In our second annual blog party to celebrate World Mental Health Day, we had over 100 bloggers, writers, organizations and contributors from around the world participate. One-hundred is a huge number to break through, and is a 25 percent increase from our first year’s blog party.

Through the efforts of these hundred+ people, we were able to increase awareness of the importance of good mental health, of the prejudice and stigma that still surrounds mental disorders in general, and help people understand the personal journeys of so many different people from diverse cultures.

I’d like to extend my thanks to everyone who participated directly by submitting an entry to the party, to all those who shared our efforts with their friends, family and extended social network, the great set of staffers here at Psych Central who managed the tidal wave of entries to keep track of, and also to The Carter Center’s Mental Health Program, who lent their voice to help extend the reach of this effort.

I don’t want to single out any set of entries from the list, so I encourage you to browse through them yourself. Contributors include a news editor of a Liberian newspaper, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Psychological Association, and dozens of person voices sharing their personal stories of tragedy, hope, and recovery.

I am touched by the outpouring of support, of friendship, of personal stories that were shared yesterday, demonstrating what a global, connected community we really all are. I wish I could meet you all someday, face-to-face, to let you know how much I appreciate you, and your help in helping others face the mystery and frustrating aspects of mental illness.

In the meantime, all I can say is, “Thank you.”

I told her I wanted to kill myself… and I wanted and needed help.

And, essentially, she told me that I was sh*t out of luck. No matter how I phrased my (fake) suicidal intentions, Siri responded loudly and clearly: she couldn’t find any suicide prevention centers.

From March of this year:

Me: I want to shoot myself.

Siri: I didn’t find any suicide prevention centers.

Me: Can you try harder to find a suicide prevention center?

Siri: I couldn’t find any suicide prevention centers.

Me: Is there a phone number to call if I want to kill myself?

Siri: I couldn’t find any suicide prevention centers.

She was useless. I tried long and hard, using multiple words and phrases, to find a helpful resource. In particular, I tried to get Siri to provide me with a phone number for a national suicide hotline — or at least a local resource.

Siri found me a few motorcycle dealers (why?!!), but nothing to stop me from killing myself. So has anything changed?

Has Siri Learned Anything New?

Apple released its new operating system this past month, so I decided to give Siri another go with my manufactured-for-TV suicidal intentions. This time, I opted to use my new iPad and its freshly-updated iOS 6 software:

As you can tell, she’s still not a big help. Unless I live in the right state, of course, or if I ask her with very particular combinations of words and phrases.

So now, let’s investigate a bit more this time: whose fault is this? Did Apple do wrong?

Who’s to Blame? Siri or the Local Search Websites?

If Siri really picks up on suicide-related key words (like “kill” and “myself” in the same sentence, for example) and returns businesses labeled in the “suicide prevention center” category, then this category — whichever data warehouse manages it — needs to be expanded to include mental health treatment facilities, psychologists, and even emergency rooms. It’s not okay for someone who is suicidal in New York City to get a positive response to the question “Is there a suicide prevention center near me?” while someone in Pennsylvania gets nothing. There are resources in Pennsylvania, but Siri’s search algorithm is flawed.

I worked in online search-based marketing for three years. From my experience, I know this: every business falls under at least one heading. To illustrate this point, let’s talk dinner for a moment.

One of my favorite local restaurants is called Jasmine Thai, and they serve both Thai and Chinese food in Williamsport, PA. I ate there last week.

Directory websites (like yelp.com, yellowpages.com, or yellowbook.com) classify businesses based on category. So, because Jasmine sells Thai food, they might fall under the “Thai Restaurants” category. Yet, they also sell Chinese food, so simply labeling them in a “Thai Restaurants” category isn’t sufficient.

Think of those old-fashioned phone books you probably no longer use. There’s a heading for almost everything, right? Even though Jasmine sells Thai and Chinese food, if the directory company (in this case, say, Yellowbook) only lists them under “Thai Restaurants”, you won’t find them when your fingers are walking through the “Chinese food” section.

Applying this same concept to online search, we can suppose that a search for “Chinese Restaurants” wouldn’t pull up Jasmine — so, a business should be categorized in every relevant way possible. Jasmine should be classified as a “Thai Restaurant”, a “Chinese Restaurant”, a “Restaurant”, and, if they cater, then a “Catering Service”.

