CATK NDEAM TAKEOVER: Disability Solutions' Amanda Burris

[00:00:00] We've been about this work, diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, shared through the voices of a white woman and a black man. We bring lived experiences. We have pursued D&I progress for most of our professional lives.

[00:00:17] We use Crazy and The King to cover news, tips from colleagues and hosts, incredible guest listeners. We count on Julie and I to transparently drive the conversation. We thank you for rocking with us. Check it. Julie kick off the show.

[00:00:39] So this is our final episode of our first time doing a Crazy and The King Takeover. Now, I know I came in a little bit different because see Julie would normally say, Welcome to Crazy and The King. She's got a slow, real cool intro.

[00:01:09] And then I come in with all this energy and I'll always hit her with something like from left field, something she never knows where I'm going to come from. It's always something from left field. So today we're going to do it a little bit differently.

[00:01:23] We're going to start all over again. We're going to kind of stay here, but we're going to start all over again. And my co-host is going to say, Welcome to Crazy and The King.

[00:01:34] And then I'm going to hit her with something from left field because I wanted to feel like Jay and I are rocking.

[00:01:41] Jay is off doing the thing, gallivanting Europe. And I'm here holding it down and happily holding it down for our last episode of the October Crazy and The King Takeover. But Amanda, I want you to kick us off real quick.

[00:01:58] All right. Well, welcome to Crazy and The King. No, no, no, no, no, no. We're going to do it again. We're going to do it again.

[00:02:07] Sometimes I get to do this with Julie. I get to, but see Julie will cheat. Julie will stop the recording and then she wants it to be just perfect.

[00:02:15] So she'll stop the recording and we'll start all over again. And then listeners, they don't get to hear like this good juicy like B-Row. What do you call it? Blooper version. And that wasn't even a blooper. It's just that I'm challenging you digitally to do it again.

[00:02:34] I'm just going to challenge you digitally to do it again. Just one more time. Welcome to Crazy and The King.

[00:02:40] And so I got to tell you, Amanda, I am extremely happy that you stepped up and said you would co-host and rock with me during this Crazy and The King Takeover.

[00:02:52] We're not going to tell people just yet why you were sitting in during the month of October National Disability Employee Awareness Month.

[00:03:02] But we are going to tell people a bit about who you are. So again, thanks for rocking with me and being my co-host. Who is Amanda Burris? Oh, well, Amanda Burris from a work standpoint. I'm the director of sales at Disability Solutions. I love my job.

[00:03:18] Personally, I'm an advocate for people who live with disabilities whether they're invisible or visible. I love my husband, live out in Spokane. I have two beautiful dogs, Benny and Jet, and I love my life. You say you love your husband? I love my husband. He's a great man.

[00:03:36] What's his name? Let's give him a shout out. What's his name? He's a horse. He's fantastic. That's right. We're giving him a good shout out. We're giving him a good shout out. Yes, yes, yes. Spokane, Washington. How long have you been out there?

[00:03:48] Going on five years this February. Where'd you move from? Seattle, Washington. Okay. So you've been that upper North West for a while now? Yes. Pretty country, right? Yeah. Good stuff. Beautiful.

[00:04:04] So let me hit you with this curveball from left field. I'm of an age where I don't really remember Spirit Week in high school. Do you remember Spirit Week in high school? I remember a lot of things in my life and yes, I do remember Spirit Week.

[00:04:22] So did you participate? Like, did you do the things that they asked you to do in high school or challenged you to do or allowed you to do?

[00:04:31] I played sports and so on days where you wear sport stuff. I did that in PJ day, but some days I definitely didn't participate in. Okay. All right. So let me try to make this story fairly quick.

[00:04:43] When he listens to this, he's going to absolutely get me, but this is about my youngest king. So this one of the days that they had Amanda for Spirit Week was anything other than a book bag. Anything other than a book bag.

[00:05:02] So he had to bring something that he could carry his books in outside of a book bag. Originally, he wanted a target shopping cart.

[00:05:14] We saw a couple of target shopping carts sitting out one of the lights by the intersection and he was like, dad, hop out, put it in your truck. Let's use the target shopping cart. I considered it. He talked about it with his mom.

[00:05:28] His mom was like, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Cool. So we tried to make some concessions. I went up to Home Depot. I said maybe Home Depot would give me a shopping cart.

[00:05:40] Home Depot said, no, because if anything happens in the school, we don't want to be liable. But we love the idea. So we're going to give you a wheelbarrow brand new wheelbarrow Amanda.

