A word about my weight. I don’t want to talk about it.

It an emotional issue. My emotional issue.

Directly related to my  emotional health, to trauma. Part of it is genetic, too.

I’m sorry I mentioned it at the end of my post the other day.

I regret this. It was an error in judgment. I’m deeply sorry.

My weight is my lifelong problem…

It’s not simply that I do not like being overweight. However, I’m not going to spend a lot of time discussing this, right now. Maybe sometime later. I don’t think it’s wise or healthy to obsess about weight and I hate myself for doing it. I’m working on stopping it.

I detest “Fat Talk” and it should be stopped…

Would you believe that severe swelling of my calves was caused by stress and heat?

My kidney transplant team never mentioned that possibility. Everything was A-Okay as far as they were concerned and they sent me back to my family doctor.

My psychiatrist Dr. Bob said it was highly unlikely, when I asked him a month or so ago.

It never crossed my G.P.’s mind.

So for more than four weeks, I was stressed beyond belief.

No one knew what was wrong with me…

I was tested for obstructions. Another word for cancer or a tumour. Was there something preventing the fluid in my legs from going back into my body? That’s what my G.P. wanted to know.

As I was battling with my compression pantyhose. Teaching. Travelling. Public speaking. Managing my household. Walking my two Dandie Dinmonts three times a day. Trying to not worry. At the back of my mind, I kept thinking it might all be stress. And heat. I always swell in the heat.

Yet no one ever took me seriously…

We all have to start talking openly and strategically about these issues ~ in the workplace.

When it comes to mental health and well-being, it’s high time attitudes changed ~ from the top down and from the bottom up. And in middle-management, too. Especially.

It’s time to take action…

Education is the key.

If you’re an employer, middle manager, boss, consider listening actively and empathetically to anyone who needs to talk to you. Give them time. Open your mind.

Learn to listen with your eyes, ears and heart…

Work at developing a healthy workplace. Statistically, healthy and happy workers are more productive and they save they’re companies billions of dollars a year in lost productivity and absenteeism.

I’m back after a whirlwind tour of eastern and southwestern Ontario ~ Ottawa and Windsor ~ and two presentations that I think went very well.

At least, I hope so. I never know. For sure.

What matters most to me is that my presentations provoke thought…

That corporate, government and business leaders, human resources managers ~ the groups I addressed last week ~ learn to accept, understand and realize the profound impact of mental health issues especially in our pressure-cooker workplaces during this listless economy of ours right now.

Why are we expected to check our emotions and problems at the door and become “professionals” at work?

It’s so unrealistic. So unfair. So unrelentingly stress-inducing…

Mental health problems, issues, challenges, illnesses affect all of us ~ directly and indirectly ~ at some time in our lives. You can’t turn yourself and your feelings off and on ~ at whim.

In a footnote in my last post, I mentioned that I made my mother’s Super Duper Cranberry Chutney.

In a comment, Jessica, the remarkable manager of all the blogs at PsychCentral requested the recipe. Perhaps I should have posted this recipe in a comment, but it’s so delicious, I wanted to share it with you. I hope you love it as much as I do. Really, it has nothing to do with mental health and wellness, but it’s sooooo good. Lifts the spirits and to be honest, there’s relatively little sugar in it so it’s not unhealthy.

Please forgive the photography…

Two minutes ago, I ran upstairs, spooned some of my chutney into a glass bowl and attempted to take a picture of it with my iPhone. I don’t know if this image does this scrumptious recipe any justice, but it’s the best I can do, right now.

I’m no food stylist, but I wanted this presentation to be authentic…

This is one of my favourite weeks of the year ~ National Mental Health Awareness Week ~ and I’m going on the road.

Here’s a newspaper story ~ second item ~ about what I’ll be up to in Windsor, Ontario on Thursday at the Canadian Mental Health Association Windsor-Essex County Branch Make It Work Conference. I love the focus of this conference.

“Creating a respectful workplace, understanding mental illness, accommodations for mental illness in the workplace, grief and its impact on the workforce and recognizing the signs of mental illness with your professional team.”

Mental health in the workplace is a hot topic these days…