Erasing the Stigma & Energizing the Seated

morning sorry Debbie welcome to

energizing the seated so I'm going to

talk for half an hour so about how to

get up out of your chair so first I just

want to make I just want to start with

letting folks know to make yourself

comfortable sitting in a chair all day

kind of sucks and we've got some space

here so if you want to stand you're

welcome to stand if you when I said the

floor if you want to turn your chair

around a meal on it there are a lot of

different ways to do that we'll talk

about that some more but I just want to

put that out there be free do what you

want to do just a little bit about

myself first

my name is avi I'm a drupal technical

lead at canopy studios where a shop

started out in the Bay Area but we've

got developers all over the US Canada

Mexico yeah we do cool stuff and you

come talk to me I'm on other things as

for oh boy and the things that I

couldn't get for oh boy AJ Schwab yeah

so I also just want to put a disclaimer

out there I'm not a professional trainer

of a professional with Drupal er that

likes trying to move so I do not warrant

any of these things to be yeah

professional advice so just a little

introduction on our jobs are to not move

for 40 hours a week or more we really

our job to to be in one place in front

of a keyboard and and not move from

there it's

not it's pretty much physically

impossible to do our jobs in any other

situation there's some like treadmill

desks and stuff like that but until like

our heads-up displays and dictation get

a little bit better burn me pretty much

stuck behind a desk to do all of our

work and so so well you know the the

earth is still in a pretty good place

and we're not quite mad max-style you

know they say that sitting is the new

smoking and it's slowly eating away at

our bodies so the goal of this is to uh

is to try and help us kind of counteract

those things a little bit the the

picture here just to dictate is a is a

gift from Mad Max fury road not talking

about his his mantle area Barry who were

the cancer that are eating away this

body so yeah like I said we're not gonna

get out from behind the desk anytime

soon we're gonna be doing this for a

while and the best we can do is try and

live with it and make the best of being

desk-bound so let's make it not mediocre

this is a picture from Morton Joe with

the words mediocre so yeah I I've been

using a standing desk for about four

years I really enjoy it and I highly

recommend it

the thing about standing desks people

think you need a complicated setup it's

really not that bad I was pretty lucky

and my first standing desk was super

awesome and I worked with the University

and we were doing an office and I was

like hey I want some cool stuff and they

were like go pick out some cool stuff

and I picked out some cool stuff so we

got electronic like moving desks we've

got these really cool chairs that have

arms and different positions that allow

you to sit in them a lot of different

ways and that was awesome I moved on to

my next job and didn't have a standing

desk and so what I did was took a 27

inch studio display box and some books

and a couple hard drive boxes and an

iPad box and some other random stuff

that I found and I made a standing desk

and that worked really well and it

worked until enough people walked by

that I convinced them that they should

buy me something new and and then I went

home and got my own set up I've got an

Ikea like cranked up desk like 300 bucks

or something really reasonably priced

for a desk and I still have some boxes

and other stuff that set up there I'm

not going to talk too much about the

ergonomics of standing desks there are a

lot of there's a lot of information out

there it's really important to get your

desk and your setup right however you do

it but I want to go kind of forward so

whatever we're doing no matter what your

setup whether you're sitting or standing

or you know on a treadmill we need to we

need to get our bodies aligned and get

our bodies into the right orientation in

order to

to just be stable and be healthy whether

we are standing at a desk or walking or

moving or you know weightlifting and so

a lot of a lot of what I'm gonna take

you through today has been inspired by

my time with a trainer I started doing

that year and change ago when I started

working from home full-time and I

decided that I needed a reason to get

out of the house and so I started going

to trainer and we've been talking a lot

about how all of these things kind of

mix together and so like I said whether

you're just standing or whether you're

lifting heavy weights it's it's

important to to have all of these things

set up so I'm gonna take you through a

few exercises do whatever is comfortable

for you if you want to follow along

that's great

if you can't or don't want to or don't

feel comfortable do whatever is best for

you so I'm gonna ask everybody to stand

up and follow them

so like I said first in order to do

anything we need to stand well and you

might think this is pretty

straightforward but it's a thing that we

don't necessarily do correctly all the

time I mean as humans we've kind of

transitioned into doing a lot of these

things poorly because you know because

of the situations we've been put in so

the first thing to do when you're

standing you want to get your head kind

of back to your shoulders and in a

neutral position so a lot of us a lot of

us will kind of hunch forward or have

our heads like have our heads you know

too far forward you want to just bring

your neck back in your head kind of back

on your shoulders you want your spine to

be straight and in a neutral position

and bring your shoulders back but not

puff out your chest you don't want to

you don't want to be out and and kind of

back but you want to just bring your

shoulders back so that your chest is a

is in a good position like I said you

want your ribcage down but but not puffy

so so when you're breathing you're

you're tensing your abs which brings

your ribcage down instead of instead of

ballooning out your ribcage so you don't

want to breathe

from the top of your chest you want to

breathe from the bottom and we'll talk

about that in a sec so like I said when

