>>> ADDED SEPTEMBER 29, 2020:
I was contacted by Detox of South Florida, https://detoxofsouthflorida.com/, and asked to publish their excellent article, "How to Get Someone into Rehab" -- so you can access that here:
>>> MY EMAIL EXCHANGE WITH EDUCATOR LABS:
Dear Ms. Muller,
Thank you for noticing my personal website and thinking of me to help spread your word. I am, indeed, very interested in the subjects of mental illness, suicide, drug abuse, and related maters, and although I am actually not now capable of adding your links to that page (which is outdated on many things -- including that I have now lived in political exile in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for the last 2.5 years -- due to false imprisonments and false mental hospital commitments in Wilmington, NC in 2011 and 12), and with the exception of suicide, I have dealt with many of these matters myself.
I also have two blogs, the first mirroring the second: http://scottkenan.blogspot.com and http://theweathercontinues.
In 1978, I was involuntarily committed to Anchora State Hospital in southern New Jersey, and the admitting tech told me not to worry, that 90% of those committed there were simply gay and had annoyed someone who then had them committed for that reason. I found this to be ENTIRELY TRUE. Today I hear LITTLE about how this figures into the problems for young people.
Also, I would like to SALUTE YOU and your CO-LIBRARIANS, the unsung heroes of all education!!! And how EXCITING to discover that you are trying to organize some material from the unruly Internet!!! My distant Kenan relatives have a huge emphasis on education -- especially in your state of North Carolina -- although they and I have a rather large difference in political opinion, to put it mildly.
I will close by pasting in something I wrote and posted on blog right after Robin \Williams' death. You can see I had a different take on it than most people, and you might ignore what begins with the photo, as it becomes more political and gives an idea how fearless (or perhaps shameless), I can be in my language. In posting this, I will drop my comments on Robin Williams beneath your letter, and email you a copy of it as well. All my blog postings are emailed to 500 contacts in the Press, Politics, Law Enforcement, Religion, and Friends of Tennessee Williams, my former employer -- as well as the blog getting 600 - 700 hits per day on its own.
Thank you for contacting me,
Scott
On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 1:43 PM, Rebecca Muller wrote:
Hi,
I’m writing as a representative of EducatorLabs.org, a new volunteer-based startup that conducts free research for educators. In light of the recent loss of comedian and humanitarian Robin Williams, we started in on mental health, suicide and addiction prevention.
The more research we did, the more our concern grew as we learned that we lose 800,000 people to suicide each year, or 1 person every 40 seconds (http://www.rttnews.com/2379111/800000-people-commit- suicide-every-year-highest-in- india-who.aspx?type=gn). Those numbers were extremely alarming to us.
Based on the resources you’ve listed on this page: http://www.scottkenan.com/links.php, we gather mental health is close to your heart as well. We hoped you would consider adding a few more important, potentially life-saving resources; here are our favorites among those we’ve gathered so far:
Drug Prevention 4 Teens
http://www.justice.gov/dea/pr/multimedia-library/ publications/prevention4teens.
The Science of Addiction: K-12 Integrated Prevention Curriculum
http://www.newbeginningsdrugrehab.org/ the-science-of-addiction-k-12- integrated-prevention- curriculum
Teen Depression - A Guide for Parents
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/depression_teen.htm
ZocDoc Search for Mental Health Service Providers
http://www.zocdoc.com/therapist-counselors
Health Insurance and Mental Health Services
http://www.mentalhealth.gov/get-help/health-insurance/ index.html
Senior Mental Health: Grief vs. Depression
http://blog.planprescriber.com/2014/05/08/senior-mental- health/
Alternative Treatments for Addiction
http://www.healthyplace.com/alternative-mental-health/ addictions/alternative- treatments-for-addiction/
Mental Health & Art Therapy
http://www.arttherapyblog.com/c/mental-health/
ADDED BY SCOTT:
For "Am I Bipolar or Waking Up?" -- my favorite: http://www.bipolarorwakingup.com/
For 7 Helpful Things to Say to a Depressed Person: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/11/supportive-depression-what-to-say_n_5760916.html
Here is curriculum on our own site that I wanted you to see. We will be placing more on our site soon:
Suicide Prevention and Awareness | Lesson Plans
http://educatorlabs.org/lesson-plans/suicide- prevention-and-awareness- lesson-plans/
Let me know if you decide to post them - I will share this with the rest of the team. We consider a successful day one in which we’re able to share information on such important topics.
Thank you for your time!
Rebecca
Rebecca Muller
r.muller@educatorlabs.org
EducatorLabs.org :: Cultivating. Connecting. Curating.
EducatorLabs | 2054 Kildaire Farm Rd. #204 | Cary, NC | 27518
>>> MY EARLIER BLOG POSTING:
Last night, I felt like I must be the only one who was getting nauseous over Robin Williams' suicide -- not the event, which I'm surprised hadn't happened previously -- but nearly all the public reaction, which I was watching on CNN, but feel it is safe to say was similar everywhere else in the media.
Although I've always liked Robin Williams' dramatic acting, I've never thought he was funny in comedy. I simply could not watch Mork and Mindy, or any later comedies (Mrs. Doubtfire was one of the worst, as I recall, dimly), and especially not his hosting gigs. To me, who has dealt with at least some extreme symptoms of Bipolar mania and depression many years ago now, his comedy act was a combo of the manic fast mind, but he never really HIT any of his targets dead center, and relied on his hyper-physicality to make them funny, usually. He was certainly fearless in doing this and no one knew when he might break into his schtick or where it might go. The element of surprise is important in comedy -- and this he had in spades, sort of. He DID always do something "Robin-Williams-ish".
