Before we begin today, I want to remind everyone that Calm It Down Podcasts is not a replacement for professional mental health services.

If you are in an emergency or if you are having thoughts of hurting yourself, please, please use the emergency resources I've

included on the website at commentdownpodcast.com. Scroll to the very bottom of the page,

and there you will see a list of people that are just waiting for you to reach out.

This topic is so sensitive and so important that I reached out to a close friend who is actually

a trained therapist because I want to make sure what I'm saying has merit, because, again, the podcast is not a replacement for

professional mental health services. So I reached out to someone that is a professional. But I say

this because I reached out to her about this episode in particular because it's so important.

It's so sensitive and so relevant right now.

The other day I was reading how teen suicide rates are just increasing at an alarming number.

So again, if you're hurting and need to talk to someone, please visit the website, comment down podcast, scroll to the bottom, and there you'll find a few people to start at least the conversation with.

Now, welcome to our first episode of May. Ah, May flowers, finally. They have arrived,

as the pollen has as well. And if the weather is less than flowery where you are,

then I'm sending all of the sunshine your way. I have to be honest,

it's really beautiful right now. But May is also Mental Health Awareness Month. Now, really,

we should be talking about mental health all year around. It's not like mental health issues

only come up in May, and then they leave us

alone the rest of the year. But dedicating a whole month just to awareness about mental health

issues, it really makes us, well, me anyway, I don't know about you, it makes us think about

things like how we're really doing.

How the people around us are really doing.

Not just the, fine, okay.

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