Jeff Kunkel talks about “CFer Mental Helpers (Stay Sane during Crises)” in this episode of the CF Alive Podcast, with host Michaela Light.

Show notes

Why now

In normal times, 20% of Americans have mental illness every year (APA)

Now in lockdown and economic depression, it is >60% ill

30% clinical depressed

30% PTSD

(and remaining 40%...)

Who is this episode for

CFers with mental illness

Even if they don’t realize it yet

CFers with teammates with mental illness

CIOs, PMs, Team Leaders and manager concerned about their staff

What is mental illness?

Significant changes in thinking, emotion and/or behavior

Distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities

But can be hidden as it is in the mind

Types

Depression

Hopelessness - negative self-talk, self-hate

Numbness

Apathy

Anxiety

Obsessive Worry, beyond reality

OCD

Paranoia

Not dealing well with uncertainty

Bipolar Affective Disorder

Schizophrenia

Dementia 

Causes

Stress

Distress - bad

Eustress - good

Trauma

Isolation

Oxytocin

Lack of support

Poor nutrition

Chemical imbalances

Lack of sunlight

Vitamin- D

Serotonin

Lack of sleep

Lack of exercise

Overindulgence

Chemical effects

Addictions

(Mind-body connection

The stereotypical ColdFusion developer!

What to look for

Withdrawn

Outbursts

Anger, crying, jokes

Cries for help

Dark humor

Denial 

Poor attendance/performance

Physical sickness eg backache, exhaustion 

Sudden changes

Eating

Sex

Drug

How can we help?

Good boundaries

Be a resource

Open door policy

1 on 1 check-in

Daily stand up brief check-in of feelings

Relate personal experience 

Show you care

Go to groups and churches. Team building activities/outings 

Make reasonable accommodations 

Recommend professional help

Getting professional help

Your primary care physician

Your insurance company may have a list of covered providers

The website for the board of licensed professionals in your state

Ask someone how they found theirs 

See the end of the presentation for some additional links

How not to help

Tough it through

Blame

Panic

Diagnose

Excuse poor performance

Make light of their situation

Shaming

Potential pitfalls

Some people do not want help

Denial

All ready dealing with it

It can be very uncomfortable 

To be ill

To be around the ill

To discuss

EQ

Shame

Forcing the issue can make it worse

Suicide

Time to talk about the elephant in the room

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US

Is 2nd leading cause in 30-year-olds

On average, there are 129 suicides per day.

Approx 40k per year

1.4M suicide attempts per year (2018)

An estimated 9.3 million adults (3.9% of the adult U.S. population) reported having suicidal thoughts in the past year. 

Suicide and self-injury cost the US $69B per year (2015)

The annual U.S. suicide rate increased by 24% between 1999 and 2014

After suicide

It is not your fault 

Be supportive

Support survivors

(let’s take a breath!)

Prevention - Self-Care

Practice what you preach

Eat right

Get some sleep

Blue blocker glasses

Go out in the sun

Go in nature

Accept help from others

Working From Home

Get dressed

Keep a schedule

Have a separate work area

Limit distractions

Have regular proactive breaks away from the computer

Get “face time” with colleagues via Zoom etc

Allow yourself to be bad at WFH

WFH as a skills

Good boss for staff WFH

Practice

Rat race rant

We are not looking at these incredible mental illnesses and suicide statistics as being indicative of deep unlying problems with our society’s programming and the rat race. 

If society was a CF server then it was misconfigured from the start, has not been tuned, is running a legacy CF version and OS and the programming was crappy.  Don't even look at the database queries being run unless you have a strong stomach. 

It needs a good tuning and re-write and upgrades from many years applied.

Disclaimer

We are not doctors. This is personal advice that has worked for me

Seek further information from sources like the American Psychiatric Association and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

Wrap up

Why are you proud to use CF?

WWIT to make CF more alive this year?

What did you enjoy at ITB 2020?

Mentioned in this episode

Oh my GAD (General Anxiety Disorder) with Jeffrey Kunkel

CF Suicide episode with Jorge Reyes  

Into The Box  

Trauma Healing   

Psychology Today

MHA National, finding a therapy   

Leading causes of death by age group 

AFSP Suicide statistics 

Violence prevention 

ColdFusion User Groups on Meetup

LearnCFInAWeek

Listen to the Audio

Bio

Jeffrey Kunkel

Jeffrey Kunkel is an in house web developer for www.lightingnewyork.com. He has been developing for six years, and is excited to start contributing to the ColdFusion community at large.

Jeff has been living with anxiety, depression, and OCD for his entire career. He wants to take the lessons he's learned working around and with these conditions to better the workflow and productivity of his colleagues.

Links

Twitter 

His ITB slides 

Interview transcript

Michaela Light 0:01

Welcome back to the show. I'm here with Jeff Kunkel and we are going to talk about cold fusion mental helpers, or how to stay sane during crises, which, when we're recording this, there's a major lockdown crona economic depression, wacko crisis going on on there's definitely a lot of people who are having some issues. So we wanted to help out with that. So welcome, Jeff. Hello.

And nice background you have there for those watching on video into the box 2020. And you know, we'll talk a bit more about that, because I know you gave a talk there. And But meanwhile, why don't we just remind listeners who you are? Who are you in a nutshell.

Jeff Kunkel 0:51

I'm Jeff conkel. I'm a 33 year old ColdFusion developer I've been developing for about six years.

I work on a small ecommerce company a in house team.

One thing I I'd like to contribute to the ColdFusion community and I feel like

my expertise is higher in having mental like dealing with mental health, and it is in cold fusion at the moment. So that's kind of where I've been focusing.

Michaela Light 1:24

So you've experienced some of these issues yourself in the past?

Jeff Kunkel 1:28

Yes, absolutely. I've been diagnosed with anxiety and depression and with a mild case of obsessive compulsive disorder. So it's

Michaela Light 1:38

a mild case of access to to organize your shoe closet once a year.

Read more

 

Michaela Light is the host of the CF Alive Podcast and has interviewed more than 100 ColdFusion experts. In each interview, she asks "What Would It Take to make CF more alive this year?" The answers still inspire her to continue to write and interview new speakers.

Michaela has been programming in ColdFusion for more than 20 years. She founded TeraTech in 1989. The company specializes in ColdFusion application development, security and optimization. She has also founded the CFUnited Conference and runs the annual State of the CF Union Survey.

 

Join the CF Alive revolution

Discover how we can all make CF more alive, modern and secure this year. Join other ColdFusion developers and managers in the CF Alive Inner Circle today.

Get early access to the CF Alive book and videos

Be part of a new movement for improving CF's perception in the world.

Contribute to the CF Alive revolution

Connect with other CF developers and managers

There is no cost to membership.