My relationship with my mental health is complicated - isn’t everyone’s?? Over the past four years it’s grown harder to ignore the impact that my diagnosis has had on my relationships and my career. For a long time I actively destroyed the good things around me believing I wasn’t worthy of them, believing that I had to sacrifice the things I wanted because something was wrong with me and yet the delusional part of my diagnosis pushed me to pursue my passions to unhealthy degrees.
I’ve worked really hard to battle those mentalities and maintain healthy boundaries in my life and career. When APAP asked me to speak on my mental health and sobriety I was more than happy to tell my story. If we don’t normalize serious conversations around mental health and its impact, then we continue to create a society that both fears it and ostracizes those who, like me, experience ‘scary’ disorders. I will continue to be vocal about advocating for yourself and being honest about who you are in every space you choose to exist in. We are no longer living in safe spaces, we are living in brave spaces. There’s so much power in being courageous.
I am choosing to be brave. This is my story to tell. This is something I will live with for the rest of my life, it’s a part of who I am. But it does not define me, and it does not define my career. I define my career. I define who I am.
Huge thank you to the Assocation of Performing Arts Professionals for giving me this platform, and to the team running the ARTS. WORK. LIFE. Podcast for allowing me to share my story!
#leadership #leadershippodcast #podcast #artsadmin #theatreadmin
Finding your voice is hard, but summoning the courage to use it can change your life and the lives of those around you.
Whether it’s helping others recover, how advocating for yourself becomes advocating for those like you, or re-claiming a harmful narrative, episode 5, season 3 of the ARTS. WORK. LIFE. podcast brings powerful stories from arts workers who use their narratives to help others heal, grow, and learn.
Listen on your favorite podcast app or here: https://lnkd.in/eqj6GiNK
Many thanks to The Wallace Foundation for supporting ARTS. WORK. LIFE.
Featured storytellers: Payton Rhyan, Tristan Grannum, and Sheila Gaskins
📍Dubai, UAE Expat | Originally from Baltimore, Maryland USA | Former CIA | Professional Actor | Former Comedian | Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School Alumnus | Currently ✍🏽 📖 about the @CIA 🤬
6moMy case is in Thomson Reuters Westlaw I was placed on admistrative leave with pay for 9 months and subsequently fired from the Central Intelligence Agency #ODNI in 2014 after 11 years of government service for exposing & making a rap song about #racism in the #CIA "Closed Letter: Racism in the CIA" available on all digital music streaming services by yours truly Stevieweevie. In an unrelated matter the CIA ignored and did not address hardly any of the contents in my EEOC EEOC FED E-NEWS complaint although they have a zero tolerance policy of harrasment in the agency. I subsequently lost a final decision, appeal and reconsideration after 5 years of originally filing; 4 years after being fired. My lawyer; Donald King, a concentrated specialist; he only took on EEOC cases of federal government employees who filed EEOC complaints against the federal government. Mr. King had been practicing #EEOCLAW for over 30 years; said, he never had a case against the #CIA and he never had a government agency completely & totally ignore everything in the compliant let alone bring up 💩 that had nothing to do with the case at hand. #Racism #Harrasment #HostileWorkEnvironment and #FailuretoAccommodate basis of my #EEOC I'm writing book📖 script📜!