even after I warn them that they might be better off waiting a bit, they will want an immediate response. In addition to ignoring my boundaries, which is kind of uncool, I’m usually less helpful here than I’d otherwise be. To me, this is sub-optimal.
However, sometimes I’m the jerk. Remember at the beginning where I talk about always needing to self-monitor? That means I have less mental processing space available to monitor the reactions of other people than I would like. If I’m feeling especially stressed, I will not only not pick up on social cues, I may react in an inappropriately hostile way to things that aren’t worth the argument. (Sorry, coworkers past, present and future.) This is an explanation, not an excuse – if I’m being a jerk, people have the right to call me on it. However, thanks to cognitive behavioral therapy and meditation, I’ve learned to monitor my emotions similarly to how I monitor my blood sugars. This has helped me recognize when I’m in a mood-state where I’m liable to let my inner jerk out in public. I’m not perfect, but I have gotten much better at this in practice.
Adding Mental Health Care to the Mix
During my adult life, I thought I had my medical stuff pretty well under control. Then I took a tenure track job at an academic library. At first, things were fine, but one of the conditions of employment was getting a second master’s degree – it’s actually one of the things that attracted me to this job. While I enjoyed the program (TESL), towards the end I got very, very tired. Like mini-blackouts while walking across campus or sitting in class tired. Also, big surprise, I got pretty cranky. But then I graduated and things seemed to be getting better. Trouble was, I also started hearing my coworkers say negative things about me at work. And by negative, I don’t mean “I disagree with your idea” or “when you interrupt me it makes me feel bad.” Those statements would be completely legit. I mean things like “you’re a horrible person and I don’t know why anything thinks you should be here.” So, that was stressful. On the positive side, that’s what prompted me to finally see a therapist.
As I mentioned earlier, the things I learned from the therapist were really helpful. We talked about how it’s totally normal for people with diabetes to get really cranky if we don’t get enough sleep. We talked about meditation and she suggested I take up crocheting as a way of soothing anxiety. She suggested I get my Vitamin D level tested (very low! I was also anemic. It explained a lot.) She also suggested I get a happy light for the seasonal affective disorder– it did nothing. But thanks to her help I made it through another Minnesota winter and in spring things looked better.
In fact, the next academic year started out really well. I felt strong enough to take on a stressful leadership position and had an ambitious research agenda. Unfortunately, even though I was using all the things I’d learned from my therapist, the following spring wasn’t the release it usually is. I recovered a bit over the summer, thanks to sunlight and daily yoga and meditation, but in retrospect I can see that the seasonal affective disorder had turned into year-round depression. So when this fall started and I started to spiral down again…. I was already near the bottom.
I’ve learned to restrain my inner jerk, so I got no indications from my coworkers that they could even tell that I was struggling. I think that might be because restraining the jerk in some ways means internalizing the jerk: by the time I started antidepressants, I was having daily fantasies about self-mutilation and suicide. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had those urges and I knew it was a dangerous sign. (I guess I’m coming out as a former cutter on here too. Oh well.) Fortunately, thanks to years of seeing people with depression speak out on twitter, I felt only the smallest twinge of shame at the thought of going on meds. I’m also extremely fortunate to have a close friend who’s a pharmacist. When I told her I was concerned about possible side effects with my other meds, she made an extensive list of options and things I should be aware of with each. (I am loved. If nothing else, this experience has taught me that.)
Pulling It All Together
I wish mental illness wasn’t so stigmatized – in a perfect world, I would have started this mental health journey decades ago. But, finally, I’m on medication and using the things I’ve learned in therapy. I feel more alert and happier than I’ve been in a very long time. I’m well enough that the happy light does actually help on those gray mornings when it seems like waking up is impossible. I’m making the choice to reduce my emotional involvement and overtime at work and let myself heal, because I picked up some bad eating habits in the last couple of years that I need to focus my energy on right now. And my plan for doing that without it turning into another form of pushing myself too hard? Structured journaling.
Like I said, I’m feeling much better than I have in a long while. I wanted to share my experiences to encourage others who might be looking for a sign that it’s time to reach out to a doctor or a therapist. You don’t have to be public about it, like I’ve been, but if you’re looking for a sign - this is it. We work in a service industry where we’re always expected to care for others (in my library “for the students” is a rallying cry). It’s ok to take care of yourself too.
