Mental Health in Infosec: Hackers, Hugs, & Drugs
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Mental Health in Infosec: Hackers, Hugs, & Drugs
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Mental Health in Infosec: Hackers, Hugs, & Drugs
- 8. “Without the booze and drugs, I’d have the mind of a third-rate accountant.” - Hunter S. Thompson
- 10. Women were more likely than men to report ever having been diagnosed with a mental health problem (33% compared with 19%)
- 12. Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. experiences mental illness in a given year.
- 14. Approximately 1 in 25 adults in the U.S. 10 million, or 4.2% illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits on
- 45. DON'T SAY • “You’re overreacting” • "It could be worse." • "Just deal with it." • "Snap out of it." • "Everyone feels that way sometimes." • "You may have brought this on yourself." • "We've all been there." • "You've got to pull yourself together." • "Maybe try thinking happier thoughts.” DO SAY • "Thanks for opening up to me." • "Is there anything I can do to help?" • "How can I help?" • "Thanks for sharing." • "I'm sorry to hear that. It must be tough." • "I'm here for you when you need me." • "I can't imagine what you're going through." • "People do get better." • "Oh man, that sucks." • "Can I drive you to an appointment?" • "How are you feeling today?" • "I love you."
- 47. DON'T SAY • “You’re overreacting” • "It could be worse." • "Just deal with it." • "Snap out of it." • "Everyone feels that way sometimes." • "You may have brought this on yourself." • "We've all been there." • "You've got to pull yourself together." • "Maybe try thinking happier thoughts.” DO SAY • "Thanks for opening up to me." • "Is there anything I can do to help?" • "How can I help?" • "Thanks for sharing." • "I'm sorry to hear that. It must be tough." • "I'm here for you when you need me." • "I can't imagine what you're going through." • "People do get better." • "Oh man, that sucks." • "Can I drive you to an appointment?" • "How are you feeling today?" • "I love you."
- 50. DON'T SAY • “You’re overreacting” • "It could be worse." • "Just deal with it." • "Snap out of it." • "Everyone feels that way sometimes." • "You may have brought this on yourself." • "We've all been there." • "You've got to pull yourself together." • "Maybe try thinking happier thoughts.” DO SAY • "Thanks for opening up to me." • "Is there anything I can do to help?" • "How can I help?" • "Thanks for sharing." • "I'm sorry to hear that. It must be tough." • "I'm here for you when you need me." • "I can't imagine what you're going through." • "People do get better." • "Oh man, that sucks." • "Can I drive you to an appointment?" • "How are you feeling today?" • "I love you."
- 61. National Suicide Hotline - 1-800-273-8255 - https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ Crisis Text Line - TEXT “CONNECT” TO 741741 - http://www.crisistextline.org/textline/ Veteran's Crisis Line - 1-800-273-8255 and Press 1 - https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/ Call 911 or 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) or 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255) or Text Telephone: 1-800-799-4TTY (1-800-799-4889) Military Veterans Suicide Hotline: 1-800-273-TALK (Press 1) LGBT Youth - www.thetrevorproject.org Suicide Hotline: 1-866-4-U-TREVO www.afsp.org www.activeminds.org
- 63. Resources & References • http://thoughtcatalog.com/kirsten-corley/2017/01/this-is-how-you-love-someone-with-anxiety/ • www.7cups.com • http://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-By-the-Numbers#sthash.L3nIR0Ft.dpuf • http://ga.berkeley.edu/wellbeingreport/ • https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1460/e46986fee4a0485b1a4055c55cf9d914b8ec.pdf • http://makeitok.org/ • https://personal.lse.ac.uk/kanazawa/pdfs/RGP2010.pdf • http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/all-us-adults-should-be-screened-depression-recommends-independent-panel/ • http://www.medicaldaily.com/why-smarter-people-are-more-likely-be-mentally-ill-270039 • http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2015/05/depression-afflicts-almost-half-stem-graduate-students-uc-berkeley • http://ir0nin.com/
Editor's Notes
- Hey Everyone!! How excited are you to be here in Nashville?! Well, I thought I'd start out my presentation with a little story. So about 7 years ago I was married with two kids, living in a super shitty house in the middle of nowhere. My second son was about 1 year old and my oldest was 7. Our roof leaked, and without going into much detail of my marriage, I didn't have really any control over anything that happened. That being said, I remember the one night that I realized something was wrong with me. Well...something other than the obvious. I had just gotten out of the shower and was getting ready for bed. I had been getting progressively sadder that day and something just snapped. I started bawling. I sat down on the floor of the bathroom and just cried. My husband came up to me and was super worried something serious was going on. This image is probably one of the closest things I can show to describe the way the inside of me felt. I physically couldn't force myself to speak. It actually hurt when I tried. It felt like the world was ending and there was nothing I could do to stop it. My entire mind was static. It took about a half hour before I could stop crying and put together my first sentence. If you know me, I hate to use the word "triggered" unless it's when I'm trolling. But I figured out what had finally tipped me over the edge was our shower curtain being dirty.
