“Awesome,” the social worker for Clermont Mercy’s Behavioral Health Institute said after sitting in on my National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) talk at the Clermont Mercy Hospital in Batavia, Ohio. Internally, I sighed with relief. I had just completed my first Friday NAMI talk at the Behavioral Health Unit at Clermont Mercy in months.

My name is Danei Edelen. I am the founder and president of the NAMI Brown County Ohio affiliate established in Brown County Ohio in June of 2018. We have been offering NAMI’s support groups in Brown County for over a year. Since July of 2018, I have routinely given a “talk” every other Friday about who NAMI is, what are the NAMI programs that can help, and shared my personal struggle at Clermont Mercy Hospital’s Behavioral Health Institute.

Where I’ve been

You probably haven’t heard from me in a while. For the last seven months, I’ve been out of commission, dealing with my own struggles. As can happen to anyone that lives with a mental illness, my mental illness unexpectedly struck in the form of a sodium deficiency that landed me in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for five days because my blood sodium level mysteriously dropped to 114. A normal blood sodium level is between 135 and 145 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L). Hyponatremia occurs when the sodium in your blood falls below 135 mEq/L. 

First, I landed in ICU due to sodium deficiency, then I missed my son’s high school graduation due to a visit to the University of Cincinnati Psychiatry because of psychosis. With mental illness, there are no guarantees. You can be “on top of the world” and then your body will betray you.

(more…)

These days, there is always a new digital tool to master, a recently developed approach to try out, or the latest news to keep up with — and employees are expected to constantly adapt in order to thrive. In fact, Forbes reports that no matter what industry you’re in, it is essential for you as an employee to continuously learn to improve your knowledge and develop your skill set to succeed in today’s rapidly evolving world of work.

This environment encourages us to take charge of our personal development and try to maximize the countless learning opportunities available online and offline. But all this effort doesn’t come without a cost.

On the importance of mental wellness

(more…)