By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you more fully cope with stress. Reading time: 2:36

The pressure is on. Stress slaps you like a brick in the stomach. Depression digs its fangs so deep into your body you can hardly get out of bed.

At least that’s how troubled he felt struggling with his “melancholy,” his life-long bout with depression.

When he was 29, he was so depressed his friends took away his razor and kept him in a locked room to keep him from hurting himself.

Yet 22 years later Abraham Lincoln became one of the most revered presidents in the history of the United States during one of the nation’s most stressed times.

A Treatable Disease

Mental illness can affect anyone -from Abraham Lincoln to other leaders such as : Ludwig von Beethoven, Vincent Van Gogh, Isaac Newton, Winston Churchill, Michelangelo, Patty Duke, Art Buchwald, Dick Cavette, Rod Steiger, Mike Wallace and Billie Joel among so many others. They know from personal experience that mental illness is treatable just like any other illness such as heart disease or diabetes.

In fact, in the Surgeon General’s first report ever on mental illness issued in 1999, Dr. David Satcher noted: “…just as things go wrong with the heart, the lung, the kidneys and the liver, things will go wrong with the brain. And seeking help should carry no shame.”

That’s why the most effective leaders seek to stomp out the stigma of mental illness. Continue reading →