I also wanted to share my experiences with people who haven’t had to deal with issues like this. People who care, but aren’t really sure what it all means or how to be supportive. My only real suggestion is, if someone has trusted you enough to share this sort of thing with you, let them know that you care about them, that you trust they’re doing the best they can, and that you appreciate how hard they’re trying. Life is hard enough. We don’t need to make it harder for each other.
http://schomj.tumblr.com/post/137505654723/catgifcentral-trapped-again-unlucky-hedgehog
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Tips for Being Functional
I thought long and hard about what to contribute to LIS Mental Health Week.
You can probably tell. This is going up on the last day, after all, and it’s not super insightful or well written or anything. Nobody’s gonna grab my hands, or cry; there is no moving or shaking to be had, not for even the saddest of library journals. Oh, not that you shouldn’t read this! You should! You should read everything I put into the world.* It’s just that, like everything I create, this is going to be neurotic, (mostly) practical, and squeaked in at the last acceptable moment.**
Keep reading
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Talking about mental health...in person. With your boss.
As promised, I’m writing a post per day for LIS Mental Health Week. As it wraps up today, I want to share about what we’re doing this week in my own library, and how I approached admin, and how it has all been way easier than I had anticipated.
Mostly, LMHW is happening online. (Once again, I am so in awe of what people are sharing, and how many people are participating.) But, I wanted to take this opportunity to start conversations in person at MPOW, too. I work at a large public university. My work is focused on outreach to historically underrepresented and marginalized student groups, so bringing up social justice and advocacy issues is part of what I do, and part of what people probably expect from me. I’m sure that made this easier. I also have a pretty welcoming and comfortable workplace. I don’t feel like figuring out how to describe that in more detail, really, except to say that I would absolutely not have tried to float this idea at previous workplaces.
Anyway, I emailed the head of my department and explained about the goals of the week, and said I’d like to talk about it during our next all-library-staff meeting, and maybe organize a presentation with someone from our student counseling center. She was super supportive, and also helped me add some other elements and useful framing. She helped me send it through the admin channels, including suggesting coming to the admin meeting to discuss the project and get buy-in. (This was super smart, and totally not something I would have thought of on my own.) She also suggested that I send out an email every day to staff – someone in the library sends out monthly emails about safety topics, so I used that as a model. My emails have covered basic stuff: general facts about MH/illness, local/campus resources, self-care resources.
So, the tl;dr recipe here was:
getting buy-in from admin (and having help to do so)
modeling after existing modes of education (other regular emails, and a professional development brown-bag)
connecting to a broader project (“hey, look at Twitter, this is a thing beyond just here”)
and, acting like this is a normal thing for us to do – we’re not dealing with a crisis, this isn’t radical, this is just how we do things here.
I’ll admit, even with this super-innocuous approach, it has been an intimidating to position myself as the mental health/illness person. No one has objected about the project (at least to me), and a few people have specifically thanked me. In our department meeting, we had a good discussion about some ways we can support one another better in the workplace. It feels exciting to have an opportunity to talk about MH with my colleagues when it isn’t an immediate crisis thing – like, there’s a lot more room for openness, and gentle curiosity, rather than fear and stigma. In retrospect, I kinda wish I’d found a few other people to make a mini-committee to share this. If we do it again next year, maybe that’s what I’ll do.
Obviously, not every workplace will be open to something like this, and I’m not suggesting people should put themselves at risk by suggesting something in a hostile environment. However, so far I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easy it has been, and how open folks have been. Mental Health First Aid training might be another entry point for something like this – the federal-level push for this program gives it a lot of heft, in the US. A lot of workplaces are all in for “wellness,” and mindfulness is so hot right now, those are also good ways in.
But, one of my big takeaways for this whole project has been that has been a way for me to actively show that that mental health matters to me, and that I am okay talking about it. In fact, I’m off to an alllll-library staff meeting, where I’m also gonna take five minutes to talk about it. (!) I keep thinking about how, when I worked in sexuality education, one of our educators had talked to a group of women, and afterwards, someone came up and told her that she had never heard the word “masturbation” said out loud before. Hearing it out loud made it seem normal, and certainly not something to be scared of. Different stigmas, definitely, but somehow…the same edge.
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Tips for Being Functional
I thought long and hard about what to contribute to LIS Mental Health Week.
You can probably tell. This is going up on the last day, after all, and it’s not super insightful or well written or anything. Nobody’s gonna grab my hands, or cry; there is no moving or shaking to be had, not for even the saddest of library journals. Oh, not that you shouldn’t read this! You should! You should read everything I put into the world.* It’s just that, like everything I create, this is going to be neurotic, (mostly) practical, and squeaked in at the last acceptable moment.**
Keep reading
#functioning#depression#borderline personality disorder#eating disorders#social anxiety disorder#advice
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