The Syndicate

May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the USA. While it is not internationally acknowledged, and mental health in general is still a topic that isn’t openly discussed often, we feel it’s as much a reason as any to raise awareness for this tremendously important topic.

During this month, we will have a few events, as well as share some helpful information near daily, and all this will also be shared, and done in cooperation with Mafia Universe.



We are doing this for several reasons, and if it helps even one person in any way, it will have been worth it.


Our goals are:

• To raise awareness: Mental health issues are extremely common, and they come in different shapes. This is incredibly important to stress. You are not alone. It is common. Being down - or being depressed; having anxiety issues - even to the point of feelings of pending disaster and not knowing what to do; having an identity or existential crisis; etc... It takes on different shapes and forms, but it is all secondary. You have the right to feel any of this. You don’t have to justify why you feel a certain way to anyone. Sometimes, you don’t even know why. Your disease does not define you as a person. Mental health illnesses are just as real and legitimate as physical ones are. Your health is your own, and cannot be compared to anyone else’s.

• To spread knowledge: You can get help. In more ways than one. There are registered healthcare professionals dedicated to helping, wherever you are in the world, who you can turn to. Family and friends may also be a great source of support. Sharing your struggles with people you trust can provide you with a huge sense of relief, even though initiating the topic of your issues may be tough in the beginning. Asking for help or support is never easy, but it can often mean taking a giant step in the right direction towards your recovery. We are surrounded by people who care for us, often more than is expressed. Asking for help is never a sign of weakness; rather, think of it as your attempt to feeling better.

• To provide guidance: How to support someone with mental health issues. While it is important to note that it is not an obligation or duty to help someone who is going through a difficult time or struggling mentally or emotionally, recognizing red flags and acting upon them is also never wrong. There are different levels to it. Even the most casual dialogue goes a long way. Asking someone how they’re doing is never wrong. If you notice any red flags, no matter how trivial an issue it may be, talking about them may help make them feel noticed and cared for.

• Self-harm and suicide are two of the worst outcome scenarios of mental health issues. Talking about it - specifically asking about it or saying that you are worried - does not worsen a struggling person’s condition. Don’t be afraid to be upfront and clear. Self harm and suicidal thoughts are often impulsive decisions, but often also something that has been on their mind as a solution to their issues for a long time. Allowing a person to come to terms with what they are going through, to recognize the severity of their struggles, can possibly encourage them to seek professional help.

• Not being comfortable enough to talk to someone struggling with these issues, or with someone you suspect is going through a rough time, is completely normal. You should not be burdened to act upon your suspicions, especially if you feel out of your depth. If you feel like you cannot reach out personally to someone struggling, sometimes reaching out to people close to them can help. But again, this isn’t your responsibility alone and you should never feel guilted into action! Don't feel like it is your responsibility and you have to do something; it's not, you don't.

•To stress that someone cares, and there may be something more that can be attempted!

• To FIGHT the stigma surrounding mental illness!

• Stigma is when someone, or even you yourself, views a person in a negative light just because they suffer from a mental health condition. Some people describe stigma as a feeling of shame or judgement from someone else. Stigma can even come from an internal place, confusing feeling bad with being bad.

• Navigating life with a mental health condition can be tough, and the isolation, blame and secrecy that is often encouraged by stigma can create huge obstacles to reaching out for support or help. Learning how to avoid and address stigma is essential!

For the duration of this month, moderators on Mafia Universe and The Syndicate will be cooperating across numerous events to bring awareness on all of the above. Mental health struggles are real. They exist. They’re not going anywhere and they need our attention. Our communities are filled with people from all kinds of backgrounds, ethnicities, sexualities, gender identities, etc. We are overrepresented when it comes to mental illness, and many of us have personal experiences with people who have taken their lives, or are struggling on a near daily basis.

Most recently, we suffered the great loss of our dear friend Turnip Head/TH/Oddy. They were loved by everyone who was lucky enough to know them, and their presence always made the room shine that much brighter. All they wanted more than anything was to be loved and accepted. They taught us all about forgiveness, shedding our prejudices, and being the most positive versions of ourselves. TH’s passing weighed us all down, made us reflect on what we could have done differently, and yes, even some thoughts of not doing enough when we could have.


Some of the events planned for this months are announced here, today. Some will be announced further into the month. During the whole month, you can always reach out to any of the moderators on either site - or to this account, with any input or questions you might have.

