Talk Stigma

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Talk Stigma. My name is Pastor Seth Perry. I'm a pastor. I'm in recovery from addiction. I've been clean and sober for 14 and a half years and I also live well with bipolar disorder for the last 14 and a half years. I've also been able to stay out of the psych ward and take my medication every day. And welcome to everybody so far. Everyone who's joined me right now, please make sure to say hello and say hi. I'd love to hear from you because I've got a lot to talk about today.

Today's question, I'm going to repeat it in a few moments, but I'll say it now. And hello Jules. Good afternoon to you. What I'm going to say, I'm going to ask you this question and you can start answering it right now. You can start answering it in the comments. Hello Colleen, good to hear from you. Here's the question. Where have you experienced unexpected joy in 2024? And hello Becky. So throw out those answers. Where have you experienced unexpected joy in 2024? My live streams are all about mental health stigma in faith communities.

And sometimes when I look back at the year, I think about all of the roadblocks that I've encountered. Right. But today we are going to look back with gratitude and see where has the joy been? Where has sometimes, where, where have we sometimes overcome that stigma that often happens with mental health and addiction in faith communities. Doesn't matter what faith community you belong to, what denomination, religion or even if you are non denominational, you don't have spiritual beliefs. You just have broad worldview.

Look back at 2024, tell me, where have you experienced joy? So one thing that I did was I put this up on all my socials and on Cadre and I got some answers, some responses. So from Norm, he said the birth of my sixth grandchild and that is a source of joy. Absolutely. Lyndon said, this is really nice. I like it. Lyndon's a pastor in Victoria and he said an Advent evening prayer setting commissioned by the congregation, composed by a trans music composition grad from UVic. That is where Lyndon saw unexpected joy.

And I think it's great to see that a pastor is celebrating someone's identity so publicly on social media and when it has to do with celebrating this time of the season. So for you, where have you, where have you experienced unexpected joy this season? And then we have Dale. Dale. Dale said that he is starting to discover the true possibilities of YouTube and social media. And Dale's great. Dale is A comment content creator that has been invited to be a user on this platform to experience Cadre.

I invited him on and so he may comment today. And Dale lives well with schizophrenia. And so again, he said, starting to discover the true possibilities of YouTube and social media. And that's great. And Marjun said, meeting a friend I made on Instagram seven years ago in person. And I just think that that is awesome, too, that we often look at social media and apps and all the things that distract away from our attention as things that don't contribute to our lives. However, I've been able to make some great connections on this platform the whole year, right.

The whole. The whole time I've been engaged in the Cadre sphere. Right. And here Marion has done the same on Instagram, which is great. I've got a long one coming up in just a second. But Colleen has said I have been tending deeply to some very important friendships with very strong women. And that has been inspiring to me. And that's excellent. I think finding people that you can bond with that have common goals is a way of overcoming stigma, is a way of growing together. Right. And that's excellent.

Thank you, Colleen, for that. And anyone else who's watching right now, go ahead and let me know where you've experienced unexpected joy this year. And good for you, Colleen. That's excellent. Here's my long one, and it's just great. I love this one. Alina says a conversation with a new neighbor shortly after we moved. Alina moved this summer. She said, I was hanging out with a group of parents while our kids were on the soccer field, and they asked what I do, and I told them I'm a pastor. And instead of an awkward silence, we ended up having a lengthy conversation about the Reformation and its impact on Europe's political landscape, which may not be the.

That may not be like a conversation for everyone. And she went ahead and had that on the soccer field, but then one of the parents said, I'm Jewish. And we had a really great theological conversation after that. And then all the families who were in that conversation also joined together for a Rosh Hasana dinner in October, one of the highlights of my year. So that's really interesting. And that's something that I really want to lift up. Alina says in that. That in a neutral space, in. In a place where people can get together from all different backgrounds, a soccer field, which is great.

I love playing soccer because sometimes I'll look out at the people that I play soccer with and I'll be like, oh, that's interesting. They probably came from a Muslim upbringing and this person grew up Jewish and here I am, I'm a Lutheran. And, you know, that was really. That's really cool. We're all on the same soccer field together, playing together. Right. And Alina had that kind of experience where religions and cultures were bridged and what happened was a celebration out of that. And so, you know, as we look forward to 2025, maybe when we're feeling down, we should be looking for the celebration.

Right. Which I live with bipolar disorder. I have ups, I have downs. And a lot of the barriers that I encounter in the world are when I deal with self stigmatization and when I deal with the stigma of mental health and addiction in my career. Right. I work and live in the church and I'm taking on that challenge of being a pastor in a. In an environment where we are actively reforming how we talk about mental health in the Christian. In the Christian, you know, sphere will say, right, I'm doing that every week and sometimes I can get down.

And I really had to push through over the last two weeks to get my b*** off of the couch because that's just the way my mind works. I know I have ups and downs. So. Thank you for your comment. Becky. I'm going to move on to your comment. Becky says, I was asked to sit with an elderly lady with little English on a small day trip and help her and she had a great time. It was heartwarming when she told everyone that I took good hair care of her and how I held her hand in the park. Becky, Whoa. What a.

What a gift. A gift, early gift this Christmas that you've given everybody. Yeah, let me just, let me get a screenshot of that one. That's a screenshot that's going to go on a Cadre post right there. That's going to go out to the community post because what a surprise, right? We never know who we are going to encounter. So I'm an extrovert, and I'll wrap up by saying this. I'm an extrovert and I say hey to a lot of people when I'm out walking my dogs out in the city. Hey, how you doing? Have a nice day.

I like to, you know, wrap things up in a nice, tidy, polite bow. I'm from Canada. I grew up in Canada, so I got that sensibility about me. But here you have gone above and beyond to really help someone that maybe, you know, you have transcended the barrier of language. So it's excellent lots of good themes today. We have an exciting week ahead. Make sure that you are tuning in this more or tomorrow morning because JC and Luke are doing a a morning conversation. There are morning conversations throughout the week I believe this week and so keep keep your ear to the ground and check in on those posts about Cadre today because you'll be able to tune into some excellent conversations this week and I'll see you on the Cadre sphere.

Becky, make a post about how this was for you and you know I love interacting with people on the posts. Let's stick together between now and January 7th. I always say January 7th that is, you know a tough time between now and January 7th or 10 days before Christmas. So let's stick together on this app and really use it to its full potential and support each other in the Cadre sphere. So have a wonderful evening. Have a wonderful afternoon. This is Seth Perry, Tuna.