Then I'm Gone ("Bang a Gong" Revisited)

I'm still working on UR already Perfect (as it turns out), despite repeatedly threatening to abandon the project.

I do both of these things because it's frustrating to be ignored and I can't afford to do anything pro bono for financial reasons at the moment, but also exactly because the ongoing sharing and content doesn't get much engagement, on mainstream anything.

And I believe it's a very necessary conversation for us to be having at this point.

I believe the main reason mental health and addiction content isn't openly engaged with (even though stats and experience clearly show it has been read or watched) is because there's still so much misinformation, and hence stigma, around both.

And even though these challenges are massively on the increase, most people are still too afraid to have this conversation.

There really isn't anything to be afraid of. I promise! 😊

In fact, it was only when I began to share about my own personal struggles honestly, that things began to get better. That I began to get better...

Any kind of change really begins with a person being honest enough to acknowledge what may need to be looked at, to create a better life for themselves.

Of course!

Sadly... with the current stigma... not many people feel safe enough to even ask for help.

This is why I keep trying to share openly about my own recovery and offer information to make all of this a bit less scary to other people.

And more understandable as well.

Which it totally is.

I'm also trying to make this more fun, than it seems to be, to try and get people engaged.

Hence the music and dancing.

Because personal growth and recovery is fun, btw.

And letting go of the things that aren't serving you, in order to become the you that you are...

is a total blast when you get the hang of it!

My main concern... being a parent myself... is for the younger humans who are getting caught up in the misinformation and who are (in all likelihood) being incorrectly diagnosed and stuck on chronic medication for lifetimes.

Assigning someone a label, such as "disordered" or "addict", pretty much directs their life and sense of self worth moving forward... forever.

Not so cool.

I've also, personally, found these labels to not be very beneficial to resolving these reactions.

So I'll just keep on saying this until people start to believe me:

"There is nothing 'wrong' with you or your kids!"

People really just need to have their personal experience validated; a safe someone to share with; tools and skills to cope in what is now (visibly because of the online experience and constant exposure to world events) a very stressful world and to be loved and accepted as they are...

so they aren't isolated and, as a result, left traumatized.

Trauma is created because of isolation, by the way. And not because of experience alone.

More to follow on how this works soon.

My goal, with "Perfect", is to bring people together and to help them feel less weird. And less alone.

Show me "normal" and I'll give you $500 :)

Not really possible so don't bother trying to argue. You know I speak the truth anyway. :)

Also... I've chosen ethics over money and am on the bones of my ass. But it was the best decision I've ever made so don't pity me, please. Or judge me as incapable because of my financial bottom out :) It takes an enormous amount of capability to do with less in this material world, in the situation I am in.

But back to trying to be "Perfect".

Please don't.

And... as they say: Prevention is better than cure.

_{- often attributed to the Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus}

By providing a person with decent skills; with honest conversation so they don't feel alone in their experience; by validating their experience of the world and not telling them they are "wrong" or "over-reacting" etc.; by allowing them to be who they truly are without shame; by accepting them as they are and loving them unconditionally...

addiction and mental health problems can be avoided in full, or very effectively reduced and more easily managed at the very least.

Simply by helping someone to feel safe and supported...

... In my personal experience...

I'm also not the only person saying this...

Many far more brilliant and eloquent minds than mine are trying to bring a more rational approach to these concerns back into mainstream practice.

Like this amazing human who has correctly pointed out:

I'm not critical of the people who do psychotherapy. The therapists in the trenches have to face an awful lot of the social, political, and economic failures of capitalism.

I am attacking the theories of psychotherapy. You don't attack the grunts of Vietnam; you blame the theory behind the war. Nobody who fought in that war was at fault. It was the war itself that was at fault. It's the same thing with psychotherapy.

It makes every problem a subjective, inner problem. And that's not where the problems come from. They come from the environment, the cities, the economy, the racism. They come from architecture, school systems, capitalism, exploitation.

They come from many places that psychotherapy does not address.

Psychotherapy theory turns it all on you: you are the one who is wrong. What I'm trying to say is that, if a kid is having trouble or is discouraged, the problem is not just inside the kid; it's also in the system, the society.”

- James Hillman (On Soul, Character and Calling:
A Conversation with James Hillman)

This is the music video promised for the post I published yesterday for #ttt, by the way :)

It will make more sense now that you understand what my intentions are.

One love, one heart

Let's get together and feel all right

_{- The beautiful Bob Marley}

p.s. There is nothing "wrong" with you or your kids 😊

UR already Perfect!