The way I experience bipolar 2 is very similar to Russell’s description: “The closer I live to the middle of the seesaw, the less I have wild mood swings on the edges of the seesaw. If I let myself have a huge positive, then my body gets amped up, and I get this huge rush of adrenaline, and that swings me back much more easily to the other side.”
But regarding question #3, I’ve been tuning into the physical sensations that correlate to anxiety and excitement. Think of a young child who cannot contain their excitement to just inside their head but must jump up and down. Somewhere along the way that positive energy grew up, got labelled anxiety, and suffocated until I couldn’t feel excitement without being scared of it. I’m learning to pay attention to whether the restless pacing contains panic or just anticipation, whether racing thoughts are harmful or a form of pre-planning for an upcoming activity.
Thank you for hosting a great interview (I’m off to look up those red glasses.)
These concepts are super interesting, thanks for sharing Jen! I like the analogy to a child who needs to physically manifest excitement and other emotions (I have a two year old so experience this daily). I hadn't thought about how that applies in adulthood.
I did think about bpd a lot when developing the way I think about neural thinking, so this makes sense. Tgats very interesting about the excitement bits
Kimberly, What a pleasant surprise to see your response and your name. The first time I listened to your Unfixed podcast (the first with the new name I believe) is emblazoned on my brain. Like most things I don’t recall the specific content of who or what, but the feeling remains. We were still in “pandemic” mode; my husband and our two college kids all living/schooling from home. I was walking on the treadmill listening to your podcast. It was complex and fascinating and uplifting, and it added to all these small moments nudging me to combine my writing identity with my medical experiences and maybe help others to do the same. To that end, I started an MFA program with a focus in Narrative Medicine in Jan 2021 (and will graduate in June 2024).
Wow! What a small world Jen. I’m guessing it was the ICU podcast then, the one I’m doing in partnership with VeDA? I’m delighted to connect with you here and must admit, your substack description both resonated with and tickled me. Yes! Let’s give these over-active nervous systems of ours something to chew on other than ourselves. Love that. Thank you for making the connection and I look forward to reading your newsletter.💛🍂🧡🍁
Fascinating, insightful interview! Great to hear from a male. I’ve recently been wondering if one episode I had last year was a silent migraine. I couldn’t get out of bed for 4 days. Yet there was no pain at all. Previously the only thing that would render me bed-bound was severe/agonising pain so it was super strange experience for me. From talking to fellow warriors, I’d say silent migraine is a lot more common than is currently known. It’s awareness of different types of attack that’s rare.
For some time now I’ve felt a real connection between all pillars of health - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and financial. I feel our ability to regulate emotionally (or not) has a much bigger impact on our mental and physical health than we realise. Extreme stress used to trigger attack in me, my god it’s taken me a long time to reduce the stressors in my life to a point where that doesn’t happen anymore.
How am I kind to my future self? Hmmm. I put in place the support I need now. I recognise my needs, identify what they are and put in place measures to meet them. That’s what’s come to me in the here and now.
As with all interviews, I really enjoyed reading this one and got a lot from it.
I like your list of "healths": physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and financial. It's helpful to include "financial" - I don't think people usually put that on the list but it is one of the biggest stressors in so many people's lives, and in turn affects mental health and all of the other healths, as you say.
#2: depends on when I catch myself. Am getting better and better at becoming a meditation turtle to calm down and desensitize than even a year ago. Am 52 so its taken me ages to get here but better late than never.
#3: Hormones are powerful and the lack of them can be destructive. Menopause has taught me so much about what fluctuating hormones can do to your mental health and physical lubrication. I had no idea how much I was damaging my body until the estrogen was depleted and I was left with my bad habits and their consequence Am reworking pretty much everything and improving a bit but aging is aging so I am trying to make peace with doing less, as you teo discussed. It's hard. I have so much internal energy that is hard to redirect.
