Sunday Scaries and pre-covid crazies: both real things
Also: me writing about me talking about me
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Free chapter! Of my book! Read out loud by me on the podcast.
This week’s episode of Depresh Mode features… me! I was a hard guy to book but hey, I know a guy. Who is me. It’s a chapter of my book, The Hilarious World of Depression.
A lot of people think of depression as the thing where you’re sad all the time and you frown and mope and listen to Morrissey. And yeah, that’s there sometimes for some people. But mostly that’s a description of the MOOD of depression and not the disorder. Because the disorder? Man, that biz is all over the place.
For instance, road rage. In this chapter, I detail a trip to the city dump to get rid of some junk. And the feeling of being out of control and trapped in my own life is so intense that I go full on crazy upon a slightly unpleasant encounter with some bro-dudes in a nicer pickup truck than mine. I cannot believe that I never got beat up or arrested.
Then I detail how I blew up a perfectly nice job because I couldn’t help finding what was terrible about a wonderful situation. And I explain the joy of finally getting diagnosed.
Listen to the pod! Then buy the book! If you want!
We’re messed up and people know we’re messed up
CNN was part of a massive survey about mental health and it seems that nearly everyone - 90%! - is aware of the mental health crisis we’re in. I mean, when is the last time 90% of us agreed on anything? Maybe that Keanu Reeves is awesome? Pizza is delicious?
The survey also mentions what is becoming a really important thing for people to know that a lot of them don’t: we were in crisis before covid. The pandemic made it worse and warped it but we were fucked up already.
When we started this project, it was largely focusing on the specific stresses of the pandemic, but the truth is for many Americans, the pandemic is now in the background and they are dealing with the normal stressors of everyday life. That said, the worry and concerns that arose during the pandemic haven’t faded away and so people are having to balance going back to work, getting their kids back in school while facing many of the mental health issues that arose during the past two years. I think while the survey questions don’t necessarily focus on the pandemic, the experiences and worries from the past two years are definitely influencing how people responded to the survey.
Sunday Scaries is a real thing and shit, maybe we need to do a podcast episode about it
More research! Your favorite!
When I was a kid, I HATED Sundays, especially Sunday nights. Just this feeling of dread and despair that overtook me every single week. It was just going back to school, a place I had been and where I did okay. But guh. Hated it.
I am not alone. I’ve heard it talked about a million times since then and now we find out that MOST of Britain feels the same way.
The new research, commissioned by OHID, found that overall 67% of Britons frequently experience anxiety on a Sunday. To distract themselves, those aged 18-24 said they turned to social media, those aged 25-32 were most likely to binge watch TV and respondents aged 33-40 most likely to comfort eat.
Kimberley Wilson said: “These ‘distraction’ habits can actually exacerbate the problem. It’s so important to enjoy every last minute of your weekend and start the week in the best frame of mind.
“If you experience the Sunday Scaries like clockwork every week or feel sad or anxious, try getting active, which can help you to burn off nervous energy, writing down or keeping a diary of what you are doing and how you feel at different times to help identify what’s causing anxiety and what you need to do to help manage it. Small things can make a big difference to our mental wellbeing.”
The cure? Tons of therapy, probably. I don’t know. It’s Monday morning as I type this which means everything is fine and we’ll never be scared again. For six more days.
Here’s Gary Gulman talking about the Sunday Scaries. It’s on Live From Here, a show that, like The Hilarious World of Depression, was canceled by American Public Media in 2020. Alas.
New coffee shop in Chicago supports mental health and people in general
The mission is noble and the title is long at Coffee, Hip-Hop and Mental Health Coffee Shop, a title that mentions coffee twice!
The idea is that when you buy coffee there, you help foot the bill for therapy for people who can’t otherwise afford or access it.
“When you support this … you support the many people who sign up,” LeMark said. “To be able to say, let’s fundraise daily so we can pay for 250 people per year to go to therapy on us. That’s families, that’s couples and individuals.”
A unique detail about the coffee shop — besides their mission to normalize mental health therapy — there’s no set price on the coffee made for customers. It’s a pay-what-you-want model that was established with their mission in mind.
“So, the person who can afford to pay or give more — but for those who can only give a dollar or two — we still give them the same service and the same good energy,” LeMark said. “Because the goal is to make this a safe space for people, not just a coffee shop.”
“I got hot cognitive behavior therapy behind you, Chef!”
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is back
The fundamental notion behind electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and microdosing is kind of the same: shake things up in that brain of yours and see if you can loosen up your unhealthy thought patterns.
For me, that’s what Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is all about and why it’s one of my favorite show/video/things in a long time.
DHMIS features three unnamed puppet kind of guys (except one’s a guy in a suit) who hang around their house, getting visited sometimes by anthropomorphic objects. The objects teach the guys about something. It never goes well.
From the original video series of a few years ago, here’s one about creativity.
There’s a new series of six episodes now on British TV and (sneakily) placed on YouTube. The new series has longer episodes but is just as odd, hilarious, and sometimes disturbing. This one is about work:
I love these things a lot.