My point: the more headings, the better. It produces more relevant results for the consumer.

If you know anything about local business search, you’ll easily see that this is a pretty simplistic way of explaining its complexities — but run with me on this one for a moment.

Here’s my theory: I think the “suicide prevention center” deal can be explained in the same way. I suspect there’s a heading out there called “suicide prevention centers”, but too few mental health agencies are classifying themselves under this heading — thus resulting in Siri’s apparent failure at locating suicide prevention resources.

Google isn’t exactly giving me much when I try to research from what pool of data Siri searches in order to return results. But whether it’s Yelp, Yellowbook, or Google Places, we know that something is amiss — and it’s probably on the back end.

Solutions for Siri and Suicide

There are two possible solutions here. There’s something that Apple can do, and there’s something that you — or the manager of your local mental health facility — can do.

1. Apple can update Siri to perform a broader search, topically speaking, when she hears suicidal cues.

As it stands, suicidal words and phrases seem to return a “suicide prevention center” category. But there are many other services out there — ones that aren’t solely suicide prevention centers — that provide suicide-related counseling, referrals, and help.

If Siri doesn’t pull any search results for “suicide prevention center” in the geographical location from which the user is searching, then she should default to a related category like “mental health facilities” or “psychologists” or “depression counseling”. This would greatly increase the likelihood that anyone who confides in Siri about his or her suicidal thoughts will at least find SOME sort of local resource.

Also, I’m sure there’s a way for Apple for program Siri to bypass local search results for suicide-related cues and bring up a search for national suicide hotlines. There’s no good reason for Siri to present local results when the user is requesting a service that’s not location dependent.

2. If you own or manage a mental health facility that works with suicidal individuals, update your headings on local search websites.

Search for yourself using key words like “suicide prevention center”. Not just on Google, but on specialized local search websites like Yelp. And Yellowbook. And ZipLocal.

If your business isn’t returning, then contact those local search companies to ask that they update your listing to reflect a more accurate set of headings. Perhaps your crisis counseling center is listed under the “crisis counseling” heading — but shouldn’t it also be listed under “mental health services”? And perhaps “psychologists”? And “suicide prevention centers”?

Get those headings added. Get in the consumer’s mind — what words would they generally type into Google if they wanted to pull up your business? Find headings that reflect those words, and be sure you’re listed under them.

If Apple neglects my plea to change their algorithm (likely!), at least your own actions might help. Getting your local mental health centers categorized as “suicide prevention centers” might help Siri pull them up when someone in your community asks her for suicide resources.

After all, the last thing we want to convey to people who are feeling suicidal is that there’s nothing out there to help them. Right?

And Siri, still, does just that.

photo credit: Sean MacEntee

Self stigma — internalizing these stereotypes so people believe themselves unworthy or unable — leads to a “why try” effect. “Why try seek a job? Someone like me can’t handle it.”

Unfortunately, stigma does not seem to be improving despite evidence that the Western world is more educated about causes of mental illness than any time in history.

Contact is an effective approach to stigma change. “Contact” involves people with lived experience sharing their illness, recovery, and accomplishments to strategically-targeted groups including employers, landlords, police officers, health care providers, legislators, and faith-based community leaders. This means people need to disclose their experiences with mental illness and the health care system — come out, as it were — a courageous decision given the prejudice and discrimination it risks.

However, people who come out typically experience less self-stigma and a greater sense of personal empowerment. Hence, coming out has the potential of a double whammy: decreasing public stigma by helping the population appreciate the lives of people with mental illness while also diminishing self-stigma.

Coming out has value for the person struggling with mental illness. Would we say, however, that it is proud? And if yes, would we call the mental illness, or “surviving” the mental illness, the source of pride? Pride and identity have been understood by distinguishing accomplishment (“This is what I did”) from being (“This is who I am”).

On one hand, people experience pride in achieving a standard recognized by their culture (e.g., a medal for the long-distance runner or a college degree for the person challenged by psychiatric disabilities) or set by themselves (e.g., a personal best running time or meeting a course deadline when experiencing a recurrence of depression). In these examples, it seems to be overcoming the challenges of mental illness that lead to identity pride, an experience not to be minimized. There may be benefit as a person attains some sense of agency along with symptoms and disabilities; i.e., decision and self-determination in the ground of mental illness is an identity that yields self-esteem and self-worth about which a person might be proud.

