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WE'RE NOT AGAINST THE "PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY WARRIORS" OR THE MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSION ---BUT DID THEY SOLVE THE PROBLEM?

11/18/2020

The fact is you can solve a lot problems with public education campaigns.

Further, our mental health profession that is struggling with less than ideal treatments ---- can still be BENEFICIAL.

Our Criminal Justice System based on an outdated assessment of BAD ACT + BAD INTENT = RATIONALE for PUNISHMENT is "IN PROCESS" of making the transition to a PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH to CRIMINAL JUSTICE.

What I saw over and over and over again in the Criminal Justice System --- was UNDER-ESTIMATING the Difficulty of the CHALLENGE for both the PERSON and the SOCIETY.

We've really got a fairly accurate barometer: DID IT WORK? or THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING.

A good place to start is providing INCENTIVES for employers to hire people with disabilities, including People with Executive Functioning Difficulties.

If we start tackling the challenge of Executive Functioning Deficits from Supported Employment to Secure Placements if necessary, the PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH to CRIMINAL JUSTICE would have some of the INFRASTRUCTURE it desperately needs.

I'm going to use my special powers of CLAIRVOYANCE and PREDICT ---that INFRASTRUCTURE is much more important than lecturing people on personal responsibility to solve these complicated problems.

SUBSTANCE USE ISSUES & FITNESS ISSUES--- "THE CUP IS ALREADY BROKEN"

11/17/2020

It is a lot easier to see the CATCH-22s of our bodily functions at the end of life.

Then systems of the body are breaking down and to shore up one system is often to harm another.

BUT from the beginning, those SYSTEM breakdowns and CATCH-22s were already there in large measure.

To me SMOKING in the 20th Century is so INSTRUCTIVE.

Is smoking good -- no it's not good -- it leads to a lot of physical health problems
BUT for that person with the ADHD nervous system -- it can calm them down and underlying mental health issues probably aren't as obvious.
Of course, the resulting physical health problems can take their own mental health toll.

We cracked down on Smoking and made real improvement on some of those Physical Health Issues --- only to experience a FULL-BLOWN MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS.

Now there are a lot of reasons for that mental health crisis --- one of which being a lot of ADHD kids were born to mothers who smoked --- separate and apart from any coping mechanism cigarettes may have served.

I'm not saying smoking is the only factor in our Current Mental Health Crisis.

In any case, people are using substances -- legal and illegal -- to COPE with Intense Emotionality -- the Foundation of which was often laid before they were even born.

We need to make the CONNECTION between widespread INFLAMMATION (including Maternal Immune Activation) in the POPULATION and SUBSTANCE USE ISSUES and INDIVIDUALIZED FITNESS CHALLENGES -- and that is going to require INDIVIDUALIZED MEDICINE.

Is "Intense Emotionality" -- good or bad? It is generally BOTH --- and we need to Maximize the good as best we can.

Maximizing the GOOD of "Intense Emotionality" has often been the job of the Arts and Humanities.

Our report on A Radical Inter-Disciplinary Approach to Cognitive Disability Advocacy will be completed by Friday, Nov. 20, 2020.

One of those Cracks in the Foundation of Humanity is Maternal Immune Activation (MIA)

INVISIBLE Disabilities and differences & CRITICAL MASS

11/17/2020

INTEGRATING THE INSIGHTS OF MENTAL HEALTH & EDUCATION

There are a lot of reasons for "invisible disabilities" and "differences."

While it may be the INDIVIDUAL who first notices the DIFFICULTY or DISTRESS ----

Generally, it is going to be FAMILY MEMBERS who notice  this DIFFICULTY or DISTRESS is somehow outside of some ROUGH NORM.

   It is so interesting how Special Education has expanded to include Gifted and Twice Exceptional -- and Educators are often building on the work of Educational Psychologists.

  Unfortunately, many of the insights of these Educational Psychologists and Educators are NOT generally known among the Mental Health profession that deals with poor, homeless and incarcerated ADULTS with Mental Illness and often other disabilities.

We are very much about bringing dichotomies together, and that is certainly true for Rugged Individualism and Community Action.

We would argue the TIMING is RIGHT --- thousands of individuals, families, professionals and the society as a whole have LAID A LOT FOUNDATION for the Individualized:

Education
Medicine, and
Employment

almost everyone is going to need on some level.

It's NOT to SCALE.

In another irony --- maybe the only way we will be able to fund all of this is if we do MAXIMIZE the TALENTS of EVERYONE.

Sounds a lot like Olmstead -- doesn't it?

THE IMMUNE SYSTEM'S TOWER OF BABEL

11/16/2020

For a lot of people with mental illness -- they are bright or talented or both.
That is often being served up with Intense Sensitivity, Intense Emotion and sometimes Executive Functioning Challenges.

Most things are "MIXED BAGS" --- there can be good and bad -- we're trying to MAXIMIZE the good and MINIMIZE the bad.

For some if not a lot of the intelligence differences among human beings --- the difference appears to have a lot to do with the IMMUNE SYSTEM

It "seems" like some us don't have the "good parasites" that were making us "LESS SENSITIVE" to the environment physically and emotionally and helping us to survive.

