E33 - Forever 33 - Mental Health Week

It’s World Mental Health Day and the end of Mental Health Week as I release this episode and I couldn’t pass up this chance to talk about a topic I’ve felt more bold opening up about during the last few months.

This podcast was definitely part of that. Chasing a new endeavor, cobbling together a dream and laughing with my best friends along the way has been life-altering, I crap you not, especially during the pandemic.

 

Before we get really going here I bet you were wondering where episode #33 was! Probably not, but I like to think some of the type A’s out there may have been curious. But why 33? Let me tell ya about it and tell you a story close to my heart.

 

So I gritted my teeth, fought through the self-created tension and did E14 Mental Health with ole buddies Mitch & Paul. It centered around me seeking grief counseling after the deaths of my two brothers, Collin and Alex. Collin left us in March of 2015 after a quick trip to the hospital and I didn't get a chance to see him before he passed away. Alex passed away in May of 2019. I'm fortunate to have talked to him one last time before he passed away. Both were 33. Now you see where I’m going here.

 

I listened back to that E14 a couple times and to me it was awkward and cringe-worthy. How’s that different from a regular episode or J.P.-moment you ask (Ba-DOOM Boom CHING)?!?

But the cringe-worthy nature of it is what made it good. Did I just unearth a paradox? Embrace the awkward as the mental health saying goes or to you fans of the pod, “It’s only tense if you make it tense,” as Paul and I broke down in his Get to Know episode 20 referring to an epiphany in college at the Paisano’s in Commerce, America.

 

Context is important. During my senior year in college as I was mapping out my future dominance in the internet sports broadcasting world, I took a capstone class in sociology that looked interesting called Drugs & Society. It was probably the easiest class I ever took. It just came naturally. It turns out my curiosity in what I thought would be a blow-off class on the way to graduation was part of a foundation for the rest of my career and more so for the future of The Texas Porch.

 

I don’t want to bury the lead because this is about a newfound passion of mental health awareness. On this episode you'll also hear from one of my compadres on the Friday Night Frenzy on the great KICKS 105.1, Darrell Derbin. Some quick background on “Double D." He's Tik Tok famous. I trust him on that. They say it’s a big deal. Darrell has a history of friends and family that have died of suicide. And he recently released a song relating to that. During this show we'll hear him speak about that.

 

Context is important as to where we take it from here and this is my platform so how about a little background first? I’ve worked in tobacco prevention for about nine years. In 2009 I got a job at the

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council of Deep East Texas. I had grown tired of my radio gig for reasons that will fill a chapter or two in a future book. I also wanted to chase that college play by play dream that was made possible by a call from KETR Program Director Jerrod Knight to broadcast games at my alma mater, A&M-Commerce.

 

The executive director of ADAC, Phyllis Grandgeorge actually walked up to me at church and said “I think I have a job for you,” and I would have had to be pretty dense and/or thick-headed to not realize God was telling me, “TAKE THIS JOB!” I left that gig for the Rice job in 2012 and started back circa 2014. Now I work at another non-profit, The Coalition and get to teach a tobacco prevention curriculum to sixth-graders, serving a few hundred students per year. All of this non-profit work if you bundled it together has opened my eyes to many things, but mainly, and here’s the payoff of the long tease: It has helped me think more about people who can’t defend themselves. It’s also stressed that prevention is the best medicine.

 

About 3.3 million adults in Texas are living with a mental illness according to www.mentalhealthtx.org. 61% of adults in Texas who needed mental health treatment in the last year did not receive any. And sadly 754,000 Texans have had serious thoughts of suicide in the past year.

 

If we prevented the onset of these mental health episodes in young people before they get to adulthood we change their life. My counselor told me a stat that was jarring. One out of every four students has a mental health need. And only one out of those four gets treated. Staggering. So for every 500 students at a Texas school district we’re missing 94 students that cut, overeat, undereat, get bullied, bully, drink, use marijuana and perform other forms of self-harm because they feel like they’re not good enough.

 

Hopefully it goes without saying but school counselors and teachers do a wonderful job trying to fill that gap and I’m just a guy with a dream at the beginning of this journey. But I’m all ears. Where can we help? It’s amazing to see the strides we’ve made in the last two years alone discussing mental health.

 

Bottom line, I just want to encourage anyone to get the help you’ve earned. You’re living this life and you deserve to live it to the full. If you have anxieties, don’t think you’re good enough, abused drugs and alcohol to cope, you’ve bottled up stuff for decades, or if you’ve been abused please ask for help from a licensed counselor. Oh, let me tell you it’s awkward at first. But it’s the first step to a journey of forgiving yourself.

 

There’s still a lot I don’t want to talk about. And that’s ok. “You’re still friends” as it were if you know the vernacular of the show (Get to Know Mitch E23). Collin and Alex’s passing rocked me to the core and I can tell you this. I’ll be comfortable sharing more in the future as my own wounds continue to heal.

 

One last thing I do want to talk about and if you’ve made it this far I’ll leave you here with a big, bold, audacious goal. Back to that E14 I’ve seemingly promoted over and over. I told Mitch and Paul I would like to.... Walk. Across. Texas. So yeah.

 

Most importantly, I’ve saved the best for last. As if walking across the best state there is wasn't a big enough goal, Alex and Collin were both 33 when they passed. I am determined somehow to bring good out of that. I have felt led to opening up a foundation, starting a 501-c3 - whatever the lingo- called Forever 33 that will address mental health awareness and prevention. I don’t know how the best way to form a foundation or anything like that but I like to ask questions so if you’ve got any pointers fire away.

 

I will walk across Texas for Forever 33.

 

Let’s do it.

 

Coming October 2021.

 

I love you Collin and Alex.

 

The video Darrel mentioned: This Ride by Tilley & Alpha Norris

"You don't have to know someone to help someone."

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a United States-based suicide prevention network of over 160 crisis centers that provides 24/7 service via a toll-free hotline with the number 1-800-273-8255. It is available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress.

61% of Texans who needed mental health treatment in the last year did not receive any. And 3.3 million Texans are living with a mental illness. More info at mentalhealthtx.org/

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