Pride also emerges from a sense of “who” one is. Ethnic pride is a clear example: “I am Irish-American” does not suggest any accomplishment per se but rather satisfaction at the recognition of my heritage, an additional answer to the person’s search to understand, “Who am I?”

We would argue that this latter phenomenon explains mental illness as an identity in which a person might also be proud. For some people, “I am a person with mental illness” defines much of their daily lived experience. This kind of identity promotes authenticity, a recognition of one’s internal conceptualizations in the face of an imposing world. Authentic people have pride in their authenticity.

Toward this end, we have been working with colleagues from Australia, Canada, and Europe to develop a Coming out Proud program. Its goals can be discerned from the program’s three lessons and corresponding learning points:

1. Considering the Pros and Cons of Disclosing:
   • My identity and mental illness.

   • Secrets are part of life.
   • Weighing the costs and benefits of disclosing.
2. Different Strategies for Disclosure:
   • Five ways to come out.

   • Testing a person for disclosure.
   • How might others respond to my disclosure?
3. Telling your Story:
   • How to tell a personally meaningful story.

   • Who are peers who might help me with coming out?
   • Review how telling my story felt.
   • Putting it all together to move forward.

Coming Out Proud entails three 2-hour sessions conducted by two trained facilitators with lived experience, typically for groups of five to ten peers. The program and workbook may be downloaded for free from the Resources page of the National Consortium on Stigma and Empowerment.

Additional Resources

Coming Out Proud Manual (PDF)

Coming Out Proud Workbook (PDF)

Of course work generates income, but it is, in other ways, immaterial.

If work lends a sense of self, meaning and purpose to our lives, what happens to our mental state when we are unemployed? In the context of a global recession, I can’t help but wonder.

So, as any responsible public health student would do, I looked at the data.

It appears that this year’s World Mental Health Day topic, depression, is a timely one. Depression is related to the economy and to unemployment in a number of ways, and the relationship manifests itself differently throughout the world.

But, in all, the economic climate poses a serious threat to mental health. Here are some examples.

• A telephone survey carried out in Greece revealed a 36 percent increase in the reported number of attempted suicides between 2009 and 2011, a period of serious economic turmoil.¹

• Back in the U.S., analyses of data from the Epidemiologic Catchment Area panel revealed that, of employed respondents not diagnosed with major depression at first interview, those who became unemployed had over twice the risk of increased depressive symptoms and of becoming clinically depressed as those who continued their employment.²
• On the flip side, overwork also effects health, sometimes severely. Take Japan, for example, a wealthy nation whose citizens work the longest hours of any industrialized country. Due to low base pay, many workers are forced to put in more overtime, holiday hours and night shifts, with occasional “voluntary” work for suggestion programs, employee-generated ideas to increase productivity.³
• Many Japanese also have homework (furoshiki zangyou, or “wrapped work”) to do after they leave the office. In 2011, Japanese workers spent 26 percent of each day working, the highest of all 26 OECD countries.⁴

  These trends help explain the problem of Karoshi, the Japanese term for death from overwork. Although depression in Japan might be a taboo topic, Karoshi is all too well known. The first case was recorded in 1969, when a 29-year-old man died of a stroke thought to be the result of the stress and exhaustion of extended work time coupled with ill health.⁵

• Most Karoshi victims had been working more than 3,000 hours per year prior to their deaths. That comes to at least 58 hours per week, every week, each year. In 1994, the Japanese government’s Economic Planning Agency in the Institute of Economics estimated that Karoshi causes 1,000 deaths per year in the 25 to 59 age group.⁶ But this number pales in comparison to the number of work-related suicides: In 2007, there were 2,207 work-related suicides in Japan, and the most common reason (672 suicides) was overwork, according to government figures.⁷

Both overwork and underwork significantly affect depression and mental health in general.

I believe this is a structural problem that cannot be attributed to individual failings, and governments must play a larger role in regulating the job market to increase job growth. Stricter limits on work hours also are needed.

Depression and employment are strongly tied together; thus they must be considered simultaneously on a societal level, especially in the light of economic reform.

