Hello. It’s August 24th, my brother’s birthday. He would have turned 62 today but Rick Moe died by suicide in April of 2007 after many years of dealing with major depressive disorder. I commemorate his birthday by trying to say some helpful things here. Maybe you’ve lost someone to suicide and I’m very sorry. Maybe you’ve been tempted to go that way yourself, in which case, I’m sorry for your terrible pain and thank you for sticking around. I admire your bravery and determination. Please don’t go.

I think Minnesotans need to keep in mind what this means: a whole new massive audience to tell about the Halloween blizzard of 1991. (Walz didn’t even live here then. Neither did I. That doesn’t stop anyone.)

🧵 When I was in high school, I participated in competitive speech. *Not debate.* Speech. Individual events.
Senior year, I made it to state in Oratory. That’s persuasive speech. Eight minutes to make a convincing argument.
And at state, I advanced to the finals... The final round consisted of six speakers from across the state, including me. Three judges. And the scoring is weird. Each judge selects their first, second, and third place winners. Then everyone else (picks for four through six) get fourth place.

From the recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas", a thread: BOB GELDOF
Right then, we’ll take it from Simon and Sting.

My brother Rick would have turned 60 today but he died by suicide in 2007, following a long history of dealing with substance use disorder and major depressive disorder. Every year on his birthday, I talk openly about mental health. (thread) I talk openly about it because he was never able to do so. Rick was ashamed of his problems, felt like he had let everyone down, that he hurt people. So he stuffed it all inside. If he had received good help and enough of it, he might still be alive today.

An aspect of student loan forgiveness that seems to elude some is that it’s an investment.
Educated people who are not as weighed down by debt are available to build/make things that benefit and advance society. Helps the economy, culture, prosperity. So it’s not about giving away free stuff, it’s about stimulating the greater good.
It’s the same reason people without kids in public schools still help fund those schools: we collectively benefit.

On a new Depresh Mode, I talk with animator and City of Ghosts creator Elizabeth Ito (@kikutowne) about anxiety, anger, depression, the necessity of an artist to be sensitive but how that can all squoosh you. maximumfun.org/episodes/depre… I've been interested for a long time in the paradox of being a professional artist: you have to be open to the world and - at least to some degree - empathetic and vulnerable. But you're also trying to stay above water in an absolutely brutal industry.

Hello, people who deal with depression.
I want you to remember that when you're in a bad situation - job, entire career, relationship, friendship - your tendency might be to try every possible angle to fix it. You put the responsibility/blame on yourself... But please remember to consider that it might not be your failure, your inadequacy, your flaws that have made this situation untenable.
Maybe it's just a thing that is broken.
Maybe don't get endlessly frustrated that you can't put Humpty-Dumpty together again...

(a thread)
My favorite tv show is Adventure Time. I am here to argue that if you look at the show from an angle of mental health and managing it, Finn and Jake are not the lead characters. Princess Bubblegum is. 1 The most compelling character on the show, to me anyway, is Lemongrab. He was created by PB, the first of the candy people she created to “go wrong”. Lemongrab has devastating anxiety. He doesn’t know and can’t learn how to interact with the world. 2

Wow. Public radio program directors from all over America.

nytimes.com/2021/01/12/bus… Longer, more in-depth story from Current, the public radio newspaper.
So many people and organizations just continually making everything worse for themselves and everyone else.

And Abby Goldstein calling folks the f out.

current.org/2021/01/public…

My brother Rick would have been 58 today but he’s not. In 2007, he went to a gun range in San Diego and shot himself in the head. This came after many years of addiction, depression, and thinking he was worthless. Each year on his birthday, I talk about mental health here. The drugs were to kill the pain from the depression. When he kicked his addiction but couldn’t kick the pain, he killed himself. Rick never sought much help for the depression because he thought it was his fault. That he was weak.

Delivering CD copies to Little Free Libraries in St Paul.
Fairmount between Syndicate and Hamline. Summit between Wilder and Moore.

People have been so nice today about APM ceasing production on THWoD the Pod.
Unlike when Wits ended, there’s no one weirdly being glad because they didn’t like the show and thus nobody should hear it. That was rough.
It’s also been an interesting case study... Like what happens when am historically depressed person gets whomped like this?
Well, so far, it’s better than it could have been.
For one, today’s events are not the death of me. Because the thing I make is not the same as who I am. That’s an easy trap for creative daddies...

Hello!
I think the pandemic is awful for people with depression and anxiety in a way that is somewhat different than how the normies experience it.
Folks like us have always gone through the world fearing that something murderous is just around the corner and now: hello! "Just deal with it" has never been our specialty, you see.
And now the vague fears are the reality. And "I KNEW it!" is no consolation.
It would be nice if getting it right brought us consolation but instead it's just a double helping of the bad thought patterns.

It's August 24th. And this is the day that my brother Rick should be turning 57 years old. He won't do that because he died by suicide in 2007, after a years-long struggle with depression and addiction that went largely untreated because he was ashamed. So for the past several years, I've been sharing my thoughts on this day here on the oft-problematic but occasionally good Twitter.
A bit of a recap first and then what feels to me like an important update.

Hey I wonder how the band Kansas is doi Your dad’s friends from the divorce support group retreat are coming over.

I've been thinking about how people are supposed to live with depression when it's a chronic thing that is managed but persistent. And I think it's like having a chimp in your kitchen. I'll explain. So in this scenario, your life is a restaurant, the kitchen is your mind, and the chef is you and your conscious mind. Your job with the restaurant is to make things and get them out to the customers/world.

1/ Many years ago, my wife asked me to go to the doctor because she was worried about my mental health.
I said no.
I had been raised in a world where if something was wrong with your mind, you either accepted it or tried to overcome it through strength.
#WorldMentalHealthDay 2/ Of course, those things don't work. Accepting it doesn't make it go away, suppressing it doesn't make it go away, and it has nothing to do with strength. Trying to out-macho your mental illness just results in bigger explosions later on. #WorldMentalHealthDay

Hi, everyone. It’s August 24th and it is my brother Rick’s birthday. He would have been 56 today but he shot himself and died in 2007 due to untreated mental illness. So every year on his birthday, I talk about mental illness here on the Twitter. I’m not here to preach or to be an expert. Like a lot of you, I’m just improvising and trying to figure out as I go.