Further, it appears that "fitting in" to the group is in many cases not as much about being so "perceptive" as "perceiving" largely what everyone else is perceiving.

A person can be just a tiny bit more sensitive to the environment --- and they are going to have to work A LOT HARDER to COMMUNICATE that to anyone else.

We've got a lot of SENSITIVE INTELLIGENT PEOPLE in most of the world today --- and it's not what we thought it was going to be.

In some ways it is its own TOWER of BABEL.

"THERE'S NO 'SHOULD' ABOUT IT" FOR GOD'S CHILDREN

11/15/2020

HAVING TO RELY ON MORE THAN LECTURES AND PUNISHMENTS IS A BIG BURDEN ON FAMILY MEMBERS & THE SOCIETY -- WHEN THEY OFTEN DON'T HAVE THE MAGIC BULLET

One thing that modern religion sometimes does is provide that caring for ADULTS that we often reserve for CHILDREN.

If little Johnny is having a hard time --- we may know it's not his fault and we may be quite contemptuous of anyone who might suggest otherwise.

On the other hand, once Johnny turns 18 -- he needs to grow up, take some responsibility and be accountable.

As hard as it may be for whoever to acknowledge otherwise, if Johnny could do better -- he generally would be doing better.

Further, human beings need a lot of SUPPORT throughout their lives --- and the nature of that SUPPORT is quite INDIVIDUAL and CHANGES --- but it doesn't stop at 18.

Work is often seen as REDEMPTIVE, but if we don't FIT INTO someone's PRE-CAST MOLD -- it can be hard to make that work.

SUPPORTIVE EMPLOYMENT is not just important for INDIVIDUALS -- and it is --- it is important as a means of teaching the rest of the society --- how much they are missing.

0:55 : "There was nobody around us who knew or who were looking for other signs .

So we were just kinda going it on our own."

"Flying the Fish"

11/14/2020

Val's Take in OKC -- Nov. 12, 2020

I went to my brother-in-law's funeral yesterday in Oklahoma officiated by his Baptist pastor cousin. It was fun and celebratory and consoling --- and felt familiar even for a religious outsider like myself.

Of course, I grew up here so I wasn't that much of an outsider --- even if I'm not a "true believer" or "literalist."

BUT I know where people are coming from and I am a "believer" in my own way.

Religion is such an important part of COMMUNITY and deals with LIFE and DEATH in profound ways.

It's beyond IRONIC that Religion really addresses the challenges and burdens of the STATE of NATURE that Science slowly discovers.

There have been a lot of religions and attempts at "scientific" understanding --- some scarier than others.

Some Religions got SCARED by SCIENCE. They needn't have been so frightened.

In a WORLD where --- "The more you know, the more realize you don't know" -- that GOD OF THE GAPS keeps getting BIGGER.

Support groups and Philosophy for that matter are helpful--- but they are not quite the RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY --- of course, they don't have some of the negatives of the RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY either.

I think for some us our loneliness is in a part a result of the fact that we sometimes don't easily fit into RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES and we don't know what we're looking for.

I don't think that work ends during our lifetimes --- and it's a LOT MORE ABOUT INCLUSION than EXCLUSION.

Don Garrett: "If they start flying the fish -- grab your wallet."

aabeyondbelief.org

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," Peter Hollens, featuring Home Free (U2 Cover)

Coping with Awareness & Overload

VETERAN'S DAY --- ENDING VETERAN HOMELESSNESS

11/13/2020

Getting Homeless Veterans HOUSED and back on their feet -- could give us a GREAT WORK FORCE to get NON-VETERAN Homeless HOUSED.

Tiny Home Tours: Nov. 27, 2019

Back to the Humanities

11/11/2020

The HUMANITIES are really DAY PROGRAMMING for people with Emotional & Intellectual Overexcitabilities.

They do play an important role in teaching us about our CULTURE and much of that teaching involves INTENSE COMMUNICATION from people who feel outside that culture or on its fringes or have an urgent insight that needs communicating.

It is very much the CULTURE, the SOCIETY and INDIVIDUALS coming to know different parts of themselves -- that they may have been pretty sure THEY DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW.

Further, it's often a search for and a finding of COMMON GROUND.

Wednesday we'll update our Arts & Humanities Table.

"THE CLOUDS"

11/10/2020

IDEAS" SEEM SO IMPRACTICAL -- UNTIL YOU REALIZE INCONSISTENT "IDEAS" AMONG DEMOCRATS & REPUBLICANS ARE MAKING AMERICAN POLITICAL LIFE A "LIVING HELL"

THAT IMPACTS CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM, PEOPLE WITH COGNITIVE DISABILITIES -- ALL OF US

Val's Take

It is fairly common for people to "misunderstand" the person arguing for the "Underdog":
- the person is a "Contrarian"
- the person just likes to argue
All of those attempts at understanding can be true -- it is also true that the "Underdog" Status is often in FLUX.
"Arguing" for the "Underdog" is often an attempt to get some "EQUILIBRIUM."
Tolstoy recognized this FLUCTUATING Status of the "Underdog" and Tolstoy thought that God was on the side of the "Underdog."
Further, he thought we should be on the side of the "Underdog," too -- and that switched as soon as someone got the upper hand.