I can't believe how little I knew about hormones until recently (and now totally self-directed learning, of course). It's totally criminal that we don't teach women and girls (and boys and men!) more about these physiological processes that affect us all so much.
could not agree more. All I knew about menopause before starting the transition was hot flashes and weight gain. Anxiety, itchiness (not just there!), body aches, and so much more are so common. But we just push through cause we're troopers. HA! We dont even tell each other. Scratch that. We didnt. There are lots of new spaces where we're finally educatiing each other. But seriously, it's obscene how long this took. If something impacted men like this, there'd be serious research about it from day 1. obscene.
I really enjoyed this, Russell and Rae. For at least 5 years I've been having migraines where the worst and more ongoing symptom is fatigue and brain fog rather than pain (the pain comes and goes and is, at worst, an ache rather than the sort of pain I used to associate with migraines). I've mostly accepted the idea of living with it, although I'm still wondering if I can further disentangle the connections between my emotions and physical muscular tension that is maybe setting them off. I think it's fascinating how our different internal systems can become linked and set each other off. I've also just been reading Run Towards The Danger by Sarah Polley, which is really interesting on this (in her case, on the relationship between stress and post-concussion syndrome) She had to learn to 'push through' pain and stress to eventually disconnect her stress response from the vestibular symptoms that had become linked to it. Of course, this is a very particular case, and not applicable to or advisable for everyone, at ALL, but it was an interesting/unusual take on it.
Also, Russell, I've been so enjoying your newsletter and how honest you are about how difficult it can be for writers to navigate capitalism and selling and marketing their work in a healthy way. Thank you for making such a sincere and practical body of work on this.
Thanks for the book recommendation, it's always really interesting to hear about someone's unique journey, though I appreciate your being careful not to recommend her one approach to everyone...we need more recognition that what works for one person works for one person and there is rarely a universal right way!
I wasn't aware of these "non-mainstream" types of migraines, and they seem very much in the mix with many of the other conditions we focus on here...good to know about, since it would be really hard to identify them if you don't know about them (as Russell experienced!)
Yes I was pretty surprised when the doctor said I had migraines, as the symptoms were definitely not what I'd associate with that!
The book is *great*, although I feel it should almost come with a warning as the subject matter is so intense that it was quite emotionally draining to read in one go. It's a collection of essays that deals with, among other things, sexual assault, difficult pregnancies /birth, bereavement /grief, apart from the chronic illness element... Having said that, it is absolutely worth reading. She's also the director of 'Women Talking' which came out last year, in case you've seen that.
Great insights! I understand what you mean about how to treat your future self. Any adrenaline spikes and I’m physically sicker than a dog the next few days. I have to be very conscious about my desire to push myself to do more than I’m capable of doing and know when to hold back.
Stress makes me shut down both mentally and physically so I guess I turtle? I work at not allowing any stressors inhabit my life, so I guess I keep things kinda beige. What an artistic spin to mood. I like it. Acceptance of myself with regards to these issues is still an ongoing process. Thanks for opening up.
I have learned so much here from the many people who connect hormone spikes with trailing physical health. It's not something I had really considered before doing these interviews but it's such a common theme and rings so true for me. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for sharing your experience, Russell. I was first diagnosed with Graves and then Hashimotos and I also struggled with migraine. My migraines were more visual than painful, and that was startling. And when I tried going back to eating gluten during the pandemic I had vestibular migraine. Wild ride. Now I’m curious if there’s any connection between thyroid issues and migraine.
It’s also nice to hear from a man. I so rarely hear of men with thyroid disease. In my mother’s line it has affected every woman since my Grandmother.
I also really appreciated what you shared about thinking about your future self and setting yourself up to win. I’ve been doing more of that myself and it’s so helpful. Like driving 2 cars to events so I can bail went I’m socialed out or need to go sleep and my husband can be his extroverted night owl self. Rather than me just fuming waiting to leave.
Hashimoto's and Graves--whew what a ride. I have Hashimoto's and my dad's side is full of thyroid disorders too. Great call to drive separate cars! A simple but powerful solution.