you're breathing you want to engage your

abs and you want to breathe from from

your belly you also want to squeeze your

butt so your your pull this has a

tendency to roll forward when we're

standing and so I roll backwards so if

you squeeze your butt a little bit it'll

turn your pelvis down and straight and

that'll kind of get all of your back

into until

better alignment finally you want to

look down at your feet you want them to

be straight and parallel about

shoulder-width apart and you know when

you're standing a lot of people have

tendency to turn their feet out or in or

have them too wide or stand you know

perfectly straight you know keeping your

feet solid and shoulder width is a good

way to keep keep a good posture so the

next thing I want to talk about like I

started alluding to this thing called

diaphragmatic breathing is really

important in a lot of ways to help us

stabilize and really be B be a more

complete and stable person so if you've

ever played a wind instrument I learned

about this like in in middle school I

was playing the trumpet and they were

teaching us how to breathe and so yeah

so you want to breathe you want to

breathe with your diaphragm and you're

when you're when you're breathing you

want to breathe in through your nose and

so breathing in through your nose means

you're you're taking the longer kind of

more intentional breath because your

your nostrils are smaller and it kind of

forces you to to be more intentional

with your breathing so you've got your

your your standing breathe in through

your nose and like I said you don't want

to breathe into your chest you want to

breathe into your belly so imagine you

can you can hold your hands on your

belly this exercise if you want you can

lay down on the ground but I figured

that would be a little

a little too much for the room so you

can hold your hands on your belly and

and you know practice as at home he

practices his home you can lay down your

back with your knees up and and put your

hands on your belly and feel it rise but

for now what we'll do is you can keep

your hands on your belly breathe in

through your nose and feel your stomach

expand so and so you want to breathe in

your stomach expand and your your your

diaphragm which is this muscle between

your your lungs and your your intestines

and everything down below you want to

breathe with with that so that's what

you want to control so not not your

chest not your your kind of upper torso

but you want to breathe into your belly

so

so just take a couple breaths

so just the active standing and

breathing for a couple breaths and and

really being intentional about that can

can really help a lot to to focus you to

kind of bring you back to a place to to

you know it has benefits all across your

body and your mind so that's I think

something that's really really nice to

be able to do the next thing we're going

to be able to what the next thing we're

gonna do is just some stretches so again

these are all things I'm going to talk

about a little bit later these are all

things you can do wherever you are when

you're working whether you're at your

whenever you know whether you work from

home whether you're in an office taking

the time to do some things like this it

is really important to make sure that

you're moving and that you stay active

throughout the day okay so we're

standing we've got our feet planted

we've got our butt squeeze we've got our

torso solid we've got our shoulders back

and our heads neutral so now we're just

gonna go through some exercises that can

help you kind of get get your body

moving a little bit so we're gonna start

at the top and go down for our neck

we're just gonna just kind of turn so

you can turn your head left or right you

can tilt it down tilt it up I've learned

recently that that it is counter counter

recommended it's not recommended to roll

your neck back a lot that can actually

hurt your spine so you don't wanna you

don't want to take your head back too

far beyond neutral but you can look up

you can look down look left you can look

right can kind of roll around

and just feel that move so we'll do you

know I I kind of what I'm doing this

I'll count to eight and do you know do a

torso one thing and then a torso of

another

so just move you can feel kind of all

the pieces getting into place the stuff

is all it's all kind of you know whether

you do yoga whether you do weightlifting

whether you don't do any exercise at all

and just want to kind of move around a

little bit

the the same things all apply so next up

we're gonna work on our shoulders so I

really like okay yeah so our children

just going to kind of keep keep your

feet and your torso steady again we're

just gonna make circles with our

shoulders so start going back and just

make some shoulder circles just lifting

your shoulders and then pinching your

shoulder blades in the back and coming

down you can you can leave your arms

loose and just kind of let them hang and

then go forward so same thing just

reverse pinch your shoulder blades bring

your shoulders forward let them drop

you can keep make sure you're breathing

while you do this breathing in through

your nose breathe out through your nose

and mouth and that they can kind of help

you get more full breaths so got our

shoulders at any point through this you

just kind of shake it out if you want

shake your arms kind of stump your light

or your feet do whatever you need to

keep it moving next this is our elbows I

really like the cue for this so so you

know when you go to a photo booth

they're like a funhouse you get those

giant crazy glasses so imagine you've

got these these big funhouse glasses on

so we're going to start we're going to

take the glasses on or put the glasses

on and and then we're going to make big

circles around our elbows so so you're

going to be putting the glasses on and

then make me all those circles with your

hands moving out and around and then

back towards your face so big circles

putting the glasses on

and we'll do a few of those once you got

the glasses on what you got to do I'm

gonna take them up

so well this is really nice to keep your

gift your elbows moving get your

shoulders engaged yeah so just move your

elbows kind of pretend your elbows are a

