Adopt This Suicide Prevention Approach
My first time in a psychiatric hospital was traumatic. In a room with white walls and chairs bolted to the floor, fluorescent lights buzzed. Staff gripped my arms tightly. “Stop resisting!” they shouted, but I was sobbing and shaking so hard I barely heard. As they pinned my body to the ground, the nurse jabbed…
Read MoreMopco Improv Theatre Celebrates 30 Years of Laughter with Local Roots
Schenectady’s popular improv theater marks its 30th anniversary with more community-building comedy. In the early ’80s, Michael Burns was “doing the whole young New York actor thing.” The comedy scene there was cutthroat and crowded by aspiring “Saturday Night Live” players, he said, and he had grown weary of the constant competition. Then came a…
Read MoreClinicians Lobby for a New Way to Assess Suicide Risk
Clinicians often rely on patients to disclose thoughts of self-harm, but some are lobbying for a new diagnosis to better assess the risk. In his nearly 40-year career as a psychiatrist, Dr. Igor Galynker has lost three patients to suicide while they were under his care. None of them had told him that they intended…
Read More“Better” Asks Us to Reframe Conversations About Suicide
What drives someone to die by suicide is an enigma that will forever exist on the edge of our understanding. Although we can never truly know a person’s thoughts in their final moments of life, Arianna Rebolini gives us an intimate look inside the mind of someone who’s been there in her debut memoir, Better: A…
Read MoreWhat Is Possible When You Get to the Root? The Peer-Run Wildflower Alliance Redefines Mental Health Care
Her phone pinged and a grey bubble rose to the surface: “Are you ready to come back?” The answer was supposed to be yes. She should return and recover. All she had to do was find the right cocktail, her doctor had said, the right mix of medications to manage the voices and the visions…
Read MoreMy Rapid Rise to Substack Stardom: A Billion Subscribers in Six Days
Hi Kidney Beanies! I cannot believe how my Substack newsletter has grown. I still remember struggling to reach that 100-subscriber milestone—until I found that gold mine of an email list from organizing our 20th high school reunion. (Go Squirrels!) But with a lot of persistence and A LOT of Adderall, my Substack has flourished. It…
Read MorePharmakon: Book Review
Four thousand miles, an ocean, and a sea between us, Mallorcan writer Almudena Sánchez and I live with the same invisible illness: depression. Or, as she describes the condition, “Nightmares, if they happen at night and in bed, are bearable. What’s unbearable is for them to occur in the world of our five senses.” Although…
Read MoreReal People Real Stories
At Ancram Center for the Arts in the Hudson Valley, I was honored to share my experience learning how other people’s perspectives can change the course of someone’s life as part of Real People Real Stories (RPRS) fall 2023 season. RPRS is a storytelling event similar to The Moth where stories are told, not read.…
Read MoreKetamine Can Be Transformative for People with Suicidal Thoughts—If They Can Access It
Every day, Marisa Russello was overwhelmed by suicidal thoughts. Even one negative thought might cause her to spiral. A writer working on her book manuscript, she’d be unable to change a word without questioning the entire project’s value altogether. Her depression made it hard to fall and stay asleep. She developed insomnia and took to…
Read MoreThe Sanctuary for Independent Media: Alternatives to Suicide
In this interview, Bosh and Sina speak with Marisa Russello, a writer and mental health advocate who works at the Empowerment Exchange in Troy. We discuss her job where she supports people improving their mental health and wellness, one of the groups she facilitates called Alternatives to Suicide, and her suggestions for talking to people…
Read More