Wow. I felt like I just read my own diagnostic history: Grave’s, check. Migraine’s, check (vestibular migraine to be exact, the fun kind that make you dizzy 24/7), mental health struggles, check! I so enjoyed reading this, his perspective echoing so many of the chronic illness subjects I’ve worked with over the last 4 years for various film projects. We all eschew toxic positivity, we all admit trauma and nervous system regulation play a role, and we all choose “gray” or “beige” over HOT PINK! Give me boredom and I’m a very content human. ❤️
There's so many out there, but it's still always creepy to read a story that so closely resembles your own.
I love the concept behind Unfixed, we certainly need more of these themes in media. Thanks for the work you are doing there and I'd love to keep in touch!
Ps. Love what Russel says about not chasing huge happiness. What an incredible insight that goes against every self-help, life coach, Gwyneth Goop manifesto in our culture. Huge props to you Russell for embracing “content” over ecstatic. I’m so right there with you!
Yes! Love to connect someday. I’d be happy to do an interview or share some names of incredible humans I’ve met that you might want to feature. In particular, the one I posted about today is 💯❤️!!!
Oct 14, 2023·edited Oct 14, 2023Liked by Rachel Katz
1: I wake up a bit earlier everyday, and the world is just for myself so I can read, write my novels, or draw a bit.
2: currently I can say I “Hulk out”. Because if I had a great day and had no bad news and did nothing wrong I should have nothing in me to feel stressed. But when I realize I was naive and my SO starts arguing for something I said and meant a different thing, I just know I can be all out or sit down in silence and turtle it trough. But I hulk out, I think “how didnt I saw that?” And feel like a nuke paused mid explosion.
And I say I feel naive because I know the person in front of me is suffering, and I should take time to express myself with care and a clean message, I have the opportunity to help by doing my best to express myself, but because I still havent managed to understand how to recover I know I am exhausted and sometimes just talk in good friendship.
I am starting to give myself the opportunity to get better at sharing my thoughts eith someone who is feeling scared and also how to better support them as sometimes the best thing we can do for them is to be someone who listens
I love the image of a nuke paused in mid-explosion--it really captures how difficult it is to stop this process once it starts. I definitely can relate to that.
And that is why I will always argue that series, movies, comics, cartoons, novels, substacks, everything is needed because in one of those places we will find a word to speak a feeling we knew we had.
Like seeing Kim Wexler look at Saul as she weighs the consequences of using his talents for something she knows Itll have consequences.
And that is why your work is wonderful, thank you for sharing it
Thank you, Rae, for featuring Russell. I am a man, and it feels good to read a man on the Lady's Illness Library. The interview gives me perspective into my own life I can't describe quite yet.
Attempting to live with chronic fatigue and pain here since anaphylaxis set it off 6 months ago. Turns out my reaction to nearly dying is definitely not to turtle. My poor new hubby has seen his chilled out Buddhist wife turn into a very angry lashing out monster. He seems to understand and forgive. Shame I can’t do the same. I need to be very much in the middle of the see saw and use all my Buddhist and therapy based coping mechanisms but still not enough to return me to previous chilled out non-control-freak state of existence. Admittedly the world does continuously send me new rather extreme challenges to deal with the more I try to control my environment. Deduced letting go would help but can’t do that as last time I let go I nearly died. I see more therapy in my future and lots more Substack writing from my bed. Linking up with Russell and others is helping me realise not alone and I am perfectly human after all 💜.
The unspoken rules of this comment thread are to be kind and give people the benefit of the doubt. These norms are obvious to everyone else here. It is the only way we can succeed in talking about difficult topics, like our ill health and our mistakes and our past selves--extremely important topics which Russell covers with grace. I am deleting this comment for being unkind and unwilling to recognize another person's humanity.
It's your right to press the eject button on my comment if you feel it's unkind.