pivot point further for the the rest of

your arm yeah okay next up is our wrists

just put your hands together and

intertwine your fingers we're just gonna

make some circles so you go one way go

the other there's there's a lot of

there's a lot of creaking with this

that's yeah this is this is you know

really useful again any even ooh any of

these things just take a couple minute

break even 30 seconds from from problem

doing one of these can help you know

help you kind of figure out a solution

no problem just by stepping away or

getting away from it interlacing the

fingers is also really nice you can kind

of squeeze your hands a little bit and

that that helps kind of work work those

joints around so just doing some circles

with your wrists back and forth the next

thing we're going to do is our hips so

the hip hinge if you've heard that term

the hip hinge is that it is a kind of

fundamental practice and a lot of a lot

of exercise and it's something that we

don't do well a lot so this is there are

a couple pieces here the the cue that

your pretend like so you still get your

feet planted and shoulder-width apart

you want to keep your shins and your

knees like right above your ankles so

you don't want that you're not pushing

your knees

so you want to keep your knees your

shoes and your knees straight above your

ankles but you're pushing your hips back

so take your thumbs and push on your

your pelvis and pretend you're pushing

your hips back so your legs so your your

legs above the knee kind of get push

back while you're doing this you want to

keep your back straight so you're not

bending you're not kind of flopping down

I'm going to keep your back straight and

support it and push your hips back so

stand up push your hips back and pinch

your fingers in that head crease and

then stand up

and leave

three down so you want to kind of

breathe into this that's your is there

bending down you breathe in to support

your body to support your weight and

then breathe out as they're expanding

push your head slack

stand up

I thought when I was doing this I

started breathing kind of

counter-intuitively but when you you

know it feels it feels more intuitive to

breathe breathe out as you're kind of

collapsing but because you're you're

putting kind of weight down into your

hips you actually want to breathe in as

you're going down you can imagine if

you're if you're doing a squat if you

were doing some kind of lift like this

you want to breathe in to kind of

support everything and then breathe out

as you're expanding back up so

push your hands back so that's it's a

really good way to kind of get the get

the shoulder and back moving can also

just kind of do some hip circles so kind

of hold the hoop style

hold your hand on your hips move it

around move it the other way that just

kind of gets sketchy moving especially

if you're standing or you're sitting

this kind of can engage a lot of the

muscles here but you're from there nice

to keep moving okay

so the next thing we're gonna do is is a

couple exercises with our legs and our

ankles so this is a little bit easier

with your shoes off but I didn't ask you

that at the beginning so just as you say

anything put your put one foot back on

your toe and you're just going to make

circles with your heels so have your toe

on the floor and just move your heel

around the circle go one way and then

the other keeping all you know most of

your weight on your on your flat foot

these these are really good if you're

standing you could do this while your

keyboard just try to you know figure out

a steady desk you can you can just key

and could I make these circles so what's

going on there just switch the other

foot go back on the ground and

circles if you need someone on to some

name feel free to yep just do a little

do a little keyboarding

okay the last thing we're going to do is

a start at ten thirty to twenty ten

twenty yeah okay the last thing we're

gonna do is called an ankle clearing so

this is a really good exercise it's

actually more for your for your knees so

what we're gonna do I'm gonna take and

put one foot right in front of the other

so you've got your heel to your toe it's

a little bit hard if you need to hold on

to a chair this is a good time to do it

or you know podium whatever so put one

foot in front of the other and I kind of

I kind of describe this as like a ballet

you can kind of put your arms up in a

ballet kind of style thing but what

you're gonna do is bend your knees so

that your knees kind of go forward and

your ankles stay in place oh you don't

want to lift the heel up you know what

I've been too far but just bend your

knees so that they clear your ankles so

that they go forward kind of so that

your ankles your your knees are over

your toes now

and then stand back up if you need to do

whatever with your arms that that makes

you comfortable just bend those knees

and stand back up to that few times this

one's definitely the hardest it really

does help this debt to hold onto

something

yeah

so you'd bend

and then rearrange your feet put the one

that was in front and back and then get

your position again and do it again

again you know as you're as you're being

intentional with this you can breathe in

and out with going up and down that can

help to kind of keep everything moving

together

okay cool yeah

so that's a really nice set of exercises

stretching from your head to your toe we

took a little while to do it but you can

do all those things in a couple minutes

and that's a really good way to take a

break whether like I said wherever you

are you can kind of stop what you're

doing do this for a few minutes and and

yeah have it have a kind of get your

body moving that's all the exercise

right now but you're all standing so I

do think it's light for this but this is

a really great so a lot of this stuff is

from a book club desk bounds I've got it

here you can all look at it later

it's a crosshead instructor who did some

some some work alarm research you know

into desk workers and and and so one of

the interesting things that he that he

has is a whole a whole kind of page on

different ways to stick it's like I said

even if you just have a regular desk

just changing your position can be a

really good way to

[Music]

