Impostor Syndrome, Trauma Response, Frustrating Insurance Companies, Yes, But Also Legal Shrooms
So kind of a mixed bag, really. You get screwed over by the world but also your mind expands across multiple universes
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Aparna Nancherla on Depresh Mode
I’m always delighted to welcome in Aparna Nancherla for an interview about mental health. Because she’s delightful. She’s a very popular comedian and actor, successful by any measure, and she has a new book called Unreliable Narrator: Me, Myself, and Impostor Syndrome. Because when you feel like an impostor, the objective measures of your success aren’t taken into account. It’s the same reason you could have a great family, financial security, and a bountiful career and still experience depression. Cognitive distortions, nestled deep in the heart of stuff like depresh or impostor syndrome, don’t care about facts, they make up their own facts.
The last time I interviewed Aparna was on my former podcast and she spoke about how she had pretty much stopped doing standup. That was a few years ago and she’s back doing it again as she explains in this new appearance on the new show.
Biden goes after healthcare insurers on mental health coverage
The law says that mental health needs to be treated like any other kind of medical care. That’s because it FUCKING IS medical care.
“We always hope for collaboration, but the rule has sticks as well,” Neera Tanden, head of President Joe Biden’s domestic policy council, told POLITICO. “We hope insurers will change their behavior going forward without the sticks, but we will continue to fully enforce the parity law.”
Those sticks include fines of $100 per policyholder per day if insurers don’t close loopholes the administration says they’re using to limit what they pay for mental health care. The administration says those ploys include requirements that doctors seek insurers’ approval before delivering care, lower reimbursement rates for providers who treat mental illness and deliberate efforts to limit the number of in-network physicians available to patients.
The insurance companies are arguing that the real problem is a lack of providers. Administration points out that they studied 156 insurance companies and not one of them is following the law.
Meanwhile, METAL health isn’t even covered by most insurance companies despite the fact that it will drive you mad.
What if our whole culture is a trauma response?
That’s the question my dear friend Ana Marie Cox is asking in the New Republic.
So, what if the reason so many people identify as trauma survivors is that they are? What if the horrors of the last seven years do translate into a nation that is suffering more than mere political dysfunction? What if the polarization, paranoia, conspiracism, and hopelessness that bog us down have a more holistic origin than structural malfunctions or individual malfeasance?
And she’s packing the stats:
As of last year, four in 10 Americans knew at least one person who died from Covid. This year, three in 10 Americans say they know someone who has been affected by an opioid addiction, and one in five knows someone who’s died from a painkiller overdose. In 2022, more than three million adults were displaced by some form of natural disaster—that’s more than three times as many displaced per year between 2008 and 2021. Last year, some cities saw a 50 percent increase in evictions over pre-pandemic levels. One in five knows someone who’s died due to gun violence; one in six has witnessed a shooting; 21 percent have been personally threatened by a gun. Half of Americans know someone personally who has experienced at least one of those events.
Inside a legal psilocybin clinic
Psilocybin tea, wind chimes and a tie-dye mattress await those coming to an office suite in Eugene to trip on magic mushrooms. For roughly six hours, adults over 21 can experience what many users describe as vivid geometric shapes, a loss of identity and a oneness with the universe.
Epic Healing Eugene — America’s first licensed psilocybin service center — opened in June, marking Oregon’s unprecedented step in offering the mind-bending drug to the public. The center now has a waitlist of more than 3,000 names, including people with depression, PTSD or end-of-life dread.
This is worth keeping an eye on because it’s the future. Just like how legal marijuana seemed unthinkable for many just a few years ago and is now, well, sprouting up all over the place.
One of Jonas’ first clients took 35 milligrams and described seeing a “kind of infinite-dimension fractal that just kept turning and twisting.”
“It was kind of mesmerizing to watch, but it got so intense,” said the client, who didn’t want to be identified to protect his privacy. “I started to have this experience of dying and being reborn. And then I would kind of see large portions of my life going by in a very rapid way.”
He said the session “was not particularly pleasant,” but that it beneficially transformed how he views painful memories and provided a sought-after mystical experience.
This week on Sleeping with Celebrities: Frank “TV’s Frank” Conniff
You may know the very funny Frank Conniff from his run as “TV’s Frank” on the legendary comedy program Mystery Science Theater 3000. But before he became a star there, Frank kept a more modest profile as an employee at Arby’s in Minneapolis. The job, which came about after his application at White Castle was rejected, helped Frank get his life together and helped keep him on the straight and narrow. In this interview, Frank tells you all you would ever care to know about life at Arby’s and why he couldn’t pick up his final check in a timely manner. Enjoy a long soothing tale of fast food redemption as you drift off to a healthy sleep.