I feel supportive of what you are writing about and how, and I noticed your content before the previous article I commented on and was impressed by it. I suppose as internet readers we seek to nudge writers to where we think they ought to go, and ought not, although it's not strictly our business to do so, and these things may come out in clumsy and inconsiderate ways.
Sometimes the reader is put in an impossible position of what they are being presented with and how to respond to it.
Russel Nohelty: I didn't think I said anything inhuman about your health problems themselves. I accept they are real and you've had your own private struggles. I also think you're doing well in terms of not letting them stop you doing stuff at least from what you're presenting here.
You don’t have to think something is mean for it to be so. My question is why just because I help authors build businesses does that disqualify me from being interviewed? I didn’t say what you said was inhumane. I said it was mean. You can say a lot of mean things that are also humane. I’ve dedicated my life to helping authors thrive in their business so they could do work they love. I’ve also written 40+ novels and made a hundreds of thousands selling fiction. Does that qualify me? You have no idea who I am. I tried to share some of it with you, but now I am sure I want nothing to do with you.
Ok RusselL, but this is my point. Where does the marketing end ? I will come back to what I said to Ms Katz, the reader is being put in an impossible position here. It's not possible to respond to these kinds of statements in a way guaranteed not to cause any offence. And if the possibility of offence or being perceived as mean is an issue here, I'm going to have to hit the eject button myself on this. I will return when she posts another subject.
The way I experience bipolar 2 is very similar to Russell’s description: “The closer I live to the middle of the seesaw, the less I have wild mood swings on the edges of the seesaw. If I let myself have a huge positive, then my body gets amped up, and I get this huge rush of adrenaline, and that swings me back much more easily to the other side.”
But regarding question #3, I’ve been tuning into the physical sensations that correlate to anxiety and excitement. Think of a young child who cannot contain their excitement to just inside their head but must jump up and down. Somewhere along the way that positive energy grew up, got labelled anxiety, and suffocated until I couldn’t feel excitement without being scared of it. I’m learning to pay attention to whether the restless pacing contains panic or just anticipation, whether racing thoughts are harmful or a form of pre-planning for an upcoming activity.
Thank you for hosting a great interview (I’m off to look up those red glasses.)
These concepts are super interesting, thanks for sharing Jen! I like the analogy to a child who needs to physically manifest excitement and other emotions (I have a two year old so experience this daily). I hadn't thought about how that applies in adulthood.
I did think about bpd a lot when developing the way I think about neural thinking, so this makes sense. Tgats very interesting about the excitement bits
I can 100% relate!
Kimberly, What a pleasant surprise to see your response and your name. The first time I listened to your Unfixed podcast (the first with the new name I believe) is emblazoned on my brain. Like most things I don’t recall the specific content of who or what, but the feeling remains. We were still in “pandemic” mode; my husband and our two college kids all living/schooling from home. I was walking on the treadmill listening to your podcast. It was complex and fascinating and uplifting, and it added to all these small moments nudging me to combine my writing identity with my medical experiences and maybe help others to do the same. To that end, I started an MFA program with a focus in Narrative Medicine in Jan 2021 (and will graduate in June 2024).
I’m so glad to have met you here.
Wow! What a small world Jen. I’m guessing it was the ICU podcast then, the one I’m doing in partnership with VeDA? I’m delighted to connect with you here and must admit, your substack description both resonated with and tickled me. Yes! Let’s give these over-active nervous systems of ours something to chew on other than ourselves. Love that. Thank you for making the connection and I look forward to reading your newsletter.💛🍂🧡🍁
Yay!!! Thank you so much for the amazing interview! Rae delved deep and pulled out one of my favorite interviews of all time.
The pleasure was all mine - no one gets more out of these interviews than me!
