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From Stigma To Clarity: Why Everyone Has Mental Health | Episode 381 · Voices for Voices®

• 0:02
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Hey everyone, it's Justin here with Voices for Voices.
• 0:06
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you so much for joining us today, and each episode uh just surpassed episode number 380.
• 0:16
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We're gonna be uh, as I mentioned before, uh, we'll be uh hitting that 400 total episode mark by the end of calendar year 2025.
• 0:31
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And all the thanks go to you, our followers, our listeners, our viewers, uh, for each and every one of you who spend even uh a couple seconds with us.
• 0:46
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We very much appreciate that.
• 0:49
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: If you can do a big favor that is free, uh if you can go ahead and subscribe at that subscribe button, give us a big thumbs up, like, follow, share, again, subscribe.
• 1:04
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Those are all things that are free to do, they don't cost anything, uh, but they help us uh get closer to our our goal of helping three billion people at least over the course of my lifetime and beyond.
• 1:24
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Big goal, but we have big goals.
• 1:27
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh we dream big, and I have a good feeling that we're we're going to going to do that.
• 1:36
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And it's uh it's not just me.
• 1:40
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh it's uh all the organizations we have partnered with, all the individuals that we've partnered with, had on our show.
• 1:49
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh it's it's because of all of us having that uh that one goal of helping other people, no matter the situation that they find themselves in.
• 2:03
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh and to let them know and you if you need to hear it, and I need to hear it.
• 2:12
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh, we want to take away the stigma of mental illness, uh, mental challenges, no different than physical challenges.
• 2:26
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh mental just is one of those words where it is inside of us, and I remember growing up thinking, not even just thinking, but I I remember you know, kids in school, they're like, oh, they're mental or they're mental, and didn't really grasp totally what that meant at the time.
• 2:57
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Um, but that was something that was reiterated, you know, when somebody wanted to make a statement about somebody they didn't like, they didn't agree with, uh, like oh, they're mental.
• 3:13
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And I think that stigma has just evolved over the years.
• 3:24
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Where anytime anybody brings up the word mental, mental health, mental illness, people automatically just turn away.
• 3:38
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: They're like, I don't have any, I don't have mental health.
• 3:42
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Well, yes, you do.
• 3:43
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We all do, we're all human.
• 3:45
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We have physical health, we have spiritual health, we have mental health.
• 3:50
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Now, some of us have different degrees of not just mental health.
• 3:59
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Mental health is like I said, like physical health.
• 4:02
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So, like, let's just talk like this.
• 4:06
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So, mental health and physical health.
• 4:09
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Physical health would be how we're feeling, maybe spraying an ankle playing a pickup game of basketball, uh, or maybe uh with some of this, uh, if you live in a kind of like a winter uh a winter or lower temperatures, uh there's a chance to slip and fall on the ice.
• 4:38
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And so maybe we get a bruise.
• 4:40
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So that's something we can see.
• 4:42
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So that's physical health, but we may have, again, a twisted ankle, a bruise or two.
• 4:52
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And so when we talk about mental health, mental health is just the top of the iceberg.
• 5:02
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: It's just that's what it's known for, is mental health.
• 5:08
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Now, if we dig down, some of us have mental challenges, such as depression, such as generalized anxiety, and the list goes on.
• 5:25
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And and and so I wanted to share this because I've been trying to trying to get this across to as many people as possible and as many change agents as possible.
• 5:42
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: That when somebody hears the word mental, we all have mental health.
• 5:51
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So there's no question about that.
• 5:54
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: That's not me making something up, that's not me trying to create a news story uh where there's not one, it's just the fact.
• 6:09
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So we have physical health at the top of the iceberg there, and then behind it, like I said, if we slip and fall on the ice, which has happened to me before, uh, if we uh you know are playing a sport, we could get injured, twist an ankle, uh, dislocate a shoulder, whatever that may be, those things are more noticeable because for those of us that are able to use our eyes, and not everybody is, so I'm very grateful, even if there's times where I don't say it, I'm very grateful that I have eyesight to any degree, because I know there's a lot of people who don't, and I shouldn't be taken I shouldn't be uh taken I mean taken advantage, but uh just just thinking like oh everybody can can see uh that's not the case.