[00:05:52] So they give me the wheelbarrow. Long story short, I was out of town when he needed it and I have the biggest vehicle. Wheelbarrow wouldn't fit in the other vehicle. So we had to go with an alternative.

[00:06:05] Here's the alternative. We get him a brand new construction or commercial mop bucket. He goes to school dressed up like a janitor.

[00:06:15] It is such a hit that he ends up making posters and you know how you have class king or school president, whatever these little not little but these things are. My king puts up posters and he says I'm running to be janitor of the year.

[00:06:40] Put the QR code on, put a picture of him dressed up as a janitor had his book, his books in the mop bucket had a real mop. I mean, when I say it was good, it was good. When I say I'm bragging, it was good.

[00:06:57] So much so that people were like, we love this. Amanda, you know he got in trouble for putting those pictures up. Why? Well, I won't go into all the detail but they actually gave my man one hour of in school suspension.

[00:07:16] And so I just I said back and I shared that story because yes, he was attempting to have fun.

[00:07:27] I could see if they were upset and said, well, we got to take the pictures down because you know we can't show favoritism towards you and the creativity that you had.

[00:07:38] We want to be consistent. You know, if someone puts up a racist or homophobic message or someone puts up something that may be a bit political or what we just need to be uniform. If they would have said that to him, I would say, you know what?

[00:07:53] Got you. That's good. But the reasons they came back and corrected him scolded him, if you will, and placed him in in school punishment caused me pause.

[00:08:06] And not so much so that as a father, I feel like I need to go up to the school or as a black father, I feel like I need to go up to the school and I say that for distinction.

[00:08:18] But I feel like it was a lesson for the adults in leadership that you have to do a better job of communicating your messaging and making sure that when you are holding a person accountable,

[00:08:35] that you are staying specific to the issue in which you are holding them accountable and you're not bringing in a whole bunch of all outside influences and extra stuff that absolutely makes no sense.

[00:08:49] But the reason I tell the story is because Julie and I we always use our podcast in part as a historical reference point and I want him to be able to look back years from now.

[00:08:59] And to remember historically, he caused a little bit of creative ruckus at his high school. You know what I mean? Yeah. I well, until the story, I was like, man, that's so creative and then to hear. Well, I think there's definitely better ways to have gone about that.

[00:09:13] And I think that schools need to be thinking about that inclusion is inclusion, but we also need to enhance creativity and there's a fine balance.

[00:09:21] And I agree there's has he done things that causes him to get suspended before on this path? No, like warning. Let's have a conversation. But the right message.

[00:09:30] Absolutely. And speaking of creativity, some of us listen to music and I saw this piece around Spotify, which says that Spotify is set to post a bump in users and revenue. Now, are you a Spotify user? I am.

[00:09:47] So playlists like is their favorite genre for you? Do you have some purity playlist? Do you do your playlist in a way of helping you would work out helping you with your diagnosis? Tell me how you engage with Spotify.

[00:10:01] I mean, it's changed over the last, I would say 10 or 12 years. I've got playlists that I made way back when in fact one of them popped up yesterday and I was like, wow, this was kind of sad music about 10 12 years ago.

[00:10:14] And then I also pick up some of my favorite artists like Tom Petty and then let that kind of, you know, curtail afterwards. And I also like that Spotify has learned me. And so they've introduced me to new music. And so I let mine just kind of go.

[00:10:30] Yeah, so you said something you said it showed you a list from 10 or 12 years ago. So I don't use Spotify. Nothing against them. I just don't use them.

[00:10:40] So do they have like an algorithm or something? Like if you clicked on an old song from the 19, I don't know 60 or 70s it triggers them to say, oh, wait a minute, she listened to this a decade ago. How does that work?

[00:10:56] I there, I think it's a couple of different things the type of genre of music that you listen to. So you listen to Pearl Jam, White Stripes, Regina Spector and they're all in some playlist.

[00:11:08] When you end up playing that playlist and that playlist ends Spotify is like, oh, she likes this kind of music. I'm going to play her these artists. And so then you get inundated with new music. So it's got a little bit of a combo.

[00:11:20] Yeah. And so that's what my young King did. He actually just put his headphones on. He told me he was like, hey, dad, you may get a call this afternoon, you know, from the assistant principal.

[00:11:32] And here's the scenario. He looked at me. I looked at him. I smiled. He smiled because he knew as long as the king is cool, then he's cool and put his headphones on and he started listening to his music.

