In this episode, we  hear from John “Tank” Miller of Delaware. A Family Advocate and father of a 19 year old with mental health challenges, John discusses his mental health advocacy through social media and how he uses “Tank Mentality” to provide those with mental illness encouragement every day.

Follow on Twitter @tankmentality 

Follow on Facebook: tankmentality/

Female Voice: Welcome to Ask the Advocate. Where mental health advocates share their journey to advocacy, and what it has meant for their lives. Ask the Advocate is a Mothers On The Front Line production. Today, we will hear from John ‘Tank’ Miller of Delaware. A family advocate and father of a 19-year-old son with mental health challenges. John discusses his mental health advocacy through social media, and how he uses Tank mentality to provide those with mental illness encouragement every day. This interview was recorded at the 2017 National Federation of Families conference for children’s mental health.

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Tammy: Hello. So, we’re just going to begin by asking you to introduce yourself, and telling us a little bit about your advocacy organization, and what you do.

John: My name is John Miller from Delaware. I am a father of a 19-year-old with mental health issues. I’m here today to talk about my movement, Tank Mentality.

Tammy: Yeah, I love the name. Why don’t you tell us a bit about the name?

John: Well, about the name, the name actually was the origin of me, and that came from playing football. 9th grade year, I had a football coach who lined me up, and I was excited. I was just putting on pads for the first time as a high-schooler, and we ran a drill called Oklahomas. The object of Oklahoma is to not get tackled.

Tammy: Sounds like a good incentive.

John: So, I grabbed the ball, and the rest was kind of history. I ran through my whole entire team, and it got to the point where he was like, “Nobody can tackle you. We’re gonna call you Tank.” And, that’s when Tank was born.

Tammy: And how do you see Tank as transferring to mental health?

John: Because as a tank, you’re in the front line.

Tammy: That’s right.

John: On the front line, you’re going to take some punishment. So, on the front line, you have to have that armor. So, I incorporated Tank as far as mental because everything in life is mental.

Tammy: That’s right.

John: So, you can’t do a thing without thinking of things. So, it’s just was one of those things where I’m like, “You know what? This thing is bigger than me. And, it started with me, but it’s not going to end with me.”

Tammy: Awesome. So, tell us a bit how you got involved in advocacy, to begin with.

John: Well, I got involved with advocacy, it was something that I was naturally doing. To give you a little background about me, I work as a restaurant manager. Because being a manager as you know, you’re managing a bunch of teenagers and younger people, so you’re always molding young leaders, and you’re supervising them, but at the same time, you’re kind of like, as I say, growing them. So, I actually listened to a lot of their challenges, their stories, and seeing some of their strengths and weaknesses, and I was using my advocacy to help them better. And, it was just something I was naturally doing, and I had the opportunity to do it as a professional. It was just like a smooth transition because I’m like I’m already doing this.

Tammy: Right. I love it that though because you say that like that’s so natural. I’m not sure all restaurant managers are thinking of themselves and their role as developing young people. I think that’s pretty remarkable that you, even at that point, that’s how you were seeing it. I have to just point that out, I think that’s remarkable and wonderful that you took that on.

John: Well, that goes down to my upbringing. My grandmother put that into me as a young kid. I’ve always had that in my life, and she’s been a blessing to me. So, just listening to her and some of the values that she instilled in me as a young leader. Like I said, it was almost natural for me to transfer that on to other people because that’s what she believed in. She believed in helping others, and she would give her last to help someone else.

Tammy: That’s wonderful. And, I can see that it has definitely rubbed off on you, so that’s really great.

John: Yes. She’s my biggest inspiration. God rest her soul.

Tammy: That’s wonderful. Did you want to tell us a little bit about the kind of things that Tank mentality involves? Do you do programming or is it more an idea? How does it work?

John: Like I said, I have a business mindset as well. So, I am an entrepreneur and, being left-handed, I think outside of the box, so I’m very creative in some of the things that I do. I always wanted a brand. Nothing really stood out. So I was like, I had to find something that I could make personal because, you know, if you’re not passionate about something whatever you’re doing is going to fizzle out. So, when the idea of Tank Mentality came on, I didn’t even know how powerful it would be, but it was just like, “This is it.” I had a vision for it, and I started hash tagging it, then I would just put quotes up because I always do that. I believe in waking up and putting something positive into the world, no matter who it reaches. And, I just started hash tagging it. It became a baby, and I started watching it grow. Certain people were coming to me, and they would be like, “This is powerful, this is awesome, what are you going to do with it?” At the time, I didn’t know. So I was like, it was new to me as well. I decided to put it on a t-shirt, and I started wearing it. First, like I said, it was about me, I had it in my favorite color, of course.

Tammy: Can I just say this is an awesome orange?

John: Thank you.

Tammy: I love it. You just need like a little purple scarf, and then it’s like my ultimate ensemble because those together, I love.

John: I have it in purple, too. Maybe I could get you a Tank Mentality shirt.

Tammy: Absolutely love it.

John: So, when I said, I’ll put it on a t-shirt, and I started wearing it, like I said, I am the brand. People would ask me, “Hey. What’s that shirt?” and I would tell them my story, and people will just be in awe of the things that I’ve overcome.

Tammy: Can you tell us some of that story?