So brilliant to get to know you Russell! Love your attitude to chronic illness - I’ve learnt a lot here! ✨
Awesme! Lovely to get to know you too :)
Fascinating, insightful interview! Great to hear from a male. I’ve recently been wondering if one episode I had last year was a silent migraine. I couldn’t get out of bed for 4 days. Yet there was no pain at all. Previously the only thing that would render me bed-bound was severe/agonising pain so it was super strange experience for me. From talking to fellow warriors, I’d say silent migraine is a lot more common than is currently known. It’s awareness of different types of attack that’s rare.
For some time now I’ve felt a real connection between all pillars of health - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and financial. I feel our ability to regulate emotionally (or not) has a much bigger impact on our mental and physical health than we realise. Extreme stress used to trigger attack in me, my god it’s taken me a long time to reduce the stressors in my life to a point where that doesn’t happen anymore.
How am I kind to my future self? Hmmm. I put in place the support I need now. I recognise my needs, identify what they are and put in place measures to meet them. That’s what’s come to me in the here and now.
As with all interviews, I really enjoyed reading this one and got a lot from it.
Thank you both🙏
I like your list of "healths": physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and financial. It's helpful to include "financial" - I don't think people usually put that on the list but it is one of the biggest stressors in so many people's lives, and in turn affects mental health and all of the other healths, as you say.
Glad it resonated with you :)
You’re amazing. A true warrior. And It sounds like you and your wife are a great support to one another which is great to hear.
Thanks! We try. We have a pretty great marriage, I think.
Yay for a great marriage!
That’s bloody wonderful to hear🤩
Amazing interivew. thank you both.
#2: depends on when I catch myself. Am getting better and better at becoming a meditation turtle to calm down and desensitize than even a year ago. Am 52 so its taken me ages to get here but better late than never.
#3: Hormones are powerful and the lack of them can be destructive. Menopause has taught me so much about what fluctuating hormones can do to your mental health and physical lubrication. I had no idea how much I was damaging my body until the estrogen was depleted and I was left with my bad habits and their consequence Am reworking pretty much everything and improving a bit but aging is aging so I am trying to make peace with doing less, as you teo discussed. It's hard. I have so much internal energy that is hard to redirect.
I can't believe how little I knew about hormones until recently (and now totally self-directed learning, of course). It's totally criminal that we don't teach women and girls (and boys and men!) more about these physiological processes that affect us all so much.
could not agree more. All I knew about menopause before starting the transition was hot flashes and weight gain. Anxiety, itchiness (not just there!), body aches, and so much more are so common. But we just push through cause we're troopers. HA! We dont even tell each other. Scratch that. We didnt. There are lots of new spaces where we're finally educatiing each other. But seriously, it's obscene how long this took. If something impacted men like this, there'd be serious research about it from day 1. obscene.
This is very relatable. I find I have been left withthe consequences of my actions too.
I’ve always thought of menopause as the “little death” because it so drastically changed me at all levels.
I really enjoyed this, Russell and Rae. For at least 5 years I've been having migraines where the worst and more ongoing symptom is fatigue and brain fog rather than pain (the pain comes and goes and is, at worst, an ache rather than the sort of pain I used to associate with migraines). I've mostly accepted the idea of living with it, although I'm still wondering if I can further disentangle the connections between my emotions and physical muscular tension that is maybe setting them off. I think it's fascinating how our different internal systems can become linked and set each other off. I've also just been reading Run Towards The Danger by Sarah Polley, which is really interesting on this (in her case, on the relationship between stress and post-concussion syndrome) She had to learn to 'push through' pain and stress to eventually disconnect her stress response from the vestibular symptoms that had become linked to it. Of course, this is a very particular case, and not applicable to or advisable for everyone, at ALL, but it was an interesting/unusual take on it.
Also, Russell, I've been so enjoying your newsletter and how honest you are about how difficult it can be for writers to navigate capitalism and selling and marketing their work in a healthy way. Thank you for making such a sincere and practical body of work on this.
Thanks for the book recommendation, it's always really interesting to hear about someone's unique journey, though I appreciate your being careful not to recommend her one approach to everyone...we need more recognition that what works for one person works for one person and there is rarely a universal right way!