[00:11:45] But Spotify is looking at a bump in user and they said they feel like users and revenue going up is suggesting that there's a bit of resilience around consumer spending.

[00:11:59] Now, I'm not suggesting Amanda that people are going to keep their eye on Spotify and whether or not people continue to use.

[00:12:07] But the point is, if we are on the verge of a recession or something that is going to hit the economy in a way that is a bump or catastrophic.

[00:12:19] I believe a whole lot of people are going to be listening to music because we need all types of escapes from some of this negative news. Speaking of negative news, there are some out there who continue.

[00:12:33] I mean, they absolutely continue to beat the drum that being woke is not good. And that some happens to be one of the individuals who in 2019 2018 1919 19, I'm sorry, who in 2019 2020 started to complain about diversity training in the federal government. That person is Christopher Rufo.

[00:13:01] And if you have been listening to our podcast for any period of time, you have heard Julie and I talk about Christopher Rufo. I'm not giving out his Twitter handle. You can find them on your own.

[00:13:15] But this cat continues to beat down and challenge positions around diversity and inclusion. And in this instance, it's woke capitalism. He Amanda is going after organizations that are quote showing up in the public sphere as woke.

[00:13:43] Another way to talk about it is the acronym ESG environmental social and governance ESG initiatives. What's your feeling around people and or corporations because they are separate but made up of one, if you will. What's your position around being woke or woke capitalism? That's an interesting question.

[00:14:10] I actually remember when I very first heard the term and it was when I started working at disability solutions. Although I think that personally from a woke perspective, I guess I've been woke my whole life.

[00:14:20] I think that personal privileges and personal freedoms are personal freedoms and that comes down to humanity. And if the core of humanity and those freedoms aren't protected, then what do we have now from a corporate perspective?

[00:14:33] It's interesting. There's been lots in the headlines around corporations having to make some decisions, whether it's considered woke or not. And I think that we need to be making decisions from a corporate perspective that are truly inclusive, really normalizing people's individuality and what makes them unique.

[00:14:50] But I think that the company has to want to do that. I can't tell the CEO of the pillow company who's not maybe a woke person that he has to go do that.

[00:15:01] He runs his own company, but I also think that people who want to be employed and want to have personal freedoms and choices and to have an inclusive environment, they can go find a company who is doing those right things.

[00:15:12] And so I think there's it's a very interesting place right now for that. And that term woke for me. People are always going to find something to pick on somebody about. Why can't we just look at it as we're trying to be inclusive for everyone?

[00:15:27] It doesn't matter what your race, gender, ethnicity, sexual preference orientation is. We should be inclusive and corporations at their heart should start with thinking about protecting but also creating a space where employees feel that they can bring themselves to work. So that's how I feel.

[00:15:43] No, I absolutely appreciate that. You know, I'm curious you are how long have you been with your employer? A little over three years. Okay, got it. So you mentioned that you learned of the term at disability solutions. Yeah.

[00:16:02] I'm wondering just, you know, as you peer back in your professional history, have other employers celebrated the month of October National Disability Employee Awareness Month?

[00:16:15] Have you been employed with any other entity where they saw this month as one of importance and try to do some things to highlight people from the disability community? No. Never? Never. Were you aware of it before you joined disability solutions? No. Interesting. Not so much.

[00:16:38] It shouldn't be a surprise. Yeah, it's not one. It's not a surprise. You know, I just did that for sound effect. Let me see if I can replicate that. Interesting. Yeah. No, it's not.

[00:16:51] However, we're going to talk about why you are here co-hosting with me on this beautiful, beautiful afternoon. So let's take a quick break and then we'll come back into the episode to talk more about who you are, how you show up.

[00:17:08] And you mentioned a moment ago that full self and how we can do a far better job of allowing that fullness to come out and others that we are working with. So we'll be right.

[00:17:20] Do you love news about LinkedIn, Indeed, Google and just about every other recruitment tech company out there? Hell yeah. I'm Chad. I'm Cheese. We're the Chad and Cheese Podcast. All the latest recruiting news and insights are on our show. Dripping in snark and attitude.

[00:17:38] Subscribe today wherever you listen to your podcasts. We out. All right, so look, our conversation today of course is with my co-host, Amanda Burris. She is responsible for some and things, some of them things at disability solutions.