• 7:24
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh or everybody can walk.
• 7:26
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: That that's not always true.
• 7:30
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We're not being mean, we're just sharing that we're all unique individuals, all unique human beings.
• 7:39
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And so it's the same thing when it comes to mental health.
• 7:44
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We all have it.
• 7:47
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And I think that's the biggest part is understanding that we all have mental health.
• 7:58
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Because once we once we come to that agreement, and again, I'm not making this stuff up.
• 8:06
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We have mental health, we have physical health, etc.
• 8:11
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Once we agree that every human being, no matter where we live, no matter what our demograph uh demographic is, we all have it.
• 8:30
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Some have mental health challenges, some may not.
• 8:41
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I would argue, and I will argue, that I think we all have mental health challenges.
• 8:48
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: They're just to different degrees of how it impacts our lives.
• 8:56
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So once we get to that, once we get to that starting point of okay, we all have mental health.
• 9:07
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We all have physical health.
• 9:10
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Once we agree on those two things, then we can get somewhere.
• 9:18
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: It's when mental health is used as, oh, that person has mental health.
• 9:27
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Well, no kidding.
• 9:29
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We all have mental health.
• 9:32
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I think the proper terminology is, you know, there's mental challenges.
• 9:42
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: But we all have physical challenges.
• 9:46
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I'll give you an example.
• 9:49
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: If we line up on a track and run a 50 yard dash, some of us are faster and some of us are not.
• 10:02
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I would probably come in last or somewhere in in that in that group.
• 10:15
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So right there undermines the narratives that are out there about, oh well, you know, that person has mental health.
• 10:31
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: It's a kind it's the same thing of saying it's the same way of saying in this way for physical.
• 10:39
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Well, this person has physical health.
• 10:41
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Well, no kidding.
• 10:43
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We all have physical health, we all have mental health.
• 10:46
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So can we get past this, everyone?
• 10:50
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Can we please get past this?
• 10:56
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Because more than half the battle of any issue is getting started.
• 11:05
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: For instance, as we come to the close of another calendar year at the end of December, and then we turn the page into January 2026, it's easy to say, oh, I'm gonna go to the gym.
• 11:31
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I'm gonna I'm gonna get a gym membership.
• 11:33
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: That's gonna be my New Year's resolution.
• 11:39
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Well, what would be the gym membership?
• 11:42
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Well, to be a little bit more active, to get a little bit stronger.
• 11:56
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: But then it fades throughout the year.
• 12:00
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We get busy.
• 12:03
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And then we get busier, and next thing you know, two, three months down the road, we still are paying for this gym membership, but we're not utilizing it.
• 12:24
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And so anybody that has done that before, I've done that before.
• 12:31
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Where it's easy, right?
• 12:33
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: It's easy to think in our mind, oh yeah, that's easy, I'll do that.
• 12:38
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Like I'll join with a friend or what have you.
• 12:44
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: It's easy because it's in our head, it's in a comfortable spot.
• 12:50
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: But actually get up and do something about it is a whole new ball game.
• 12:56
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Then are we consistent with the so first we have to identify, okay, physical health.
• 13:08
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Secondly, are we are we happy?
• 13:13
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Are we healthy?
• 13:16
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And then the third is the consistency part.
• 13:20
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: How consistent.
• 13:23
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So when we talk about mental health, we all have it.
• 13:32
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So we're agreeing on that.
• 13:37
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And then if there's some diagnoses, then we're agreeing that there should maybe be some type of behavior modification and or medication therapy, and then third is that consistency.
• 14:12
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So we're being prescribed a certain medication.
• 14:17
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Once we break an ankle, sprain an ankle, uh tear an ACL, anterior crucia ligament, and we have to have surgery.
