 Major sponsors for Ableton on Air include Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to live home in the community, Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Media sponsors for Ableton on Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx dot info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps Domestic and International, Anchor FM and Spotify. Partners for Ableton on Air include the HOD of New York and New England where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Center Vermont Habitat for Humanity and Montpelier Sustainable Coalition, Montefere Medical Center of the Bronx, Rose of Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx, Ableton on Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, WWW, this is the Bronx dot com, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW dot H dot com and the Montpelier Bridge. Ableton on Air is part of the following organizations, the National Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England chapter and the Society of Professional Journalists. Welcome to this edition of Ableton on Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns and achievements of the Tiffany Abel. I've raised with your host Lauren Siler and on this on this show today we will talk about strokes and mental health and also heart attacks and mental health and what to do in case of that and before we begin let's thank our sponsors Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services and many others including the partnerships from the Association for the Blind Vermont, the Division for the Blind Vermont, Habitat for Humanity of Central Vermont and many others and we would also like to thank our partner in the field of reporting William Jackson, reporter for the Harlem Times and welcome William to Ableton on Air again. Can you begin by explain what you're doing at the Harlem Times or what you have done for the Harlem Times and we can go from there and you know based off the questions I sent you prior to the show. Yeah go ahead. Okay well I should mention that before I'm a freelance reporter now all right but I'm working on getting back in there real soon. What I did at the Harlem Times was I reported on stories that are important to urban communities in the New York City Metropolitan area okay and also I reported on stories involving HBCU's and stuff of that nature. What's an HBCU? HBCU is a historically black college or university. Okay speaking about college and universities before we get to the issues at hand on strokes and heart attacks. What is your degree in? You had gotten a bachelor's degree in communications from Hunter College correct? Yes. And then you have your first master's you already have one master's in communications from Sacred Heart University. Yes and Fairfield Connecticut yes. And then now what is your second master's in and what what are you doing? Well my second master's degree is in creative non-fiction writing from a university called Bay Pad University which is based in long long metal Massachusetts. I'm taking online I'm taking excuse me I'm taking an online degree for creative non-fiction writing. Okay so what what what what does that entail? Creative non-fiction writing entails that you know you know memoirs, literary journalism, non-fiction and all that sort of stuff. Basically you're basically having to um you're it's based off of truth you know you know you can't really make anything up a creative non-fiction. Explain what you mean by that. Well you know you you can't take liberties that you would take with um regular fiction you know. So let's let's get to the issues at hand. You're dealing we'll start with the mental health piece and then my wife will ask then Arlene will ask questions and then we'll get into other things. What what mental health issues are you dealing with and how either how has that helped you in your journalism or can you explain a little bit about that? Well I start from major depressive disorder okay. What is that can you explain? Well major depressive disorder occurs where you have um you know excess sadness you know you feel tired most of the day you don't want to get out of bed. Those are some of the examples. Those are some of the those are a couple of the symptoms of having a major depressive disorder. Okay and you know I've known you for quite a number of years so for over 20 years. Explain what you have done before in the communications field. I know you worked for Bronx net community television. Can you explain what you did? Well at Bronx net community television I was a protected assistant and intern. Right I started in May 2006 and finished in February 2012 to go to Sacred Heart. What I did was mainly I did mainly studio work but I did a little field work but I did mainly studio work. I learned how to do camera work. I learned how to be a stage manager. Learned how to do audio technical direction which I mainly did. At one of these studio shows I was a technical director. I did graphics or character generators they call it. I think I mentioned audio already right. Yes. I did assistant directing for a TV show called Open which is the morning show on Bronx net and I helped you out on special people special issues. The former show that I did at Bronx. The former show you did special people special issues. I wrote scripts saying I was also technical director on there. Sometimes I would do camera work and stage hand work for that program as well. Our name we're gonna get to in one minute. You had mentioned clinical depression. So according to the definition for clinical depression so people who don't know which is known as major depression a mental health disorder characterized by persistently depressed moons or a loss of interest or activities causing significant impairment in daily life. Possible causes include a combination of biological psychological social sources or of distress increasingly research suggests these factors may cause changes in brain functioning including altered activity in certain neutral circuits of the brain. The last