A note to our listeners, this episode contains mention of suicide. The subject of mental health

can cover a lot of stories. Sometimes it's a story of how a person manages their chronic major

depressive disorder. That's a mental health story. Sometimes it's about an emerging treatment or

therapy that may be on the way to providing a lot of relief for people

who are suffering. Big mental health story, important mental health story. And sometimes a mental

health story is about when you get on an airplane to fly 30,000 feet in the air in an aluminum

tube, what's the mental state of the person flying that plane? Because that's pretty important.

It's depression mode. I'm John Moe. I'm glad you're here.

A little later in the show today, we're going to talk about a small source of delight,

a tiny source of joy that's been going around on our Facebook group and that we've been trying

as well. It involves an animated bird and a commitment to self-care. But first, let's look to

the skies, a little warily, perhaps.

Mental illness affects a lot of people.

The National Institutes of Health say about 23% of the U.S. population is currently living with some kind of mental illness, currently.

And that doesn't include all the people who have dealt with it before or will in the future.

Huge chunk of the population. And pilots, being people, are part of that population. Therefore, stands to reason,

a lot of pilots have to deal with those issues as well. But what happens if they admit to that

and seek treatment, get meds. Try to get better.

Well, it can have a major effect on their careers, their livelihood. And what happens if they have a

mental health condition and don't admit to it and don't seek help? Well, that can have a major

effect on all sorts of things. Helen O'yang is a physician, an associate professor at Columbia University, and a contributing writer to the New York Times magazine.

She wrote an article that appeared last month in the magazine titled, Why Airline Pilots Feel Pushed to Hide Their Mental Illness.

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