• 14:34
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So there's medication that oftentimes is prescribed for a predefined period of time based off of how much pain we're in.
• 14:51
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So if we don't take that medication, because of the years of research, the doctors will probably say, Well, you're gonna be in a lot of pain for a day, two days, a week.
• 15:09
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I don't know.
• 15:10
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I'm throwing it out hypothetically.
• 15:13
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Same thing on the mental health side of okay, we all have mental health.
• 15:22
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We agreed on that.
• 15:23
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Then we get into are there any diagnoses of like, okay, I have major depression.
• 15:37
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So what comes with that, part of what comes with that is medication and being seen.
• 15:54
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So if I were to stop taking the medication, that that probably wouldn't be one of the the best ideas to do that.
• 16:13
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So I'm trying to draw parallels between the physical health and the mental health.
• 16:20
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And it doesn't matter who we are, where we're from, how much money we have, how little money we have.
• 16:32
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Especially during these at least here on the East Coast, there's this thing called seasonal effective disorder.
• 16:46
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And I know it it really affects me.
• 16:53
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So mostly clockwork is we we uh put push the clocks back an hour, and so it's oftentimes dark outside in the morning, and then it gets dark earlier than what we're used to in the afternoonslash evening.
• 17:23
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And so that plays a role.
• 17:25
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: How big of a role?
• 17:27
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I don't know.
• 17:29
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I just I just know that if I walk out the door and it's sunny if it's I I don't have to wear a jacket, I can wear short sleeves if I want.
• 18:12
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: It leads me not to be outside as much as I should and I need, and I know that's something I on and we're just talking about that person's mental.
• 18:38
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We don't say, oh, that person's physical.
• 18:43
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I mean, we might say it if there's athletes playing basketball and they're, you know, really just uh if they're playing basketball, you know, they somebody takes a shot, they miss it, and so there's a chance for a rebound.
• 19:04
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And both teams are going after the ball, and um I say, oh, this this game's a little bit more physical.
• 19:15
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh maybe that's more fouls.
• 19:20
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh it could be a lot of different things, but I don't hear people say, oh, look at so and so.
• 19:33
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: They're physical.
• 19:36
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We look at each other and and say, well, yeah.
• 19:44
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Okay.
• 19:46
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So why do we say, well, that person's mental?
• 19:53
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And someone can say, oh, they well, they are because they're diagnosed with whatever.
• 20:01
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Is that is that a behavior that is bringing people together and unifying that we can appreciate?
• 20:14
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Every single one of us has traits that may impact their lives more than others.
• 20:33
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Or is this a dividing where we're saying, oh, this group of people over here, they have major depression.
• 20:45
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So they have mental health.
• 20:47
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Again, how silly does that sound?
• 20:51
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We all have mental health, and that's why I'm doing this episode because it is incumbent upon me and voices for voices, and the work we put out, which again we have a we have four books out on our TikTok shop, Voices for Voices, TikTok shop, we have the house of you prescription for living, which details my mental health journey.
• 21:35
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We have the house of you five workforce preparation tips for a successful career.
• 21:45
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Both of those, if you buy it and purchase on our Voices for Voices TikTok shop, you will receive autograph copies from me, the author of both of those.
• 21:58
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And we will personalize as well prior to shipment.
• 22:05
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Then we have the Adelane comic book written by a I don't say a breakout author, uh, but a very good author and writer, David Solomon, one of the best of our time artwork done by Cooper Saunders.
• 22:36
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So I want to say a big thank you to Cooper for that.
• 22:40
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And then we have The Young Sirenborn, where David Solomon wrote the story, and he did the artwork on the cover, the outside front, the outside back, and spine of the book.
• 22:59
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Those last two, we don't have signed copies as of yet, but all four of those are for purchase today and every day on our TikTok shop as well as Amazon.com.
• 23:17
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And we're looking uh for greater distribution as we speak.
• 23:24
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Some of them we have electronically.
