Hey, I won something! I mean, really, it’s nothing – literally. It’s not a thing. But anyway, winning is cool. Especially if, like me, you are BI-winning. This weekend I ALSO won a pair of free tickets at the Coolidge by telling my tale of Etsy revenge to a theater of enthusiastic hipsters. Where’s the revenge, you ask? Let’s just put it this way: his store is no longer open for business. Whether that is due to his own (questionable) choices or my grassroots campaign to get him kicked off the site, well, who’s to know?

Anyway, this storytelling and winning things and this post on DefineFunctioning all kind of merged in my brain suddenly, and I realized that I felt a lot weirder telling my Etsy story to strangers than I would have telling the story of my breakdown. It’s Mental Health Awareness Month, which I put right up there with pre-sliced apples on the Scale of Ridiculous Man-Made Concepts. Like, I feel that we’re all pretty AWARE of mental health. Nobody really needs a reminder. Antidepressant ads are everywhere, having a therapist is the functional equivalent of having a toaster, and, aside from primary care, there’s nowhere harder to get an appointment than a good mental health clinic. They’re all full.

And yet.

And yet I know so many people who are struggling with their OWN mental health awareness, but don’t feel comfortable getting help. People from all types of situations with all types of personalities dealing with all types of issues, but always the same refrain: “I just wouldn’t want anyone I worked with to find out”. I mean, I’m not just talking about like, one person, here, I’m talking about more people than I have fingers and toes.

So, per the requirements of the award, here are seven random things about me:

1) My story about Etsy revenge last night was way too long

2) Because I tend to talk a lot when I’m nervous

3) Probably too much about myself

4) But I think I’m good at listening, too

5) At least, I can be.

6) I wish my doctor would weigh me backwards, so I don’t have to watch her fix the numbers.

7) But I’m too weirded out to ask.

I preach and I preach, but, in my own life, I’m sometimes too embarrassed to be frank about what goes on inside. So, I think that in honor of May 2011, Mental Health Awareness Month, everybody who is on the fence about being frank should just give it a shot once or twice. Check out therapists online, call your insurance company and ask about benefits, reach out to a friend for help.

Or, you know, you could also take out your aggression with a secret war against a total stranger on the internet, and then admit it to a totally different bunch of strangers in the hope of winning a free DVD of this Korean film. That’s worked for me as well.

(The movie passes are better. I know.)