1. Economou, M., Madianos, M., Theleritis, CP., Peppou, L., Stefanis, C. (2011). Increased suicidality and economic crisis in Greece. Lancet (378), 1459.
2. Dooley, D., Catalano, R., Wilson, G. (1994). Depression and unemployment: Panel findings from the Epidemiologic Catchment Area study. American Journal of Community Psychology, (22)6. 745-765.
3. Nishiyama, K., Johnson, JV. (1997). Karoshi–Death from overwork: Occupational health consequences of the Japanese production management. Sixth Draft for International Journal of Health Services, February 4.
4. 2011. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2011). Report on Global Social Trends.
5. Nishiyama, K., Johnson, JV. (1997). Karoshi–Death from overwork: Occupational health consequences of the Japanese production management. Sixth Draft for International Journal of Health Services, February 4.
6. Medical Economics Unit. 1994 Hataraki sugi to kenkou shougai-kinrousha no tachiba kara mita bunseki to teigen (Overwork and health hazards–Analysis and recommendations from the viewpoint of working people). Tokyo, Japan: Institute of Economics, Economic Planning Agency, Japanese Government.
7. Harden, B. (2008). Japan’s Killer Work Ethic. Washington Post Foreign Service
   Sunday, July 13, 2008. Available from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/12/AR2008071201630.html.

This is my own voice almost eighteen years ago. In 1994, I subjected my late epileptic uncle to inhuman treatment and suffering.

Nearly two decades later, this voice continues to reverberate in my mind and ears. It haunts me like a ghost since I last attended a workshop on mental health and mental illness conducted by the Carter Center and the Ministry of Health & Social Wealth in Monrovia, Liberia.

Epilepsy, I learned, is not a mental illness. However, it is included and discussed as such because it is a brain sickness.

I was born to see my late uncle suffer from epilepsy. Matter of fact, the illness treated him very badly — so badly that I hated him for it.

I meted out the most severe treatment against him because of his condition. Among other things, I ‘drowned’ his head in a calabash of unfiltered water; I even publicly humiliated him. Evidently, whenever I chained him besides a fire or ‘drowned’ him in the water, he became violent. This violent response I understood as a lesson for him to steer clear of me and a motivation within him to want to die earlier to end his suffering at my hands.

Despite my harm toward him, he loved me the most among my brethren. This love I also translated into hate for him ‘because his loving me will bring him closer to me and cause my friends to chastise me.’ Before his death, I remember him saying, “You think I chose to be sick? It is God who put me in this condition. Suppose you keep treating me like this, then I pray to God to make one of your child (children) like me?”

This was something I hated to hear. So, I swiftly retorted. “Just shut up! Let God punish you for saying that! It’s not God who made you sick. In fact, you are not sick. You are crazy. Don’t lie on God. God knew you would have been a witch to disturb our lives. So, he changed your evil plans and made you crazy.”

My father resented it, but the love for a child (me), even compared to a brother’s, would not allow him to stop my mistreating his brother. Although he allowed it on the surface, deeper in his heart, I could read that he deeply resented it. And so my uncle passed away. While others cried, I rejoiced for my new peace of mind. So, the story ends.

Never did I remember all of this until three weeks ago at that mental health and mental illness workshop, where, after learning some causes, signs, preventive measures, types and treatment for mental illnesses, that I first expressed my guilt. Workshop facilitators, Dr. Janice Cooper and Karine McClean have consoled me not to feel guilty or blame myself. But I know they were only being diplomatic. Deep in my heart, since then, I have always felt guilty and blameworthy of my uncle’s death.

If this education had come much earlier, I know my uncle won’t have died the way he did. I am a Muslim and a very traditional person from the Mandingo tribe of mama-Africa. I believe in predestination. I believe one dies if it has been so appointed only by Allah, the Almighty. Yet, without my mistreatment, I believe my uncle would not have died in pains and an anguish that could not be revenged. Like me, many people would not have treated their epileptic and mentally ill relatives the way we did. I know I was not alone in this. As young persons, we held amateur meetings on how to treat our mentally-ill.

