Getting High on Recovery

Join me for the 7 Day Self-Care Challenge

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Why do we automatically think that Mental Health is a negative term that describes a lack of health in our mind or our emotions… yet when we think of Physical Health, we more naturally describe a more complete experience?

Break an arm? Go to the hospital.

Feel depressed or anxious or having intrusive thoughts or drinking incessantly for days at a time? Bet you won’t go to the hospital. Many of you will suffer silently and if you are a man, you will access services less than half as often as your female friends and family members.

When you face a mental illness, you have many things to overcome:

• Stigma – what other people might think or what they might say
• Your own fear
• Familiarity and your comfort zone
• Your imagination
• Your gender – men are  less likely to access health care and 50% less likely to access mental health care services.

But caring for your mental health is not about making huge decisions to see a therapist or admitting that you may have an illness. Caring can be something as simple as one decision a day, for just seven days.

Contrary to what you think, self care is not something created by the self-help movement. It’s what you do every time you watch TV, talk with a friend or a partner or reach for your favorite drink. Some of these things are healthy and others, well, they might need a little work.

To join this challenge, you are joining Steve Austin, who knows that recovery and self care are possible because he has hit rock bottom and lived to tell about it. By displaying a great deal of vulnerability, courage, and grace, Steve hopes this simple 7-day challenge will motivate others to not only seek the help they need, but also spark a discussion around the necessity of self-care in everyday life.

You can join the self care challenge by clicking here or by clicking on the photos: Join the Self-Care Challenge

Join me and Keep it Real

Photos by Steve Austin