Today I’m talking with my guest, Keith, about a time in his life not so long ago, when shit went totally off the rails. He had a psychotic break and a set of experiences that blew up his marriage, his relationship with his kid, his job. Basically, nothing’s the same for him since that experience.

Major Themes: 
Mental health, behavioral challenges, bi-polar disorder, psychosis, family, breakups, custody and relationship with kids, drug and alcohol use and treatment, harm reduction approaches vs. abstinence-based treatment, a dive into why I started this podcast, finding strength in friends and rebuilding after a crisis, forgiving ourselves for mistakes and harm we’ve caused.

Mental Health and Drug/Alcohol Resources:

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline:
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

If you are looking for a licensed therapist or a registered therapy intern, the Psychology Today therapist listings in your area are usually a pretty helpful place to start:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists

A national listing of community mental health clinics:
https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/topics/certified-community-behavioral-health-clinics/

SMART Recovery program (SMART stands for Self-Management and Recovery Training.)
https://www.smartrecovery.org/about-us/

Center for Harm Reduction Therapy (Bay Area only)
https://harmreductiontherapy.org/

Moderation Management
https://www.moderation.org/

AA – Alcoholics Anonymous
https://www.aa.org/

NA – Narcotics Anonymous
https://www.na.org/

References:

The social research I was referring to about how the beginnings and ends of experiences register more intensely than the middles of experiences is discussed this episode of the Hidden Brain podcast from WNYC:
https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=592986190

Bi-polar disorder overview from NAMI – the National Alliance on Mental Illness:
https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions/Bipolar-Disorder/Overview

What is psychosis, also from NAMI:
https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions/Early-Psychosis-and-Psychosis/Overview

Seroquel – the anti-psychotic medication we referred to that might have helped Keith sleep:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetiapine

AA meeting in Antarctica? Yes! Sometimes twice a week during the summer season, as told to me word of mouth by a friend of mine who works there seasonally. If you’re ever on The Ice and looking for an AA meeting, stop by Chapel of the Snows!
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/chapel-of-the-snows

The Hawthorne Effect
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3969247/
Mixed conclusions about subjects improving under observation.

The Hemingway quote Keith referenced is from A Farewell to Arms:
“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”

The Leonard Cohen quote I referenced is from his song “Anthem:”
“There is a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in.”

“Scrambling your DNA” is most definitely a Dan Savage-ism. Thanks for that helpful term, Dan.
https://www.savagelovecast.com/

Toward the very end of our conversation, Keith snuck in an Operation Ivy reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HtUnubXAO4