I’ve spent a fair bit of time chronicling my mental health problems, both here and over at YouTube. My struggles with depression have been particularly bad these last 12 months and in looking over my last few posts I’m seeing danger signs.
A Good Place
I’ve come through to a moderately good place lately. I’m pretty open with my lovely bride about the conditions between my ears, both good and bad. She’s been wonderfully supportive, and has even begun opening up when she starts to struggle.
It’s a funny thing, I come from a background that is a perfect storm for holding stuff in; Scottish stoicism, raised in a culture WASP “keep a stiff upper lip.” Got a problem? Suck it up. Life’s hard, get a helmet. Big boys don’t cry.
If you want a perfect encapsulation of it, just read Rudyard Kipling’s masterpiece If.
And the funny thing is, I completely agree with all of it. Keep your head, don’t complain, push through, when the going gets tough the tough get going, etc. Through this philosophy a tiny island nation became the greatest empire the world has ever seen.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t make allowance for genuine psychological problems. Which I have.
Enough about me, what about wifey? Fortunately, she doesn’t suffer the problems I do. Which in now way, shape or form means that she doesn’t have her own struggles, from time to time.
Since I’ve opened up to her about my problems, she has given herself permission to tell me when she’s struggling.
This is a very good thing, because she also comes from a culture (one very different from my own) that also does not deal well with internal turmoil. Her background has its own rules about keeping it bottled up inside until it passes.
Open up about your problems.
When you live with a depressive, this is bad. If your internal struggle coincides with his, you set up a feedback loop that can send the poor depressed bastard into a very dark place. Learning to be open about your own problems, and ask for help, can actually improve the situation for both of you.
At least it has for us.
She was struggling. I was struggling. She told me she was having a hard time. I got out of my own head to try and help her, and in so doing, got out of my own problem much faster.
So what does this have to do with unplugging from the news?
Canada in general, and Ontario specifically are in the midst of another round of, “I’m an idiot, can you top this?” “Oh yeah, you think you’re stupid? Hold my beer.”
Our slackwit Premier is going against the desires and advice of everyone with an IQ over room temperature to lock us down, kill the economy and destroy our children. The teachers want to be in school. The kids want and need to be in school. Parents want their kids to get an education. The business owners want to be open. Their patrons want them to be open.
In short, he’s pissing off 90% of the voters in the province. To what end, I simply cannot imagine.
I’m unplugging.
His announced end date is 2 to 3 weeks in the future, and until he gets smacked upside the head with a clue bat, or the goose stepping Nazi fuckery he has imposed on us expires on his announced timeline, there isn’t a single solitary thing I can do about it. So I’m unplugging.
Unfortunately for Messrs. Ford and Trudeau, while I’m not going to pay any attention to the granular details of their stupidities, I see what they’re doing, and I will remember.