[00:17:58] So just real quick, you know, put it inside like that Twitter format. What is it that you do inside of disability solutions? And why did you decide to join me today as co-host? I'm actually going to reverse that.

[00:18:15] Let's talk about the why and then the what I do at disability solutions. I joined you today at one to talk about my invisible disability, which I am a person who lives with bipolar one.

[00:18:29] And about 12 years ago over a period of two years, I experienced about three manic episodes. And I then led to finding that there's not a lot of resources for mental health. There it's getting better.

[00:18:44] I think the pandemic has allowed to shed a light on mental health because more people experience that from an isolation perspective. But prior to that, like mental health to me was a four letter word and I would never mention it to my employer.

[00:18:58] And I was working on employers when I went through a couple of my episodes. So about eight or nine years ago, I ended up starting some advocacy groups, did some peer to peer coaching,

[00:19:10] but also went back into the employment field and sales and marketing that I was in. And that led me down the path to find disability solutions. And I reached out to my fearless leader friend mentor and she ended up hiring me to do sales.

[00:19:28] And so what I do isn't sales. What I do is beat down the doors of DEI professionals, how acquisition to say hello, we're here and we deserve a voice and we deserve a platform.

[00:19:42] And when I first joined disability solutions and you talk to these employers like disability was like 10, right? Like that's got legal implications. We don't want to talk about that. There's not that many people in my company with disabilities. And what we've actually seen is a growing progress.

[00:19:57] I mean, with George Floyd's murder, we saw diversity taking a different helm. But at the same time, disability started becoming part of the conversation because we're also in the middle of a pandemic.

[00:20:08] And so I'm out there telling DEI leaders and acquisition leaders and compliance people that it's not about a checkbox. It's about making sure that we're normalizing creating programs, a culture of trust.

[00:20:21] Because me as a person with a hidden disability, I don't have to tell you unless you're creating a place for me that is a platform, but not necessarily just a platform, but that you're allowing people with disabilities to join the workforce and not live with fear.

[00:20:38] That they're going to get fired if they say that they live with a disability that they're going to look down on that they're going to have to have conversations that they don't want to have. And so that's why I do what I do.

[00:20:48] And that's what I do every day. Let me ask you, you know, you said you mentioned you mentioned in your introduction you had three episodes manic episodes. Put a timeline on that how long ago was that? Yeah, absolutely. My first episode was February 11 of 2011.

[00:21:06] I then had a follow up episode in 2012 and April and my last episode which is celebration is going to be 10 years ago this December. So over a period of about two years.

[00:21:18] So I want to pull the covers back on that a bit and I want to learn something here.

[00:21:26] I want to learn something so this is not an episode where I went down a rabbit hole of doing a bunch of research because I wanted to be present rather than reading off a litany of questions, so to speak.

[00:21:41] And I felt I feel living through your experience is a different type of learning. I can always get to the questions and some of the data points on websites as can our listeners. I want to learn through through conversation.

[00:21:59] So when you say three episodes first being 2010 2011 ish the last one being almost 10 years ago. Are you suggesting are you saying to our listeners that prior to 10 and after 1213. There were no instances of your bipolar one showing up in a way that was visible to people around you.

[00:22:31] Oh gosh I mean, I'm a good actor. I would say that I probably started experiencing different things whether but you also don't know in teens whether that's teens going through puberty or it's actually a teen having some type of

[00:22:49] And I wouldn't say it was a manic episode because I had no manic episodes until 2011 and in fact there wasn't even any indication of that up until that moment. And so there were definitely depression.

[00:23:02] I dealt with different depression and different isolated incidents and in fact I was diagnosed and provided medication that wasn't good for someone with bipolar one because we've come so far in psychiatry we're learning more And a lot of your typical antidepressants aren't good for somebody with bipolar one.

[00:23:20] It can cause them to actually have some of those suicidal thoughts and so for me there was some diagnosis but it was literally at 29 years old. I mean, and it affected everyone around me nobody knew anything and nobody knew how to support it.

[00:23:35] They didn't know what to do as it was happening.

[00:23:38] And so there was a lot that was learned from my friends and family and community about how to support somebody who was going through that but also even furthermore how to support someone as they're getting healthy and coming out of that

[00:23:52] and allowing them to be individualistic and not think about the bipolar one as being the person. So there was a lot that was learned. So in this and I'm assuming if you are highlighting these three episodes, these three were the more or most intense.

[00:24:21] These three were the most if you'll allow me disruptive. These three were the ones that were the most pronounced.