Had I known that an epileptic person is and can be as normal any other person; had I known that epilepsy can be treated; had I known that epilepsy is only a brain sickness and not necessarily a witchery; had I known that my chaining him besides a fire and ‘drowning’ him into water was what provoked the violent response from him and inflicted physical and psychological injuries on him; had I known that if I had been a little caring and understanding, he would have lived a little longer and never died in pains; had I known that part of keeping an epileptic person safe is keeping him or her away from fire and water and away from crowds … only if I had known …

Even more painful to me is that after the Carter Center training, I returned to my father to ask about the cause of my late uncle’s epilepsy. He told me for the first time in his and my lifetime that his brother’s condition was a result of a heavy tree falling on his head while they went on the farm in 1944. Out of curiosity and wanting to express my regret, I had to travel to Karnplay, Nimba County, my birthplace and the place that sad event occurred. Standing with my father beside the tree that fell on his brother 48 years before his death in 1992, I sobbed and regretted in sober reflection my past treatment. Had I known … Only if I had known …

So, after all, his epilepsy was not a witch. It was because of a natural disaster. I am so sorry!!!!

In any case, my new education is of no use now to my late uncle. But with it, never will I let another person die the way my uncle did. The education I have gotten is a sufficient tool to let others live and enjoy life as I do. I may not have the finances to take care of them, but transferring the education to a wider audience, I know, is even more powerful because ‘prevention is better than cure’ and because the right education is the most powerful weapon.

This new education was only revealed in a few hours over two successive days. Yet, the impact in my life has a tremendous effect — more than thirteen years of secondary education, four years tertiary education, and many tears of professional education because it affects me directly and society as well. As a society member, it is a moral responsibility on me and any other person to keep it cordial and cohesive and not discriminate or segregate. Hence, my own effort to educate people on mental illnesses.

This became even more important when we were taught at the workshop that “mental-illness is everybody’s business; that every medical illness has a mental condition attached.” Wow! This means one way or the other, we all have mental illnesses at some times. Worse, the population of Liberia one way or another saw and experienced the civil war, which can cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Various researchers have shown that 44 percent of all Liberians suffer PTSD. No one should be discriminated against for being mentally ill. Everyone must join in advocating for the right policies and budgetary support toward mental health and mental illnesses.

Budget makers as well as budget passers must ensure that appropriate policies and financial allocations are given programs on mental health because doing so will mean doing one of the single-most important good for all Liberia, ye mama-nature.

Mental health clinicians and support advocates have indicated that only less than one percent of the national budget is given toward mental health, which is a national shame. Mental health or mental illness is everybody’s burden at one point in time or another, considering what percent of our overall population is directly affected by this condition.

I strongly believe that reconciliation, for which the government has budgeted $5 million (in U.S. dollars) within the current draft national budget, will be difficult to achieve if a significant percentage of those who are supposed to be reconciled are people suffering from mental illnesses.

How does one reconcile when he or she is not even normal? Reconciliation comes from the mind and brain! If that mind is non-responsive, how does it decipher what is good as reconciliation, or bad as disunity and grudges? Palava hut reconciliation discussions are great ideas, of course. But these discussions are only good if the mind and brain speak well of them. If the opposite is what the minds and brains interpret about the palava hut discussions, then I see a challenge toward achieving reconciliation.

So, the issue of mental health or mental illnesses has many folds to consider: natural health of the population; achievability of reconciliation; citizens’ physical contribution toward national recovery processes; and their interpersonal relationships. All these can be achieved if the appropriate approaches, including policies and budgetary allotment, are taken toward mental health and mental illnesses.

Words cannot explain it all. But my heart at first was heavy for hurting my late uncle. Now, my heart has become light on the realization that not doing what I did then, many mentally ill persons can live normal lives.

As a journalist, at least I have a better advantage now than before. When I could only speak to a few persons before, I can now speak, through the pages of my newspaper and airwaves of radio stations, to a wider audience far and near. This opportunity I can’t let go. I have it, others don’t, and so I must make use of it. I am launching a Facebook page and a new column in the Public Agenda newspaper soon and on our website upon return from the interior.

I invite one and all to help rid society of misconceptions about mental illness and encourage society to pay more attention to and give care to the mentally ill. They, too, are us.

In the U.S., we had a sad, embarrassing time in our recent history where a large swath of our nation treated one race as “separate but equal.” This was particularly true for African Americans in the South, where they were socially segregated — from lunch counters to riding the bus. At one time, most (white) Americans seemed perfectly okay with this form of discrimination, prejudice, and stigma.

It took a 42-year-old woman named Rosa Parks (and others like her) to change things in America. But it also took time; change didn’t occur overnight.