• ‣ Story-sharing: We will be sharing some of our stories. Anyone who feels comfortable sharing their own story can do so. Every story counts, whatever your experience is. Your story might be the one that someone else relates to and identifies with; knowing that the path has been walked before - even partly - might do a whole lot of good for them.
  
  Sharing your story anonymously, or with a name attached, if only to receive a single supportive comment in return, might make you feel that little bit better, and know that you are not alone in this.
  
  Stories or poems, songs that mean a lot to you and want shared, a piece of art that you created or that made you feel something, or ANY other piece or text you want to share is accepted. It could be something like a “coming out” story, sharing struggles with either/both bipolar or unipolar depressions and anxiety disorders of all kinds, suicidal thoughts, relatives or friends who committed suicide, psychotic diseases or personality syndromes, eating disorders, etc. - every story counts and is immensely appreciated.

• ‣ Information Campaign: We will be sharing helpful information directly related to the abovementioned topics as part of the month-long event. We will be keeping it mostly concentrated towards information shared through www.nami.org, which is focused on the USA. If you need information for any other country, or think it should be added - please let us know and we will help you figure it out!

• ‣ Buddy System: We will attempt to introduce a buddy system. This may seem like a cheesy concept, but we would still like to offer the potential support achieved through this arrangement, and strongly believe in it.
  
  Every person who signs up will be assigned a second person from MU or TS who has also signed up. This gives both parties the option to connect with a safe "buddy" who can listen and support them through ups and downs. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to sign up for this! What’s the meaning of this? It could be to simply… make a new friend, with no actual questions regarding health involved. It could be to have one person that you can ask "how are you?" to, every day. It could be to get one person that you share that little bit of extra information with. It could be that you might find a person you feel comfortable asking for advice. Even for sharing the good days, or achievements you’ve had. Sharing your happiness. Both the ups and downs. It’s an opportunity to have your social network extend just that little bit further, and other than that it's up to you both what you make of it - and we feel like it is worth trying.

To optimize the buddy matching, a little info on yourself, or what you might be looking for would be helpful. Either way, we will do our best to produce as good a matching as possible. All of this will be anonymous unless you agree otherwise.

!	Message from: The Syndicate and MU Mod Team
	If you are ever in need of help, whether it is a crisis, or if you are uncertain how to take the first step, here is a collection of helpful numbers and links, and other useful resources. These are USA-focused, but don't hesitate to reach out if you would want any other countries added, and we will do that.

Today, we're kick starting things for Mental Health Awareness Month by sharing a story piece received by a highly esteemed member of our Admin team and most adored friend, @juliets. We thank her for being so brave to share her story for the first time. She was moved by the initiative and felt like she had an experience to share which may help someone else.

PLEASE NOTE: We have shared juliets' story in spoilers below since we appreciate how experiences may trigger other users, and would like to point out the story does contain elements of ADD/anxiety/depression, please open only if you're comfortable reading such material.








We received a lot of great feedback in our discussion threads and privately via PMs and DMs. We appreciate all the feedback we’ve received, and try to take them to heart and adapt, to make this experience a meaningful one for as many as possible.

First and foremost, this is meant to be an information campaign, but also an opportunity to connect people with new friends. As such, other than the Buddy System, we will have a Movie Night on the MU Discord server, somewhere between the 14th and 19th of May. A poll will be posted on MU later to see what date fits bets, which we will link to here. If you have any suggestions for movies to watch, feel free to submit them, and we will vote between these!

Finally, there were concerns regarding privacy - and we take this very seriously. Therefore, we will limit the group of people involved in this: dobby/Roro__b is primarily responsible for this project. He has previous experience with similar projects and treating mental health issues on a daily basis in a professional setting. Arapocalypse will be responsible for the anonymous form, and nutella will also have access, as part of both the MU and TS moderator teams. dunya and juliets will be responsible for the TS end of this project and dyachei will be involved if needed, but not initially.

To start this day off, we would like to mention that there has been a lot of feedback both privately and in the discussion thread, most notably leading to the removal of the buddy system. There were several issues with this, all voiced in that thread. The first posts in this thread are now edited to reflect this.

The main focus going on will be:

- Information sharing
- Planned events (movie night, games, etc)
- Sharing stories/arts etc, that people choose to submit through us.
- We will also work towards adding more countries to the list of contact options

We are happy to take suggestions for movies that we could watch together, in the discussion thread or privately - could be any genre whatsoever, but preferably something that as many as possible can enjoy!

