Author: STS Admin (Page 2 of 15)

The COVID-19 lockdown and our children

This post is from August 2021. American history and the fallout for our kids is now manifesting. Over the coming year we’ll have parents sharing their – often heartbreaking – stories of how the COVID-19 lockdown detrimentally affected their children’s mental health. For now, let’s just say it’s good fortune we have as many child therapy providers as we do.


To a five year old child, 1.5 years of forced lockdown is 30% of their life to that point. Extrapolating:

30% of a 10 year old child’s life is 3 years.

30% of a 15 year old teenager’s life is 4.5 years.

30% of a 20 year old adult’s life is 6 years.

30% of a 30 year old adult’s life is 9 years.

30% of a 40 year old adult’s life is 12 years.

30% of a 50 year old adult’s life is 15 years.

30% of a 60 year old adult’s life is 18 years.

30% of a 70 year old adult’s life is 21 years.

30% of an 80 year old adult’s life is 24 years.

Remember how summer vacation seemed to last forever when we were kids? It’s because as kids three months of our lives was a very large percentage of our living experience. Recognize this when in a few years we have the result of socially crippled kids needing tons of psych services for missing out on 30% of their social lives because of forced lockdowns.

And consider how we would turn out if we – as adults – were forced to stay at home for a decade or more. How socially crippled would we adults be after one decade of forced lockdown?

Why I didn’t and won’t watch Breaking Bad

It’s appreciated just how excellent a program Breaking Bad is. I didn’t watch it and I won’t watch it for this very simple and singular reason:

It’s a show that dramatizes drug culture.

The stuff I do in peer co-occuring advocacy gifts me with friends whose lives are severely and significantly damaged by illicit drugs like meth. Dramatizing drug culture isn’t necessarily condoning, glorifying, or celebrating drug culture. However, it’s impossible for me to watch a show like Breaking Bad without reflecting on the horrible life stories my friends shared with me. This negates anything pleasurable and enjoyable about watching the show. So I didn’t and I won’t.

And that Breaking Bad was filmed in Albuquerque makes it even more tangible, the literal recognizable physical setting of my friends’ life experiences.

I have an irritated good friend insisting I watch Breaking Bad, pointing out it’s about more than meth culture, that it’s about character development and character interaction. He insists if I give the show a chance I would understand this.

I asked him a single question: Does the show utilize meth production and sales as a central plot point throughout the series? The answer is of course “yes.” Returning to my first principle reason for not watching the show, because it is based upon dramatizing drug culture I won’t watch Breaking Bad. Flatly and immutably.

Call me stubborn if need be. I don’t feel my personally earned principles are open for debate. And I appreciate just how excellent a program Breaking Bad is.

Providers who aren’t peers are frustrated unmagical Muggles

Providers who aren’t mental health peers telling me my humor, irreverence, and jokes about mental health are wholly inappropriate and are insulting to other peers are confused Muggles attempting and failing to conjure forth the grumpy and constipated Ghost of Liberace to prepare a brimming Dixie cup of scrumptious hasenpfeffer to feed all the world’s starving vegans and thusly save Kanye West from a hostile takeover of his essence as the Universe’s Least Bipolar Man.

You see? Providers who aren’t mental health peers can’t even get basic magic right that EVERY peer can do while still pooping and peeing in their knickers, and thank the stars for Huggies and non-peer providers who happen to be full of the same sticky stuff. How can they be expected to know what’s funny amongst peers? Where is their experiential authority to judge me and my wit?

One of my strongest beliefs:

When you can laugh at the horrible things in life it takes back the power the horrible things hold over you.

This is the core principle for STS’s Laugh It Off education program.

Cats are better than everything combined and more, and I have the meme to prove it

My friend the Cat Apologist sent me this as “proof” and “evidence” of cats are superior and if not then you’re stupid.

Citations? This “study” sounds like the same ilk of baseless self-serving fortune cookie logic Facebook denizens use to justify overt Trump hatred (racist racist racist!!!) and bad science rhetoric (climate climate climate!!!). And in this case, cat apologists making excuses for being a cat apologist.