• 23:26
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I know The House of You, those two books.
• 23:31
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh we have the uh the versions on Audible, so you can download and listen on your commute, to and from work, to and from practices, games.
• 23:50
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Uh and then we have what you're watching and listening right now, the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast.
• 24:01
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Now, with this episode, we are up to 381 total episodes.
• 24:10
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And we're so grateful to have you with us at any point in our uh organization, individual journeys.
• 24:22
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Because if you weren't watching, you weren't listening, we would have nobody, we'd have no reason to do this.
• 24:32
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And so we want to say thank you for watching, thank you for listening, thank you for subscribing, thank you for giving us the big thumbs up, the likes, the follows, the shares, again, the subscribing, all those are free, easy to do, and it helps us get closer and closer to our goal of helping three billion people at least over the course of my lifetime and beyond.
• 25:09
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And we're uh humbled each and every day as we uh go on different platforms and do lives, you know, whether it's a TikTok live or an Instagram live or Facebook Live, we're uh we we see so much generosity from each one of you.
• 25:39
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And so we say thank you, we're grateful, we're humbled, and let's see if we can one day at a time, one minute at a time, make the world a little bit better.
• 25:57
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And if we hear somebody talk about that person's mental or that person has mental health, you can be a change agent and say, we all have mental health and nobody's perfect.
• 26:17
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I'm not perfect, you're not perfect, nobody is.
• 26:26
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So I don't I don't think we should be judging as much as we do.
• 26:35
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And believe me, I've spent a good portion of my life kind of on that judgment train.
• 26:44
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: That gossip train.
• 26:49
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Now, this kind of second half of my life trying to exit that judgment train.
• 27:04
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And just get on the train of unity, bringing people together, talking about tough issues, talking about tough stories, talking about things to make not only the individual or individuals that we have as guests feel just a little bit better because they're able to share their story.
• 27:35
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I feel like somebody wants to listen and watch.
• 27:42
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And we do, of course, as the organization, voices for voices, but for others out there, we don't know where people are at in their life journey, people at all different stages, and I would like to think that deep down, deep down in all of our hearts, that we want to help people.
• 28:17
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We don't want to hurt people.
• 28:20
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We don't want to judge people.
• 28:24
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We don't want to call people mental.
• 28:29
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We don't want to call people physical.
• 28:35
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: There's an old adage, you know, can't we just get along?
• 28:40
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I don't see why not.
• 28:44
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I really don't I don't I don't see.
• 28:48
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: I don't see why we can't.
• 28:52
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And so it's with the love and support from you to us and then back to you.
• 29:02
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: No matter where you are in your mental health and physical health journeys.
• 29:12
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: No matter what demographic you're in, or what I what demographic I'm in.
• 29:23
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Or the geographic area because we have to give big thank yous because we are viewed and listened to our show or voices for voices, TV show and podcast is watched, is listened to in a hundred countries, a thousand cities.
• 30:01
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: From Antarctica to Greenland, from North America to South America, from Africa to Europe, to Oceania, to Asia.
• 30:25
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: We love each and every one of you.
• 30:30
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Help us, help me be a better person.
• 30:39
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Help us, help me be a better leader.
• 30:45
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Help us, help me show more respect and less judgment.
• 30:58
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And thank you so much for watching and listening.
• 31:03
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: If you can share our show, we are a 501c3 nonprofit charity.
• 31:14
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So if it so moves you, you can donate to Voices for Voices at lovevoices.org.
• 31:26
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: That's lovevoices.org spelled out.
• 31:33
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: That is L-O-V-E V O I C E S dot O R G.
• 31:47
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you so much for joining us on this episode.
• 31:53
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Love you all.
• 31:55
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you for your love and support.
• 31:58
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: And we'll see you on the next Voices for Voices TV show and podcast.
• 32:05
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: This is Justin Allen Hayes, and we're so grateful to have had a few minutes with you at this time.
• 32:16
  Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: So have a great day wherever you may be.