While I agree with many points in this post, I think it would be stronger if it engaged more with the existing discussion within EA on mental health, on the Forum and elsewhere.
The first three sections of the career guide’s “How to be successful in any job” chapter emphasize self-care, with the second section stating that dealing with poor mental health should be the top priority
Several programs have popped up over the years offering to provide or connect EAs with mental health services. Currently Rethink Wellbeing is active and provides CBT and IFS-based peer-facilitated programs. (There may be others I’m forgetting.)
A few of these seem to me like the sort of thing the suggestions were asking for, e.g. “a few podcast episodes that could succinctly demonstrate the way therapy might explore common blind spots held by EAs, providing a rapid update with less resistance than other methods.”
I’ve personally experienced mental health challenges due to EA, so I’m certainly not saying the problems are all solved, or that the resources above cover everything. Publishing one podcast doesn’t solve a community-wide problem. But parts of this post read to me as suggesting these resources and discussions don’t exist, so I want to provide an alternate perspective.
While I agree with many points in this post, I think it would be stronger if it engaged more with the existing discussion within EA on mental health, on the Forum and elsewhere.
For example:
The “Self-care and wellbeing in the EA community” tag contains over 270 posts, including some of the most highly-upvoted posts on the site.
80,000 Hours has dedicated significant attention here:
Their most popular podcast episode (iirc) focuses on mental health in EA
They have an episode with a mental health practitioner about perfectionism and related challenges
The first three sections of the career guide’s “How to be successful in any job” chapter emphasize self-care, with the second section stating that dealing with poor mental health should be the top priority
Several programs have popped up over the years offering to provide or connect EAs with mental health services. Currently Rethink Wellbeing is active and provides CBT and IFS-based peer-facilitated programs. (There may be others I’m forgetting.)
A few of these seem to me like the sort of thing the suggestions were asking for, e.g. “a few podcast episodes that could succinctly demonstrate the way therapy might explore common blind spots held by EAs, providing a rapid update with less resistance than other methods.”
I’ve personally experienced mental health challenges due to EA, so I’m certainly not saying the problems are all solved, or that the resources above cover everything. Publishing one podcast doesn’t solve a community-wide problem. But parts of this post read to me as suggesting these resources and discussions don’t exist, so I want to provide an alternate perspective.