John: Okay, I’ll keep it brief because it’s very long. Growing up overweight, I had faced problems in being bullied, you know, teased, low self-esteem. It kind of put me in a position where I had self-doubt, and you know you’re great, but, you know, when people tell you otherwise, you’re like, you kind of have that doubt, you’re like, your self-conscious about yourself and your abilities. So, football was my outlet. Because, like I said, I could put on a mask, I had a helmet. And, I could go out and take some of that frustration out on my opponents. So, believe it or not, football saved my life, and it actually brought some peace to me because, at the time, I was a depressed kid, going through some issues. And around that time, my grandmother had gotten sick. So, the person that I looked up to the most, I would watch her slowly perish in front of my eyes. So, at that time, I was going through a lot. Like I said, football was my outlet, and I excelled on the football field. It’s just crazy how the world works sometimes.

Tammy: Right. When you needed something, somehow that came into your life, right?

John: Yeah. So, after football, of course, I graduated high school, and Grandma was still sick, and they didn’t want me to go away to a faraway college because my grandmother was sick. So, I went to a local DelTech, which is a local two-year-old school, I went there, stayed home and worked. Football pretty much was over. So, I had to find something that will take the place of football because that was my outlet. It was cooking and managing, bringing up other kids, and that was actually keeping me afloat because, at the time, like I said, I was going through depression, doubt, whatever that those things, whatever I was dealing with. Grandmother passed at ’99, but I made a promise to her that I will graduate college. I was the first person in our family to graduate college.

Tammy: Congratulations. That’s huge.

John: So, that was huge for me because it was like, I don’t know, it was like when your why is bigger than you. Like, you can do things outside of your mind. So, that’s the part Tank Mentality has started building because like, the things I was doing were not about me anymore. So, I graduated college, became a manager, was working, managing. I’ve been in management now for, I don’t know, say, about 15 years now. A lot of people actually came across in developing different leaders, and they’re going off to do awesome things, then come back two years, say, “Hey. I remember you helped me.” It just feels good to know that you have impact on other people’s lives.

Tammy: Absolutely. What I love about your story, and I love how you said that when your why is bigger than your you, right? Because, you know, even when you’re talking about the early days in managing at the restaurant for you, this is the same with a lot of children’s mental health advocacy. A lot of us get involved in it because we’ve had to navigate it, and when you turn from focusing on just navigating your own problems to helping others. It does give you so much strength, right?

John: Yes.

Tammy: I mean, it really feeds you, feeds your soul and it’s so powerful. I just really appreciate that you were so wise to figure that out so young, and give so much in the communities all along, all that time, because I think a lot of us don’t figure it out till later in life, so I’m really impressed.

John: My face kind of lies on me because I’m a lot older than I look. So, it was a learning process, and there was a lot of years that I kind of wasted playing video games and being depressed. So, that’s why, now, I’m so passionate because I know that I was not being used. I was being used to a percentage, but I was not giving my all.

Tammy: What advice do you have to someone who’s in the middle of it? So, they’re struggling. Like you’re saying, that moment when football was over, that was something you had. So, I think that’s really common. Whether it’s someone leaves high school, and the one passion they had is not available to them anymore. Or, an adult, when you enter adulthood, you don’t always have that built-in social network of school, right? So many reasons people make these transitions in life that all of a sudden, the coping skills I had are not available to me. What do you recommend to someone who finds himself in that situation? I mean, how do they adapt Tank Mentality? How do they figure out how to push through that?

John: Well, the first thing is identifying what drives you. If you can figure out what you’re passionate about or what you love, you can find your way because that will draw you into your purpose. My purpose was helping people, and it’s always been my number one. But, I also was blessed with many talents and many gifts. You have to find that balance where to, “Okay, I’m talented, but I’m not going to let my talents, whatever, stop me from my purpose.” Does that make sense?

Tammy: It does.

John: I’ll give you an example. I’m a photographer, I love to cook and those are talents that I have, but it’s like, I know that that’s not my purpose. I’m good at those things, but that’s not why I’m here on this earth. So, it’s like just finding what it is you’re most passionate about, and finding ways to put that passion out into the world because no matter if you impacted one life, you’re impacting two because you’re impacting that one person, you’re impacting yourself.

Tammy: That’s right. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Is there one last thing you just love to be able to say?

John: To that person who’s lost, discouraged, walking in shame, and just disgusted, I will tell them to never give up, to keep grinding, and that’s one of the messages on my shirt. No matter what, anytime you wake up, you have the opportunity. No matter what your mistakes were, your doubts were, your fears were, they are capable of being overcome. And, I’ve learned that failure is not really failure if you can take it and learn from it. Because I can tell you a lot of things that I actually tried, and they did not go my way.

Tammy: I think we all have a lot of those.

John: It is so easy to just quit, but now I’m looking at it like it’s harder to quit. Because I know that if I quit, it’s going to cause a ripple effect. Someone else is watching you for that grace.

Tammy: I love that because I think that you’re absolutely right. When other people are depending on you, it just makes you give it that much more, right? And so, to understand we’re all interconnected and everyone’s depending on us, I think just helps us in those moments, get up and say, “Nope. I can do this. I can be part of this.”

John: Absolutely.

Tammy: Thank you so much for sharing your story.

John: No problem.

Tammy: You’re a wonderful person, really. I’m very glad that you’re part of this world.

John: Awesome.

Tammy: Thank you.

John: Thank you so much.

Tammy: Thank you.

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Tammy: You have been listening to Ask the Advocate. Copyrighted in 2018 by Mothers On The Front Line. Today’s podcast host was Tammy Nyden. The music is written, performed, and recorded by Flame Emojo. For more podcasts in this, and other series relating to children’s mental health, go to mothersonthefrontline.com.

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