[00:24:32] So as best as you can remember, how did you feel because you juxtapose it with, you know, I'm a young teen and yeah, I was a little depressed but I don't know if I'm just going through girl things puberty,

[00:24:51] you know, not feeling pretty enough got a couple of pimples on my face and I don't like that.

[00:24:56] You know the boys are not talking to me the girls are not talking to me and the cheerleaders don't like, you know all the things that we go through in high school.

[00:25:05] You understand all of the things that we all experience in high school and handle a little bit differently. You set that stage perfectly. So when these intense episodes appear, what's going through your mind?

[00:25:24] Oh, well when it was happening I mean when they perhaps maybe maybe I should say when you got to look back. I don't want to use the word or phrase rather quickly, but when you were in a position where you said, okay, I'm feeling different.

[00:25:42] I'm thinking and operating differently. Let me look back on what happened. What went through your mind? Well, first my episode was triggered by being laid off at an employer. I did find my job within that employer and then decided to leave that employer.

[00:25:59] And for me one of the things that was a trigger was how I was feeling about art and music. And a couple months later it was not sleeping for seven days, not thinking you need to eat.

[00:26:13] And it was pretty grandiose thoughts, not only about myself but universe that had to do with things like music, love, life. I was at the high of my game. I will tell you that as hard as it is to, I never want to go back.

[00:26:33] But I'll tell you the most beautiful moments that I've experienced in my life and all honesty was in those manic moments. So what goes up must come down.

[00:26:45] And so if you go that high and for that long, and my episodes did include where I was, what do they call it? 5150, you know, you go in for seven days and then you're three days and you're there for three weeks.

[00:27:02] So I had in-person care and out-person care and I had a lot of care during that time. But what happens is what goes up must come down and when you come down, that's the hardest part. Because you then realize what your diagnosis is.

[00:27:20] You then realize what you are and what everyone has seen. And you now have to go forward and you have to create a new path and you have to realize who your true self is.

[00:27:33] Because if you were something for 29 years and all of a sudden you're told that you're something else, then who are you really? And I think that there was definitely a loss of identity, which is why I cycled through two episodes fairly close together after the first.

[00:27:48] Because you don't want to be who you are when you get that diagnosis because it's that hard. So anyway, I think that covers it.

[00:27:57] What does that mean? When you say when you go high and you say these are some of the most beautiful moments, can you be a bit more illustrative? I mean, what is going up mean?

[00:28:09] Like I understand that if I'm using some sort of a drug and I have a high, when you say I love who I was in these moments, do you feel like you are someone different?

[00:28:20] Do you feel or are you able to document that your work performance is extremely better? You're more creative. What does going up mean to you, for you? In those moments I heard music in a different way that I never heard music before, just the different levels in music.

[00:28:39] One of the first things that I did was January 1st of 2011 instead of going to a New Year's party, I decided to paint a wall, paint a clouds and then wrote in the clouds and broke everything down.

[00:28:51] But I think that the person that I was playing for, I would say from 10 years old when my parents got a divorce until I was 29, was a different person than who I actually was.

[00:29:01] I was trying to put on the face of something that I wanted to be but that wasn't who I was. And so when you say creativity, that was the biggest enlightenment like art and music.

[00:29:10] And I wanted to play the guitar and I wanted to get up and I wanted to sing in front of people. And singing actually became the best therapy for me.

[00:29:21] I do a lot of karaoke, I sing with my dad every Saturday night since the Vantemic came on on virtual Zoom. But music was actually the thing that grounded me and then allowed me to kind of be able to move forward and gave me hope.

[00:29:37] So what does coming down look like? You know, and it's so interesting we started talking about Spotify and your playlists. Now there's an attachment to your response there and I can absolutely see you probably have a robust library of beautiful playlists. But what does coming down look like?

[00:29:58] You know, does coming down suggest for you again? And I keep saying for you because while I know that bipolar one is in a large number of individuals across the globe. I believe everyone interacts and experiences it individually. So what does coming down look like for you?

[00:30:21] Do you not want to do music? Do you not want to do karaoke? You know, on a different subject they said that Brittany Griners attorney wanted to take her a basketball while she's in prison over in Russia. And she said no.

[00:30:36] She said I can't think about touching a basketball right now because it's too painful. So what does coming down look like for you? The first time I slept for about three months afterwards like couldn't get out of bed.

