"Who told you that any of this was going to be easy?" That is the quote that stuck out most to me from this conversation. My guest Mark has an extremely popular TEDx Talk called "Why we choose suicide." If you haven't heard it, it is a really moving and profound description of what it is like to be in a mental health crisis and how Mark felt in the moments he contemplated taking his own life. Mark is now an author, mental health advocate, and media commentator who focuses very heavily on trying to help those in a very similar position to the one he found himself in during his darkest hours.

The value Mark has found to be most impactful as he has worked towards improving his mental health is "patience." Mark believes the key to his well being is rooted in having the patience to let situations play themselves out and having faith to believe that no matter what the out come, he can find a path forward. Much of the conversation early on centered around the concept of perspective. As Mark put it, often with mental health crises people experience a perceptual collapse. It feels like there are no other options, no other ways to look at the situation, and therefore nothing they can do to help themselves.

This discussion was really fascinating as we talked about suicide, mental health treatment, biology vs. psychology, and the role faith/religion may play in mental health. Mark is extremely knowledgeable on these topics and allowed for us to get really deep into exploring them. If you've never experienced a mental health crisis this episode provides some really good insight into what that experience can be like. So often we feel like we shouldn't ask someone about these issues or talk about suicide because it is too uncomfortable or inappropriate, but as with most things the only hope we have of making progress is by talking about them. And as we said in the beginning "who said life was supposed to be comfortable anyway?"