Throughout our lives we all want to become part of the group, and stigma can arise from factors as innocent as your brand of sneakers.
– Mike Veny
Mike Veny’s path to becoming a public speaker became evident at an early age. He convinced the staff at psychiatric hospitals to discharge him three times during his childhood. In addition to being hospitalized as a child, he was expelled from 3 schools, attempted suicide, and was regularly medicated in efforts to reduce his emotional instability and behavioral outbursts.
By the fifth grade, Mike was put in a special education class. Aside from getting more individualized attention from the teacher, he learned that pencil erasers make a great drumming sound when tapped on a desk. He had no idea that real drumming would become his career as well as his path to recovery for his many troubling experiences with repeated mental health stigma.
Today his interesting perspectives help others understand the need for improved conversations about mind health and recovery. Note: This a reposting of a popular previous publication 2 years ago.
Mike Veny is both a leading mental health speaker and a high energy drum circle facilitator. He delivers educational, engaging, and entertaining presentations to meetings and conferences throughout the world – with an emphasis on translating thought into action.
Mike is fiercely committed to wellness, suicide prevention, and helping people work together more smoothly. With 15 years of experience, his mission is to empower people to connect authentically wherever they work or live, from schools to corporate groupings.
————-
In truth, every interviewer here at CBJ addresses the importance of underlying, overlooked factors that lead to stigma and labels. Inadequate diagnosis, those reductionistic labels, create treatment failure and open up the ignorance of blame. These several guests clearly focus on correcting that specific perspective. Get with it, own the details.