[00:30:54] And when I say three months it was like 20 hours a day. My brain, I use every piece of serotonin and any type of chemical and I released it and it popped off and now I have to rebuild.

[00:31:07] And so there's gaps in my resume as a result of that. And I would say that some of the other things that I had to do was sit down and like color, cross stitch.

[00:31:18] I needed to keep myself busy but my brain, I needed to find a new balance. I needed to find a new way of thinking and moving forward and slowing my brain down while at the same time keeping myself busy because I wasn't working.

[00:31:36] Coming down for me too was realizing that I didn't want to be always the center of attention. I didn't want to be the life of the party. I had to make different choices of friendships. I had to make different choices of work and work environments for a while.

[00:31:56] I worked jobs where I was an executive assistant and a mortgage assistant because being an assistant was easy. I can do what someone asked me to do.

[00:32:06] And it was also rebuilding my own confidence when I came down because that was the hardest part was seeing through this tunnel because I felt like a canary in a coal mine. And so, yeah. Are you in any support groups?

[00:32:21] I have a very good family and friend network now but I was. I mean, I relied on, I had a great psychiatrist, therapist. I also use Sound Mental Health, which is out in the Seattle area.

[00:32:35] When I came home from an episode where I ended up in San Francisco, which is a whole nother story for another day, Toren. Sound Mental Health actually gave me a grant because I didn't have health care.

[00:32:46] So they made sure that I received the needs and I was in a support group there. And I also came back before I moved out here a couple of times and spoke to people who were going through similar experiences.

[00:32:58] Me as someone five, six, seven years later who'd come out of that and how important those support groups were for me because I thought that I was alone. But there's other people out there who experience things like me.

[00:33:11] And in fact, I think it's 2.5% of the population, 6 million people who experience bipolar one and there's also bipolar two and depression as well. Yeah, I was looking at that number. The National Co-morbidity Survey Replication or their acronym is NCS-R.

[00:33:30] They said an estimated you said somewhere about us 2.8% or so roughly 5.7 million adults diagnosed with bipolar. Every single year. Now, I'm assuming there is definitely a distinction between bipolar bipolar one. Am I safe in saying that or is there not a distinction?

[00:33:52] For bipolar one you have experienced one or more manic episodes. I think I believe it's seven days or more, which oftentimes relates to some of that not sleeping, not eating, usually needs hospitalization. And other therapy supports to be able to come down.

[00:34:12] And then bipolar two, that's where you're in a more depressive state. You will have manic cycling but you don't actually have that hypomanic episodes that you'll see in bipolar one. So it says at least some 4.4% of adults will experience being bipolar in their lifetime.

[00:34:37] And when I saw that number it struck me as wow. So I asked about the support groups for a reason because I know that leading and supporting developing an individual, keeping retaining an individual in the workplace that has been diagnosed is a thing.

[00:35:03] I don't know how to intensify, quantify, qualify that it's a thing. I just don't know what's a thing and why do I know it's a thing because my father was bipolar.

[00:35:17] I know it's a thing because my father lost employment and lost out on opportunities because of his being bipolar. I don't know if he was bipolar one, bipolar two. I just know he was bipolar.

[00:35:33] I know that he used to hide his vodka under the kitchen sink in a brown paper bag inside of another container. It wasn't the original liquor bottle that it came in. It was in another container in a brown bag under the sink as if we wouldn't find it.

[00:35:59] Right. So I asked about the support groups. Are you hearing or have you heard of other challenging stories around how people need to be supported in the environment, how they found breakthrough and been able to be welcomed in professional environments and things run smoothly?

[00:36:23] Can you give us a couple of examples either that you heard or of your own? Hmm.

[00:36:36] I'll say my own to start with and it wasn't until I came to disability solutions that I chose to disclose that I live with a mental health disability or the mental health disability that I had.

[00:36:49] And I did that probably about six to seven months into my employment with disability solutions with Julie. And it was important for me to share that with her.

[00:37:00] I was going to be published in an online article and wrote something and I really wanted her feedback for that because she shared with me certain personal things.

[00:37:13] And I wanted to make sure that I was doing due diligence to the supports that to offer other people who live with bipolar one.

[00:37:23] And at that time, it was very comforting and I think it helped her also be a better leader and manager and support system for me from an employment space.

[00:37:36] I also have a near and dear friend of mine who's on the Seattle area when she went out to look for employment. She was very honest about her own bipolar diagnosis.