If you have any fun events or other things you might want our help organizing, just reach out and we can try and fit that in!



Today there are two things we wanted to share. First of all, the following picture from nami.org - the National Alliance on Mental Illness, about how to use Stigma-free language.


The second part is announcing that there will be a SMALLRUS!!! This will be hosted by dobby and juliets, and reveal will be at the end of the month. For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, A walrus is a forum game where you submit songs to us according to various themes and the hosts rank and score them based on how much we enjoy them. This walrus will have 3 categories, making it a smallrus! Most genres of music are appreciated, and we will generally be nicer in scoring that the standard walri. You can submit to me by DM'ing either of dobby and juliets on MU or TS or on discord (Dobby#6775 or juliets#5354).

Category 1: Give us whimsical! A playful, imaginative mood. Something transporting us from earth - takes our feet off the ground - pretend the world doesn't exist - translate that however you like!

Category 2: Give us dreamy! Sometimes when tired, you might have laid in bed, in a state of neither being asleep nor awake. Often a lovely state where you actually live your dreams. It could be that you feel like you are aware of actually flying, in a dream with that theme, or something else wonderful. What song would be the best one to experience, in this state?

Category 3: give us euphoria! That feeling of first falling in love, butterflies. Reading the good part of your favorite book. Finally reaching a goal you had been working on for a while. All of that. Those feelings. Give us a song that encompasses that.

Deadline for submissions will be the 15th of May! Depending on how many submissions we get, reveals might be spread across several occasions, towards the end of the month.

The smallrus will be revealed live on discord, and in its own forum thread - we will announce this later into the month. If you are curious of other walri, the threads are usually in the Tin Pan Alley subforum here on TS and the Other Games subforum on MU.


For the people who have submitted their stories for us to share here, we will be getting back into that tomorrow!

If you are interested in submitting a "story", either named or anonymously or have any other questions, you can do so through the following form: https://forms.gle/WFkBAN9FDqLVznWL7

As of current, arapocalypse, nutella and roro__b have access to the form.

Today, we are sharing Wisdom's story and collection of beautiful poems. Again, Wisdom's story will be shared in spoilers to avoid triggering anyone since the story may contain elements of mental struggles/abuse. Please only open if you are comfortable reading such material.








@Syn has presented a writing prompt event, currently in a brainstorming phase — with enough interest, it might take off! Both potential writers and readers are wanted, check that out on MU!

Lastly, we have an infograph we would like to share, including tips on how to ask for help at an early stage, which could work for some.

Don't forget to submit your categories to the Smallrus we're hosting, and we're also taking suggestions for Movie Night, later this month. Feel free to drop a comment in the ongoing Discussion Thread.

Today, we are sharing @vanity.'s story and experience. Thank you so much for sharing with us, van! Please only open if you are comfortable reading.

• There has been some interest for an opt-in Discord channel, where you can discuss anything, including mental health on the MU discord server. If you are interested in joining the channel, contact @dyachei either here, or on Discord (dyachei#0333) for access.

• @Syn has presented a writing prompt event, currently in a brainstorming phase — with enough interest, it might take off! Both potential writers and readers are wanted, check that out on MU!

• Don't forget to submit your categories to the Smallrus we're hosting. Feel free to drop a comment in the ongoing Discussion Thread or PM me, @juliets or @nutellla
  
  a reminder of the categories for Smallrus:
  
  Spoiler: show

  Category 1: Give us whimsical! A playful, imaginative mood. Something transporting us from earth - takes our feet off the ground - pretend the world doesn't exist - translate that however you like!
  
  Category 2: Give us dreamy! Sometimes when tired, you might have laid in bed, in a state of neither being asleep nor awake. Often a lovely state where you actually live your dreams. It could be that you feel like you are aware of actually flying, in a dream with that theme, or something else wonderful. What song would be the best one to experience, in this state?
  
  Category 3: give us euphoria! That feeling of first falling in love, butterflies. Reading the good part of your favorite book. Finally reaching a goal you had been working on for a while. All of that. Those feelings. Give us a song that encompasses that.[/BOX]
  
  
  Deadline for submissions will be the 15th of May! Depending on how many submissions we get, reveals might be spread across several occasions, towards the end of the month.
  
