Help Our Kids: Outdoor Experiences Matter

Fundraiser:
https://www.raiseemoutdoors.com/silent-auction

Stats link:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/youth-suicide-attempts-soared-during-pandemic-cdc-report-says-n1270463

I work in mental health, and this is totally accurate! I fully believe that true mental health must have a strong outdoor component.

@Brad great cause. If you do any in the northeast I’d help any way I can👍

@Chuck would you happen to know anyone in the area?

@Derek happen to have a cousin that owns a burger and beer place in Austin. He is an avid hunter and fisherman am guessing they would advertise at there place. Are there any poster etc. they could hang?

@Chuck I'm sure @Brad can help you out with all of that.

@Brad thanks for sharing and highlighting this. There has been a definite impact on our kids. As a father of 4 with 2 teenagers the last 2 years has had a major impact on my kids and their friend groups. The kids who were able to maintain physical connections and have face to face interactions (unmasked) are doing significantly better. My kids friends who’s parents didn’t have honest conversations about what has been going on or who bought whole sale the fear of the virus are much worst off and have acted out/withdrawn and suffered mentally. I’ve even seen an impact on soldiers, particularly the younger ones, who are away from family support groups.

@Joe when the pandemic started referrals for therapy, I’m a therapist, we’re pretty stable. However, the longer it went, the higher the referrals became. It’s to the point now that if someone called me today for therapy, they might not see me until 2023.

@Nathan I’ve seen that as well. One of my kids does see a therapist and appointment times are very difficult to get on a regular basis. All our mental health care professionals are maxed out. Physical activity is a key component of well being that we have had control over with our youth. To me the out doors is my therapy (happy place if you will). My oldest son is the same way. My daughter’s is running sports. The two younger ones are much harder to get away from the screen but we make it a point to drag them out for a hike or simple walk around the neighborhood. I do need to start paying attention to outdoor youth activities in the area… I wonder if there are any fishing derbies or something else we can get the kids out to.

@Joe I always tell people, you don’t have to like what I like, just get outside. Even on a biochemical level, being out and active is, the best natural “happy pill” we have available to us. In addition, it prevents relapse of certain mental illness MORE than meds alone.

Yeah, but I’m gonna have to dig into my files for them. I’ll hit you up with them. Maybe one of these days I’ll try and jump on a podcast with someone.

@Chuck https://www.raiseemoutdoors.com/silent-auction this link has a poster on it. They can print and hang that!

@Nathan you may be a good fit for @Okayest’s show. Eric loves these topics.

@Brad that’d be awesome!

@Brad we need to figure out how to get it in the hands of Matthew McConaughey

@Brad I sent this to my cousin in Austin who is one of the owners of great little beer and burger place called Billys on Burnett. Betting he can advertise there. Can you send a message to all your members with Texas locations in their profiles?

We need something like this in PA

My kids, (if I ever have any), will NOT own a phone until they have a drivers license

This is why you are going down in history as one of the GREATS of our time. This hit 🏠 and my ❤️ thanks for sharing this. You are one hell of a man, my friend.

Man I applaud you so much for this so much!!! I deal with this stuff every single day and how bad it can be.

I applaud you for this big time! I know on a personal level what its like. Outdoors is a life saver. Can't give much but definitely giving what I can for these kids. What about equipment donations? Can we provide sleeping, etc?

Where do I get a dinosaur target like that?!

@Joshua I believe Rhinehart makes them

@Anthony 👊💪 I am nothing without my team and pale in comparison to Erin!

@Vernon mine are getting dumb flip phones only 😂

@Chuck yeah we are going to push a message!

@Brad there will be posters hung at Billy’s on Burnett in Austin.

@Vernon I felt the same way… unfortunately all the extra curricular activity groups they start participating in during middle school all use various messaging apps to push info about team events and important details. That lead us getting smart phones for our two oldest. We monitor EVERYTHING they do, access, and say. We’ve adopted the mindset that we need to teach them appropriate and proper use of technology and be clear about the threats out there. Trust me they will push boundaries and make mistakes with smart phones. We’ve learned, so far, that our approach as helped them develop good habits, recognize unsafe behaviors, and have a satisfactory level of openness. I grew up in a VERY limited access house hold and that made certain things taboo and therefore made me more curious. In college you could always tell the kids/young adults who were super sheltered and a lot of them went off the deep end the second they realized there wasn’t any supervision. For what it’s worth that’s my experience.

@Joe yeah, there definitely is a place for them to have certain things so they can learn self control, wise use, etc. But that only works if they are old enough and mature enough to understand those things

@Brad thats what I started with!

@Chuck love that! Thanks

@Vernon maturity is a major factor, mental and emotional. Don’t even start me on social media. That’s one thing I appreciate about GoWild, everything I’ve seen is 100% respectful. @Brad and his team have done an excellent job building this platform; Community and things that really mater are at the heart of it. This post is a prime example of how constructive the outdoors community really is, we’re people of action.

@Joe

@Joe I have hated social media from its inception. I don’t know how @Brad found my email but about two years ago I got an email from him advertising GoWild. I just kind of ignored it for a while. Don’t know why, but I never did delete it, just ignored it. Finally I decided to check it out and low and behold.... it ain’t social media. It’s something way more. This was the best thing I’ve done socially in years and it’s the only “entertainment” app on my phone. I utterly respect the whole GoWild Team for there effort to unify us. This story he posted he’s mentioned a few times now and it makes me feel sick to know this about these children and the fact social media itself is at its onset make me even more mortified. I wish I could do more than donate money. But u don’t know how to help. I don’t know how because truly I think it starts in the home. Getting our kids AWAY from this garbage and into wholesome things like outdoor activities.

@Bradley it 100% starts at home! I’ve always justified not doing more for the community because I’ve always got to leave to deployments, various training, or known short time spans to be living in certain areas before having to move. As my kids get older I do look for more ways/activities to get them out an involved. I bet it wouldn’t be terribly difficult, in most communities, to organize a fishing derby or a simple outdoors event that’s open to the public to teach about local wildlife (flora and fauna) or basic outdoors skills. I’d be willing to bet that most city counsels or non-profit groups would even be willing to sponsor events and help advertise it. That may be something worth looking into… this just got me thinking.

@Joe that’s a great idea. We live in rural southwest Georgia and about an hour from the nearest Walmart so there’s only a couple of kids here in our area and there’s older and very active outdoors.... (that’s just might be because there’s no internet to play on face fart time)..... either way I hope that people read your idea cause I think it’s a great one myself too!!! 🤘🤘🤘

Amen.

@Bradley just now seeing your comment weirdly enough. I appreciate that support.