It's Not Just In Your Head

Harriet and Max interview one of their listeners for this episode and cover a wide variety of topics from immigration to gender and cross-cultural expectations, to discrimination and colorism and European colonialism within Africa, to the strengths and limitations of the Black Lives Matter movement -- and, of course, whether these three should start a band called Marxists From Mars. Our guest Russel Ndip walks us through having immigrated to the US from Cameroon in Central Africa at the age of 8, and reflects on what it's like to occupy numerous positions of culture as sometimes both an insider and outsider (ie, African, immigrant, Black, woman, and so on). Max fumbles around trying to figure out where in Europe his family is from while trying to summarize the book "Racecraft." The trio explore some of the economic factors leading to the myth and partial reality of the resilient Black matriarch and the suicide paradox (white males have highest suicide rate, Black women the lowest), why Black Lives Matter is validating for African immigrants, how nobody can speak for a whole group, and the problem with focusing on race without understanding it in the context of class. Also, why has Walmart embraced "anti-racism" so quickly? Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com Check out Harriet's program Capitalism Hits Home produced by Democracy At Work at harrietfraad.com or on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgEDdNWbseo&list=PLPJpiw1WYdTNYvke-gNRdml1Z2lwz0iEH ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

USA National Suicide hotline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255) Max does a solo episode on the topic of suicide (Harriet will be back next week!). Topics he explores include the correlation between higher suicide rates and lower minimum wage, as well as the "suicide paradox" of white men having the highest suicide rate and black women have the lowest. Max looks at suicide from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) perspective, framing the issue as one rooted in emotional and cognitive "dysregulation" which occurs on a physiological level, caused or exacerbated by a chronically "socially invalidating environment." He uses his own past suicidal ideation to walk listeners through "what it's like," and explores some of the causal factors and influences within his own personal history that led to his own past suicidality followed by some brief clinical examples. His message to anyone who is currently suicidal is a) I've been there and feel free to email us about what you're going through, b) a better world is possible and we can't get there without you. itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead Resources: The Link Between Unemployment, Depression and Suicide in the COVID-19 Pandemic https://www.psychiatrypodcast.com/psychiatry-psychotherapy-podcast/2020/5/2/the-link-between-unemployment-depression-and-suicide-in-the-covid-19-pandemic I’ve Got My Family and My Faith:  Black Women and the Suicide Paradox https://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/attach/journals/dec17socuisfeature.pdf Understanding Validation in Families - Alan E. Fruzzetti, PhD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDSIYTQX_dk&t ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

In this solo episode, Max explains how to form a tenant's union, from inside his car. He gives an overview of what the benefits are of tenants uniting to collectively bargain with landlords, why this can be empowering and good for mental health, and what some of the first steps are to getting this done. He points out that property management companies and landlords tend to belong to "associations" which concentrate their power, which makes tenant's associations a reasonable and necessary balancing mechanism. Through such associations, Max argues that tenants can problem solve common issues in a practical way while even functioning at times as an emotionally focused support group (Max has a specific story about this near the end). He shares how he and tenants throughout Santa Barbara rapidly formed the SB Tenants Council when the pandemic started (facebook.com/sbtenantscouncil) by simply sending an email to a landlord as part of a small disability justice campaign, which eventually led to serious support and empowerment for numerous tenants. Resource: The Tenants Will Win: TANC Pandemic Organizing Guide https://docs.google.com/document/d/1osMMHmOn3nyhx3Or4HzKtRaeaRAyEDwnQRAtVDgt47c/edit#heading=h.36ucdodsjzs1 Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

Harriet and Max interview Dawn Belkin Martinez about the Liberation Health Model, which she and other social workers developed 20 years ago to move toward a more holistic "mental health" approach that conceptualizes people's problems within economic, political, cultural, and historical contexts. She gives an overview of "the triangle" method, centering people's problems in the center of the triangle, and the three points of the triangle -- the personal, the cultural, the institutional -- contributing to those problems. Within this model, practitioners such as Dawn help individuals, families, and communities, develop action plans to change the conditions in their lives that cause their distress. This is a radical departure from the dominant mental health model which says most of our life problems stem from whatever is going on inside our heads. You can learn more at bostonliberationhealth.org, and facebook.com/groups/liberationhealth/ Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com Support us on patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

We have a Patreon now! To support us go to Patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead. In this episode, Max and Harriet talk about how neoliberalism paved the way toward our epidemic of mass loneliness and why dating now resembles a short term, extractive, free market activity wherein alienated singles try to connect through a market medium to secure a basic human need: love. The new norm is that everyone is expected to perform in a place called "online" portraying themselves as a special, eye-catching brand, to maximize attraction to consumers (dates) within a particular niche market (potential matches within monetized software on phones built with  hyper-exploited third world labor).  We argue the precarity of housing, jobs, and healthcare has created a kind of "trickle down economics" effect so that even sex, love, and intimacy have transformed into increasingly precarious, scarce commodities. Harriet speaks on how lovers used to meet through living in the same neighborhood, attending the same school or church or bowling alley, and could vet each other within their overlapping circles because people knew each other for a long time. We urge our loneliest and most despairing listeners to fall in love with "the movement" in some way, and to keep searching for meaningful connections however they can so they don't feel so alone within an economy that sees them primarily as a source of cheap labor. - Resources: - The ‘Dating Market’ Is Getting Worse https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/02/modern-dating-odds-economy-apps-tinder-math/606982/ How Tinder Became The McDonalds Of Love https://medium.com/@petekennedy/romance-2-0-how-tinder-became-the-mcdonalds-of-love-d89f40735a5a Tinder, Destroyer of Cities—When Capital Abandons Sex https://strelkamag.com/en/article/tinder-destroyer-of-cities-when-capital-abandons-sex - Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

