Managing mental health has never been easy, considering how fast-paced the world right now is. But now that there is a global COVID-19 pandemic, the issue became even more complicated. Now the question is, how are people coping up these days?
Thinking about the complexity of mental health, this question is quite difficult to answer. For this reason, the World Economic Forum hosted an event in collaboration with YouTube. The said event answered such a question and more via live stream on the said video-sharing platform.
Last January 25, Dr. Garth Graham, the Global Director of Health Partnerships at YouTube, had a conversation with Michael Acton Smith, the Co-founder, and CEO of Calm.com. There were also two YouTube creators and mental health experts during the meeting.
Who They Are & Why Are Fans Buying YouTube Views
Kati Morton
YouTube creator Kati Morton holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University. She is also a licensed marriage and family therapist. Her specialties include working with people who are experiencing self-harming behaviors and eating disorders. Still, she addresses all things that are related to mental health. She is an expert on fans spending their money buying YouTube views for their favorite YouTuber.
In addition, Morton is passionate about her work of increasing mental health awareness. She has an online community that expands to all major internet platforms. This allows her to answer mental health questions from her followers, who came from worldwide.
Moreover, the YouTuber / clinical psychologist is hoping that by doing what she does, the global community will push for better services worldwide. She also hopes that it will remove the stigma associated with getting help for mental health issues.
Daniel Howell
Daniel Howell is also a YouTube creator. He uses his YouTube channel to speak about the struggles that he had with sexuality and depression. His content is a unique combination of entertainment and deeply personal topics. This gave Howell a devoted following of fans. In addition, he has further impacted his followers as an activist ad ambassador for the Royal Foundation charity, Young Minds.
Dr. Garth Graham
Dr. Garth Graham is the new Director and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health Partnerships in YouTube. Before coming to YouTube, he worked in several healthcare areas. He was a researcher, cardiologist, and member of the health policy community. He also worked as the Chief Community Health Officer at CSV Health. In addition, he was a Deputy Assistant Secretary at the US Department of Health and Human Services. Lastly, he worked as the President of the Aetna Foundation Foundation. He served as the University of Florida School of Medicine’s Assistant Dean for Health Policy and Chief of Health Services Research.
Currently, Dr. Graham and his team are looking for ways to empower individuals to live their healthiest lives through knowledge, inspiration, and support. They want to make sure that people can access credible information based on trustworthy sources. In addition, they are working hard to surface easy-to-understand health information from some of the most respected and credible clinicians and organizations.
Michael Acton Smith
Michael Acton Smith has always been fascinated by flow states, neuroscience, and mental fitness. Learning how to meditate has brought a profound impact on his life. In addition, his passion is to spread this simple yet precious skill around the world.
Before founding Calm, Smith was the creator of Moshi Monsters and the founder of Mind Candy. Notably, Moshi Monsters is an online world for children. This platform expanded, and registered users grew to 80 million, which prompted Smith to expand offline into toys, books, magazines, games, movies, and music.
In addition, Smith is also the founder of Ping Pong Fight Club, Firebox.com, and Berwickstock music festival. In 2014, he received an award as an OBE for services to the Creative Industries.
According to Smith, he has always loved to dream up new ideas, products, and companies. This includes the successful creation of the Moshi Monsters.
True enough, the entrepreneurial life can bring many joys. However, Smith said that it can also be restless, chaotic, and intense. As an entrepreneur, he was always fretting about missed opportunities. He also stresses out about the future.
Smith added that he reached his breaking point in the summer of 2014. He was always tired and was suffering from headaches; thus making the joys of his work fade. For this reason, he took the break that he needed. He played tennis, went on long runs, and read a number of books about mindfulness.
Before taking a break from work, he was always intrigued by meditation. However, he was too busy to try. But when he experienced troubles with his work life, he was able to know more about it. It helped him a lot in terms of taming his mind. He also discovered that meditation makes the mind strong, focused, and calm.
Final Thoughts
Mental health has never been an easy topic to understand. It was and will always be a complex thing. However, people should spend time understanding it, so that they will become more informed and educated.
In addition, the stigma that is revolving around mental health makes it even more difficult for people who have mental health issues to be understood. A lot of people think that asking for help will not do anything but make things harder. However, the reality is that this state of mind should be thrown away. People should understand that mental health and asking for help about it is completely fine.
YouTube is aware of that fact. This is the reason why it is striving harder to educate and inform people about the said topic. And having all these mental health experts to explain and bring awareness to people is a big step to understanding mental health.