World Mental Health Day, is something we want to support here at Dadvengers. And this year we decided to have a Dad Chats Special all about mental health.
Last night @nigelclarketv spoke to counsellor and psychotherapist Jonathan Goldsmith from @be_more_you_therapy about the importance of talking about our mental health. We talked about how we can try to encourage others to look after their mental health, why talking about it is so important, and how to create a safe space for dads to feel ready to talk.
It was an absolutely brilliant chat, huge thanks to Jonathan for joining us - and a huge thanks to all of you in the comments who had some incredible opinions and advice 🙏🏼
We have loads of great resources all about mental health. From blog posts:
To Dad Chats:
And amazing Podcast Episodes with These Great Guests:
Use the links to check them out. Or, use the search function on the website to look for more!
Dad chats live: This week we talked about baby loss, grief and it’s affect on our mental health, with special guest Gary Anderson (@gary_secure_mind_solutions ). This is another subject that is so important to talk about, and we couldn't have done it without our special guest.
Gary talked openly about discovering his twin daughters had Twin To Twin Syndrome - a serious condition that can cause life threatening illness in unborn twins. He told us about their birth, and travelling 60 miles away from his wife with one of his twin daughters, Alana, to another hospital. Sadly Alana didn't survive. But there was no time to grieve, as they had another baby, Dana, to be strong for. When their second baby lost her life, Gary buried his grief.
He told us how he pushed his grief down for 14 years, not talking about it, taking risky jobs and not caring about putting his life in danger. Although this is a sad and difficult subject, Gary's story is also inspirational. Gary is still here today because he got some help and started talking about his daughters. This really is another unmissable chat.
Gary has also written a blog about his experience. There are more than 5000 deaths of babies and infants a year. in the UK, this is a subject that needs to be talked about.
Click here to read the blog post A Fathers Grief The Impact of Baby Loss.
Gary has also written a book about his daughters and his experience of loss and grief. The book is called Daddy and the Two Bears, and can be found here.
