Month: July 2020

So…do you want to be a Beta reader for my next book?

This one is personal, and it is exciting: I have a Beta version of my next book ready to go, and I’d like your help.

The book – tentatively titled Almost The End Of The World – is about a college student who has to return to life after the very, very near-miss of a world-ending asteroid. Here are the first three sentences of the description:

On January 3, the world was supposed to end when an asteroid collides with Earth.

It missed.

Now, everyone left alive must deal with the consequences.

This one asks questions about our shared obligation to each other. When we’re in a crisis, do we pull closer? Or further apart?

For the record, I started writing this before COVID!

So…want to read it? Or want the full description?

I’m looking for someone to read the Beta version of my book and give me feedback. This isn’t an editing role – I don’t want someone to look this guy over and read it with a fine-tooth comb. What I do want is for someone to read the book and tell me if I hit the main beats. Do you like the characters? Is the story relatable? What do you think I need to make it more clear? Looking for readers with the ability to make brutally honest judgments and the time to give me their unvarnished assessments.

If you’re interested, comment here, or Email me at MichaelSchlossberg@gmail.com.

 

John Lewis & Joy

As most of you are probably aware, Congressman and Civil Rights legend John Lewis died this weekend as a result of cancer. Lewis was 80. He was one of the original speakers at the March on Washington and until this weekend was the last speaker who was alive from that famous day. Congressman Lewis was commonly referred to as the “conscience of Congress” and one of the most powerful voices of the modern era on issues relating to race relations and civil rights. His absence, at this moment, leaves a hole in this country, but at least he died knowing that this country was a better place for his work.

My social media feed was replete with tributes to him – I suspect yours was as well. However, one clip, more than any other, really caught my eye:

To be clear, in this clip, John Lewis – then 76 – is crowd surfing. WEEEEEEE!!

“I just wanted people to keep me up….” That just clipped me in a big way.

I have absolutely zero idea what made Colbert or his producers go, “HEY, I have a great idea…but rock on!” It’s amazing and heartening to watch. And I’ll add this: As you can see in this clip, most of the audience is white. I would have killed to be in that audience and touch John Lewis – to, in his words, make sure that I kept him up. There had to be something so special about that. But there’s a deep sense of poetry there. John Lewis – a man who was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge while fighting for civil rights – being held up by men and women of the same skin color as the men who beat him. It says something about how far we have come.

Of course, as you may suspect, this wasn’t the only clip of John Lewis expressing a deep sense of joy & silliness. Here he is in 2018, dancing away:

Again, the internet is filled with stories of Lewis’s kindness, selflessness, and a sense of caring for other people. Numerous members of Congress spent time discussing the way Congressman Lewis went out of his way to say hello or drop them a kind word.

What does this have to do with mental health? Honestly, quite a bit. We live in very serious times and face seemingly insurmountable issues. Racism. COVID. Climate change. Inequity and more. Every day, brave men and women fight and die facing these issues, willingly or otherwise. John Lewis was one such man.

Lewis could have become an embittered man. Instead, he chose to spend the rest of his life fighting for a cause he believed in, making new friends and allies, new enemies, and more. If a man who almost died on a bridge named after a soldier to the Confederacy could become a public servant and fight the ghost of that Confederacy…what choice do the rest of us have? How can any of us look at the world and decide we must retreat into its shadows when legends like John Lewis fought on?

This doesn’t mean we must always be serious. It doesn’t mean that we forego self-care, reflection, and our own lives. But it does mean that we must use our down moments to lift ourselves back up again.

To paraphrase the life of John Lewis: You have to walk across that bridge to be able to crowd surf.

Find your joy while fighting your fight.

Are suicides increasing during COVID-19?

It was a frequently used argument during the pandemic, one often used against lockdowns: Suicide rates would increase as a result of social isolation, financial hardships, and more limited access to proper medical care. This fear was repeated by medical professionals and medical health care experts. Even Donald Trump repeated the line at one point, arguing that extensive lockdowns would lead to “thousands” of suicides. So great that he and so many others suddenly care about mental health when they spent years defunding services that would prevent suicide and trying to rip health care away from millions, but that’s a completely different story, so let’s move on, let’s move on.

We’re about four months into some of the various lock-downs and quarantines. The question is obvious: What does the data say? Are suicide rates on the rise?

It seems like its too early to tell. We will only be able to more definitively tell the numbers when the annual suicide numbers come out at the beginning of the year, and even then, it will be extremely difficult to determine the cause of the suicide. However, there is some evidence to indicate that things are not as bad as many of us feared they would be – though that could very, very easily change.

First, let’s look at what data is available and what data has been misleading. At the beginning of the pandemic, a doctor said that his California hospital had seen “a year’s worth of suicide attempts” during a four-week period. That report was utterly debunked: Numbers had barely increased at the hospital in question, and locals reported that they believed the local rate had remained stable in the area.

Apparently, calls to some suicide hotlines have increased. Outreach to suicide prevention text lines has increased as well. However, this may not be a bad thing, as it may be a reflection of people turning to the closest support line to get help. Indeed, if these hotlines are working, the increase in calls may be a good thing. Again, unfortunately, there’s no evidence to say one way or the other.

I couldn’t find any hard data discussing whether or not there was any evidence of suicide rate increases in the United States – if someone has that, please correct me. However, I did find evidence that suicide rates have actually dropped 20% in Germany. This is a preliminary finding, so it is likely too early to draw hard conclusions from it.

There is no question that COVID-19 will cause a massive spike in a wide array of social problems, and suicide would certainly seem to be one of these problems. However, as noted by many articles on the subject, it’s more nuanced than simply saying that “The lockdowns led to more deaths.” The pandemic also ripped apart the economy, threw us into a recession, and maybe a depression. There is clear evidence that down economies lead to higher rates of mental illness and suicide. As such, it is difficult to say that lockdowns lead to suicides. It is much more complex than that.

So, what’s the conclusion? There’s no conclusion. Not yet. Time will tell. But, more importantly, policymakers and the community at large must continue to work to mitigate the economic and social impacts of COVID – particularly on the mentally ill. I’m hoping to be able to work on that one over the summer.