So watching Robin Williams do comedy, was like watching him boldly display the symptoms of mental illness -- in a way that never redeemed him or them, and got the audience to laugh and accept untreated or mistreated mental illness as something consumers should laugh at in a way that ridicules the mentally ill. This would be similar to getting a mentally challenged spastic to walk a tight rope about three feet off the ground. Everyone can laugh their ass off at him or her, knowing when they fall it won't be far enough to get hurt.
Robin fell too far, yesterday, and it is telling too that his wife saw him last at 11:00 PM (presumably all of this in their house), but did not find him dead until 11:00 AM. Robin had burned through two previous wives, and apparently his third no longer sleeps with him. People with significant mental illness are not FUN to be with all the time!
I feel certain Robin never intended to INCREASE society's hypocritical and refuse-to-face-it-
But there was "good news" too, in that I called a friend who is very stable in his treatment of chronic depression, although I have railed against his taking a dangerous drug that no country allows except the USA -- HEY, it works for him, so who am AYE to judge -- and I certainly remember the hell of depression, which I haven't suffered for as long as 24 hours since about 1992. I was instinctively correct in assuming he was not mood-affected by Robin's death, and I was pleased to find he shares many of these same ideas with me.
Although I've always liked Robin Williams' dramatic acting, I've never thought he was funny in comedy. I simply could not watch Mork and Mindy, or any later comedies (Mrs. Doubtfire was one of the worst, as I recall, dimly), and especially not his hosting gigs. To me, who has dealt with at least some extreme symptoms of Bipolar mania and depression many years ago now, his comedy act was a combo of the manic fast mind, but he never really HIT any of his targets dead center, and relied on his hyper-physicality to make them funny, usually. He was certainly fearless in doing this and no one knew when he might break into his schtick or where it might go. The element of surprise is important in comedy -- and this he had in spades, sort of. He DID always do something "Robin-Williams-ish".
So watching Robin Williams do comedy, was like watching him boldly display the symptoms of mental illness -- in a way that never redeemed him or them, and got the audience to laugh and accept untreated or mistreated mental illness as something consumers should laugh at in a way that ridicules the mentally ill. This would be similar to getting a mentally challenged spastic to walk a tight rope about three feet off the ground. Everyone can laugh their ass off at him or her, knowing when they fall it won't be far enough to get hurt.
Robin fell too far, yesterday, and it is telling too that his wife saw him last at 11:00 PM (presumably all of this in their house), but did not find him dead until 11:00 AM. Robin had burned through two previous wives, and apparently his third no longer sleeps with him. People with significant mental illness are not FUN to be with all the time!
I feel certain Robin never intended to INCREASE society's hypocritical and refuse-to-face-it-
But there was "good news" too, in that I called a friend who is very stable in his treatment of chronic depression, although I have railed against his taking a dangerous drug that no country allows except the USA -- HEY, it works for him, so who am AYE to judge -- and I certainly remember the hell of depression, which I haven't suffered for as long as 24 hours since about 1992. I was instinctively correct in assuming he was not mood-affected by Robin's death, and I was pleased to find he shares many of these same ideas with me.
But with CNN, after a very long absence due to only reporting on International Crises for so long, bringing back that "pop-eyed pickaninny", whom they got from race-car reporting on FOX NEWS, Ms. Nischelle Turner (I'm sorry, but some blacks, like some whites, AIN'T what they pretend -- although many on CNN are terrific). The girl had no idea who Ethel Merman was in American Culture (Nischell claiming that Ethel was the "Kim Kardashian of her day"), and CONTINUALLY (last night and this morning), kept saying "ree-PRIZE" instead of "ree-PREEZ" for reprise (which she seemed to be showing off as a "big word", cementing her competence).
Anyway, Nischelle Turner exemplifies the glorification of cheap and shallow culture, and knowledge of culture, that drives ratings -- but further deteriorates American Civilization, something CNN seems PROUD to do.
And then I checked to see if Chris Cuomo, showboat extraordinaire, had been fired since he was not on at all and no one said he was on vacation or traveling for distant reporting, but that was another disappointment -- no such luck.
The BEST news was that none of this plunged ME into depression and I hope it doesn't you, either. I only hope that with Robin Williams' death, more serious reporting on depression and other mental illnesses makes it into the media. Americans are in DENIAL about the whole issue, and unfeeling idiots tell the ill to just "Buck Up!!!" or go to Christian Church and get the Demons run out of ya -- that SIMPLE!!!
Well AYE am not in denial -- not even of the fact I begrudgingly admit: Chris Cuomo has LUSCIOUS nipples -- for a "hairless guy":
And I trust that having gotten this curmudgeonly rant off my chest, that I can now slip back into my natural
Scott
>>> TWO COMMENTS:
1. From a Southern white male: "The pickaninny jibe is beneath you - " I will expand on this one in the next posting. (http://
1. From a Southern white male: "The pickaninny jibe is beneath you - " I will expand on this one in the next posting. (http://
2. From a white male who has suffered serious depression: "Very well written post, enjoyable to read. Ya might wanna fix Ethel, I said ethEl, Merman."
Thank you, I fixed it. Usually, I am trying to remember the difference between Ethyl and Methyl alcohol, so have that spelling in mind -- which I never remember which is which, much like my ability to understand the difference between Shia and Suni Muslims.
Scott
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