I wasn't aware of these "non-mainstream" types of migraines, and they seem very much in the mix with many of the other conditions we focus on here...good to know about, since it would be really hard to identify them if you don't know about them (as Russell experienced!)
Yes I was pretty surprised when the doctor said I had migraines, as the symptoms were definitely not what I'd associate with that!
The book is *great*, although I feel it should almost come with a warning as the subject matter is so intense that it was quite emotionally draining to read in one go. It's a collection of essays that deals with, among other things, sexual assault, difficult pregnancies /birth, bereavement /grief, apart from the chronic illness element... Having said that, it is absolutely worth reading. She's also the director of 'Women Talking' which came out last year, in case you've seen that.
Great insights! I understand what you mean about how to treat your future self. Any adrenaline spikes and I’m physically sicker than a dog the next few days. I have to be very conscious about my desire to push myself to do more than I’m capable of doing and know when to hold back.
Stress makes me shut down both mentally and physically so I guess I turtle? I work at not allowing any stressors inhabit my life, so I guess I keep things kinda beige. What an artistic spin to mood. I like it. Acceptance of myself with regards to these issues is still an ongoing process. Thanks for opening up.
I have learned so much here from the many people who connect hormone spikes with trailing physical health. It's not something I had really considered before doing these interviews but it's such a common theme and rings so true for me. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for sharing your experience, Russell. I was first diagnosed with Graves and then Hashimotos and I also struggled with migraine. My migraines were more visual than painful, and that was startling. And when I tried going back to eating gluten during the pandemic I had vestibular migraine. Wild ride. Now I’m curious if there’s any connection between thyroid issues and migraine.
It’s also nice to hear from a man. I so rarely hear of men with thyroid disease. In my mother’s line it has affected every woman since my Grandmother.
I also really appreciated what you shared about thinking about your future self and setting yourself up to win. I’ve been doing more of that myself and it’s so helpful. Like driving 2 cars to events so I can bail went I’m socialed out or need to go sleep and my husband can be his extroverted night owl self. Rather than me just fuming waiting to leave.
Hashimoto's and Graves--whew what a ride. I have Hashimoto's and my dad's side is full of thyroid disorders too. Great call to drive separate cars! A simple but powerful solution.
Wow. I felt like I just read my own diagnostic history: Grave’s, check. Migraine’s, check (vestibular migraine to be exact, the fun kind that make you dizzy 24/7), mental health struggles, check! I so enjoyed reading this, his perspective echoing so many of the chronic illness subjects I’ve worked with over the last 4 years for various film projects. We all eschew toxic positivity, we all admit trauma and nervous system regulation play a role, and we all choose “gray” or “beige” over HOT PINK! Give me boredom and I’m a very content human. ❤️
There's so many out there, but it's still always creepy to read a story that so closely resembles your own.
I love the concept behind Unfixed, we certainly need more of these themes in media. Thanks for the work you are doing there and I'd love to keep in touch!
Ps. Love what Russel says about not chasing huge happiness. What an incredible insight that goes against every self-help, life coach, Gwyneth Goop manifesto in our culture. Huge props to you Russell for embracing “content” over ecstatic. I’m so right there with you!
I’m so glad it resonated with you :)
Yes! Love to connect someday. I’d be happy to do an interview or share some names of incredible humans I’ve met that you might want to feature. In particular, the one I posted about today is 💯❤️!!!
1: I wake up a bit earlier everyday, and the world is just for myself so I can read, write my novels, or draw a bit.
2: currently I can say I “Hulk out”. Because if I had a great day and had no bad news and did nothing wrong I should have nothing in me to feel stressed. But when I realize I was naive and my SO starts arguing for something I said and meant a different thing, I just know I can be all out or sit down in silence and turtle it trough. But I hulk out, I think “how didnt I saw that?” And feel like a nuke paused mid explosion.