sentence I'm going to read the persistence feeling of sadness and interest in characterizes major depression that leads to a range of behavioral or physical symptoms. These may include changes in sleep appetite energy level concentration behavior or self-esteem depression is also associated with thoughts of suicide. Now I'm gonna put up a mental health suicide number at the end of the show so we can do that. The the mainstay and treatment of medication talk therapy as well as a combination of of the two and research suggests the treatments that treatments may normalize brain changes associated with depression. Okay so that's what that is. Arlene did you want to ask any questions go ahead take your time hello okay question that my wife wanted to ask you all right I'm gonna rephrase it okay have you ever talked about depression your depression in any articles you have written to the heart of times or anything you have written journalistically and what advice have you given people if you did that. Well I haven't talked about it in um um deep I haven't talked about it at all my journal is writing you know it'd be a good idea to do so I think so. Yeah now you had mentioned also that you're a part of bridge house yeah you want to explain a little bit about that. A bridge house is an organization a clubhouse which is part of clubhouse international with what they don't run but clubhouse international oversees 300 clubhouses around the world bridge house is one of them and these clubhouses are organizations that help people with mental health issues okay um you know like bridge house you know there's is divided into three different units that people with mental health issues can work in so so far we have uh we have a membership services unit which um people with can um talk um review the membership and stuff like that over there in membership services they have a culinary arts unit where people work in you know to cook food for the people who come in and um you know they serve lunch and they serve breakfast sometimes and there's the unit that I work in which is the business business unit which um you know we handle the newsletter um we handle advocacy obviously um you know there are a whole bunch of people that go up to harford to speak with politicians to make sure that we're not left out of any legislation that will help that will be that will potentially help us um yeah for more information on bridge house and uh their mental health program you can contact www.bridgehousect.org it's in Connecticut correct yes bridgeport Connecticut yeah I'll mention that again at the end of the show um okay so let's go into um and then Arlene can ask another question let's go into um the situation of the factor you had a stroke um so go ahead well um I was actually uh sitting at home one day um watching tv and I just you know I've I heard a like a high pitch sound and I just started vomiting you know you know I had weakness on my right side at first I didn't think it was a big deal but over the days um I realized that may have had a stroke may have had a stroke um unfortunately it took about three days for me to go to a hospital all right because I thought we'd go away on the the vomiting did go away on the the right side weakness went away on the but I had to speak okay so what exactly was wrong with your speech well um my speech was my speech was slurred um I don't I didn't sound as well as I do now you know which I took speech therapy I took months of speech therapy to get back to um where I am right now um but um I was hard to understand basically um and you know um it it I thought that would went away and it's not too bad to get it okay so um yeah if you are having a stroke um there there are according to the website www.www.healthprep.com um these are the seven signs of a stroke a stroke occurs when blood to the brain is blocked blood brings oxygen and nutrients uh to the cells when blood when blood when blood brain cells die this means that a section of the brain starts to break down and brain function is uh is altered a quicker stroke is addressed uh the last brain damage will be and uh the quicker a stroke is addressed and the less brain damage will be and it's better for recovery strokes are usually painless there are seven signs of a stroke so um we can go into that here um seven signs hold on a second okay there we go um seven signs of a stroke are wait um do you know some of the signs of the stroke William while I get this well um like I said I have right side weakness all right yeah I had slow speech all right and it was duty it was duty or it was duty of sleep apnea correct yeah it was it was determined after I had to stroke that I had three apnea all right okay so what causes what causes uh the sleep apnea well one of the causes is um being overweight okay I know that for a fact okay all right uh doctors they say that I'm a bit overweight you know for my height and um I think my body mass index is pretty high as well so you know that could be a factor as well yeah so if you if you have um the following if you have any of these signs if you have numbness weakness in the face arms or legs confusion trouble speaking or understanding speech trouble seeing in both eyes trouble walking dizziness or problems and balance called 911 immediately yes um so that according to what I did yeah do not do with mr. William jack do not wait a prolonged period of time don't wait three days don't wait a week don't wait a month get to the hospital immediately um you know it's never good to wait so long um yeah so um uh yeah according to the cdc these are the signs of a real stroke uh and you had a real stroke uh sudden numbness and weakness in the face or arms sudden confusion trouble speaking or difficulty understanding speech sudden seeing in in both eyes or one of both eyes uh trouble walking and severe headache uh with no known cause called 911 right away um and if you want to find out more information about a stroke you can go to the cdc's website there's a video here that um that they have we might