- I felt so incredibly stupid and immature. Looking back at all of it now, a lot of the anxiety problems I had during my marriage was because of the lack of cleanliness. That in itself is a whole other book of stories. The funny thing is, even when I realized something was wrong internally, I didn't ask for help. I didn't talk about it. I'm a strong independent black women that don't need no man's help. I figured I had gotten through a lot on my own this far in life at the ripe age of 25, I should be able to handle this on my own too.
- So why in the world am I bringing this up at an infosec con? Well first because a lot of you I consider my family. This has been the first group of people that understand me and you understand others around you. When I began tweeting, posting, and talking to people at cons about anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues I realized that there are a LOT of people here that not only are struggling with this type of stuff, but trying to tackle it alone like I did for a good 10 years or so. I've had amazing conversations with some super smart and personable people, that you'd never imagine would be struggling. The kind of people that look like they have it together. I want to continue this conversation and try to make it as public and without stigma as possible. So that's what we'll cover today. Looking back on my life after I finally got some help, I had been struggling with it on my own since my teens. Yea it got progressively worse, but it was always there.
- So we never want to admit anything is wrong with us right? What's the first step of almost any 12 step program? Acceptance! But if you accept it and stop there, it will just make you more angry and depressed. You can't just accept there is a problem, you have to accept that you need help in one form or another.
- Not only do people in our industry have the normal stresses of jobs and family life, many of us are also extremely passionate about what we do. It's not just a 9-5 job anymore. This is our career, our passion, our hobbies. None of you are here because you have to be....well...at least I hope not, that would suck. The infosec community is difficult to compare to any other. We are composed of intelligent, driven, passionate, opinionated individuals. When you combine the pressure and stress we put on ourselves in the form of research, learning, teaching, and creating it starts to build up. Not only do we put pressure on ourselves, but we also take it on from our bosses, coworkers, and family in many different forms. The majority of roles we fill cater to our drive and willingness to be behind a keyboard for hours on end. Sometimes you add to this roles like Incident Response or law enforcement roles that can not only be time sensitive, but can include things like human trafficking or child endangerment and exploitation investigation.
- So let's talk about some of the research I was able to do next. When I first thought about talking about this topic I went to the google. I first searched "mental health issues in stem fields"......and wow....most were about women...ok, so after removing "women" as a search term it took it from 6 million total articles to 2 million. Ok, but When it comes to mental illness, the sexes are different: Women are more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety or depression, while men tend toward substance abuse or antisocial disorders. But of course no one wants to talk about the men, even though they make up over 70% of our industry.
- But the hypothesis I was trying to prove is that it seems that people in STEM might have a higher rate of mental health issues. Which turns out there are a few studies that provide evidence to this. The Savanna-IQ Interaction Hypothesis states "The finding of an association between progressively increasing risk of bipolar disorder and high arithmetic intellectual performance is rather surprising" Tiihonen wrote, explaining the arithmetic test requires not only mathematical skill but rapid information-processing for the purpose of successfully completing the timed exam. High scorers with such rapid processing power may also share a tendency to experience mania, a state of high focus and psychomotor activity.
- The Savanna-IQ also talks about people with higher intelligence tending to self medicate with alcohol and drugs more than the average person. Just shows how much research the writers of Mr. Robot put into the storyline. For those of you that haven't watched it (no spoilers) but the main character Elliot suffers from social anxiety disorder, clinical depression, delusions and paranoia. He self-medicates with morphine, using suboxone to help with any withdrawal he may experience. While I don't recommend this at all, it's basically the gist of a good part of that paper.
