Chaos Isn’t a Hugger.
Jo Dee Messina, soccer mental health, your sixth sense sodas with doctorates, Guster
Jo Dee Messina wants to talk about Jesus more than about trauma. I’m the opposite.
I welcome the famed country singer to the show this week. Jo Dee Messina has a new album, Bridges, her first in 12 years, and I was delighted to talk with her about that album and about life and trauma and Jesus Christ. The last one was her favorite topic.
In the 12 years since her last release, Jo Dee has hit some real bumps. Her marriage ended, leaving her to be a single mother to two boys. She was diagnosed with cancer and completed treatment. She’s now cancer-free, though she will have to remain vigilant about it coming back for the rest of her life. And both her parents died. Her mom’s illness was gradual and they had plenty of time to know what was coming. With Jo Dee’s dad, she referenced some other people who made decisions she would not have made and hinted that he might have had more time if she had had a say in his care.
But to varying degrees, Jo Dee kind of wanted to get away from those topics, choosing instead to focus on the healing and support she felt from Jesus and her faith. She tells me about discovering her religious conviction in 2014, saying it came on all of a sudden. She had never been especially religious, wasn’t raised that way in country music hotbed Massachusetts. But she came to believe that everything that will happen is written and planned, that it all happens for a reason. I asked her, if that’s the case, why does God allow horrible things to happen? What IS the plan for stuff like that? And, well, that’s unknowable.
I think for a lot of people, Jesus is a tremendous mental health resource. He or Christianity or other religions represent order in a world that feels chaotic. And who doesn’t like security? And comfort? Guidance? I’ve never been like that. Sometimes I get jealous of religious people because I’ve had to spend my life embracing chaos. And chaos? Chaos isn’t a hugger.
So I push back about her reluctance on those topics and she pushes toward Jesus and we get along but it’s an interesting balance. In the interview, I even come up with the idea that the secular and religious approaches aren’t so very different. The secular therapy track kind of offers the idea that there’s a Wise Mind within you to guide you. That you can understand more, through therapy, through treatment, about yourself, and become more rooted and serene. Religions offer the same thing but with more mysticism, offering that there’s an “other” who can enlighten you or protect you or at least give you an eternal reward later on. Grab a bible, grab a Brene Brown book, maybe they’re not that far apart.
Here’s Jo Dee’s first hit song that has nothing to do with any of this but damn it’s catchy:
Footballers (Soccerers) are more likely to experience depression and anxiety
I mean, I’ve been watching the World Cup and it does seem like an incredibly emotional experience for those guys. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, the absolutely blinding pain that comes from anyone coming close to your body ever, causing you to roll around until you get back up and are perfectly fine.
Anyway: science:
Of the 124 former professional players aged 30-60 who were tested, 31% scored in a range indicating clinically significant depression, according to the Imperial College London findings, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.
That is 22% higher than a group of healthy adults with no history of playing contact sports or head injuries, with whom the study compared the footballers’ results.
When I saw this story, I facetiously thought, “Why? Because of headers?” Turns out: yes!
Brain imaging of footballers found noticeably lower grey-matter volumes in several areas of the brain which are key for memory, maintaining attention, decision-making and emotional regulation.
There was also evidence of reduced brain volume, while - when asked - the players rated their own thinking and decision-making skills lower than non-footballers.
You have a SIXTH sense and no it’s not for seeing dead people (whew)
I don’t know why I’m just learning about it now. From some website called sciencealerts.com. Or why YOU are finding out in item number three here. But it’s there and it could have a lot to do with mental health.
It’s called interoception: the body’s ability to sense and interpret its own internal signals.
This sense detects things that seem ‘invisible’ but are happening constantly: your heart rate, your breathing, your hunger, the temperature running through your body.
“Although we don’t take much notice of it, it’s an extremely important sense as it ensures that every system in the body is working optimally,” psychologists Jennifer Murphy of Royal Holloway University of London and Freya Prentice of University College London wrote in The Conversation in 2022.
…
But researchers are now beginning to realize that interoception goes beyond simply regulating our biological needs, and may play a part in a range of mental health conditions – including anxiety, depression, PTSD, and eating disorders.
It’s still early days, but the general idea is that our awareness of things such as our muscle tension, breathing and heart rate can give us important clues about when a situation is ‘safe’ or ‘unsafe’.
When interrupted, this process could contribute to mental health conditions.
An excellent BlueSky thread about sodas with doctorates
Ryan Miller of Guster on Sleeping with Celebrities
He’s making SEVERAL lists. Suck it, Santa.
You are reading something that was written in paragraph format, with complete sentences, grammar, nouns, and verbs. That’s not how Ryan Miller of the beloved band Guster likes it. Ryan enjoys lists. Likes reading them, creating them, and relying on the whole idea of ordered verticality. He tells us about the extensive playlist of songs he always keeps handy for his kids, how this list has been around for many years, how it has seen some editing with certain artists losing favor and being dropped, and how there is no Guster on that list. Ryan also fills us in on which bands and artists are really nice people so you can listen to them with confidence. Ryan doesn’t tell us which bands and artists are real jerks (he says there are very few of them) because that might cause you to lose sleep. Take an ordered approach to dozing off with our Ryan Miller episode.