so even if you're sitting there's

actually a lot of just good ways to

stick but if you want to sit down you

can kind of sit forward on your chair

sitting sitting on the front part of

your chair means you're a lot more

mobile you can kind of have your legs

out you can have your legs in he's got a

few other ways you can kind of put one

knee down you can you're gonna have a

leg up on the knee you can yeah you can

even squat on your chair if your body

does that it doesn't do that but but

yeah so so you can reposition yourselves

however you like but I encourage you to

find a different position to sit in and

were when you started

and again just trying to move and

reposition yourself as much as you can

throughout the day is is really

important in not getting bound up in in

the same position all the time I was

saying before we started the session I

woke up this morning feeling horrible

because I spent a lot of yesterday just

not moving and talking to people and I

didn't do hardly any of these things

that we talked about that I'm talking

about right now just because I got I got

caught up in the day and it's really

really easy to do that whether you're

talking to people whether you're working

in a problem but taking these breaks is

a really good way to keep your body and

your mind moving so one of the things

that we want to do throughout our day is

create a movement rich environment that

the determine comes from the book but

we want to be moving as often as we can

as I've been saying um why don't we

water up here

everybody knows the water is healthy you

should drink water it's good for you but

what happens when you drink water

bathroom break drinking water means you

have to pee and what do you have to do

to go pee most of the time depends

when's the deadline for a project you're

working on

you have to blog if you drink water it's

gonna force you to get up from your desk

the more you drink the more you move

it's a really really good tip that I

learned so just keep your water bottle

full water water has a ton of other

benefits too but like I said it it

literally moves you so yeah you know

whether you're getting up for the

bathroom or just you know taking a

quicker break getting up every

repositioning yourself every couple

minutes even and you know every couple

of minutes you want to reposition

yourself find any way to stand it and a

new way to sit you know lean on

something don't lean on something all

those little kind of micro movements

throughout the day are really important

to making sure that we don't get stuck

so doing these microbe movements he even

talks about digit bars on desk which I

didn't know about before but just

something where you can put your feet in

a different position whether that's a

bowl or a bar or a ramp or a box or

anything that you have you can just kind

of put on your desk that you have

something to kind of move your legs on

and even as you're sitting if you just

take one foot and even just kind of move

it up and down or kick or do whatever

that's better than just kind of sitting

static and again so yeah you want to do

those micro movements as often as

possible taking like a two minute break

every 20-30 min

and then a longer break every hour and

again when you stand up from your desk

coming back to a different position is

really important so yeah I'm right at

time I was going to do some squats if we

had some time

you shouldn't squat like the picture

here just the quick cues you can keep

your heels flat you want to have your

toes forward yeah kind of push your

knees out keep your back flat

and just kind of a basic squat and then

stand up is really really nice to do

these are really easy to be one a chair

just get up from your chair stand behind

it

hold onto your chair and kind of push

yourself down you can almost even think

about it is trying to lift the chair but

keeping your feet steady on the floor

and that can kind of help again

something you could do right at your

desk pretty much no matter what your

setup is um so yeah that's my talk oh

that's not I didn't gives you this but I

want to say thank you to Jay from blue

city strength city I know my trainer is

awesome and helped me a lot with this

desk-bound is pretty cool I'll have it

here and that's me and now I'm going to

turn over to JT

don't worry I'm not gonna make you get

up or request that you get up um so

hello thanks for sticking around for for

the second half of this that was awesome

like having felt this stretched in a

while yeah

so for those of you who don't know me me

BS me who is this I'm JD I've been a

Drupal PHP developer for about six years

I've been doing HTML since the 90s I am

one of the mid camp organisers without a

year helped organize a Drupal Chicago

Meetup and before this I was a paramedic

and EMT and a firefighter for about ten

years

also in case you've never spoken to me I

have mental illnesses um and I'm here to

talk to you about mental health and

wellness in tech primarily gonna be

focusing on people who work for me leave

but you know it can be translated into a

lot of in office tech things so I'm

Drupal Technical Architect at genuine if

you want to tweet at me JD does Deb on

all the slack says Dorf in case you

missed the signs on your way in this is

mid camp and if you're going to tweet

hashtag make camp and just to show Oz me

some love hashtag as me I'd appreciate

it does anybody in here know what asthma

is or not know what as me is

you know what that was a really odd way

to freeze it was good everybody did

raise hands well for that so we're gonna

start off with a few disclaimers the one

I'm not a doctor

I'm not a mental health professional I'm

not here to give medical advice I'm just

here to tell my story and someone with

mental illness is plural and I've had

some work with our difficulties in the

workplace and my personal life because

of it and a lot of it came from trying

to figure out how to work remotely it

was difficult to go from working

everyday in an office and then before

that I was working 24 hours at a time on

a shift every third day and before that

I don't remember because I was way way

way too long ago um lovely thing it's

okay the left it's okay to laugh as long

as you're not laughing to be insulting

as long as you're not laughing at

somebody but this this is part of why I

do this talk is to erase the stigma

around it and part of it everything that

stigma is you know not be afraid to talk

about it and not be afraid to laugh and

something's funny

also there may be some knotty language

so I apologize ahead of time I tend to

swear sometimes without thinking about

it so it just a heads up

