X is for WHAT?
XENAGOGUE: Acting as a guide; guiding someone ,or, a tour guide
(https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/word-lists/positive-words-that-start-with-x.html)
Bet you were wondering what I’d come up with for the letter X. Obviously, X-ray comes to mind. If only we could x-ray our brains and really understand how to work with them. Oh wait, we kind of can, but MRI doesn’t start with X. Blimey.
So I did what any rational writer would do: I hit up the online dictionaryverse for words that start with X.
And, amazingly quickly, I found one.
So yes, xenagogue, in our context, is me, or the road I’ve been leading you along with these alphabetical essays. Over the last many letters and months, I’ve been your mental health awareness tour guide. I’ve tried to give you solid information and realistic scenarios. I’ve tried to keep things both light and heavy, because that’s the way things really are.
Don’t want to get all hubris-y here, like I’m some kind of guardian of the world, but I feel I am at least somewhat qualified to bring you on this journey with me because I just have a lot of experience in the world of mental health, from being a card carrying member of the mood disorders club, to experiences with countless doctors and therapists, to different kinds of treatment and therapy, and in two very different disorders in the same brain.
So I ask you please, if you are the loved one who’s struggling with a mental illness or diagnosis, please take heart, and read these essays. Then show them to your loved ones.
And if you’re on the outside looking in at a loved one with a mental illness you simply don’t understand, I hope you too will read at least some of these essays, and I fervently hope that they will be helpful to you.
Allow yourself, whoever you are, to be the xenagogue in your circle of loved ones, the one who helps create connection and understanding through walking together and learning, and asking questions, and keeping an open mind. Be an MHX. Mental Health Xenagogue.
The more we talk, listen, and connect, the better off we all will be.
Now more than ever.