- So let's move on to some more statistics... Not only the Savanna-IQ Interaction hypothesis talks about this smarts to depression correlation. There was a study done recently at berkeley that found Between 42% and 48% of University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. students in science and engineering are depressed That's compared to only 7% of the average population.
- which makes sense on the google results
- See? What did I say? It's not like you guys aren't having issues...believe me....I know a lot of you....men are just not reporting them.
- All of this and we still think everyone else has it together better than we do ourselves. I know I'm guilty of it. A handful of people had already given talks and done a lot of research on imposter syndrome. That can go hand in hand a good amount with mental health. Imposter syndrome is the feeling that you shouldn't be doing what you're doing because you don't have the required knowledge or experience. It's the feeling that others have it so much more together than you do yourself. A lot of times that's how we see ourselves when we have thoughts of suicide or anxiety. You feel like you're drowning while everyone around you has their shit together. In the slide notes I'll have links to these other presentations.
- I know I can think of a good amount of people that have talked to me through situations like this as well as all of the times I've been limited because my brain decided to go in some crazy direction. I also found that the US Preventative Services Task Force recommends that all adults be screened for depression. All. Of. Us! That's astounding to think of. When I read that my mind went in a million different directions. "really, just US citizens, is it because of first world problems? our diet? our government? what!?" I mean in the grand scheme of things we don't really have it that bad. But that doesn't matter when you're huddled in a corner unable to move or thinking about crashing into the concrete barrier on the highway because it would be so super easy to do.
- So let’s dive into the different types of Mental Health issues and their characteristics. I'm not going to cover everything, because that would take all day. But I'll cover some of the more common ones we see. When I talk about the symptoms of these diseases pay attention. They don't just include the shit going on inside your brain. There are serious physical issues happening as well.
- First there's Social Anxiety Disorder or General Anxiety Disorder Some Common Symptoms Fear of situations in which you may be judged Worrying about embarrassing or humiliating yourself Concern that you'll offend someone
- Intense fear of interacting or talking with strangers Fear of physical symptoms that may cause you embarrassment, such as blushing, sweating, trembling or having a shaky voice Avoiding doing things or speaking to people out of fear of embarrassment Avoiding situations where you might be the center of attention
- Having anxiety in anticipation of a feared activity or event Spending time after a social situation analyzing your performance and identifying flaws in your interactions Expecting the worst possible consequences from a negative experience during a social situation
- Now you might say to yourself that these types of things happen to you every now and then. But it specifies that they are "intense" fears. I know I'm not a doctor, but if you experience these or any of the other symptoms I cover and you haven't gotten help. It won't hurt to do so.
- You might avoid normal social situations like: Using a public restroom Interacting with strangers Eating in front of others Making eye contact Initiating conversations
- Dating Attending parties or social gatherings Going to work or school Entering a room in which people are already seated Returning items to a store
- I don’t know how many relationships I’ve ruined because of panic and anxiety attacks. And I don't just mean romantic relationships. But friendships as well. Anything that is more than just a business relationship. I'll over invest myself in a relationship and then push people away because in my head they're already gone. I'm being too needy, not attentive enough, my jokes are stupid, I'm too fat or ugly....the list goes on and on. And again, this isn't just me talking. People have different levels of anxiety that they deal with and different symptoms that they experience. But a huge common theme is the overthinking and being around people.