Harriet and Max chat with biomolecular engineering grad student Rachel Mendelson about her experience participating in the historic Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) campaign that started at UC Santa Cruz in September, 2019, then spread to every UC campus in California. We explore what kinds of conditions typically lead to workers going on strike, and how those conditions can be mapped into the individualistic mental health model as symptoms of depression and anxiety (ie, a sense of dread, feeling helpless and powerless, self-blame, etc). Rachel shares with us the mental health benefits she experienced from joining the wildcat strike along with thousands of other grad students risking their careers (and some being injured by police) in hopes of achieving a better quality of life for themselves as well as everyone else. Learn more about the ongoing COLA campaign at payusmoreucsc.com, and contact us to say whatever is  on your mind itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

Harriet and Max talk with Pete Bourgelais about mental health in rural America, with emphasis on Maine because that's where Pete is from (and is running for office to push for a Green New Deal, support for local organic farmers, and public broadband). Harriet emphasizes connectivity as central to mental health, and explores with Pete questions about how people in small towns connect with each other. Pete walks us through the economic history of Maine, as having depended on manufacturing which was outsourced first to the American South then eventually, mostly, to China. Lack of jobs, an aging population, and lack of services those of us in cities typically take for granted, creates unique challenges for rural Americans. Max asks Pete about whether "hick" and "redneck" stereotypes have an impact on rural people, and whether or not it's a myth that white rural Americans are "more racist" than other white Americans. (Board of Behavioral Sciences: Max was joking about being drunk at 9am.) Give us positive and negative feedback at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead Resources: Rural America Reimagined https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/rural-america-reimagined Maine is the hardest-drinking state in New England: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/03/08/these-americas-drunkest-states/406342002/ ‘This will be catastrophic’: Maine families face elder boom, worker shortage in preview of nation’s future https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/this-will-be-catastrophic-maine-families-face-elder-boom-worker-shortage-in-preview-of-nations-future/2019/08/14/7cecafc6-bec1-11e9-b873-63ace636af08_story.html?arc404=true White poverty exists, ignored (from 2014, a little dated in places) https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article2518087.html Black Lives Matter protest in Kingfield (population 997) peaceful https://www.theirregular.com/articles/black-lives-matter-protest-in-kingfield-peaceful/ Hollowed Out: Against the Sham Revitalization of Appalachia https://thebaffler.com/salvos/hollowed-out-ray ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

In this solo episode, Harriet talks about the many ways people are being impacted emotionally by the current pandemic. Men in particular having a hard time asking for help and being vulnerable, resulting in more substance abuse and expressions of anger. Harriet points out that single men are afflicted with dangerous levels of loneliness more, resorting to buying testosterone supplements and penis enlargement pills, and stocking up on guns. The month of May saw the highest record of mass shootings this year, a fact buried by news about the current pandemic. Harriet highlights how single women are being impacted differently in that there tend to be more severe economic burdens on single women, and especially single mothers. Children are being abused and neglected at higher rates during the pandemic due to increased stress by unemployed parents. We hope anyone who is struggling more than usual understands they're not alone, and that everyone's mental health is being pushed to the limit. Please reach out and try to connect with others to commiserate as much as you can! Contact us at itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

In this episode we cover both "macro" and "micro" points of discussion about race and racism. Harriet starts off with explaining how capitalism has always required a set of social divisions to pit workers against each other to prevent them from uniting against common oppressors. Max shares the example of how the Bacon's Rebellion of 1676 - white and black servants uniting together to burn down the plantation - resulted in the plantation/ownership class inventing race and codifying it into centuries of law to slightly improve conditions for 'the white race' at the structural expense of 'the black race,' so the former would unite 'as a race' against the latter to maintain materially superior conditions. Harriet reminds us that MLK advocated for multi-racial labor solidarity through unions, and how the unprecedented uprisings of the last month as a reaction to George Floyd's murder by police may be a sign of growing multi-racial, working class solidarity. Max explains the "micro" pieces of racism with attention to stereotypes, prejudices, and microaggressions, then provides an overview of a powerpoint lecture called "Black Minds Matter" by Dr. Luke Wood. (Max failed to read the last slide which had proposed policy solutions like getting rid of school suspensions and integration of restorative justice programs, and more - see below). Recommended reading and resources Why Racism Is An Essential Tool For Maintaining The Capitalist Order, Richard Wolff camft.org/blackmindsmatter (Dr. Wood's powerpoint here) Fatal Invention, by Dorothy Roberts Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria? by Beverly Tatum Are We Born Racist? New Insights from Neuroscience and Positive Psychology edited, by Jason Marsh, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, Jeremy Adam Smith blacksocialists.us/ cooperationjackson.org/ Cornell West and Chris Hedges Interview "The Betrayal by the Black Elite:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcJqjgB4tyQ How McCarthyism and the Red Scare Hurt the Black Freedom Struggle, Paul Heideman Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

Sorry for the long gap between episodes! We respond to some fanmail and Anchor messages covering topics such as: how we developed our views based on our backgrounds; thoughts on borderline personality disorder; food/diet and mental health; Gloria Steinem and her CIA ties. Near the end, we talk about an exciting mental health activism model called the Liberation Health Model which came out of Boston and appears to be spreading (see the article below). If anyone has ideas on what kinds of rewards we should include within our upcoming Patreon page, let us know. Send any feedback you have to itsnotjustinyourhead@gmail.com. --- https://shelterforce.org/2017/11/22/how-organizing-for-justice-helps-your-mental-health/ Support us by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.