  The smallrus will be revealed live on discord in the MU music channel, and in it's own forum thread - we will announce this later into the month.

• Movie Night! Between 14th and 19th of May! We are still taking suggestions for which movie to watch.

• There will also be a full day next week where we'll blast 90's bangers in the discord all day, for anyone to join in and hang out - exact day TBD!

• If you have interest in arranging something - feel free to do this!

After a short days hiatus, we've got a bit more to share today.

First of all, there's a link that we'd like to share. Once again, it's from nami.org - the National Alliance on Mental Illness, but this time, it's about reaching out and talking to others. It contains some practical tips on situations/when/who/what/how to talk about mental health issues, and might be useful reading for some.


Second thing is the Movie Night!

This will take place on the Mafia Universe Discord server. If there's enough demand there can be a separate one on the Syndicate server as well!

We got some suggestions for movies to watch, and here are the contenders!!

Shrek




Eurovision - The Story of Fire Saga




Love and Monsters




#Alive




Thunder Force




Pretty hype tbh - We could probably organize more than one Movie Night if there's interest, but for now, the first one will be somewhere between the 14th and the 19th of May.

Fill in this lovely strawpoll to vote for movies - more than one option is possible!!!

And you can also fill in THIS second lovely strawpoll to vote for a date. You can count on it being either 6 or 7PM EST.


Other than the user-started Mental Health Check-In's and the Discussion thread, there has been some interest for an opt-in Discord channel, where you can discuss anything, including mental health, which is now up and running on the Mafia Universe server. If you are interested in joining the channel, contact @dyachei either here, or on Discord (dyachei#0333) for access. All are welcome!

Other Events

- Syn, a community member, has presented a writing prompt event, currently in a brainstorming phase — with enough interest, it might take off! Both potential writers and readers are wanted, check that out here!

- SMALLRUS!!! This will be hosted by dobby and dunya, and reveal will be at the end of the month. For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, A walrus is a forum game where you submit songs to us according to various themes and we rank and score them based on how much we enjoy them. This walrus will have 3 categories, making it a smallrus! Most genres of music are appreciated, and we will generally be nicer in scoring that the standard walri. You can submit to me by DM'ing dobby or dunya on discord (Dobby#6775 or dunia#3479). Categories below: - There will also be a full day next week where we'll blast 90's bangers in the MU discord all day, for anyone to join in and hang out - exact day TBD!

- If you have interest in arranging something - feel free to do this!

Today we have an anonymous submission that we'd like to share. It's on a heavy topic, so it will be in a spoiler.

If you wish to avoid the subject of suicide, don't click the link below!

We also have another infographic today, from nami.org - the National Alliance on Mental Illness. This time, it is some statistics related to suicide, and about seeking help if such thoughts are present.


Regarding the walrus - juliets will replace dunya - submissions still allowed until the 15th!
Here's a link to the last smallrus that juliets and dobby hosted, thoroughly enjoyed that one!

Other events:
- Regarding Movie Night:

Fill in this lovely strawpoll to vote for movies - more than one option is possible!!!

And you can also fill in THIS second lovely strawpoll to vote for a date.

You can count on it being either 6 or 7PM EST.

- Let us know if you would appreciate a parallel movie night (can be a totally different movie from these choices as well) on the Syndicate server!!


- Syn, a community member, has presented a writing prompt event, that looks like it will take off! Both potential writers and readers are wanted, check that out here!

- Smallrus!

The second part is announcing that there will be a SMALLRUS!!! This will be hosted by dobby and juliets, and reveal will be at the end of the month. For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, A walrus is a forum game where you submit songs to us according to various themes and we rank and score them based on how much we enjoy them. This walrus will have 3 categories, making it a smallrus! Most genres of music are appreciated, and we will generally be nicer in scoring that the standard walri. You can submit to me by either of dobby and juliets on discord (Dobby#6775 or juliets#5354).
Category 1: Give us whimsical! A playful, imaginative mood. Something transporting us from earth - takes our feet off the ground - pretend the world doesn't exist - translate that however you like!

Category 2: Give us dreamy! Sometimes when tired, you might have laid in bed, in a state of neither being asleep nor awake. Often a lovely state where you actually live your dreams. It could be that you feel like you are aware of actually flying, in a dream with that theme, or something else wonderful. What song would be the best one to experience, in this state?

