Hello, Podwalkers, and welcome to the Goblin Lore Podcast! May is Mental Health Awareness Month and the plan is for all the episodes this month to relate to important topics within Mental Health. We are also participating (along with other excellent creators) in #MentalHealthMtG and attempting to raise money for MH Organizations!!

cw, tw: suicide, suicidal thoughts, depression, self-harm

In today's episode we are joined by ALK Alters to discuss his experience with Mental Health Care (both from the standpoint of outpatient and inpatient). ALK candidly discusses his experience with being hospitalized and what this looked like for him. Our hope is that by discussing these topics we can help to combat stigma and to also be frank about the full spectrum of MH Care.

This is a sensitive topic that is extremely important to the members of the cast, and we feel like it's necessary to examine the depictions of these mental health crises in popular media. We hope this episode can be educational for those who may be wondering what a hospitalization may look like. What is discussed here is based on the experience of our guest (and Hobbes's work in inpatient settings). There are links below to several resources.

We also are proud to have partnered with Grinding Coffee Co a black, LGBT+ affiliated and owned, coffee business that is aimed at providing coffee to gamers. You can read more about their mission here. You can use our partner code for discounted coffee!

____________________________________________

As promised, we plan to keep these Mental Health Links available moving forward too. For general Mental Health the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has great resources for people struggling with mental health concerns as well as their families. We also want to draw attention to this article on stigma from NAMI's site.

If you’re thinking about suicide or just need someone to talk to right now, you can get support from any of the resources below.

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
  • Veteran's can Press 1 at anytime to be taken to the Veteran's Line
• Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741-741
• International suicide hotlines: A comprehensive resource list for people outside the US.
• IMAlive: Click Chat Now to access a live online network of volunteers through instant messaging.
• TrevorLifeline, TrevorChat, and TrevorText (LGBTQ+ crisis support): 1-866-488-7386, or text “Trevor” to 1-202-304-1200
• Trans Lifeline (US): (877) 565-8860

____________________________________________

You can find the hosts on Twitter: Hobbes Q. at @HobbesQ, and Alex Newman at @Mel_Chronicler. Send questions, comments, thoughts, hopes, and dreams to @GoblinLorePod on Twitter or [email protected].

Opening and closing music by Wintergatan (@wintergatan). Logo art by Steven Raffael (