A Splintered Mind

❝Nothing like ADHD and a good fight to the death to make time fly.”   – Rick Riordan, The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, Book 1)  

“But a sanguine temper, though forever expecting more good than occurs, does not always pay for its hopes by any proportionate depression. It soon flies over the present failure, and begins to hope again.”   – Jane Austen, Emma, ch.18  

A few weeks ago, local Utah politicians (Rep. Chris Stewart and Sen. Orrin Hatch) helped get a suicide prevention bill onto President Trump's desk that he signed into law. It tasks the government with creating a three-digit number that works as a shortcut to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) for suicide and mental health crises, much like 911 for medical emergencies. It also authorizes an investigation into the effectiveness of both the lifeline and the Veteran Crisis Line. If you would like to see changes to either of these services, now is a very good time to contact your congress critters and give them your feedback. Without comment, President Donald Trump signed into law on Tuesday legislation sponsored by Rep. Chris Stewart and Sen. Orrin Hatch, both Republicans, to require the Federal Communications Commission to study the feasibility of such a hotline.  It is also ordered to recommend which three-digit number would be best for the hotline, exa...

September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month . This means that your social media timelines will suddenly be filled with celebrities sharing the national hotline. The cynic in you may roll your eyes. These celebrities will care very, very deeply in 280 characters; lots of their "show somebody you care" posts will gets thousands of likes and reposts, but where were they on August 31st? Where will they be on October 1st? Chasing a new cause, probably. Mounting their social media steed and charging to the next virtue signal over the hill beyond while shouting, "Don't forget to like and retweet!" With the sea of hotline tweets will come angry killjoys ranting about how these celebrities don't really care, or they don't care enough, or those hotlines are terrible and they trace your call and alert the police so don't call them guys! It can all be a bit much.

*Feeling like the daily grind is getting you down? I felt that way lately, and here’s how I turned things around. * One sign of depression is that you lose interest in things that you used to find engaging. This is different than an ADHD whiplash pivot into a new pursuit . It’s more like your love for a favorite pastime dies with a weary sigh. I’ve been through that type of phase many times in my life. I gave up reading Science Fiction & Fantasy once. Stopped enjoying anime for many years. Stopped watching favorite TV programs here and there. I even stopped playing the tinwhistle, something I have enjoyed since Sailor Moon and Lisa Frank rocked my daughters’ world. These were all activities I did daily, then suddenly didn’t. Usually, these changes happen slowly. I can’t pinpoint, for example, what day I stopped playing the tinwhistle for a few years. It might have been the month of my divorce when I moved into my own place. I do remember the...

Too tight; too long. With added arch supports, they fit even worse. I bought these Rowley Slims Vans in the 00s because they looked cool, and I thought I’d get back into skateboarding, but I never bought a skateboard. I couldn’t even wear the shoes more than every once in a while. They hurt my arches because they are a size 11, and I wear a 9½–10. I was too impatient to special order ones that fit me. I was going to start skateboarding with clown shoes on a skateboard I hadn’t purchased yet. What was I thinking? My life has been filled with false starts like this. Intentions the size of mountains, but follow through measured in millimeters.

One of the nice upsides to fixing my insomnia is that I’m suddenly dreaming again. I had forgotten how weird they could get, so of course, I have to share one of them with you! Hang in there for the plot twist.