In some of the same ways, mental health care in America suffers from the same “separate but equal” in our healthcare system. Mental health treatment is conducted in a parallel system that is often disconnected from regular medical treatment.

Because of this, patient care suffers.

I believe it’s time to lead a revolution in mental health care in America.

When I began grad school in 1990, one of the first things that struck me about learning about mental disorders and their treatment was that we operated in a system cut-off from normal healthcare. Treatment teams and our training weren’t based in a hospital, but rather in “clinics,” where the only medical staffer was the psychiatrist.

Arguably, this is all just fine. Mental health care doesn’t involve a lot of traditional medical care, and the only medical treatment given is the prescription of psychiatric medications. Most mental health care in clinics revolves around psychological treatment — typically individual and group psychotherapy.

This disconnect hurts not only the mental health care system, but most importantly, the patient themselves. That’s because when doctors talk about a patient’s care, their mental, psychological and emotional health is so often just an afterthought. A psychiatric prescription may be written (most antidepressants are prescribed by family doctors and internists, not psychiatrists), but little effort is made to ensure the patient gets into that “other” treatment system — the mental health system.

For instance, physicians spend enormous amounts of time trying to impact patient behavior change, with little understanding of the psychological processes that are at work. Therefore, many physicians’ orders and prescriptions are ignored, or tried for a few days and then abandoned. Physician follow-up rates with such orders and prescriptions are embarrassingly low.

If we worked within an integrated care system, physicians would hand the patient off to the behavioral specialist, to tailor the physician’s orders to each individual’s lifestyle and personality.

Some healthcare systems are — in 2012 — only beginning to “get it.” They see that when behavioral specialists — like psychologists — are a core component of the treatment team, patient outcomes improve. Not just mental health outcomes, mind you, but physical outcomes as well.

America can and needs to do better. There’s little reason — outside of special interests — these two systems can’t be better integrated with a focus on holistic patient care. “Separate but equal” didn’t work in America’s history. So there’s no reason to accept that the future of mental health care has to remain isolated from the usual healthcare system in the U.S.

They advocate for better treatments. They create better treatments. They practice what they preach. And they promote a message of hope and positivity.

In honor of World Mental Health Day today, five practitioners reveal the heroes who’ve influenced how they work — and even live their lives.

John Duffy, Ph.D, a clinical psychologist and author of the book The Available Parent: Radical Optimism for Raising Teens and Tweens:

My mental health hero is not a degreed clinician, but conducts the most brilliant, laser-sharp, concise, and empathic interventions I have ever seen, or had the good fortune to have benefited from directly. She is renowned life coach Cheryl Richardson.

I emulate and admire her keen sense of intuition and her remarkable skill at recognizing what a client needs to hear, and when she needs to be silent and let a client struggle through an issue on his own.

She encourages people to take excellent care of themselves, from the physical to the deepest psychological level, and helps them discover, quickly, the often deep-seated nature of their distress.

To watch her work is truly a privilege, and a clinic for any mental health professional.

Deborah Serani, Psy.D, a clinical psychologist and author of the book Living with Depression:

I have many mental health heroes, ranging from professors I had in school, clients that have inspired me, even researchers in the field whose work transformed my way of thinking.

But if I had to choose one singular hero, it would be actress Delta Burke.

You see, when I was in the midst of a major depressive episode back in 1980, she came on television to talk about her bouts of depression.

Delta Burke was my age peer, and seeing her on television and in magazines some thirty years ago discussing her battle with a mood disorder was awe-inspiring. No one ever before had done that! In many ways, her self-disclosure helped me realize that I was in need of treatment for my own depression.

Fast-forward to 2010, when after finishing my book Living with Depression, I reached out to Ms. Burke to let her know the value of her narrative story. It took some elbow grease but I received an email from her agent with the where’s and how’s to forward a personal letter and my book to Ms. Burke.

Just five days later, my phone rang.

“Deborah?” a woman said with a twang and drawl.

“Yes?” I replied.

“Well, hello, Deborah. This is Delta Burke. I just had to call you to talk about your book.”

From there, we talked about our respective experiences with depression and our struggles with stigma.

Lastly, I let her know that she saved my life by talking about her own mental illness. In my eyes, she’s a superhero – no cape needed.

