Tag Archives: mental health

Molly Seidel—Tough As Nails Millennial

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If I had a dollar for every time one of my Baby Boomer peers bashed Millenials as lazy and soft I could afford to retire. In Monaco.

Don’t read this profile of Molly Seidel if you want to continue to wallow in uninformed, negative assumptions about an entire generation of young adults.

For me, Seidel’s story stitches together almost everything I’ve learned about mental health and subjective well-being from my Millennial writers over the last two decades. Put differently, her story is about much, much more than professional running.

Seidel, the second American and eighth overall in yesterday’s Chicago Marathon, qualified for the Paris Olympics next summer. More importantly, she had fun and felt great about her performance.

‘You Are Not Alone’

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Check out our YMCA’s “You Are Not Alone” mural. Because I’m so outgoing, I chatted up the artist while she was outlining it. Turns out, there’s a movement of “You Are Not Alone” artists who want to use wall murals to instill hope and connection while fostering more discussion of mental health.

I suspect their murals are more likely to accomplish the later than the former. I’m just not clear on how the murals might spark social connection which social science increasingly suggests is as close as there is to a loneliness panacea.

Do not mistake my lack of clarity, or even skepticism, as criticism. These are kind and caring people with the best of intentions.

Can You Explain This To Me?

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A few days ago I was cycling southbound on the Chehalis Western Trail (CWT), a gem of Thurston County public infrastructure. And thanks to attentive parents, I successfully dodged a few 3 year-oldish riders on those amazingly small bikes that darn near enable babies to ride home from the hospital under their own power.

And I wondered what would it be like to be three years-old, to live through the 21st Century and check out sometime in the 2100’s? On the surface, probably pretty great since technology and medical advances continue to amaze and you don’t have to go the Department of Motor Vehicles in person anymore. And some of us don’t have to go to gas stations. And global poverty is way down. And despite Fox News propaganda, crime is down. And despite serious income inequality and low savings rates, people can find jobs and the economy is resilient.

And yet.

I wouldn’t want to be my tiny CWT cycling friends because if I had to capture the current zeitgeist in one word it’s “sad”. Despite continuing substantive improvements to our quality of life, a critical mass of people in the (dis)United States seem, for lack of a better term, sad. Why is that?

And why don’t I know the answers to that. Does my multi-layered privilege blind me? Short answer, of course.

I don’t think I’ll beat myself up for not knowing, because as I tell my students, “It’s okay to not be okay. And it’s okay to be okay.” Still, I would like to better understand why you are sad or why people you know well are sad. Is it as simple as the rent is too damn high or is it climate anxiety or is the answer more abstract, philosophical, even spiritual?

If you accept my premise, that we’re in the grips of a wave of sadness that shows no signs of abating, please enlighten me as to why. Thank you in advance.

What The Hell ESPN?

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Our sensitivity to mental health challenges is a two step forward one step backward process.

ESPN’s interview of Aryna Sabalenka after she lost the women’s final match was a huge, high profile step backwards. She dominated the opening set and melted down in the second and third. Immediately afterwards, she was understandably distraught at the magnitude of her collapse. Never mind though, the ESPN analyst kept asking increasingly pointed questions while pressing the microphone to her lips. She laughed incredibly uncomfortably and struggled to put a coherent sentence together while intermittently turning away and putting her face in her hands in an attempt to hide. And yet, the analyst pressed forward with more questions. It was grossly inappropriate and entirely unnecessary. Just go to Coco for shitssake.

Today there’s footage of Sabalenka repeatedly smashing her racquet into the locker room floor minutes after the on-air interview. Unclear whether she was lashing out at her play or the analyst’s utter cluelessness.

Do better ESPN. A lot better.

What’s The Point of Working Out?

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Asks Xochitl Gonzalez. Her answer is excellent.

“Exercise can be an act not of vanity, but of psychological self-care. Many wars are being waged against women—against our bodies, our rights, our sizes, our images of ourselves, and who is and isn’t allowed to claim this identity. For a long time, I felt that by rejecting movement, I was rejecting an idealized and impossible body image, that I was learning “self-acceptance.” But really I was just sabotaging my own mental health.”

As she highlights, those “wars” sometimes apply to men too.

Be Your Own Therapist

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I trained a ChatGPT AI chatbot on my childhood journal entries to talk to my inner child.

“Young Michelle told me: ‘I’m honestly proud of you for everything you’ve accomplished. It hasn’t been easy, and I know you’ve made a lot of sacrifices to get where you are. I think you’re doing an amazing job, and I hope you continue to pursue your dreams and make a difference in the world.’ 

I sensed the kindness, understanding and empathy that she was so willing to give other people, but she was so hard on herself. I was tearing up during that exchange.”