SUNDAY NIGHT SLIDES
Pre-launch access to MeOs: my new mental health tracking system.
The results from my end-of-year newsletter poll about burnout levels were that 67% of subscribers were on the verge and in need of a break, 25% were managing mediocrely and only 8% were thriving.
Now let’s try and do something about that.
When I was training to become a mental health nurse, a few months before my 18th birthday back in 2008, my mentor was a man for whom another person’s diagnosis label on their record was as good as irrelevant.
He was a man who saw a person for their current presentation, as a culmination of their life experiences that had led to this point in time: living a freedomless existence within a psychiatric unit for their own safety or that of the general public’s.
He was a man who saw a person – a human being – for being their own version of human. The only way they knew how. Without prejudice but with hope. Without discrimination but with inclusion. Without condescension but with candour.
It was his behaviour that fostered a culture of care that I certainly wasn’t expecting but could actively see in the eyes of the down and downtrodden. Down but not out.
It was his behaviour that fostered a culture of communication without constraints. The ability to cut through the noise and encourage openness as one ultimately led to abnormally positive patient outcomes, but most importantly, made an inherently traumatic experience more like a hopefully rehabilitative one.
Less penitentiary warden.
More becoming well, man.
I trace back much of who I am as a person to those formative years.
Instead of moving away for university (my grades wouldn’t allow) or taking a travelling gap year (my bank balance wouldn’t allow), I spent hours-upon-hours sat in the lounge area of an all-male acute inpatient ward trying, somehow, and often in vain, to be a positive influence on the people within my duty of care.
Sometimes that was simply a listening ear.
Sometimes that was subtle words of encouragement.
Sometimes that was shaping a newfound sense of self-esteem.
But no two approaches were ever the same. Every one as individual as the next. Some, in severe cases, had to follow strict care plans that included heavy pharmacological interventions with less therapeutic care.
But only in severe cases.
It’s the ‘messy middle’ that I care most about.
The surviving but not quite thriving.
Health services treat mental illness much the same as they do physical health. Observing the presentation of obvious or self-expressed symptoms, labelling them as disorderly when they’re debilitating enough, and then using medication as the primary (easiest) care pathway to predictably unsuccessful outcomes.
And we all know why that is 🤑
The model of care that I’ve been working on for over a year now is one that is based on three fundamental design principles and focuses more on the behavioural aspects of mental health treatment that’s effective in anxiety, compulsive, and traumatic-based disorders of the mind.
Acceptability
Accountability
Actionability
Acceptability. The ability to accept; starts with understanding and acknowledging who you are as a person. Where you’ve come from, your shining light and your blind spots, your communication language and attachment style. What makes you, you.
Accountability. The ability to be held accountable; progresses with a world that starts to revolve more around a person’s responsibilities in life than just themselves. Less main character energy, more film director. Less what happens to me, more what happens for me. Radical feedback and open communication from third-party support here is critical.
Actionability. The ability to take action; completes the trifecta by developing a bias for making decisions that are grounded in strong foundations that will lead to better mental health management. What works for me will almost certainly not work for you. Achieving a flow state of autonomous action is the ultimate goal.
How does this look in practice?
Below is a screenshot from my new mental health tracker system, MeOS, based on those principles. It doesn’t overfocus on introspection via mood and emotion tracking throughout the day, nor is it designed overtly feminine which accounts for roughly three-quarters of apps on the market today.
This tracker system is as much for people who feel they are on top of things as it is for those who are struggling. If everything’s under control, keep it that way by staying on top of your commitments. If many elements are out of control, you have the evidence to seek support and lessen the burden.
Mental ill-health doesn’t often give forewarning.
This tracker system only works in the present moment in time. It forgets the past and cannot worry about the future; giving you a clear vision to focus on the elements of life that need controlling and only requires a weekly or fortnightly check-in to update your scores with a trusted accountability partner. To help and be helped.
It’s effective because it reduces overwhelm by being your second ‘digital’ brain.
It knows the behavioural warning signs of worsening mental health because you’ve told it so. It knows the mechanisms that you need to action in order to stay steady because you’ve told it so, and it has a personalised intervention plan should your score fall below your pre-agreed threshold – because you’ve told it so.
Your mental health management isn’t solely your responsibility.
MeOS is a template that’s built in Notion, so you’re able to duplicate it and easily rearrange the examples to reflect your own situation.
Take advantage of my introductory offer as I’m giving away the template to the first 100 people who download it using the discount code FIRST100.
I LOVE this. I also have an idea (well multiple) we need to talk again soon! Tom 😊