Brain and Heart and Heat and Michigan and Johnny Cash and What Pets Can't Do
No, this is not the title of a Sufjan Stevens song
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Making the Tin Man and Scarecrow jealous: we got Heart and Brain this week
On this week’s podcast episode, I talk with Nick Seluk, who is the creator of Heart and Brain comics.
You know, like this:
and this:
and also this:
And now here are words which you are reading while you’re thinking why doesn’t John just show us more of the cartoons on account of we like cartoons; cartoons good. Yes, your thoughts involve semicolons sometimes.
Nick had been working a corporate graphic design job for many years and drawing strips about an awkward yeti named Lars. Eventually, Lars’s brain (rational side) and heart (emotional side) became characters on their own and took off in popularity. Lars then took a back seat to these organs.
Covered in the interview:
How Heart and Brain are representative of Nick’s own ADHD
His experience with anxiety and depression
What it’s like to metaphorically expose your own internal organs on the internet for people to judge
What it’s like to have someone tell you to kill yourself because they didn’t think your comic was funny
The terror of betting on oneself
Want one more? Let’s do one more:
There’s only one image I can use for this link to an article about how higher temperatures affect one’s mental health
It’s a pity that Diamond Dave didn’t use a clearer font for Crazy From The Heat but legibility has never been his top priority. Whoa! Zibbidy zobbidy bop! Hey yow!
But yeah, people go nuts.
"People will talk about how they have reduced feelings of joy and happiness and increased amount of stress, anger and fatigue, even with temperatures above 70 degrees," Oller said. "So, we know that once you're talking about temperatures over 90, 100, that these effects are going to be much more pronounced."
Hotter temperatures mean worse sleep and worse sleep makes one more susceptible to mental health difficulties. People who are poorer are disproportionately affected (as they so often are in all things because: America) because they are less likely to be able to afford air-conditioning and thus their sleep is going to be worse.
Okay, pets are great but they can only do so much
An article in US News (motto: did you know we still exist?) talks about the limitations of pet ownership in terms of helping mental health. Specifically, in cases of severe mental illness, there’s no indication that having a furry pal helps. And in fact it may be something of a hindrance.
“In the absence of COVID-19 restrictions, a possible explanation for our current findings could be that the added responsibility of animal ownership may still exacerbate other potential stressors experienced by people living with severe mental illness. This includes the cost of food, veterinary bills and uncertainty over housing,” lead author Dr. Emily Shoesmith, a research fellow at the University of York in the United Kingdom, said in a journal news release.
Forgiving student loan debt for mental health workers
That’s what Michigan is doing.
We’re in a mental health crisis right now and we don’t have enough people providing services. And getting trained up to do that kind of work means taking on debt, which could be prohibitive. So: zap the debt, invest in better mental health, head off the state expenses that come with a sicker population, get more people helping out, create more jobs, EVERYONE WINS.
"By helping providers afford to stay at lower-paying jobs, the MI Kids Now program could improve a 20% to 40% vacancy rate among Michigan mental health care workers, especially those with the most trouble hiring,” said Sheehan.
Johnny Cash sings “Barbie Girl” through AI
And various other hit songs. Because everything is terrible and simultaneously.
Oh no! What happened to your dog’s leg/foot?