um why do I do this talk no remote work

is hard for some people some people can

do it just great

some people can say yes I'm working from

home everything is sunshine of rainbows

it wasn't like that for me but it's also

a better option for a lot of people so I

I live in Indiana my office is in

Chicago and we have an office in Boston

I don't have to commute every day I come

in maybe once a week so I have a nice

hybrid schedule it's great if I were to

look for my kind of job in Indiana where

I live this wouldn't happen if we remote

wasn't an option I'd probably still be

on the ambulance I probably never would

have found my way into this field um

so what works great in office work

though if you're introverted like I am

its it can be really difficult because

there's not a lot of recharge time if

you're in an open office environment

especially when there's absolutely no no

place to get away then you can't have

that time to yourself where you just say

I people do much please just leave me be

and I want people who are going for this

to know you're not the only one going

through this I still have a really hard

time dealing with this back but you're

not the only one going through this if

you are and also needs to be talked

about you know conversation needs to

happen that get said part of the stigma

around mental illness is being afraid to

talk about it but don't be and all of

you are here you're taking the right

steps even if you don't have mental

illness yourself thank you so keep

ourselves around of applause and please

just just perk up seriously I want to

thank you think that wasn't what's

needed drink break um

okay so why should you care about this

um it's a big number twenty percent of

adults in the u.s. expect experience

mental illness in a given year and in

the tech community it's a bit higher

than that why does it matter to me um I

have mental illness in case you haven't

been listening for the last five minutes

I have mental illness but I was in

denial for a long time suffering in

silence I also was a victim of the

stigma that now I'm working to get rid

of because I thought it meant somebody

was damaged or weak or different and I

worried if I told people how I was

feeling you know even so much as my

doctor dad

though they're coming to take you away

you know it used to be made that was the

laughing insulting versus laughing

because something is actually funny

without burning people um something I

need to tell myself and I caught myself

a lot and that week I'm sick it's an

illness it's not a defect it's a disease

so you're gonna learn a lot about me so

I want to learn a little bit all about

you I see a few familiar faces but

there's some people I don't really know

too much about so how many of you are

actually work with the sites or the tech

itself

developers theme or site builders bla

bla bla down the list pretty good yeah

almost everybody are any of you project

managers project owners account managers

anything like that okay so bring a

couple heads that's yeah is anybody in

HR yes

no hands went up anybody in upper

management and that could be you only a

single person shop where you are all of

the above anybody see one hand go up

okay how many of you work remotely like

room how many of you are 100% in the

office take a couple hands going up and

how many of you work at hybrid type of

schedule where you can do a few basil

from home few days from the office okay

all right so it's a good mix only and

that's good I mean that's what we're

here to talk about we're also here to

talk about what is mental illness well

it's a lot of things has anybody ever

seen a copy of the DSM for

yeah a few hands going up it's about

this thick and it has criteria defining

mental illness you know down to if you

experience x4y period of time resulting

in Z then you have beta so there's a lot

of criteria and they revised it pretty

frequently yet they might even be on

dsm-5 I should really look that up but

there are different types like I said a

lot in the DSM four or five so me

personally I have major depression I

have anxiety disorder I have PTSD I have

ADHD and I'm one away from bingo um and

a lot of these you know they stacked

upon each other they lead to one another

you know the ADHD could have some

relationship to the PTSD happening early

my childhood anxiety related to that

depression because I've got all the

above um now what are those though like

I said get some for a lot of words the

very very distilled version depression

is a depressed mood most of the day

particularly in the morning sometimes uh

that are present every day for two weeks

or more at least two weeks

anxiety is feelings of worry anxiety or

fear that interfere with your daily

activities PTSD is characterized by

failure to recover after witnessing or

experiencing a terrifying event

something that sticks with you the

psychologist that I went to had a very

good analogy for it you know they'll

work with computers we understand the

difference between storage and the RAM

where the RAM is more of your short term

short term memory that your CPU can just

grab the stuff kick it back and forth

the storage is where everything lives

your long-term memory now what happens

with PTSD is your event gets stuck in

the RAM it doesn't move back it doesn't

get put back into storage and anything

resembling what happened in that event

can just remind you of it make you

really real if that experience because

it's just right there so quick Oh an

ADHD it's characterized by varying

degrees of hyperactivity impulsivity and

or inattention that lead to difficulty

specifically in the workplace or in

school when I was a kid this was looked

at as being a bit off just a strange kid

don't just need to go burn off some

energy but and I didn't get diagnosed

with it until about a year ago

officially finally somebody says hey I

think you have this

so life before getting treatment and

getting checked out and getting all all

those letters attest to me it was

difficult I was afraid I was paranoid

about everything social situations were

absolutely paralyzing I canceled plans

all the time just let me alone

because I canceled plans and made myself

onto a self-imposed isolation I was

angry for so many reasons for that

oh one I was on a high-stress job I was

on an ambulance - I had untreated

anxiety and depression they didn't even

know had labels and three I was in one

of those careers where if you say I have

something then you know it makes you be

can be too different you treat the

people who have that you don't have that

yourself

as misunderstood because people often

thought I was just a that I was angry

when I was just trying that to myself

