 Welcome, my friends, to the Depression 2 Expression podcast. Man, just changed the strings on my guitar. Very bright, very crisp. Just listen. Very crisp, very crisp. Oh, yeah. Oh, man, that sounds good. So, um, if you're, let's say, a serious person, maybe a serious advocate for mental health and wellness in a traditional sense, maybe don't continue listening. This is a weird one, but I did a video years ago about this idea of insanity, and the word's fun to me. I love the word insane, but I think we have the definition really, really mixed up, because if you see someone in a psych ward mental institution where like that person's probably insane, get them in a straight jacket, right? I'd like to present to you a new definition of insane, and when it would be appropriate to actually call someone literally insane, because we think that, oh, someone's really depressed. They're having some existential crisis of their place in the world. We think that's insane. In fact, with these existential crises and saying, what is the meaning of life? Where do I fit in? I can't believe I'm going to die one day. You actually can't be more grounded in reality than that. You're really, really existing in that moment, right? But when we talk about insanity, that's, you're floating a little too high. You're not really in reality. You're so far removed from reality that you're removed from other people around you. Ah, you see where I'm going with this? So I'd like to say a few, I guess I'm going to do this. I love this though. You're really getting to know me a little more through these episodes. I'm trying to make them more fun, and I'm having fun. And the thing is when your content changes, your audience changes. So a lot of you will drop off, but some new peeps will come in. So how do you know if you're insane or not? So we have to know, okay, just because I feel depressed, and just because I feel anxious, and just because I had to deal with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. No, that's not insane. That's not insane at all. I would argue that insanity is far more removed from reality. So I made a list. See, I actually have paper. This is the very first time I've brought notes into the podcast booth. So, number one. Number one, if you have ever thrown a cigarette butt on the ground and littered, you're insane to me. That is an insane thing to do. How can you do that in the right mind of a human being? Someone conscious, someone grounded in reality, who is surrounded by other people. You know, I'm walking down the streets of Toronto. People hack in their darts, and they'll flick it in the sidewalk. And my mind, I can't comprehend. This is what's so interesting to me about human beings. Because I preach to kids and to adults about how we're all the same in our psychological needs. And this need for security, control, they need to be loved, understood. They need to belong, this sense of community and understanding. So I get that we're all the same in that way. But, oh my God, are we different on a psychological level just in a different way? How you can have a human being that can inhale, you know, tobacco, carcinogens and death, and then flick it on the sidewalk and litter in a place that they live on earth, in the middle of the universe, in our home. You can do that to your home. Can anyone feel me on that? That to me just blows my mind. Just blows my mind. Now I know what you're thinking. Scott, I've said this before. Scott, what's with the self-righteousness, man? I thought you kind of preached against that. Why are you so judgmental? No. No, that's not how it works. I've said this before, you can judge a decision and not judge the person. That person who smokes cigarettes every day and flicks their butts in the street and doesn't give a damn. To me, the person deserves respect, maybe. The person you got to get to know them, they're probably a good human being. But the decision I'm judging, and it's a stupid decision. I don't want to get into politics, but you know, the storming of the Capitol building. We have the right to protest in America. I'm not an American, so, you know, I don't hope I'm not overstepping. Of course I'm not overstepping. I have the microphone. But, you know, they want to send a message and they want to storm the Capitol and, you know, send a message and ground themselves in reality that way. Not the smartest decision by the outcome. Probably not. I don't know what the argument is that that turned out to be what people expected it to be. That obviously wasn't the way it intended to unfold. So you can judge a decision and not a person. You can judge decisions and not the whole group of people. So insanity to me is people who are not necessarily rooted in reality as people we call, quote unquote, mentally ill. And that's what really frustrates me is the whole mental health system and how we view people with certain diagnoses and we call them insane and not part of society because they talk to themselves on the street. I've seen someone talk to themselves on the street thousands of times, hundreds of times, living in Toronto. I don't call that person insane. I see the person on Bay Street smoking a little dart and flicking it in the sewer. That person's insane to me. Lock them up. Lock them up, dude. I'm starting a new society, all right, where those people are in the hospitals and we get all the people dealing with schizophrenia, psychosis, depression, anxiety. We're on Bay Street, baby, and we're loving life, all right? So that's number one. Number two, you're insane if in high school you actually follow the trend of popped callers. Oh my god, I might call a friend right now and see if he remembers that. Let me take out my phone. I thought I'd just have a blast with this episode. Oh my gosh, remember pop callers were nuts. I'm going to call my buddy right now. Let's put him on speaker. And if he popped his caller in high school, I don't think I could be his friend anymore. Hey, buddy. Hey, buddy, you're on a podcast. Do you mind? Yeah. Whoa, nice. Okay, so I'm a better friend. Yo, I just have a quick question. Do you ever follow the trend in high school where you popped your caller? And that's when you made all your money and you're rich