- So next up, super fun one is Bipolar disorder, also previously known as manic depression. So there are two sides to this one...first off is the Manic part Some of the symptoms are Abnormally upbeat, jumpy or wired Increased activity, energy or agitation Exaggerated sense of well-being and self-confidence (euphoria)
- Decreased need for sleep Unusual talkativeness Racing thoughts Distractibility Poor decision-making — for example, going on buying sprees, taking sexual risks or making foolish investments And the second part of the bipolar spectrum are all of the characteristics for your average depression Depressed mood Marked loss of interest or feeling no pleasure in all — or almost all — activities Significant weight loss when not dieting, weight gain, or decrease or increase in appetite (in children, failure to gain weight as expected can be a sign of depression)
- Either insomnia or sleeping too much Either restlessness or slowed behavior Fatigue or loss of energy Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt Decreased ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness Thinking about, planning or attempting suicide
- Borderline personality disorder is a mental health disorder that impacts the way you think and feel about yourself and others, causing problems functioning in everyday life. It includes a pattern of unstable intense relationships, distorted self-image, extreme emotions and impulsiveness. An intense fear of abandonment, even going to extreme measures to avoid real or imagined separation or rejection A pattern of unstable intense relationships, such as idealizing someone one moment and then suddenly believing the person doesn't care enough or is cruel Rapid changes in self-identity and self-image that include shifting goals and values, and seeing yourself as bad or as if you don't exist at all
- Periods of stress-related paranoia and loss of contact with reality, lasting from a few minutes to a few hours Impulsive and risky behavior, such as gambling, reckless driving, unsafe sex, spending sprees, binge eating or drug abuse, or sabotaging success by suddenly quitting a good job or ending a positive relationship Suicidal threats or behavior or self-injury, often in response to fear of separation or rejection Wide mood swings lasting from a few hours to a few days, which can include intense happiness, irritability, shame or anxiety Ongoing feelings of emptiness Inappropriate, intense anger, such as frequently losing your temper, being sarcastic or bitter, or having physical fights
- Depression, it's one of the most talked about mental health issues out there. Many people will associate just being sad about something in particular as being depressed. But it is way way more than that. According to a recent WHO study, depression is the leading cause of physical illness in the world. Feelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness or hopelessness Angry outbursts, irritability or frustration, even over small matters Loss of interest or pleasure in most or all normal activities, such as sex, hobbies or sports Sleep disturbances, including insomnia or sleeping too much
- Tiredness and lack of energy, so even small tasks take extra effort Changes in appetite — often reduced appetite and weight loss, but increased cravings for food and weight gain in some people Anxiety, agitation or restlessness Slowed thinking, speaking or body movements Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or blaming yourself for things that aren't your responsibility
- Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things Frequent or recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts or suicide Unexplained physical problems, such as back pain or headaches
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Recurrent, unwanted distressing memories of the traumatic event
- Reliving the traumatic event as if it were happening again (flashbacks) Upsetting dreams or nightmares about the traumatic event Severe emotional distress or physical reactions to something that reminds you of the traumatic event
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) features a pattern of unreasonable thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead you to do repetitive behaviors (compulsions)
- Fear of contamination or dirt Needing things orderly and symmetrical Aggressive or horrific thoughts about harming yourself or others Unwanted thoughts, including aggression, or sexual or religious subjects
- So we can all agree that any one of these conditions can royally suck. So now what? What if you or someone you care about is experiencing one or more of these? How do you cope or how do you help them cope?
- Many of you may have seen an impromptu survey I put out asking about 20 different questions on your perception and personal ideas about mental health. Several of the survey responses that I recieved pointed out that I messed up one of the question formats. The question was "Do you participate in any activities to reduce, dull, or improve the stress or feelings you're having, such as: Alcohol, Prescription Drugs, Other Drugs, Exercise, Medication, or Other". If I would have taken the survey myself before sending it out, I'd have realized that it should have been a multiple answer. Out of the 860 responses, these were the results. I think out of the "other" category, my favorite responses were "Pretend to be a Vulcan", "masturbation", "cats", and "twitter". Names with held for the privacy of course. So there are a lot of different coping and relaxation methods out there that can help out with this stuff, including medicine. And here you see that earlier hypothesis at work in the form of booze and drugs. The quickest way to improve brain chemistry is moving around. Two best ways to improve the chemicals in the brain without drugs, exercise (really any type) and having sex....well....as long as you're doing it right.
- I use my mom as a sounding board for a lot of the stuff that I talk about. Which sometimes is great because I love making her laugh and shake her head at me. When I started talking about different coping mechanisms, prescription drugs and seeing counselors and psychiatrists she mentioned her great grandma. I guess she had been institutionalized because of her sad and withdrawn behavior during menopause. For treatment at that time she was given regular shock treatments. Nothing like trying to get yourself out of clinical depression other than repeatedly shocking the hell out of you.