you know get that deer in the headlights

look and apparently I might deer in the

headlights look is the same as I'm gonna

get you look which really that's never

going through my head but I did finally

accept something is wrong and this is

hard for a lot of people you know people

don't get you notice that people don't

get as upset or angry about things as I

do and I kind of sorted thinking about

it and it was one of the situations

where if everywhere you go smells like

dog shit

maybe check your shoes um so this was

the hardest part for me but I got three

men I I do a lot of things including

take medication helps me through and I

start the conversation I talk about it

I'm not afraid to talk about it I don't

mind talking about it if you have

questions asking me about it

I'm no longer ashamed of what I have

obviously I do have peaks and valleys

still but neither of them are too high

or too low there would be periods of

time when I'd have the really high

values that I could basically do

anything for a very short period of time

but the the other side of that was I

would have valleys where I could do

nothing for a very long period of time

so now I'm kind of more level and I can

do most things for most of the time my

anxiety isn't quite as big it still

shows up the not quite as bad I'm more

comfortable with social situations

obviously standing up here I'm still

pretty introverted so after camp I'm

probably going to disappear into a hole

for a few days and try to recover but I

don't have nearly as many anxiety

attacks still happens still serious

scared the hell out of me but not as bad

as it used to be also I realized we're

not alone um no I I was afraid to get

treatment because I was afraid of the

way people would view me because I felt

I was the only one but I'm not we're not

alone so these all posting challenges to

remote work and development challenges

of working alone that someone with

mental illness so

remote and hybrid working even in office

working offers a new set of challenges

to people who aren't used to that so for

those of you who work remotely or even

hybrid what are some of the challenges

you face isolation ok yeah also a

solution so this duper isolation

definitely I think I mean part of that

isolation is like you're just kind of

stuck in here right exactly so I I came

up with my own list because I didn't

know all of you most most of you about

honestly a few of the same things I'm

glad we're on the same page here

communication I don't know about all of

you but working remotely most of my

communication is text-based the voice

inside my head reading that text-based

communication often doesn't sound like

the voice that they are trying to convey

have you ever gotten a message from a

co-worker

something along these lines

how do you read that for me I read that

as a nasty hey idiot

why the hell did you verbal the

northwood like that when in reality

after a little clarifications like hey

this is interesting I never saw it done

like this why did you do it like that or

what led you to this decision it could

be anything in there so but the way my

mind works is why dude why oven

text-based communication is hard and

especially with remote work it's

difficult to build a rapport with your

coworkers if you never get FaceTime it's

really hard to say hey I know you we had

that that good time

another one that I heard thrown out

there was isolation it's very very

easier to feel alone it's very very easy

to make yourself alone it's also very

very easy to start talking to animals

and it's even worse when they start

talking back this is my cat Parker he

sounds like lieutenant commander Worf

from Star Trek next generation and most

of the time he's just telling me human I

require food um one thing that I found I

find is guilt because I work remotely I

feel guilty when I have to take time off

for sickness for or no PTO for anything

that's not work-related I feel guilty

and it's really easy to forget that

you're not alone on a team even though

you're not sitting with them there are

other people in your team usually I

can't say all the time if you're a shop

of one that poses its own set of

problems but usually there are people

who can pick up if you need to take a

day off no deadline is worth your health

no deadline is worth you I'm suffering

through and especially working from home

if you don't get out of the house it's

hard to disconnect from that work

mindset Maggert distractions get off the

couch do you work or play Mario you're

wherever you're working from happens to

be right across the bath from the

bathroom if you have your water when

you're going there and back you see oh

the switch is still on let's let's do it

round and next thing you know three

hours and uh Mario Cart oh crap I missed

three calls we have enough we got to

catch up what could do the dishes

no it's hard when you're at home to not

just say well crap I need to get this

stuff done what are we going to do or

the tour's have to be done I won't have

time later you'll have time later I need

to do it now or work or anything but

work you will find an excuse or you

could find any excuse to do anything but

sit in front and do what needs to be

done you can also lead to a sedentary

lifestyle which can be kind of fixed by

following Abby's advice from about 10

minutes ago you know in theory not

having to put pants on to go to work

sounds great until you realize that you

also have a shower door you have in

brush your teeth and you know you're not

taking care of yourself at what you

should be doing and

eventually you get to a point where your

cat just isn't having it and he tells

you human shower and feed me um and you

don't have a reason to get out of the

house so you're not active again see

obvious talk from you ten minutes ago

so how did I avoid a stinky and isolated

existence a lot of trial and error

my second deaf job was fully remote

office was in Colorado I went out there

maybe three times it was a complete

culture shock for me I didn't figure out

a lot of these things for a long time

after starting there and this can be

used for in office as well and here are

some things that work for me I'm not

saying everything's going to work for

everybody in the room but I also have a

couple suggestions for people who have

to be in office as well it's a sedentary

lifestyle create a routine to at least

simulate going to work get up get out of

bed take a shower brush your teeth get

dressed you know it doesn't have to be

full business attire but at least put on

some clothes that gets you in the right

frame of mind it makes you feel like

you're going to work if you're in the

