It's good to be back. Meds and therapy are helping. When the psychiatrist asked,

are you a threat to yourself or others?

I said no. If adjudicated and sent to a psych facility, I will lose my Second Amendment Right. Therefore, I can honestly and proudly say no.

Thank goodness for the LGC.

Hang in there.

CDFingers

Meds and therapy work, stay with it.

Welcome back and stay with the treatment.

Hang in there!

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Thats good. Violence never solves anything and only makes matters worse. You can always come hear to talk.

Stay the course and wish only the best going forward.

Good on you for getting help!!! Just as everyone has bacteria in their body, so too, everyone also has psychopathology. Most of it is harmless to mildly annoying. But sometimes when bacteria overcome your body's disease fighting systems, you might have a tummy ache, intestinal difficulties, or a rash. With mental health that might mean several depressed days, or anxiety, etc. In these cases a Dr. visit is needed, and maybe several Dr visits. And then there's the times when it's gets really bad, and you need to go to the hospital. Mental or physical--it's really the same.

Nice to meet you, Lefty, and good thoughts, Hiker! I would only add that mental health diagnoses are 'fuzzier' than physical health diagnoses. Thus, this kind of depression doesn't necessarily indicate that kind of therapy or medication, etc.

I have never seriously considered harming myself with a firearm or anything else, but during a bad patch about 10 or 15 years ago, I did think, "What would I do if I DID become suicidal?" Being a headshrinker-in-training at the time, it was easy: I identified a classmate (who I trusted) and asked him if he'd hang onto my guns if I ever did cross that line, or thought I was getting too close to it. Just having that conversation made me feel a lot better-- I was taking charge, taking care of myself appropriately. Never had to activate the plan. (Of course, now, in CA, that would have to be done through an FFL transfer. Since I am in the business, I may look into this in case it is ever a client concern.)

Suicidal ideation can happen because of some psych meds as well. However, the risk is greatest when starting, stopping, or changing the dose. A sense of unbearable restlessness is sometimes a warning sign.

In any event, no one should have their firearms confiscated as a result of seeking mental health assistance, whether medication, therapy, inpatient, or IOP. And everyone should have the option of getting their firearms out of their home temporarily if they don't feel safe without having to fear that they will lose them permanently, (assuming they stay out of trouble and their symptoms remain stable.)

It should be no different from pulling over to the side of the road and taking a break if you're driving angry. That's usually a sign of strength, not weakness, and should not be considered a triggering event for any intervention.

Welcome back, and the best of all possible outcomes going forward! Hiker shared some wise words, for sure (and I'm not surprised at all--I've known Hiker since 1997 or so).

At one point in my life, my own depression was bad enough that, if I could draw a map of my psyche, I could also draw a line that, if I ever crossed it, my own pain would be greater than what I thought those I would leave behind would experience. I didn't want to cross that line, and sought help. I'm glad I did, as the next decade of my life was more fun and enriching than the prior three had been.

As for firearm ownership in such times, there is an organization called "Hold My Guns" (http://holdmyguns.org) that seems like their head is in the right place. They only have a few FFL participants so far, but I would like to see their network expand.

Again, I want the best of all possible outcomes for you!

I think it is no small thing that these days we Asian men in America are taking stock of our lives, our cultural expectations, and our mental health to seek greater balance in our lives in the post-Covid reality. The angry-Asian-man trope exists for a reason and we see terrible examples of that from the recent shootings in Nothern & Southern California, and a handful of such meaningless acts of random aggression with firearms going back to VA Tech. Historically we have plenty of reason to feel anger at racialized injustice, as much as any non-white Americans, and yet Asians are bound in some wierd expectation as a “model minority” myth which doesn’t give us equality in status with Whites but created mote pressure to perform on the one hand and also separates us from other underprivileged folks seeking justice. For all those reasons we Asians can conceivably experience higher personal stress and conflict about our own place in this country. And Asian men, in particular, are culturalized to lash out in violence to reclaim some illusion of lost potency from our culture when things aren’t going right, personally identifying with failures as opposed to just crying or feeling sad (Japanese in particular have some romanticised notion of suicide), not trusting that anyone has our backs.

All this to say that Asian men have a particularly conflicted self-image in this country and it all comes crashing together when we experience financial stress.

BearPaws wrote: Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:08 pm Welcome back, and the best of all possible outcomes going forward! Hiker shared some wise words, for sure (and I'm not surprised at all--I've known Hiker since 1997 or so).

At one point in my life, my own depression was bad enough that, if I could draw a map of my psyche, I could also draw a line that, if I ever crossed it, my own pain would be greater than what I thought those I would leave behind would experience. I didn't want to cross that line, and sought help. I'm glad I did, as the next decade of my life was more fun and enriching than the prior three had been.

As for firearm ownership in such times, there is an organization called "Hold My Guns" (http://holdmyguns.org) that seems like their head is in the right place. They only have a few FFL participants so far, but I would like to see their network expand.

Again, I want the best of all possible outcomes for you!

Whoa! What a great resource! Hey, I'm hoping to stop by Redstone in Bubank-- minority owned FFL, or so I learned here-- and I'll pitch them on the concept, see if there's any interest. I would love to know there was safe storage in the LA area!

@Bisbee -- Thanks for that, I have and/or have had many AIPAC clients, and this fills in a lot of the gaps in my knowledge and cultural competence. I knew about the 'model minority' myth, as well as the 'identifying with failures' piece... but seeing them in the same paragraph really made some new connections. Very well said.

I have been on numerous medications throughout the years to manage my illness. It took nineteen years of patience and perseverance to identify the right combination, but I can now confidently say that the effort was well worth it, and I have no desire to revert to my previous, untreated state. My healthcare team has also been incredibly supportive, assisting me in managing some of the side effects associated with one of the medications. Although I occasionally experience mild symptoms, they are incomparable to the severe distress I once endured.


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Hitch22 wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 3:19 am I have been on numerous medications throughout the years to manage my illness. It took nineteen years of patience and perseverance to identify the right combination, but I can now confidently say that the effort was well worth it, and I have no desire to revert to my previous, untreated state. My healthcare team has also been incredibly supportive, assisting me in managing some of the side effects associated with one of the medications. Although I occasionally experience mild symptoms, they are incomparable to the severe distress I once endured.


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That sounds like quite the journey! I'm glad you're on this side of it!

Welcome back, Asian Lefty. And thanks everyone chiming in on this thread. I remember a friend who would ask others to hold their knives from time to time, for exactly the same reasons discussed above. It is a viable strategy for those of us who have friends or family close enough to trust. Unfortunately, we don't all have that.

Honestly, I'm not sure the pressures and overpressures Bisbee describes don't apply to men of all races. We certainly see plenty of white guys lashing out violently because of unresolved conflicts. Except we tend to shrug that off as just another entitled white guy with poor anger management skills. Or when a Black man does it, it's inevitably held up as justification for racism, as evidence of inherent violence. I guess what I'm saying is that our cultural response may vary more than the triggers, and that our society would rather blame individual failures or uphold racial tropes than address more universal root causes.

Not just talking about root causes for violence, either. Our culture would far rather view mental illness as a moral failing or inherent flaw than address the underlying stresses that promote and aggravate it so widely, or that trigger the kind of break that we can't fix. We are, collectively, not well. We need to find ways to do better, to treat each other better, to support and uplift one another. And that's so far from my wheelhouse I can't even see it from here.