Hi all,
Just wanted to follow on from Chelsea Kauffman's great TLCC2018 forum thread. Living with anxiety and depression can be a difficult ask especially when we are under the intense pressures we get in the arts world such as Presales, Opening Nights and the holiday season. If you have a story you'd like to share, or just some comradery, feel free to share below.
I'll quote Chelsea (hope that's OK) as she said it better than I can.
"So how do you handle being a professional and having a mental illness? How do you cope with insecurities, anxieties, depression, and fear without destroying your team’s confidence in you or without throwing in the towel?
Tell me your story. How do you survive? How do you manage?
I just want to know I’m not alone and that there is a bright future and that I’m doing okay."
I'm our organisations Ticketing, Data Analysis and Tessitura Admin departments so there never seems to be an off season for me.
Chookas (as we say in Oz),
Heath
I didn't get to TLCC2018, but this is such an important conversation topic. The longer we stay in the arts (I've been here 11 years now) and the more responsibility we take on, the bigger and more overwhelming it can feel. How do you get headspace? How do you hang in there if you have a team depending on you as well? How do you switch off for loved ones at home?
And that's just the questions I wrestle with. If anyone has any good resources or recommendations on this topic - could be books, practices, etc. - I'd be really interested in hearing how people manage themselves.