put in uh yeah so if um if you have problems with your face and and your skin droops if your arms are numb someone and so forth um William while we have some time yes uh Arlene did you want to ask questions go ahead a person is such a meanie go ahead say that again okay being effective to work that you do how has that affected you uh with school and everything and and your eating habits uh go ahead well um well um well um well I obviously think that eating habits are pretty poor so you know I have my family tell me about that that I need to exercise more and uh you know go out for walks and stuff like that um you know but you know um I I haven't had to take time off from school because uh because I had to stroke the stroke actually happened while I was on a medical leave of absence from the school already okay all right um it actually happened a week after my birthday so you know oh so um you know I didn't have to worry about doing schoolwork at that time because like I said I was on a medical leave of absence from the school due to mental issues that I was having okay now um go ahead did you want to ask any more questions Arlene yes check your time check your time yeah how long did it take you to recover from the stroke and are you still recovering well well I well this like I said the the vomiting went away and and uh weakness of the right side went away the next day but it did take a few months for my speech to get back to normal mm-hmm okay okay what are your future goals as a journalist and also um knowing the fact that you're graduating with your second master's well well I'm trying to get um well when I graduate from Bay Path hopefully be back 2024 mm-hmm okay um I plan to get into the journalism field um full tilt okay yeah um recently I applied for two positions mm-hmm for digital reporter and content producer at two different tv stations okay uh you don't have to mention you don't have to mention that um you know we hope that you are doing well um promise us one thing that when you do get a job and go full scale in journalism take um one of the things that the cdc does recommend during strokes and heart attacks is that people take rest people rest and they eat well and they try to eat well again uh for more information on stroke prevention you can go to www.cdc.gov forward slash stroke signs and symptoms if you are having a stroke um um and knowing you're having a stroke uh please take the following precautions um ask the person to smile uh and to see if their face droops uh ask the person to raise their arms and uh if the arms are drooping downward uh they're having a stroke if their speech um keeps repeating and their speech is slurred or strange um if you see these signs call 911 right away again for more information on on strokes or uh heart attacks as well you can contact the www.cdc.gov forward slash signs and symptoms of a stroke or the national stroke association yeah or call the national stroke association you have the number there hold on um hold on let me the okay hold on let me get that the national stroke association number hold on national stroke association number okay there we go um national stroke association number is 1-800-787-6537 that number once again for the national stroke association is 1-800-787-6537 and for more information on bridge house and their work with uh and uh William Jackson is doing um clubhouse advocacy uh you can go to www.bridgehousect.org that is www.bridgehousect.org and for more information on uh suicide prevention here in brahm on or any uh mental health prevention uh if you need mental health counseling or anything within mental health you can go to washington county mental health website at www.wcmhs.org that website once again is wcmhs.org which is washington county mental health and also again last time uh the national stroke association number is 1-800-787-6537 that's 1-800-787-6537 William thank you so much for joining us on this edition of abledin on anything else you would like to add uh let's see uh i can't think of anything right now but i want to thank you for having me on the show okay thank you so much and we will be um we will be in contact um this puts an end to this edition of abledin on there thank you to our sponsors washington county mental health green mountains support services and many others including the uh partnership with the association of the blind vermont the division for the blind uh vermont as well as habitat for humanity and many many many others i'm lauren siler please take care of yourself when having a stroke uh or heart attack um time is of the essence do not wait um for the last minute it could be uh detrimental to your health i'm lauren siler see you next time remember the national stroke association 1-800-787-6537 see you next time major sponsors for abledin on there include green mountain support services empowering people with disabilities to live home in the community washington county mental health where hope and support come together media sponsors for abledin on there include park chester times muslim community report www this is the bronx dot info associated press media editors new york parrot online newspaper us press corps domestic and international anchor fm and spotify partners for abledin on there include jihad of new york and new england where everyone belongs the orthodox union the division for the blind and visually impaired of vermont the vermont association for the blind and visually impaired central vermont habitat for humanity and montpellier sustainable coalition montefere medical center of the bronx rose of kennedy center of bronx new york output einstein college of medicine of the bronx abledin on there has been seen in the following publications park chester times www this is the bronx dot com new york parrot online newspaper muslim community report www.h.com and the montpellier bridge abledin on there is part of the following organizations the national academy of television arts and sciences boston new england chapter and the society of professional journalists