- Now we have better options. People talk sarcastically about "safe spaces" while making fun of millennials. I think we can agree that the majority of people don't need safe spaces, but it would be nice to have someone to talk to if needed. Even if you don't use anything as a coping mechanism, it still can feel good to externalize your feelings without being judged and mocked. Back then you couldn't really talk about mental health at all, just like you couldn't talk about teen pregnancy or divorce. And yay I've had all three... So not only can you talk to people in your field about your thoughts, feelings, research, and really anything else that you should want to. But hey, lots of people want professional opinions too. There are physchiatrists, therapists, and phsychologists that not only will listen to you, but also help you work through any thoughts or issues you might be having. Finding a good therapist that you feel comfortable with is also extremely important. Many times they are covered fully by insurance, especially if you are in high stress positions like military or law enforcement.
- So back to getting all doped up.....The last 20 years have seen a 400 percent increase in the use of antidepressants, with an estimated one in ten adults now taking them While we don't want to devalue people's suffering, we also don't want to be too quick to throw pills at problems for which better, non-medical solutions may exist. Which is great that people are meditating, exercising, hacking, learning, and getting themselves off to relieve some of this stress. A good amount of those things increase your Dopamine levels automatically without the need of anything clinical.
- When I was first prescribed zoloft, this is the kind of explanation that I received. That it is just a simple chemical reaction that we could try to fix with some medication. Which I whole heartedly took as gospel, because logically on the surface it made sense. Something biological isn't firing quite right to release the chemicals I need, so these meds will fix that. During my research I found that that's not necessarily 100% true. From what I found in medical journals and articles, they have no clue why some of the meds work.
- Which ok, I get that science is hard. The studies pointed out that issues also arise from things like faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, stressful life events, other medications, or medical problems. To quote an American Psychological Association article "We do not dispute the possibility that neurotransmitters and other brain chemicals play a significant role in the etiology of depression. However, we are also concerned that the chemical imbalance explanation may not reflect the full range of causes of depression, may be given greater credence by both consumers and practitioners than is supported by sound research, and/or may be understood in an overly simplistic manner." But really what part of any medical science do we NOT recieve in an overly simplistic manner?
- So I started taking Zoloft about 6 months before the end of my marriage and it was amazing. I wasn't sad anymore! I had more energy and I thought it was amazing. Well....it also kind of made me a zombie. It was great at propelling me through a LOT of stress in the next two years with moving, divorce, and job changes. Because in all honesty I didn't have any emotions at all. Nothing better than zero emotions to handle the difficult times in your life right? If any of you have ever seen "The Magicians" it was kind of like that. Medications have different effects on different people as well. That's one of the reasons it's next to impossible to know what will work for one person to the next. All of those other variables in life and in your body that I mentioned before mess with our minds in different ways.
- So after the major stresses in my life had died down, I realized that it would kinda be nice to feel some sort of emotion again instead of trying to fill the hole in my life with other means. It takes a bit of self reflection to realize that you could be going down the same path just a different way. So I changed to Wellbutrin and the occasional Xanax, which for me has worked out incredibly well so far. Now I'm not saying everyone should be medicated, but I'd bet there are a good amount of people that either should be or are coping in way unhealthier ways.
- So now that we've covered a bunch of my personal baggage and different coping mechanisms, how about we look at how we can treat others. As I said before, I've talked to an amazing amount of people since bringing up the topic and through talking to them about how we all handle different issues and what the communication is like I've found a good amount of resources that can not only help explain to others what it's like, but also give them what they need to help make it better.
- So since I try to talk about this kind of stuff openly I've gotten a huge range of responses from people. Now that I can tell I have an anxiety attack coming on I can verbalize it more than I used to be able to. The two most common negative things I've heard..... people tell me that "I'm overreacting" And I'm not the only one that happens to for sure. I was surprised at how many people told me this was a common reaction.
- I get this a lot(point to slide). And I truly do have so much going for me! I have a wonderful family, I'm a published author, an amazing group of friends, I'm at least fairly healthy, I'm gainfullly employed. How in the world could I be depressed. I don't have the right to be depressed! But you know what? I've caught myself saying the exact same thing in response to people opening up to me. I'll say "But we love you, you're amazing" and while those are nice to hear, I'm not sure it helps really at all.
- Or two "Try thinking happier thoughts"
- I only wish that were possible. You can't just will yourself when you might have a chemical imbalance or other potential reason your brain is firing a certain way. It can be really easy to put the happy face on the outside, but that doesn't mean any of the inside issues go away.