And I say I feel naive because I know the person in front of me is suffering, and I should take time to express myself with care and a clean message, I have the opportunity to help by doing my best to express myself, but because I still havent managed to understand how to recover I know I am exhausted and sometimes just talk in good friendship.
I am starting to give myself the opportunity to get better at sharing my thoughts eith someone who is feeling scared and also how to better support them as sometimes the best thing we can do for them is to be someone who listens
I love the image of a nuke paused in mid-explosion--it really captures how difficult it is to stop this process once it starts. I definitely can relate to that.
And that is why I will always argue that series, movies, comics, cartoons, novels, substacks, everything is needed because in one of those places we will find a word to speak a feeling we knew we had.
Like seeing Kim Wexler look at Saul as she weighs the consequences of using his talents for something she knows Itll have consequences.
And that is why your work is wonderful, thank you for sharing it
The see-saw really helped me to understand this and relate it to my own experience with chronic pain. The balance is key but hard to achieve!
I'm glad it resonated! I can really relate to this too.
Thank you, Rae, for featuring Russell. I am a man, and it feels good to read a man on the Lady's Illness Library. The interview gives me perspective into my own life I can't describe quite yet.
Mindfulness helps a lot❤️ thanks for this piece
Glad it resonated:)
Thank you both 🙏🏻✨
Attempting to live with chronic fatigue and pain here since anaphylaxis set it off 6 months ago. Turns out my reaction to nearly dying is definitely not to turtle. My poor new hubby has seen his chilled out Buddhist wife turn into a very angry lashing out monster. He seems to understand and forgive. Shame I can’t do the same. I need to be very much in the middle of the see saw and use all my Buddhist and therapy based coping mechanisms but still not enough to return me to previous chilled out non-control-freak state of existence. Admittedly the world does continuously send me new rather extreme challenges to deal with the more I try to control my environment. Deduced letting go would help but can’t do that as last time I let go I nearly died. I see more therapy in my future and lots more Substack writing from my bed. Linking up with Russell and others is helping me realise not alone and I am perfectly human after all 💜.
The unspoken rules of this comment thread are to be kind and give people the benefit of the doubt. These norms are obvious to everyone else here. It is the only way we can succeed in talking about difficult topics, like our ill health and our mistakes and our past selves--extremely important topics which Russell covers with grace. I am deleting this comment for being unkind and unwilling to recognize another person's humanity.
It's your right to press the eject button on my comment if you feel it's unkind.
I feel supportive of what you are writing about and how, and I noticed your content before the previous article I commented on and was impressed by it. I suppose as internet readers we seek to nudge writers to where we think they ought to go, and ought not, although it's not strictly our business to do so, and these things may come out in clumsy and inconsiderate ways.
Sometimes the reader is put in an impossible position of what they are being presented with and how to respond to it.
Russel Nohelty: I didn't think I said anything inhuman about your health problems themselves. I accept they are real and you've had your own private struggles. I also think you're doing well in terms of not letting them stop you doing stuff at least from what you're presenting here.
You don’t have to think something is mean for it to be so. My question is why just because I help authors build businesses does that disqualify me from being interviewed? I didn’t say what you said was inhumane. I said it was mean. You can say a lot of mean things that are also humane. I’ve dedicated my life to helping authors thrive in their business so they could do work they love. I’ve also written 40+ novels and made a hundreds of thousands selling fiction. Does that qualify me? You have no idea who I am. I tried to share some of it with you, but now I am sure I want nothing to do with you.
Ok RusselL, but this is my point. Where does the marketing end ? I will come back to what I said to Ms Katz, the reader is being put in an impossible position here. It's not possible to respond to these kinds of statements in a way guaranteed not to cause any offence. And if the possibility of offence or being perceived as mean is an issue here, I'm going to have to hit the eject button myself on this. I will return when she posts another subject.
Also, my name is Russell, not Russel. The least you could do is spell my name right. I at the very least earned that.
Thats pretty mean. I am a human being. You realize I can see this, right? I opened up about something very hard for me. How about some grace?