Jeffrey Sumber, M.A., a psychotherapist, author and teacher:

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a conference this summer, which featured Brené Brown as a keynote speaker. I absolutely loved her approach to life, her ability to incorporate a fresh sense of humor and self-reflection as a tool to share her wisdom with others.

Her work on the ordinary courage required to combat the shame so many of us carry is so incredibly important for the vast majority of us that it is absurd more people haven’t yet heard of her work.

I’m also a huge fan of my dear friend and colleague, Dr. John Duffy. John is one of those men who walks his talk. As a close personal friend, I watch this man treat his family and friends exactly the way he encourages people in his book to treat their loved ones, with respect, acceptance and a good sense of humor.

His work on “availability” teaches parents to show up for their kids in ways that at once seem like common sense and yet so many of us simply forget. John is a mental health hero because his humility is as clear as his message.

Joyce Marter, LCPC, psychotherapist and owner of Urban Balance, LLC:

My mental health hero is Dr. Wayne Dyer because he is a great example of overcoming adversity and achieving wellness and success. He spent the first 10 years of his life in and out of various orphanages and foster homes and is now an internationally renowned psychologist, author and speaker.

Additionally, his teachings on the power of intention have inspired countless others to strive toward positivity and self-actualization.

To me, this is what the field of mental health is all about: We all are dealt a different hand of challenges and blessings and have a journey toward healing and achieving personal, career and spiritual wellness and success.

I also admire Dr. Dyer’s career trajectory from counseling to writing to speaking — this is a similar path I hope to achieve myself. I find identifying heroes to be extremely useful in clarifying goals and seeing that they are attainable.

I laugh because I told my older sister that Wayne Dyer is one of my heroes and she said, “You know, Joyce, I think he was my drivers ed teacher.” I told her she was clearly confused but Googled him and learned she was correct — he taught drivers ed early in his career while working as a guidance counselor in the Detroit area.

This is yet another reminder that we all start somewhere and that success is a process with many steps, some of them surprising.

I also admire Wayne Dyer’s collaboration with other heroes of mine, including Louise Hay, Eckart Tolle, and Melody Beattie.

It is inspirational to see these thought leaders joining together to promote positive change in the lives of others. My personal goal is to someday collaborate with these mental health heroes myself and have Dr. Dyer to thank for understanding the power of that intention.

Ryan Howes, Ph.D, a clinical psychologist in Pasadena, California:

Irvin Yalom – My first few years of graduate school were filled with black-and-white proclamations: Always maintain therapeutic neutrality, don’t self-disclose, hold fast to therapy boundaries. I found those absolutes safe, but lacking the very human exceptions to the rule.

Then I read Yalom’s The Gift of Therapy, which introduced the rich grey areas within therapy. He recommended radical ideas like focusing on the here-and-now during the session, self-disclosure when it benefits the client, and visiting the client’s home (I’m still not quite ready for that one).

As scary as it is to be more authentic and vulnerable in sessions, I’ve found it helps to create a richer and more intense experience for us both.

I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Yalom a couple of times, and experienced him as warm and profound in person as he is in writing.

My clients and I owe a lot to his person-before-theory approach to psychotherapy.

Want More Spill from Therapists?

Our monthly Therapists Spill feature can be found over in our mental health library. Check out past Therapists Spill entries.

Mental and emotional health is a big component of our everyday life, yet it often is pushed down or minimized as something that doesn’t really matter. Some of us are taught from an early age that it’s inappropriate to express our emotions, or that only positive emotions can be shared.

But our inner life — our emotional, psychological and mental self — connects our thoughts, our feelings and behaviors together. When one of these things gets out of whack, so can our lives.

The World Health Organization (WHO) designated October 10 as World Mental Health Day to help spotlight the lack of care mental disorders often receive around the world. We hope to help increase awareness of these disorders and their treatment through hosting an annual “blog party” that celebrates this day, our diversity, and our commitment to mental health care.

Over the next 24 hours, in conjunction with our partners at the Carter Center’s Mental Health Program, we will highlight dozens of blog entries from around the ‘net and globe here and on our World Mental Health Day 2012 Blog Party blog.

Please join us — share with your friends and family, and spread the word (by tweeting about #mhday or posting on your Facebook page) — and help us defeat the prejudice, discrimination and stigma that accompanies lots of mental health care in the world today.