What happens when our search for the "easy button" replaces the effort it takes to make ourselves better? There should be no stigma in taking medications - neither should medication be treated as the total solution.  Instead, we should use medication for what it is intended to do: give us a fighting chance.  Listen to Jon and Mike discuss the topic from their unique perspective and personal experience in medication-assisted treatment for their mental health and substance issues.

Read the Rant:

https://www.unonymous.com/post/chasing-the-pills

A cycle of ups and downs exists in the treatment of every major disease.  It’s important to understand the trendline in Mental Health and Substance Use Behavior (MH and SUD) treatment.  What direction is it trending?  Like any other disease, treatment takes time to develop visible changes in outcome.  An obese person with Type II Diabetes may get their physiologic insulin levels under control, but still has a long way to go with behavioral changes in diet and  lifestyle before visible changes are perceptible.  The same philosophy applies to treatment of MH and SUD.  Initial detox and medication management are a key starting point, but visible changes to behaviors may not occur for quite some time.  Understanding this decreases stigmas and builds more realistic expectations.  A setback is not necessarily a downward spiral.  Neither should a visible downward spiral be discounted as merely a setback.  What's the trendline?

How many times have I heard the phrase “highly functioning”?  Like highly functioning alcoholic, highly functioning personality disorder, and more.  What does “highly functioning dysfunction” even mean?  Simple: it’s what happens when the external controls of our life keep the internal dysfunction from leaking out.  Does that mean we are fine?  Of course not.  We’re just better at keeping it in and hiding it than others are.

The bedrock of our psyche is normally a solid rock, deeply rooted beneath the complex layers of our brain and personality. But what happens when the pressure of these multiple layers overwhelms the bedrock? Answer: our psyche gets “fracked”. That’s what depression is – our brain being fracked and the subsequent leakage of our oil. This oil is our life which seeps through all the layers – eventually popping out the top where it’s visible to the naked eye – where it creates a spill that damages both us and our surrounding environment.

The dictionary definition of egocentrism is "the excessive interest in oneself and concern for one's own welfare."  Or—just selfishness on steroids.

Jon & Mike get deep into egocentrism, stigmas, and how these concepts have affected them personally and the mental health community as a whole.

Doing heroin and eating ice cream can both be harmful, pleasure-seeking behaviors, but why's there only a stigma with heroin?

Jon & Mike get into the similarities between them, and why the stigma against just one is hypocritical.

In this episode, we talk about "The Tip of the Iceberg",  which is the landslide that's coming down due to COVID.  Jon & Mike get into the side effects of isolation in regards to mental health & substance use, and what they do to combat that.

A short podcast outlining what Unonymous is.

A discussion of mental health and addiction designed to combat the associated stigmas from these issues.