What it means to be a Republican or a Democrat in this Country FLUCTUATES from State to State --- BUT they BOTH want POWER -- and PEOPLE want power, too and they want different things and a lot of those things are EXPENSIVE and require the BUY-IN of millions and millions of people.

The TWO PARTY SYSTEM and even Multiple Party Systems in other Countries have not been sufficient to address the COMPLEXITY of the Problems facing us.

ADVERSARY SYSTEMS are better than ARMED CONFLICT at SOLVING PROBLEMS. Our Political Process is very much an ADVERSARY SYSTEM similar to our LEGAL SYSTEM.

The INCENTIVES are not very pretty.

By and large we need people focused on the PROBLEM not on a PARTY as a SURROGATE for the PROBLEM.

Further, the brain science is starting to explain the PROBLEM of OUT of CONTROL PARTISANS --- and the DARK SIDE of "TEAM ACTIVITIES" --- and that can get extremely problematic in both CRIMINAL JUSTICE and POLITICAL LIFE.

LIFE & DEATH IN ELECTION SEASON: DON GARRETT --- "AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL"

11/10/2020

As the US was awaiting election results, we were holding our own VIGIL for my brother-in-law --- Don Garrett.
My family of origin was very much a family of introverts, except for my Sister who was the most "Social" even as my brother was the most "ADVENTUROUS."
Don was the MOST FUN PERSON -- I think I've ever known. As my sister Brenda said, "He loved being the center of attention and making people laugh."

My father LOVED IT when people DEFIED his own STEREOTYPES --- he would say "ANOTHER AMERICAN ORIGINAL."

During Election Season when we're talking in terms of over 140 million voters split up pretty evenly among the DEMOCRATS and REPULICANS --- there's A LOT TO MISS.

Don was very much a product of Good Ole Boy small town Oklahoma and the Oil Patch even as he was a Democrat and Patriarch to his own little United Nations.

During most of his working life he sold Oil Field Equipment --- ultimately for Haliburton.

This was HILARIOUS because a lot of this was happening during the BUSH ADMINISTRATION and a lot of NEGATIVE PRESS for HALIBURTON.

Don nonetheless was proudly wearing his HALIBURTON paraphernalia and politely trying to challenge even strangers in their negative perceptions of HALIBURTON.

"You don't want the SMALL OPERATORS because they will leave a mess -- and somebody's got to clean that up. You want the BIG OPERATORS like HALIBURTON who know what they are doing and won't just disappear when it's time to CLEAN UP."

My husband has a HALIBURTON T-Shirt that Don gave him.

In retirement, Don started his own Race Timing Company in Oklahoma and grew that operation to include not only most large foot races in Oklahoma, but many regional races, and assisted with the New York City Marathon and large races around the country.

Don Garrett

Earlier in life, Don struggled with and beat Alcoholism and was a big proponent of AA. I mention this very cautiously for several reasons:

AA doesn't work for everybody
Saying somebody has an "alcohol problem" is NOT saying very much because like so many categories it is very BROAD, AND
The PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING: if it works, it worked -- if it didn't work, it didn't work
In Don's case, it worked.

The last several years of his life, Don struggled with cancer even as he:

learned to FLY AIRPLANES
TRAVELED, and
Checked Various Boxes off his BUCKET LIST

We've heard a lot about "The Talk" that Black Parents have to have with their children. Some white grandchildren or white adult children with elderly parents --- have to have the "RACE TALK" with Elderly Relatives.

Don had that "TALK" with his 90-something Mom who was still saying the "N word" ----- "but didn't mean anything by it."

It was pretty important to have this talk since:

his son-in-law and her grand-son-in-law was an African American IT guy and
his daughter-in-law and her grand-daughter-in-law was a Korean dentist, and
and the Grandchildren & Great-Grandchildren had started to ARRIVE.

Don was all we could have hoped for in a Husband to Brenda and a Step-Father to Monica and Nick.

FUN & HUMOR can't solve everything -- BUT Don proved they could solve a lot.

We're going to be telling Don Stories for the rest of our days -- and know how BLESSED we are to do so.

Earlier in life, Don struggled with and beat Alcoholism and was a big proponent of AA. I mention this very cautiously for several reasons:

AA doesn't work for everybody
Saying somebody has an "alcohol problem" is NOT saying very much because like so many categories it is very BROAD, AND
The PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING: if it works, it worked -- if it didn't work, it didn't work
In Don's case, it worked.

The last several years of his life, Don struggled with cancer even as he:

learned to FLY AIRPLANES
TRAVELED, and
Checked Various Boxes off his BUCKET LIST

his son-in-law and her grand-son-in-law was an African American IT guy and
his daughter-in-law and her grand-daughter-in-law was a Korean dentist, and
and the Grandchildren & Great-Grandchildren had started to ARRIVE.

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