[00:37:48] We were in a kind of a separate group for each other before I left Seattle and her employment has flourished and they're able to work with her and provide her the schedule and the needs but also the schedule every day. That allows her to be successful.

[00:38:06] And so I think that there's ways that it can be done well. But what I will say torn is unfortunately from an employment perspective.

[00:38:15] I mean when I was very first diagnosed and I think we've come a long way in the last 12 years but they told me that one in seven people with my diagnosis would attempt suicide.

[00:38:26] They also told me that I would most likely be on disability unemployment for the rest of my life. Oh, and that hit hard as somebody who needs work.

[00:38:35] And they also in the hospital that I was in they also told me that people with my diagnosis have a really hard time keeping their jobs because of their diagnosis.

[00:38:47] And so I also think that as we think about some of those supports we also need to make sure that employer organizations are prepared to help people not just with bipolar but any type of mental health disability and understand how to guide them in the right way to be able to get help for themselves.

[00:39:07] And in worse in worst case scenarios where someone really does need help you can dial 988 you can get somebody out there to help somebody when they aren't able to help themselves which oftentimes people with bipolar one when you're in a manic stain everything so happy you don't understand why everybody thinks something's wrong.

[00:39:26] So you are you raise so many points. The suicide piece is a big point. The 988 is a nice point. I believe that's a fairly new number started earlier this year if I'm not mistaken, I'm getting my days a little twisted but that's a fairly new number.

[00:39:52] I don't know if there's a number like that in the UK. But that is a fairly new number but the piece that you you raise the most for me is in how people communicated with you.

[00:40:12] And what you ran off for the most part were negative messaging's negative dispositions, negative vision for the life that you were going to pursue. And you are so vibrant and live.

[00:40:31] And so I'm thinking that you know part of that preparation that you mentioned in terms of the workplace while we've come a long way.

[00:40:39] I think where we can be better is yet again and how we communicate how we tell stories, how we are finding the frequency of support for the individuals inside of our organizations that if we could at least approach it in a more promising way.

[00:40:56] We may have better outcomes in terms of engagement, productivity, retention, so on and so forth. Would you agree? Yes, absolutely. And remember that a lot of mental health disabilities are invisible disabilities. And so it's not something that you can always see.

[00:41:18] And so we need to be more inclusive but we also for those who want to share their experiences, the more often time that I find that I've shared my experience, I find that someone says me too.

[00:41:32] And it helps them to know that there's somebody else out there and then that's also how you build that support system in that community, Toran.

[00:41:39] Yeah, final words, final thoughts. You know, what is it that you would want people that are listening? What is it that you would want them to take away from your sharing your living with bipolar knowing that there are so many that are also living with bipolar?

[00:41:59] What would you want to leave them with?

[00:42:04] Hope. I think that's the biggest one. Hope that tomorrow is a new day, that every day that you're taking care of your mental health and doing the right things for yourself and your experiences, you can get better and you can live a healthy life.

[00:42:22] And I think that's the most important thing that I could leave them with, but also know that if you want employment, there are employers out there who do want to support you and you do belong in an inclusive place that's hiring.

[00:42:35] And try. Believe it or not, the more you try, the better it gets. So yeah, how about that? Hope. How about that? Hope. How about that? We'll be right back.

[00:42:55] Our podcast explores the discoveries and trends forming the future of our lives. Brain to brain communication, robot bosses, microchip implants for workers and artificial intelligence replacing human workers are all happening now. If you want to know what's happening next, subscribe now to the Jim Stroud Podcast.

[00:43:16] Our her voice segment is where we amplify women that are making moves. Women that they deserve some amplification, they deserve being lifted up a bit. And Amanda, you have an interesting person share their name and why you chose to amplify them this week.

[00:43:43] Her name is Zahida Qureshi. She's out of Pakistan. She is someone who lives with a disability and contracted polio very earlier, early in her life. Living in Pakistan, they didn't have wheelchair supports for her.

[00:44:00] Oftentimes as a child, she would crawl around on the ground. But that didn't stop Zahida from going out and getting a degree and also starting up a nonprofit organization for society of special persons in Pakistan.

[00:44:19] It started in 2007. And over the last almost 15 years, her and her team have delivered over 6000 wheelchairs to people like her in Pakistan so that they can live their lives in dignity and also have the freedoms to be able to live their lives with dignity and the support and access to tools like wheelchairs to be able to do that.

[00:44:42] So I want to give a big shout out to her because I think what she's doing is amazing and it's important for us to think about disability on a global scale.

