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Special Guest Emmett Rensin

Special Guest Emmett Rensin Special Guest Emmett Rensin Special Guest Emmett Rensin

Comments

I really liked Emmett and Liz's interview style! I purchased a copy of the book. This was a great episode. I think it would be interesting to listen to Liz interview Christine Emba (who is now also at The Atlantic) as the two of them seem to have several things in common.

AllOutOfPlans

I know its embarrassing but I need the fanfic name you're killing me

Thomas A

All stories put a spin and a container on themselves, don’t they? Maybe the tidying up is always alien for all stories? All of them are ordinary time. Aim the canon to the ordinary.!

Caryn Brooks

Also re the trepanation point! Insane (sorry) how little we still know about neuroinflammation, neuropsychiatric disorders and the neuroimmune axis. Anti-NMDA encephalitis not being identified until about 2007; certain rare ‘long covid’ cases producing hallucinations and other psychiatric symptoms; etc. etc.

Caitlin Still

Hard relate to weird feelings re one’s existence costing vastly more than one’s earning and production capacity. V nice interview thank u both 🙏

Caitlin Still

This was a great ep! I look forward to reading this book.

Kent Kersten

This was so good. I didn’t get the weird vibes referred to at the beginning of the episode, to be honest.

James

not foolproof but when searching on ao3 (the main fantic site) it helps to sort by kudos (likes) and also read the tags people give their fic which are often copious and descriptive and can give you a good sense of whether or not they’re an idiot

Sarah

Is the Connecticut Review of Fan Fiction real or not Liz? Feel like you've been giving me mixed messages.

Emmett Rensin

Hi. Liz told me to make an account and come answer your questions, so never doubt that your money is buying you incredible individualized content service here. 1. Much like the real Process, you can trust it all you want, but sometimes it goes to shit anyway: one guy calls the GM a liar, another guy's body refuses to cooperate, a third guy has some kind of inexplicable mental collapse and simply cannot play basketball anymore. You hire Doc Rivers as your coach/therapist and it turns out the man blows 3-1 leads a lot for a reason. It's hard to trust the process when anything that can go wrong will go wrong. More seriously: it both helped and hurt that I had a 10 yearish period during which I saw therapists, received middling diagnoses, went to wilderness therapy, got forced to go to college therapy by my dorm RA, etc. etc. before I got the bipolar and then schizoaffective diagnoses in my 20s. I knew something was wrong with me, but it also felt like an endless series of efforts to address that problem had done nothing. So a doctor says I'm bipolar. OK. Sure. Why not? I'll take the pills until I don't feel like it anymore, then when everything goes to hell again, I'll take them again. It went like that from about age 24 until 29 or 30. What changed was that I grew up: I have a career. I'm married. I am not running around all of the time like you do in your 20s. I got tired of losing people and less able to justify my instability as some kind of edge I'd be losing if I got with the program. I still resent treatment. I still only really believe intellectually that I'm mentally ill--I won't ever emotionally accept that a lot of that shit wasn't real, even if it sounds ridiculous to articulate it. The difference now, like I say in my book, is that if I don't take my medication and go to therapy and sleep the right amount and avoid the wrong stimuli, then I'm not fit to be around other people and I don't want to be alone. So I trust my desire to be a part of society, if nothing else. 2. If you know somebody in active psychosis who refuses to get help, they need to get help against their will. I go back and forth on the virtues of institutionalization and the ideal duration of involuntary treatment, but many people do not have anyone in their life who will force them to seek care. If they're forced in by police, or by a nurse's hold, it's going to be in a shit, overcrowded facility where there's a 50/50 chance they'll never actually get a bed in the psych ward and will ride out their 72 hours in an emergency triage wing being seen every 20 hours by the attending physician, who is too busy to do very much, and getting B52'd if they're too noisy or disruptive. An engaged family or friend group with resources and a willingness to advocate for someone can get them into at least a 72 hour hold somewhere decent, where they will get a bed, and some attention, and a plan for any necessary follow-up or treatment that the family or friends can support them through. I'm not willing to say that people should really be forced into psychiatric treatment against their will forever, but when you are mad, you are not really in a position to decide if you want treatment or not. Get somebody stable and on antipsychotics and calmed down and oriented and THEN see what they want to do. Of course, nothing is guaranteed to work. The last chapter of my book is called Ghost Stories and it's a graveyard of lunatic who ran out of time despite the best efforts of those around them.

Emmett Rensin

it's like shopping a sale rack, you've got to sift through a lot of garbage until you find a diamond in the rough. we'll have a fanfic panel on at some point to discuss

The Bruenigs

I’m curious to learn about high-prose-quality fan fiction authors! Where does one get started?

Al

This was fantastic, Emmett's a really interesting guy! Also the Kindle version of his book is on sale at 2.99 USD? I'm coppin' that

Otto Laakso

A few questions for Emmett: 1. Was there a point where the resistance to getting help (in the form of medications or therapy) faded away? To invoke an NBA reference, was there a moment, or moments where you began to "trust the process"? If so, are you able to identify a catalyst? (e.g. was it just the case of hitting a rock bottom, or was it a case of getting a sufficient degree of clarity from the right medications following a crisis?). 2. Do you have any recommendations for friends or family who are dealing with someone in psychosis, especially with respect to someone who is resistant to getting help?

J P 3

damn. loved this. not familiar with the guest. he was wonderful. your interviewing was also really great, I thought—despite your preamble. have stakes in many relevant discourses/dialectics, plus maybe-relevant prollems, and a lot of proximity to same (e.g. in family & friends). I’m given to understand that such investment and proximity can make being receptive/open to strong views tricky. was nice to encounter views that struck me as genuinely new and also challenging and moving, etc. w/ openness & curiosity. whipped ass. gettin the book. thanks. the variety’s been working out. show keeps changing. cool to follow along with you guys. 🤍✌️🌻

M


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