- A good majority of mental health issues come with their own physical symptoms as well as I went over earlier, even if it's difficult for the everyday person to see. Hell even sometimes we can't see it ourselves. You can't just tell someone to make more of an effort.
- Now let's cover the "Do Says" So first off sometimes you just have to listen. It's as simple as that. If it is someone you care about and close to you can create signals for when they are in trouble. Talking about it and knowing what works for each individual person can help more than you know. There are a handful of people that I can go to and tell them when I'm about to have an anxiety attack and they'll know what to do to help.
- I've given people key words. Just stupid stuff like pineapple or porcupine. Yes....basically it's a safe word for your mental health. Mine happen a lot at conferences, and I've found especially towards the end. I personally think it's a combination of being alone all of the time because I work from home, and then being around an abundance of people. That mixed with the lack of sleep and bad diet contribute to my overall routine getting out of whack. I used to forget my vitamins and meds when I traveled too, and I no longer make that mistake. Because boy what a difference it makes when you're properly medicated and running at least some semblance of a routine.
- Secondly another thing you have to understand about interacting with others is that they just might not feel like going out. The thought of crowds, enclosed spaces, dirty public restrooms, loud noise, whatever it may be. I find this to be true no matter the issue. Being crazy can take a toll on your social life. And also sometimes there's nothing you can do to help. It's the communication about it that makes it work though.
- There's a great article that a friend of mine sent me called "This is how you love someone with anxiety". A lot of the points were spot on in different ways for each of us and we talked about it for awhile. I think my favorite quote from it is "Silence kills anyone with anxiety. It creates problems in their mind that aren’t even there. It ends in apologies that aren’t even needed." That part pretty much describes me to a T. I can make up some pretty wild speculations about all of the things that I probably did or said wrong. This is about 500x worse if I've recently opened up about something or actually shown some emotion as opposed to just sending memes. While of course not every article matches what's happening inside all of our brains, we can point to the pieces and parts that do to help others understand.
- Number four: The phrase "It's Ok" or asking "How can I help?" can never be used enough. And nothing beats a blanket fort...
- Not only have I gotten both the positive and negative stories about interactions around mental health, but almost everyone I've talked to over the last few years have people surprised every single time they bring up their depression or anxiety. And in a few cases I've been told that some of them are shamed into thinking it's their fault.
- So not only is it difficult to talk about in the beginning, but so many other things come into play that make you want to bottle it up and try to force it to go away.
- I want to show you a few things that our community is already doing. One is http://ir0nin.com/ that talks about the semicolon project, and has a lot of really great resources surrounding our industry.
- The second is this video from Mubix. Some of you may have seen it before, but it really drives home some of the points I'm trying to make here.
- let's do some #HackingTogether. My door, phone, DMs are always open to talk about anything that's on your mind. A lot of times when I'm feeling lonely or disconnected I'll tweet out a video chat link just to talk to a handful of people about whatever. Projects they're working on, daily life stuff, my kids get next to me and say hi to all of my internet friends sometimes. There are so many other resources as well. In here, out there, from people you know and trust to major nationwide organizations.
- I think the saddest part of the survey results were the answers to the question "Have you ever felt like you weren't worth much as a person". Over 50% answered yes. and over 40% said that they've thought life wasn't worthwhile. I feel that having more of an open dialogue about this and killing it as a taboo thing to talk about will help a long way towards fixing it. Let's be more compassionate towards each other, and work together and for each other. Yes, even if you don't like each other. A life is a life. Just as Rob said, we've already lost too many.
- Here are some amazing nationwide organizations that you can call or text if you feel like there are no other options. It's wonderful that they have texing and chatting support as well now. But there are hotlines with super qualified and compassionate people on the other end that will talk you through a hard time if you need it and have nowhere else to go, or if you think you have nowhere else to go.
- I'll finish up with a picture of a cute puppy to cheer you up for the rest of the conference. So to recap three things that you should remember -- You're definitely not alone -- Get help if you need it. There are always options out there. Even for those of you that don't want to talk on the phone, you can text or chat online as well. -- Be compassionate to one another and communicate. We've all had our struggles in life. Some more than others. But you never know what's going on in someone's mind. Thank you so much for listening