Bullies, Wildfires, Incarceration, But Also Rice
Plus how 2024 looked from 1974
Standing up to the original bully
If you’ve been pushed around by a parent at any point, I think you’ll want to hear the latest Depresh Mode.
My guest on the podcast this week is the rapper Kari Faux and it’s a heck of a conversation. I was told by her rep before the interview that Kari was very happy to talk about her mental health and could go into the steps she had taken to arrive at a better place in that department.
As we talked, it turned out that the biggest step she had taken was severing contact with her mother whom she indicated had what sounds like narcissistic tendencies. The music industry can be a bit of a dysfunctional situation as well, for anyone, which can be tricky to navigate. In our conversation, Kari talks about managing the situation with her mom, managing her role in her chosen professional field, and also managing to get out of Los Angeles, where she lived for some time and hated. She left LA during covid,. moved back to Little Rock, and now resides more comfortably in Houston.
We also discuss Kari’s relationship with psychiatry, which she’s looking to improve. She had a negative experience with a psychiatrist when she was a kid and experiencing suicidal ideation and ended up addressing that issue on her own over the years with the assistance of talk therapy. Now she’s interested in going back to a psychiatrist to hopefully get a more thorough adult diagnosis for her mental state but at the same time she’s nervous about what may be revealed.
Wildfires burn down people’s mental health
CNN reports on a new study published in JAMA that indicates there are long-term negative mental health effects for people affected by wildfires.
The residents in the study lived near 25 large wildfires in California between 2011 and 2018. When wildfires were in the area, the researchers found a statistically significant increase in orders for antidepressants, mood stabilizing medicines and medicines to reduce anxiety, compared with a period before the wildfires. The increases included new prescriptions and refills.
The increase was more pronounced in women and older people.
And it looks like this situation is not going to improve in the years to come unless there is some kind of dramatic reversal in the deteriorating climate:
It’s common to have shock, depression or a sense of hopelessness when someone loses a home or a family member, regardless of the reason. But research has also shown that wildfires can increase the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep problems even in people who haven’t previously been treated for mental health issues. Exposure to wildfires has also been associated with an increase in alcohol and substance use disorders as well as anxiety and depression.
The climate crisis will probably expose more adults and children to wildfires. In 2020 alone, the US lost 8 million acres to wildfires, and the number of fires has been significantly increasing while populations seem to be moving closer to high-risk areas.
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California votes on controversial Prop 1 tomorrow
This is a bill all about funding mental health but the part that is getting a lot of attention is the increased funding for involuntary incarceration.
From the Guardian, which is British, which explains the use of the letter s in the last word of this quote.
The bond measure was not controversial until late last year, when last-minute amendments to the bill placing it on the ballot stripped language preventing the funds from being used on involuntary confinements. The changes came hours before it was too late to change the legislation, said Jain, who added: “It came as a really big surprise.”
The result, Jain said, was a hefty, opaque ballot measure that lumps housing for veterans and unhoused people and treatment programs for people with severe mental illness and substance use disorders alongside funding for programs that could facilitate coerced institutionalisation.
Checking in on predictions of 2024 from the year 1974
Might not surprise you to hear that some were off the mark (anyone driving an electric car with legs instead of wheels out there?) but a few were pretty sharp.
From The New Stack:
But eventually, Sakharov turns to computers. His essay envisioned “the creation of a single global telephone and videophone system … a universal information system which will give everyone access at any given moment to the contents of any book that has ever been published or any magazine or any fact.” And Sakharov imagined it being accessed with “individual miniature-computer terminals,” along with “central-control points for the flood of information.”
I can talk to you if you want me to
One of my favorite things to do in the world is travel places to give speeches. I have spoken to community groups, corporations, schools, and just about everywhere else. A fun run, once. Another time at the Carter Center in Atlanta. I give speeches about mental health and wellness, delayed covid trauma, the optimism I have for fighting mental health stigma, and more. The speeches are well-received, judging from the rave feedback I’ve been receiving. Perhaps you would like me to come talk to your group? It’s easy to arrange! Just visit Collective Speakers and get in touch with my friends there.
Oscar Montoya on Sleeping with Celebrities
You might have seen Oscar Montoya as one of the stars of the acclaimed TV series Minx or heard him as one of the hosts of the acclaimed Maximum Fun podcast Eurovangelists. Or maybe, just maybe, you’ve noticed him in the rice aisle at the supermarket, carefully examining the selection and putting a surprising amount of thought into rice, as he does so often in life and as he does in this week’s episode. Rice is very important to Oscar and he is perfectly willing to talk you all the way off to sleep about it. We also get into some important history about nachos that you will want to try to stay awake for it. But you might not make it, too full of rice, and that’s okay too.
