Janet Varney, John Malkovich, NFL Players, and LSD
Not a really fun lunch date, just a newsletter. Also a little Bigfoot
Hey, guess what! Chicken butt. Yes. Of course. But furthermore: please remember that our show exists because of listener donations. If you’ve donated, THANK YOU. If not, it’s easy: go here, pick a level that works for you, then select DEPRESH MODE from the list of shows.
You’re Not So Special
I think it was on the second podcast episode I ever did about depression where I interviewed Maria Bamford and she talked about how whatever it is you have going on with your mental health, someone else has had it before. And there’s more than likely a name for it and plenty of information online. There might be entire books on it and the author is on a book tour and you can go meet them.
We all have more or less the same gear in our heads, after all, so even if the thing you got going on is rare, it’s happened somewhere. Because how many humans are there in the world? Easily over thirty, right?
For Janet, the rare condition is depersonalization derealization disorder or DPDR.
Depersonalization/derealization disorder (DPDR), sometimes referred to as depersonalization/derealization syndrome, is a mental health condition that can cause you to experience a persistent or recurring feeling of being outside of your body (depersonalization), a sense that what's happening around you isn't real (derealization), or both.
As I explain to Janet in this episode, I had this same thing happen when I was very young. Nothing too prolonged, just isolated incidents, but my 8yo vocabulary and my terror over the situation meant that I never was able to explain the situation to anyone. I tried. Could not. It’s such a relief to know that what I was going through was a THING, you know? That it had a name. And that it didn’t involve the New Jersey Turnpike.
Also, Maria Bamford is my guest THIS FRIDAY on Wits at the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul.
Debrief Denied
Since the show launched late last March, I’ve been doing the Depresh Mode Debrief on Tuesday afternoons. Live video on YouTube Live talking about the latest episode and what’s coming up on the show. I’m going to stop doing that, at least for a while.
It’s just too much. Every week I have the show to do, of course, and I’m trying to expand the work I do in some other directions as well. To lock into being at my desk every Tuesday at 1pm is just a little too much. I may come back to it again at some point or make it more of an occasional thing than a weekly thing but the weekly is on ice for now. Right, illustration found online?
Listening to what the flower people say
The Guardian has a bit of a roundup article on the psychedelic renaissance, which is not a paisley-intensive jangle band but rather a term for the widespread reconsideration of drugs like LSD and MDMA to treat depression, PTSD, and other ailments. The article focuses on what’s happening in Australia on the issue.
Psychedelics are also thought to dampen the “default mode network”, a system of interconnected brain regions that is active at unfocused, wakeful rest – such as daydreaming. The region is believed to be important in formulating our sense of self, and can become too rigid when people experience anxiety and depression.
By quietening the default mode network, psychedelic drugs seem to enable different interconnections in the brain, like “cross-talk”, Williams says, resulting in an altered sense of perspective and greater psychological flexibility.
The results of the testing I’ve seen have been very positive but gathering up the will and the funding for more tests is a bit tricky. These types of drugs are broadly associated with recreational use (in much higher doses than are being studied) and, I don’t know, raves. Are raves still a thing? I’ve never raved. I’ve ranted but never raved.
Yeah But
So I was watching football yesterday, as I often do, and feel a lot of mixed feelings about it, including remorse, shame, guilt, and yay football. And I saw a shorter version of this PSA from last May, which you apparently have to watch on YouTube and not embedded here, which is stupid.
It’s a bunch of NFL players, include some who somewhat presumptively call themselves “legends”, talking about how important it is to take care of your mental health.
Which… yeah? But the message is coming from a league that regularly destroys the physical and mental health of its players and has for decades. Not every player gets damaged, of course, and there’s been some effort to make better protection and more rules that could cause concussions, but still, come on. Without the kinds of hits that could cause brain damage there wouldn’t be an NFL.
A spot like this is categorically refuted many times over every time the spot ends and they go back to the actual game.
Plus, if they’re going to use legends, I would have liked them to include Bigfoot.
Or
Everyone has their own ambience
And with this very fun soundboard you can create your own blend for relaxing or falling asleep or whatever. Each sound has a volume control so you can decide how much you want of what sound.
You might choose coffeeshop and forest, for instance.
But if it helps, you could choose zombie invasion, couple arguing, volcano, and haunted dungeon.
I’m not going to judge you. Much.