Mental Health on, Pardon the Expression, Thin Ice, Plus Rhett Miller and Twins
Great conversations with Olympian Gracie Gold and more
Welcome Rhett Miller fans!
My inbox has been blowing up with notifications of new subscribers who came my way via Rhett Miller’s excellent Time & Temperature newsletter, wherein Rhett has been nice enough to recommend this newsletter you’re now reading. This kindness on the part of Rhett is one of the many reasons I love Mr. Miller.
Some of the other reasons:
The beautiful music he makes.
That defiantly youthful floppy hair he’s got
The fact that he’s a very kind and sweet fella, despite the intimidating glower in the photo above.
Here’s Rhett performing while I stand off to the right at Wits, a variety show I used to host a lot and still host sometimes:
And here’s Rhett in an interview I did with him on my old show. He talks about his mental health history, including some rough times in childhood that you might not have known about. You can tell I care about you, dear subscriber, because I almost never link to my old show.
Anyway, okay, welcome.
But Rhett isn’t on my current podcast this week, Gracie Gold is
You should listen to this one, especially if you think that successful people couldn’t possibly have mental health problems because of how successful they are all the time.
Gracie is an Olympic medal-winning figure skater who also has a couple of world championship titles under her sequined belt. She was one of the top performers in her very intense and competitive sport back in the day, and she rose higher and higher even as her mental health deteriorated. Gracie dealt with just so many things, starting with body dysmorphia and eating disorders, which eventually cascaded into depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, dissociation, and OCD.
She talks about those issues and how she tried to outrun them basically but could not because usually people can’t. Gracie relates the crash that she had that led her to finally seek help in the form of in-patient mental health treatment where she met, for the first time really, a bunch of people who didn’t much care about how many skating trophies she had won. We also talk about how mental health has historically been regarded within skating and why she went back to the sport after getting out of rehab.
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A study on twins reveals much about the sources of mental illness
The New York Times reports on a new study that closely examines sets of twins wherein one twin had trauma in childhood but the other did not.
(T)hose who reported one or more trauma in childhood — physical or emotional neglect or abuse, rape, sexual abuse, hate crimes or witnessing domestic violence — were 2.4 times as likely to be diagnosed with a psychiatric illness as those who did not.
If a person reported one or more of these experiences, the odds of being diagnosed with a mental illness climbed sharply, by 52 percent for each additional adverse experience. Among participants who reported three or more adverse experiences, nearly a quarter had a psychiatric diagnosis of depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, substance abuse disorder or stress disorder.
What this means, at least as near as I can gather it, is that there is a link between negative experiences and mental health problems that is stronger than the link of genetics. While it’s not exactly revelatory that trauma can lead to some of these issues, that prospect is seemingly made clearer here by the presence of a control group represented by the unaffected twin.
Me, I figured for a long time that stuff like depression, anxiety, etc. was a result of genetics about half the time and environment half the time. Nature/nurture 50/50. But the more I’ve talked to people about mental health, the more I think trauma weighs a lot more on that scale and this study would seem to back that up.
Review of Madness: Race and Insanity in America by Antonia Hylton, a book I want to read
The Guardian’s Tim Adams takes a look at a book that examines the connection between historic racism and the mental health crisis. The book opens with the author visiting a relative in Massachusetts.
The relative has, Hylton writes, “covered up all of their windows with black gaffer tape… unplugged all their electronics, convinced they were being watched through every screen”. The worst part of it, she suggests, was that her loved one believed that she, as a journalist – a reporter with NBC – was a passive part of the conspiracy; that she should call an editor and tell the story. “And in a way,” she writes, “my loved one was right.”
In part, this book is her detailed response to that cry for help. In uncovering a century of neglect and incarceration of the disturbed and disfranchised, Hylton dwells on the reasons why her extended family and the wider Black community have suffered disproportionately with depression and paranoia and schizophrenia. A lot, she argues, can be explained by poverty and injustice, the factors most likely to push a person to psychological breaking point, but there is also that other glaring fact: the entirely rational fear that white supremacists are out to destroy them.
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.
This week on Sleeping with Celebrities
You see, Rhett Miller fans, I host TWO podcasts: Depresh Mode, which is all about mental health, and Sleeping with Celebrities, which is a quirky comedy sleep aid show. On SwC, famous people talk at length about things other people might not find that interesting, with the purpose of putting the listener to sleep.
This week, we welcome author and podcaster Steve Almond.
If you happen to be one of Steve Almond’s children, you already know about the Dad Compactor. Because Steve isn’t just a best-selling author (Candyfreak, All the Secrets in the World) and beloved podcast host, he’s a household appliance. Steve won’t stand for wasted food, you see, and so the Dad Compactor reuses and reinvents foodstuffs in ways you never thought possible or even wise. Doze off while he tells you all about it. You might become a Compactor too.