[00:44:52] I like it. I want to give a shout out to Demi Lovato. I want to do it to Mariah Carey. I want to do Carrie Fisher. You may remember Carrie Fisher played Princess Leia in Star Wars.

[00:45:05] I want to do it for Catherine Zeta Jones, Selena Gomez. Those are the individuals that I want to shout out this week and not because I want you struck by star power but because I want you struck by the fact that those individuals are stars and they've been transparent about their hidden disability that they are performing at an optimum level.

[00:45:29] And they also have a disability. I also want to give a shout out to Julie Sohosh, my co-host and co-partner as well as Amanda Burris for also being transparent this week and sharing her own personal travails and journey and triumph and tribulation all of the up and down that she's had with her diagnosis.

[00:45:54] So Amanda, a shout out to you and to your boss, Miss Julie Sohosh. Let's close the show with Disability Twitter. You have one person and then I have a hashtag. I want to add a hashtag to Disability Twitter just for this episode.

[00:46:10] Not going forward but just for this episode. What did you highlight?

[00:46:14] I highlighted Andre Picard. He ended up sharing about Air Canada and how they ended up ruining a woman's wheelchair that was worth $3,000 and only counter $300 for it. As a person who grew up in the airline industry, I'd say that airlines have a long way to go and supporting people with disability.

[00:46:35] They absolutely do. We've had and covered a number of wheelchair ruin stories on airplanes or through baggage handling. My hashtag is made, MAID.

[00:46:52] MAID, well I got to just tell you Amanda it took me some place where I wasn't expecting to go. So naturally I'm looking for Disability Twitter and then when I clicked on a link this particular person, Mitchell Tremblay, he's on Twitter at ODS poor.

[00:47:18] He's on Twitter at ODS poor and he actually used the hashtag MAID because it stands for medically assisted, medically assisted induced death or something like that.

[00:47:40] And I'm bringing it up. It is so germane to what you said a moment ago. He has been on, he has lived for the last 22 years and I'm not going to read the entire letter but if you go out to his Twitter page it's ODS poor.

[00:48:01] He actually wrote a letter to the Huma Committee up in Canada and it is a full letter sort of documenting his life over the last 22 years being on social services due to his disability.

[00:48:18] And the short of it is he is so tired, disgusted that he wants to die.

[00:48:30] And I was not in any way expecting to go there when I clicked on his tweet and everything. So I just raise it. I don't want to, I don't necessarily want to end on that bad note or that note if you will.

[00:48:51] But I do want to say to folks, there's a reason why we do her voice. There's a reason why we do hashtag disability Twitter in our show.

[00:49:06] There's a reason why we have made a very conscious effort to add these segments too crazy in the King because they are too distant, too far, too removed from our radars.

[00:49:23] I get it. We are all moving at 100 miles an hour and busy. We have obligations with work and family and personal life, self care.

[00:49:34] I get it. I get it. But I am making a plea to our listeners that you are continuously checking on your friends and not just your immediate friends but try to get two, three layers outside of the ones you often talk to that you are checking on your colleagues,

[00:49:54] that you are making donations to organizations that are trying to support other audiences, community groups that you don't really have a direct connection to. Can we just do something more that stretches our humanity?

[00:50:11] I don't want to see tweets of individuals that are experiencing a life of needing support and just saying, you know what? I'm done.

[00:50:25] So that is my tweet for this particular week. Amanda, do me a huge favor and close out this last episode of October for National Disability Employee Awareness Month of Crazy in the King.

[00:50:42] Thanks for having me. Also, thanks for spending time discussing this today. Bipolar is a serious topic. Mental health is a serious topic. Anyone can live with it at any point in their lives, short term, long term or life term. So on that note, everyone have a great afternoon.

[00:51:02] See ya! Welcome, Change Agents to your go-to place for stories that ignite your spirit, fuel your purpose and connect us all. We believe in the incredible power of the human spirit, its boundless resilience and the inspiration it brings to our lives.

[00:51:27] On The Driving Change podcast we'll journey together through the extraordinary yet very relatable experiences of some of the most amazing people on earth.

[00:51:36] Our mission? That through these stories we might just spark change within you and awaken a newfound motivation to harness your unique gifts to make a real difference in the world. So get ready to be inspired and join us on this incredible adventure.

[00:51:51] You can find The Driving Change podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio or wherever you love listening to your favorite podcasts.