Category 3: give us euphoria! That feeling of first falling in love, butterflies. Reading the good part of your favorite book. Finally reaching a goal you had been working on for a while. All of that. Those feelings. Give us a song that encompasses that.

Deadline for submissions will be the 15th of May! Depending on how many submissions we get, reveals might be spread across several occasions, towards the end of the month.

- There will also be a full day next week where we'll blast 90's bangers in the MU discord all day, for anyone to join in and hang out - exact day TBD! Again, we can do a similar event on the Syndicate server as well if there is interest!


- Other than the user-started Mental Health Check-In's and the Discussion thread, there has been some interest for an opt-in Discord channel on the MU server, where you can discuss anything, including mental health, which is now up and running. If you are interested in joining the channel, contact dyachei on Discord (dyachei#0333) for access. All are welcome!

- If you have interest in arranging something - feel free to do this!

After another short hiatus, we are back at it!

The poll for the Movie Night has given fairly unanimous results - we will be watching Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga the 17th of May, most likely at 6PM EDT, on the Mafia Universe discord server.


We will also be running a music bots in chat for a good while during this weekend, playing 90's bangers because why not!! Feel free to add to the playlist, but please make sure it's fitting tbh!!

Link to the playlist is here!!!!!


Today, we would also like to share some words related to mental health in college, that might be useful for some of you!


The deadline for smallrus submissions has been extended to may 19th, for more information, check this thread out!!

Other events:
- Syn, a community member, has presented a writing prompt event, both potential writers and readers are wanted, Here is more information on the event, prompts are now out, deadline for submission will be the 16th of May!!

- Other than the user-started Mental Health Check-In's and the Discussion thread, there has been some interest for an opt-in Discord channel, where you can discuss anything, including mental health, which is now up and running on the MU server. If you are interested in joining the channel, contact dyachei on Discord (dyachei#0333) for access. All are welcome!

- If you have interest in arranging something - feel free to do this! If you need our help, let us know!

Since the last post, the movie night has taken place, and it was pretty hype tbh. We might do another one since there seemed to be a lot of interest for that, but that will probably be scheduled outside of this event. Make sure to join the #MUvie nights channel on the discord server for notifications.

If there's interst for another 90's bangers day, we will probably be running one, where you can just add whatever songs you want to the queue!


Today we are sharing this infographic, called "Mental Health Care Matters" with some related interesting statistics.


The deadline for smallrus submissions is today 5/19, but if you plan to submit, let us know and we can make another extension. for more information, check this thread out!!

- lendunistus is hosting MU Hunger Games season 4 - all that is required is an /in, and your name will be entered into a Hunger Games simulator, it's fun, join!

Other events!
- Four submissions were sent in for the Writing prompt event presented by Syn. We are awaiting a date for when these will be presented! They will be read aloud in voice chat.

- Other than the user-started Mental Health Check-In's and the Discussion thread, there is an opt-in Discord channel, where you can discuss anything, including mental health, which is now up and running. If you are interested in joining the channel, contact dyachei#0333, or on Discord for access. All are welcome!

- If you have interest in arranging something - feel free to do this! If you need our help, let us know!

Today there is yet another link that we'd like to share. It's called "How To Help a Friend", and has some useful tips for how to approach the topic, if one would want to. We would yet again like to point out that you should never feel forced to do anything, unless that is what you want to and feel like doing.


The first category in the smallrus will be revealed Tuesday 25th of May at 6PM EDT in the MU Music discord channel, as well as the forum thread.

- Four submissions were sent in for the Writing prompt event. These will be read out loud in the general voice chat channel in MU Discord, Wednesday, May 26 at 1:00 PM PST, everyone is welcome to tune in!


Other events:
- lendunistus is hosting MU Hunger Games season 4 - all that is required is an /in, and your name will be entered into a Hunger Games simulator, it's fun, join!

- Other than the user-started Mental Health Check-In's and the Discussion thread, there is an opt-in Discord channel, where you can discuss anything, including mental health, which is now up and running. If you are interested in joining the channel, contact dyachei#0333 for access. All are welcome!

- If you have interest in arranging something - feel free to do this! If you need our help, let us know!

As May comes to a close, thanks to all who participated in and helped facilitate activities in support of mental health awareness and/or just to have a good time in the community! Our hope is to continue to be a supportive and comfortable space for all. Stay hyped and Happy Pride Month! <3