YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Hello everyone,
I'm not sure where to begin with all of this. I'm DingoDad, I'm Male, I'm 41 years old, and I have Complex PTSD. I hope there are people on this board who have similar daily problems that I do.
Thank you,
DingoDad

Welcome, DingoDad. I'm betting you'll find comfort and understanding here. Not everyone struggles in the same way, but there's something about talking with someone who struggles that makes all the difference.

Thank you for the reply. I guess I'm not exactly sure where to start with everything. I'm currently in crisis mode and am pursuing options for a long term intensive outpatient stay somewhere. I've come to the conclusion that waiting for the right moment for you to kill yourself isn't very productive.

I like your avatar, by the way. Are you an MLP fan?

Thank you. That Pinkie is one of a herd which somehow keeps expanding in my living room. I consider myself a Brony even though I'm a girl because I come to it from a place more like the Brony's I know including my husband as compared to the pegasisters who seem to be mostly huge fans of the previous generations. I came more from the place of "how did I get here?" as you go from watching fan made mash ups with pony footage over movie trailers, to trying out an episode or two, to checking out fan art, to filling your music player with techno remixes of songs from the show. We're older than the stereotypical Brony but we come from a place of science fiction & fantasy fandom and have fallen hard for the MLP:FiM universe.

I have to admit that I don't know a lot about the Brony culture, or the MLP fandom. I will say that from what I have seen, the whole thing looks pretty fun to me and I have been thinking about watching an episode or two to see what it's all about. One of my dirty secrets is that I collect robot figures from Japanese anime and MLP's sister franchise, Transformers. I had an old school MLP moment about 6 months ago that got me thinking about the ponies and their current iteration. I think it is time that I checked out FIM, just for fun!

Sounds to me like you'd be in if you watched a couple. Starting at the beginning is great, but if those don't grab you, I'd recommend The Return of Harmony Part 1 and Part 2 from Season 1. It introduces the best villain ever, Discord, who is a trickster character voiced by John De Lancie AKA Q from Star Trek: TNG. It's so fun because Discord is pretty much Q in temperament and powers. It's also a good intro to the characters. The "mane" six ponies are not only well rounded, but... ah... flawed... which is delightful to see in a show for little girls. Frankly, each of them could use some therapy. *giggle* The documentary "Bronies" is pretty cool and finally on Netflix, too.

You had me at John De Lancie. Where do I sign up? I don't have netflix, but can probably find the show on Apple TV. I'll watch a couple and let you know what I think!

Hasbro is awesome about not making YouTube take it down full episodes, so you ought to be able to get them there. Let me know what you think!