Hello! I don’t know if I know how to do these newsletters but I think it’s like blogging? Remember blogging? Is the future actually the past? Am I in a Time Machine?
Am I in a Tin Machine?
I am heading toward a new podcast, once all the agents and lawyers get things straightened away. It’s been many years since I looked for a new job and in that time I’ve acquired a set of skills (karate, throwing stars, embroidery, podcasting) that require complicated arrangements and lawyers. “You’ll have to talk to my lawyer!” I said recently, because I could.
Efforts will be on talking about mental health in a way that is accessible and even entertaining. The throwing stars quotient will be low but don’t count it out (because I’ll throw a throwing star at you.)
Anyway: soon! I miss making shows. I’ll soon make shows. Maybe I’ll roll a rolling star to you.
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It’s clearly unfair that Kevin Love can be an NBA champion and All-Star AND write eloquently about depression. His incredibly moving and eloquent article about his Clinny D career appeared this week. Kevin has been an unexpectedly loud supporter of my book, The Hilarious World of Depression, in which, he told me, he saw a lot of his own experiences. Kevin said there were a lot of things I found the words for when he couldn’t.
At first that shocked me because I’m not tall, athletic, or wealthy, plus I can’t rebound in the low post. But that’s the thing about depression, it can come for anyone. Doesn’t care about your career or bank account, it just wants to kill you.
So Kevin was moved by my book and now I’ve been moved by his article. Go figure. And, I guess, Go Cavs!
Depression rates have tripled during COVID. This according to a new study released by the Well Yeah Of Course Institute. Nah, it was in Science Daily.
Across the board, the researchers found an increase in depression symptoms among all demographic groups. Not surprisingly, experiencing more COVID-related stressors was a major predictor of depression symptoms.
However, the biggest demographic difference came down to money. After adjusting for all other demographics, the researchers found that, during COVID, someone with less than $5,000 in savings was 50% more likely to have depression symptoms than someone with more than $5,000.
Daily is the recommended dosage for science.
I’ve been talking about this issue all summer because my book came out during the pandemic. So interviewers and readers alike would ask what the Professional Sad Person had to say about the mountain of depressive symptoms people had amid all this.
My answer was that yeah, us saddies have been kind of training for this for a while. We’ve long suspected some nameless invisible force was about to kill us so when it actually was announced we leaned back and said, “What took you so long,” like a sad cowboy. So we’re well-positioned to deal with it. In fact, this topic took up a lot of my interview on Fresh Air.
The first I heard about this unexpected capable feeling during the pandemic was from my friend John Ross Bowie, a wonderful person and actor who played Kripke on Big Bang Theory.
I recommend that the normies contact their local saddie for tips because the saddies have all sorts of coping mechanisms.
But it’s also worth pointing out that if you’re sad and scared from the COVID and the person in the White House and the burning of the west coast, that’s a HEALTHY RESPONSE. Those things - in even the most clear-eyed mind, are fucking terrifying and awful. A disorder is when those things start causing you to miss work and school, not feed your kids, hide in your room for days at a time (like Kevin Love did in that article at the top), and generally disintegrate. Just bummed because things are awful? Well, welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games.
Speaking of the Guns and also the Roses, this piece I wrote for McSweeney’s is suddenly hot again. Not sure why.
And pray for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by—Whew. OK, listen to me now: Thunder can’t quietly do anything. It’s thunder. And, more importantly, do you really want to come across as a wuss who’s constantly on the verge of weeping and skittering into hair caves to escape from rain? Is this a song about love or climatic anxiety? You need to work these things out.
I haven’t had occasion to use the phrase “skittering into hair caves” in the last 14 years since I wrote this but I AM ALWAYS LOOKING.
So that’s the newsletter, I guess? That was fun.
Kevin Love is HANDSOME.
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