office get away from your desk do the

stretches stand up you know don't eat

lunch at your desk every day Oh

distractions if you're home space allows

or where you're working from set a

dedicated workspace someplace that

people know you know any of your

cohabitate errs they know that you do

not distract me when I'm here make sure

you they know and understand that you

are working you're not just hanging out

you're not playing video games some

people I've heard put up and something

to signify work mode

you know headphone rule if I'm wearing

these headphones you don't talk to me I

don't exist

a light bulb kind of like an on-air sign

from a recording studio just red lights

on leave me alone

if all else fails you can lock a door or

give it a disapproving stare anytime

somebody tries to talk to you in office

you can use a headphone rule I mean it

may take some time to get some of your

non-technical co-workers to understand

that headphones on you know if you need

me slap me if you need me then I'll

answer if I'm not doing something but

I'm working and if you're getting ready

to go ahead heads down

give your co-workers a heads up hey you

know if I don't answer this is why guilt

this was a really big one for me just

because you can work remotely and work

from home doesn't mean you have to be

working all the time you could put the

laptop down you could close it and when

you need time off take it your company

will understand that's what you have

sick time and PTO and when you do take

time off take time off put the laptop

down you're at that time you're being

paid to not work um work done but don't

compare your own speed or volume to

others so you know there's always going

for people better than you who can code

faster or do more or smarter at some

things there's always going to be people

who are slower coders than you that

doesn't mean they're in you and I I'm

sorry I said the wrong word there I

didn't mean better people who have

strengths in different areas of video

it's not necessarily better whereas

people have different strengths and they

may go at a different velocity than you

know so don't compare yourself to them

for those of you who are not in office

again

don't compare yourselves to others just

because you see somebody I don't know if

any of you have slack channels or

anything that have get commit messages

that just pop up and you've got somebody

who is committing commit commit commit

and but when you look into it it's like

added period remove the white space

remove the white space on each one of

those oh so you know don't compare

yourself to others and it's okay to

leave on time fire drills aside if your

client sites down

you know you have to file a critical

ticket maybe you might want to put on

one extra time but aside from that it's

okay

isolation use your team's tools how many

of you have slack at work how many of

you have teams Microsoft teams anybody

have a AOL Instant Messenger I CQ Skype

and anybody have a phone yeah everybody

has a phone so use that communication

nobody needs to be on an island then

find the time to make human contact one

thing that I found is really interesting

sometimes I need to be around people

just to ignore them just to see people

and know other people live but I don't

need to talk to them it's great you can

volunteer for things or join a club or

do something to get you out of the house

um you can also work from a local

independent coffee shop if you live

around my part of Indiana I can

recommend a good one um when you're in

office and you're not in heads-down mode

get to know your co-workers a little bit

say hi how was your day I mean you know

it's kind of a joke office small talk

but you're at least building that

relationship with somebody how was your

weekend when you get new employees in

there and new people say hi introduce

yourself I mean as somebody who is

extremely introverted I know how

difficult this could be because I I

still you know headphones on I hope

nobody sees me but take the point out

where I work now the first day in in

office in Boston they make you bring in

cookies and you set it at your desk so

everybody comes in and takes a cookie

and says hi good to meet you and I think

that's a really cool cool idea and at

least if it gets you out of your comfort

zone a little bit to a point where you

get to know who you're working with and

they get to know you a bit and if these

aren't options join communities and they

don't have to be like in person

communities just places you can talk I'm

on a now it's a discord team front end

of front-end developer to sport team

which has seven thousand users but there

are a few of us who are really active

and we've become friends on that just

you know throughout the day hey I've got

an idea or hey don't through this just

need somebody to talk to you

hopefully user groups lacks like the mid

camp slack it's a great one

so I've heard um and a lot of local user

groups and all have their own slacks in

Chicago we've got the PHP user group

we've got web friends I think is wine

and she's got a go tag there's a bunch

of them so there's there's always

communities you can communicate people

with people communication like I said

before user teams tools and find time

for FaceTime this is really important

going back to that slide with the BA the

co-worker asking you why you interpret

the GAR flack

you don't understand what that voice is

saying hey can we hop on a call and talk

about this maybe you know figure out

what's going on and the scheduled

check-ins with somebody okay no I know

I'm remote I know during office we work

on these projects together let's talk

let's find 15 minutes what's called a

stand up developers stand up whatever

and we'll just go over issues we're

having then talk over an issue instead

of chatting about it what I mean by that

is pick up the phone hit the call button

on whatever your your chat thing is if

you have Skype and don't be afraid to

ask questions about meaning and I found

myself doing this a few times because I

know the way I read things is always in

the most negative way possible so I will

preface a lot of things that I say hey I

do not mean this as a jerk so please

don't take it as a jerk but why are you

doing this and everybody that I do that

to the first not at your question

second here's why and if you're in

office and you have the opportunity take

the conversations I'll find some time

you know instead of cycling back and

forth whatever to say hi hey you know

let's talk out this problem why you come

over to my desk and we'll work through

it together

so what's mental health got to do got to

do with it well again as me open

