Our epidemic of disconnection

Hello everyone! 

To go alongside all posts from our YouTube channel, there will be a blog entry to go with the topic discussed in our YouTube videos. I know processing information through only written, visual, or audible forms can be difficult. To help address this, the videos posted on the YouTube channel will be covering the same content as blog posts, but in a condensed format. While Blog posts will provide more context, and resources used for discussing the topic.


This post is going to directly expand upon the video - Community Spotlight: Introduction. 

I wanted to provide more resources and context for an aspect of our modern-day mental health crisis. 
I hope to answer some questions, such as - how do we know this crisis is happening? And for our musical community, what are some practical steps to improve and care for one another?
   
The most recent reports from the CDC and the NIMH as of 2018 show that suicide is the second leading cause of death for teenagers and young adults (ages 15-34)

The number one leading cause of death is listed as "unintentional". This category is broad and can include such things as car crashes, getting struck by lightning, or animal attacks. This means that the number one potential cause for my age group is determined, mostly, by random chance. With the second-highest cause of death being suicide, we can deduce some understanding from this. We learn the most likely and controllable factor for our generation's deaths is us.

The highest risk factor for you is you. 

Modern medicine as people say, truly is a modern-day miracle, and has been inspiring to see what has been accomplished within my own generation alone. To list a few 

• As seen by this last year's pandemic with the assistance of Ventilator, pumped oxygen in and exhaled stale oxygen out of Covid-19 patients lungs. 
• We can, through a feeding tube and IV, supply humans with food and water to keep bodies functioning and avoiding dehydration and ketoacidosis
• If there are failures with vital organs such as a heart, lung, liver, it is possible to transplants parts or whole organs from other beings into other humans

Medicine can breathe for you, provide nutrients for you, and keep organs running or supply other organs to avoid organ failure and death. 
But it can not, and will not, be able to protect you from yourself. 
Does this mean that we as colleagues, friends, and teachers can not help and support our loved ones? No, quite the contrary. We can offer support, we can be a listening ear, we can offer resources, but we need your help, we all need to be involved in this. 

The biggest trap and feeling with depression, is that is a constant, and has no end. But, if the brain can live with depression, it also can live without it. Living with depression, the constant advice and direction from others are to contact mental health professionals, get a referral, find a counselor. What I think is hard to explain is how exhausting, vulnerable, and difficult this process is, and that’s ok. You do not need to go through this process alone.

Ask for help from a friend, say exactly that. 
When we live with these challenges by ourselves, they do feel so daunting, but when asked by a friend to help with a problem, we often help and see solutions so clearly.

As musicians, this happens all the time - 

• A composer asks for help from some instrumentalist understanding some intricacies of the instrument
• A colleague asks for someone to listen to him, leading up to an audition
• A new freshman in your studio isn’t sure what to play for their first recital and asks you for recommendations

All of us have personal experiences with these three situations, and in every case, someone is willing to, without any alternative motive, help and support these individuals. Our community of musicians is a caring, loving one, we simply have to give each other a chance to show it. Talk to your teacher, your colleagues, your friends, your family. We have so much support to offer as a community, we simply have to give each other a chance. 

I hope that these community spotlights can be a way for us all to learn, de-stigmatize, and support ourselves as musicians. 

Peace and joy, 

Emmet Harris 


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