Similarly and conclusively, those credentialed professionals in the behavioral health community claiming lofty authority via the premise “Because Professional Studies Show” WITHOUT providing validating professional citations are the epitome of the appeal to false authority. It’s the same psychological construct that helps Lebron James peddle a Kia and 50 Cent convince you Vitamin Water is the finest way to quench your thirst.


Unsubstantiated scholarship at behavioral health meetings holds the same scholarly sway as “I’m not a doctor but I play one on TV.”


Simply stringing soothing words together, creating a meme, and posting it to Facebook doesn’t make it valid and true. Cat apologists do not have the gift of effective reality. Nor do those with credentials sitting at the same table with peers.

I’m the one with the mental health symptoms. These meetings are important. It affects me directly. My interest is immediately vested. I’m not prepared just to take your word for it. Proove yourself to me. Thank you.

Kindly reprinted with permission from Steve’s Thoughtcrimes.

“Reasons to Live” by Feti’a

Stars, especially shooting stars

That weightless second on a swing that makes you think you might actually fly

Warm baths

The smell of petrichor and wet concrete

Rainbows

Thunder storms

Waterfalls

Greenery

Fascinating things to learn from any/every subject

Laughing until it hurts

Running until I’m drenched in sweat

How my body feels after yoga

Cool textures

Songs that change my brain chemistry (aka: of the classical sort)

Writing

Creating weird worlds in my head

Silence

Deep breaths that fill my whole lungs

Fog over mountains or in valleys

The taste of the smell of rain

Feeling thankful

Colors, especially natural

Pleasant words like equidistant or bubbling or soliloquy

My Seasonal Affective Disorder is a Real Drag this Time of Year

Something needs to be done about my Seasonal Affective Disorder and how insufferably cheerful and gratingly pleasant I get during summertime. Not imposing upon my loved ones just because I’m joyful must be leaving a huge void in their heart. There must be a med to drag me into even a mild doldrum, requiring the people in my life the burden of having to be on suicide watch 24/7.

I hardly want to spend any time at all in my bed beneath my Blanket Fortress. And this unforced smile is so easy and uplifting. What a chore this is. For myself, for everone.

I’m so sorry for feeling happy and productive once again. I feel selfish to the core.

Forgive me for this and I’ll forgive you for eating the whole goddam bag of Cheetos. Those were for everyone, you realize.

Reprinted with kind permission of Steve’s Thoughtcrimes.

My Seasonal Affective Disorder is a Real Drag this Time of Year

Something needs to be done about my Seasonal Affective Disorder and how insufferably cheerful and gratingly pleasant I get during summertime. Not imposing upon my loved ones just because I’m joyful must be leaving a huge void in their heart. There must be a med to drag me into even a mild doldrum, requiring the people in my life the burden of having to be on suicide watch 24/7.

I hardly want to spend any time at all in my bed beneath my Blanket Fortress. And this unforced smile is so easy and uplifting. What a chore this is. For myself, for everone.

I’m so sorry for feeling happy and productive once again. I feel selfish to the core.

Forgive me for this and I’ll forgive you for eating the whole goddam bag of Cheetos. Those were for everyone, you realize.

Reprinted with kind permission of Steve’s Thoughtcrimes.

DBSA Albuquerque has a new Tuesday evening peer support group!!!

DBSA Albuquerque a new Tuesday peer support group!!!
Beginning on Tuesday, January 29, DBSA Albuquerque offers a new weekly peer support group for our New Mexico communities.


It’s been a while since we’ve had our evening group centrally located in Albuquerque. By popular demand, we now have a new venue that is friendly, safe, and easily accessible from both I-25 and I-40.

Like our Monday afternoon and Friday evening peer support groups, DBSA Albuquerque offers our Tuesday group free to the community. There is no need to register ahead of time. Just show up and meet other folks who understand what you’re going through in a safe, welcome, and judgment-free space.

Every Tuesday
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
First Unitarian Church
RE Room 3
3701 Carlisle Blvd. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87110
 
On the SE corner of the
Carlisle & Comanche intersection

Across Comanche from
KOAT 7 News

Dedicated Accessible Parking
First Floor Accessible Entrance.
Parking entrance on Comanche just west of Carlisle

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STAND UP TO STIGMA: Mental Health Support Groups & Community Education