Hey guys it’s Kerwin here and I’ll be really honest with you I was a little bit nervous about posting this video.
Mental illness is a subject very close to my heart. It’s affected not just people in my family but also in my friends and my network and I didn’t want to downplay the effects and the impacts that mental illness has on people.
I didn’t want to generalise too much as I may have done in the video about bipolar having good days and bad days. I know there’s a lot more to it but please understand the intent in this video is to serve anyone regardless of the situation but especially those who might need it more than anyone. I hope this hits home.
I don’t like the term mental illness. I prefer the term mental advantage because a lot of these labels are just certain characteristics and behaviours that are considered different from other people.
ADHD, is a great example, dyslexia is another great example.
Just a little bit about me, I was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia at the age of 7.
For those of you who don’t know what ADHD means, ADHD means that I have an untapped amount of energy to be able to focus on multiple projects at any one time, and dyslexia means I have the unique ability to able to look at every single situation, problem or opportunity in a different way, very different from most other people around me to see the things that others can’t.
Because a lot of people think those things are bad but they’re actually really, really powerful if you tap into them the right way.
So, I’ve gone and I’ve done a lot of research on bipolar, Asperger’s and autism, and what I find really interesting is if 100% of people did the general bipolar assessment, what it would come out the other end?
Probably between 80 to 90 per cent of people would be indicated as either you know, low-level, mid-level or depending, you know, some cases even more on the spectrum of bipolar.
I find that really interesting because bipolar can be one of those conditions that can really serve people when it comes to being an entrepreneur. Because bipolar means you have up days and you have down days and I don’t know about you but there are some days where I have loads of energy and there are some days that I’m very reflective and I prefer to use that to my advantage rather than give it a label that says that I have some form of an illness.
In fact, it’s a very common trait with self-made entrepreneurs that many suffer from, I should say, they enjoy ADHD and dyslexia.
I don't like the term mental illness. I prefer the term mental advantage. Click To TweetSo, I think when we look at, you know, mental illness as an entrepreneur, when we look at what actually amplifies the illness component, what do you think it is? Stress.
And what do you think amplifies stress? Business? No, business doesn’t amplify stress. Business is not stressful at all. It’s our perspective on the events in our business that create the stress. It is the frame through which we view the movie.
You know, is that a massive failure that is catastrophic or have I finally now just learnt the lesson that I need that hurt a little bit, that makes me want to brace a little bit more to go to that next level.
The amplification of whether it be, stress or illness, is really governed by our perspective and if you can have a perspective that every single thing in your life is serving you and that you’re grateful for every single event in your life, you experience in some cases, no stress whatsoever.
So what do you think is required in order to be grateful for all the bad things that are going on in your life right now, as well as the good things?
The right perspective. Just frame things differently.
Choose the frame for the events that are happening that you want them to wear in order to regulate in a more healthy way.
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Hi Kerwin, I wanted to thank you for this video. It really has shifted my perspective on this topic for myself, and for people I care about. While I have always seen mental illness as something to be ‘struggled through with’, the concept of it actually being an advantage never occurred to me.
I really appreciate your opening this avenue of though for me.
Jez
Your article on mental health– Written by someone who himself hasn’t got a mental illness and therefore the relevance is opinion and sympathetic based apposed to emotion and empathy based. If anyone knows someone with bipolar, they know that there is a lot more to it than just ‘more energy some days than others’ – to say that shows the caliber of this guys knowledge, or lack there of.
Mental health/ illness should be treated like cancer, ms, etc it’s people like this who unfortunately dumb down mental health and completely place everyone’s eggs in the one basket. People like this should meet with real people and families who have suffered mental health, people who have lost someone to suicide, people with bipolar and PND, PSD etc… it’s a real thing, it’s not a matter of a good and bad day or how you look at things. You don’t know until you have had it.
From someone who fell ill after my second baby with PND and severe anxiety.
Tessa Gunn,
I 100% agree with you. Dyslexia while impacting a person and their education is not a mental illness.
Each mental illness is also not a one size fits all, while there is a diagnosis criteria it can impact and present differently in individual people.
I would be interested to hear how he generalises the experience of people living with depression, ptsd etc to show how they can be advantaged.
A person can be driven to get better, not maintain a victim mentality, and still be/feel limited by their mental illness. Hence depression being described as the black dog a presence that feels separate to you but takes over.
It is all well and good to speak about not being a victim, being at fault (a better phrase would be ‘be accountable’) and taking back you power etc etc but that language can be damaging to people that are doing all of these things and yet are unable to beat their depression at times. Setting a percentage of people up to believe they are failures with a one size fits all approach, a lack of thorough evidence based understanding about mental illness, just to make money for yourself is truly disturbing and irresponsible.
I’ve learnt to think of my ADHD diagnosis as a ‘cognitive profile’. There are many cognitive profiles in this world, alas mine was punished severely at school, but a diagnosis in my boy allowed me to confront, explore and then leverage this profile. Definitely a subject to discuss and share. Thanks.