The Hidden Side of Mental Health in Journalism and Law Enforcement

I think in journalism, we don't talk about ourselves. We don't talk about our trauma because it's always about the person we've done a story on. And I couldn't for the longest time come to someone and say, you know what? I'm really having a hard day. I just interviewed a parent, a parent, whose teenage son stabbed her two younger children to death and she couldn't stop it. Her story is more traumatic and more important any day of the week. How where do I get the right to go talk about my mental health? And so I didn't until I was in trouble. And so we need to more I I I want to and I advocate with her to reporters. We need to talk about our mental health. We need to normalize talking about mental health. We need to normalize talking about the fact that we're in trouble. And we need to educate the managers who are not aware of what trauma looks like to provide them information so they can make better assignment decisions. Right. So I know that's a really long answer to your question. It was a very, appropriate answer. And and so with that said, you know, we let's shift from from media personnel suffering, you know, trauma, from from the stories that they've covered. Right? I know that it would affect me. Let's move to to k twelve. Right? There's an event. Let's just, you know, at a high school. Okay? Mass shooting. Staff comes back, students come back. Do you feel like there's enough resources that are put in place after these particular types of events to monitor the mental health of those individuals who've come back. Let's take let's take Santa Fe or Yavali. For example, well, let's take let's take Yavali, for example. May of twenty twenty two, that happened. K? We're about to approach the second year anniversary. May of twenty twenty two from May until September is a very short period of time. And there I just don't think my opinion is that there's not enough mental health resources to ensure that those individuals who fulfill or were fulfilling their pledge to continue to educate those children in that community or any town of America who suffered such of a a tragedy. I don't think there's not there's enough resources in the world to make sure that all of those staff members and students that are coming back, are there or they're, effective And so how do we get to the point where we're training our staff, our superintendents, our cabinet members, our school board members on what's appropriate to say, what's not appropriate to say, is that something that you at Vick's story can do for these individuals. You know, as far as communication with these individuals who may have suffered some type of trauma, is that something that you do? I have partners who do that. Okay. I have partners who are trained, victim advocates because that is victim advocate language and victim advocate approach. I would have strategies as to how you would communicate with your community, what messaging to put out to just remind people that it is okay to feel maybe the way they feel. Right. Right. There are proven. There's, you know, a list of after the Boston marathon bombing. The agency that handled and helped with the victims there. Just put out like a a list, short list you can be feeling like this. You may have loss of sleep. You may not wanna eat, or you may be eating too much. And just put it out around the city. And the numb I was told a story that a number of people that came back to that person said, I'm not broken. I just feel this way. This is what trauma looks like. Mhmm. We just need to communicate with people what trauma could look like in them so they can I don't know if you can ever feel right or normal that it never comes back? It's a new normal. Yeah. Right? I agree with that one hundred percent. And, you know, for me, you know, I'm not afraid to say this that, you know, having been someone who you know, experience certain levels of trauma even throughout my childhood, you know, and everybody's level of trauma is different. Right? And I think that's what we need to understand is that some people's trauma is defined or looks different than others. We still don't discredit that individual who is It's not a competition. It's not a competition. You're a hundred percent correct. You hit the nail on the head. It's not a competition. And, for me, I was always a really stressed out kid. Like, you know, loved my parents. They were the best parents they provided. But my parents just did not get along through the divorce or after the divorce. And so, you know, as I got older and got into a stressful job, you know, listen, I've never claimed to be anything that I'm not, but there was certain levels of stress that I think that the majority of us were under which you know, of always feeling the need to be, right, all the time or having a no fail mission. Mhmm. But you don't really attribute at the time as trauma, but that certain level of performance of being held to a higher standard after a while begins to kinda wane on you. And, you know, I'm a firm believer in the national threat assessment center. And what they talk about, you know, those pre attack indicators, the observations of behaviors and early warning signs, And what I know through data and research is that there's always some triggering event that sets a person into motion And for me, it was the death of my father, you know, in two thousand nineteen, January of two thousand nineteen, which created this complete downward spiral where, you know, not that things weren't important to me. It's just I started noticing the same signs and symptoms and early warning signs in myself that I had been teaching our staff about and that I had been speaking across the nation about And I'm diagnosing, you know, I'm not a medical professional, but I'm I'm self diagnosed. You do this enough and you you kinda learn, you know, how to do this. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Don't need a PhD to tell me something wrong. Right. And, you know, for me in May of that year, it was, you know, May of twenty twenty. After being, you know, completely, tried to be, you know, I want individuals in certain groups tried to complete to destroy my character, based off lies, which later came out, you know, and it was exposed. It was all lies. For me, it was hard for me to handle, and it I wanted to be violent. And it was, you know, finding a myself in the hospital in May of twenty twenty, thinking that I was having a heart attack and having a very conscientious doctor that had suffered the same symptoms that I had prior when his father passed away that led me to start going to get counseling myself. And so You know, I have a good friend of mine, doctor Adam Science, who is very well respected in the in the mental health space. And him and I talked. We've talked before, and then I've talked to, you know, my doctor and then a therapist, at the time. And they're like, look, man, mental health doesn't care how strong you are.