sourcing mental illness does a survey

yearly this is the data from 2017 survey

for people in tech it was open to

anybody who wanted to answer in tech it

was made available to several people so

the question is have you been diagnosed

with a mental condition the average in

the u.s. is about 20 that's diagnosed in

the general population yes for tech

diagnosis is 42 percent pretty high

number now the next one is interesting

because to me it goes with that stigma

the the fear of being labeled do you

think you have a mental health condition

and this includes those yes diagnosed I

think because I've been told I do yes 43

possibly 19 in case you can't read that

that's over half over half of the tech

community who answered this thinks that

they do and 43% have been diagnosed with

it that's a lot you know those of us

who've been illness we handle things

very differently and a lot of us have a

hard time breaking out of the isolation

because it's comfortable or at least it

seems that way because you know we know

ourselves and we're fine with that but

anxiety plus text-based communication

equals a lot of ocean moments of what do

they mean by that what did I mean by

that you went over

Oh

we're afraid that taking time to

ourselves will have Navy together

consequences you know a lot of people

say yeah sure I'll get it done in half

day and a half day it's really 16 hours

that started at noon ended at midnight

and they're showing back up and no no

there's no personal time for them um

we're afraid that saying no to something

or not completing in time

coworkers exchange your opinions if your

boss will say you know what you're

you're useless

you know what's taking you so long and

if you have anxiety bring what people

think about you can really really be

frustrating and like me go straight to

the worst-case scenario now you know for

the guard flag you're an idiot and

you're gonna be fired for it because it

broke everything like I said almost 18

percent of the u.s. had some form of

mental illness and 2015 and why should I

secure it because it's expensive forty

four billion dollars annually

two hundred million lost work hours and

that's not PTO time that's people who

just sit and I can't work I can't work I

can't do this I can't I can't function

just and they lie on their timesheets or

they'll just try to get through that's a

lot of money so how can work please help

make sure that the lines of

communication are open management this

is one thing that make us a my my

company does that I think is really

great I have a scheduled check-in every

two weeks with my boss one on one for

half hour talk about whatever we need to

talk about it's I think it's amazing

I'll be more inclusive if you are a

hybrid company and you have some remote

workers and understand mental illness

concerns and how to accommodate which

this is very difficult because someone

with a mental illness may not want to

disclose and if you someone with a

mental illness does not disclose then

they are not covered by the ad a if you

say I have a disability immediately you

get coverage from that you are protected

under the ad a if a workplace is

prepared and educated to deal with a

disability an employee may feel more

comfortable about taking time off they

won't they won't sit there for hours on

end

to do work filling out the timesheet and

do nothing

um no I would have times when I'd show

up log in do nothing for days but still

along the time because I was afraid of

going to my boss because I was afraid of

what they'd say and I ended up you know

leaving that place because I wasn't

comfortable with the way they handled it

but if I would have just said hey I need

a day I need an afternoon recharge for

four hours recharge for eight hours

suddenly I have you know thirty-two

billable hours more than what I'm flying

about so you can work remotely and not

end up like my grumpy cat burger one

thing I do ask if if you have the time

survey Azmi help that or research it

really helps us that as me decide where

to put our efforts and get get the

statistics that we can use on our talks

um yeah Osby handbooks there are three

of them and somebody actually was

talking to me yesterday and said that

they had an issue in their workplace and

they bought the handbooks and it really

helped them deal with it because you

know it outlines for mental health

wellness in the workplace guidelines for

executives and HR and guidelines for

employees and it's all based on the a da

and you know it's looked over by some

lawyers and I mean obviously hire your

own counsel don't go off of what we're

selling but you know it was a good

starting point to know what you can and

can't do if you have time take the Osmo

survey I think we're up to the 2019 one

Azmi help that or assess research and

also if you have time please take the

survey it's about twenty minutes but it

really helps us out so you know Jenna

closeout I'm sorry I'm going over a

little bit but you know an open-source

tech communities are greatest resource

look at this everybody here mid camp and

all these things that's amazing and it

reminds us that we're not alone and that

we're not just using names he's up he's

not just for a boy

he's a be the for a boy oh it's not big

Dwayne it's plain and you know we're

people and that's what helped but these

events help remind us of and so getting

the space time this is this is great

thank you all for coming to mid-game

so you know this is what I'm doing to

help erase a stigma so thank you for

listening couple of resources I always

put up if there's as we help that org

there's also forms on there that are

kind of not quite and none of them is

but enough where there's a lot of people

who will say hey I'm having this issue

and then you know get some feedback from

other people in the community if you are

looking for a therapist a couple

resources here 100 therapists or

Psychology Today calm psychology today

calm is really good because the magazine

side of it is a Drupal site and because

the search function will let you narrow

it down to what kind of therapist you're

looking for and what specialties maybe

they they specialize in PTSD or they do

EMDR or something that you you think

would really benefit you there's also

the suicide lifeline and number four

National Association of mental illness

so I know I went over I wanted to do all

for hanging out for the extra five

minutes thank you so much for listening

and thanks for coming in Midtown

if you have any questions I'll be around

but I'm not going to take up this room

any longer than we already have

thank you

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