now. Yes, thank god. Okay, we can stay friends. Okay, I'll call you later. All right. See you, bro. Bye. And we have, oh my god, thank god I can still be his friend. Okay, so popping your caller. It's amazing these trends that we follow as it's really interesting in high school. I have so many things to talk about and I love how many of you listen to this stuff and enjoy it. It warms my heart so much. It really does. I love doing this. More than I liked video for a time but podcasting, this is so much fun for me. It's so fun. I should be paying you. You should be paying me. Someone should be paying someone. This is just a fun exchange. So in high school, you're brought into a building at an age where you are so socially susceptible to trends. Your growing pubes, your hormones are just in insane flux and you're put into a building where you have to learn new stuff. You have to find your social group. You have to deal with hormonal changes. And on top of that, you will literally do anything, anything to avoid loneliness and to avoid rejection and isolation. That's it. That is the tribal effect. So high school is literally like our primal instincts kick in. So when someone popped that caller and thought it was a cool thing, the cool guy did it, you literally had no choice but to pop that caller with him. So you saw all these people where I'm from with their Hollister golf shirts with their callers popped. And I never popped my caller. Just like my buddy I called right there. I never did it once. Now it could have been because I have older brothers and they would have kicked my ass if they saw me with that. That was probably it. I avoided insanity in that moment. I really did. So are you insane? Have you passed the test yet? So a few of you might have failed already. If you flicked cigarette butts on the street, smoke for all I care. You smoke your cigs if you want, but just find one of those garbages you can put them in. And two, did you pop your caller in high school? All right, so how are you doing on the test? Okay. Oh, this is a good one. Number three, this might be a long episode, but there's a few good ones you're going to love. Do you wave after somebody lets you in to their lane when you're driving? You have to give at least the nod a wave. I'll even give a double wave once I'm in. You signal they let you in. You give the left hand up. You turn into the lane. And once you keep going, you give the second hand up in your rear view mirror to acknowledge once again. That is part of being human in North America at least. You need to give the single or at least the double. And I know Seinfeld definitely touched on this one, but you need to do that. If you are part of society, if you are grounded in reality, that is what you need to do. I don't care, man. Oh my God, this was a while ago. I'm driving home and I'm just, I'm not going to go into detail, but I'm balling my eyes out. I am in just despair. I am just dying of depression. I could barely drive the car and I got into the left lane. Someone let me in and I still managed. I still managed to raise the hand. I don't want to hear excuses. I was dying, man, and I'm still like, oh, it's the right thing to do. And then I lifted the hand. It was amazing. You have to actually follow the rules of reality. All right? Remember, we're not talking about insanity in the traditional sense. We're talking about, are you part of society? Do you value other people and their existence and the reality that they live in? Can we share the world together? The person who is insane does not fit in the bubble of society that actually constitutes many other bubbles in realities. We got to work together. We got to work together. Now, a lot of you won't relate to this, but I just, you know, we are having a conversation at dinner about stray dogs and these shelters for dogs and how a lot of people during COVID have rescued these dogs. And there's so many organizations that go to the Middle East and there's some in places in Europe and I think South America where there are dogs that are just stray dogs. And I forget where it was. Maybe it was somewhere in India. And I may be wrong about this, but I'll just say India for now, that it was years ago and it was a sign of status if you had a German shepherd. And if India is the wrong place, forgive me. It's status like, and you have raised your status if you have a German shepherd. This is a very luxurious dog. So everyone started getting German shepherds. And this organization actually deals with this specific thing. People used to buy German shepherds and then you have this status and then everyone figured out, oh shit, that's a lot of work to take care of a dog. I got to clean up after it and I got to buy the cage and we got to train it and take it for walks and take it to the vet and get its shots and take it for haircuts and nail clipping. And so what people did was they just took the dog and let it out on the street and went home. Like that's what people do. That's where these dogs come from, bro. Isn't that insane? Dogs, people can get a dog and then be like, I don't want it anymore. And drive, let the dog out of a car van and then go home for dinner. That is boom. That is unbelievably insane. Yet I'm going to say it again. Yet we call the people insane who are dressed raggedy, have very little money and talk to themselves on the street. But how do we regard these people who can let go a dog in the middle of the night and just go back home for dinner? That is unbelievable. Holy jeez. Okay, we got a lot more to go through. This one is going to be, well, okay, let me go through this. The whole psychiatric and mental health system is basically insane. Think about how far removed the treatment for people who are dealing with mental trauma. Think of how that's dealt with. We're not actually giving people what they need. And I've worked at Psych Ward before. It's what you expect. It's what you literally see in the movies of the nurse's station and it's all glass in the middle. They have that window that opens for people's pills and they're wearing slippers and it's all white with no green plants, nothing. And nothing's in the room except a bed because if there's anything that they can hurt themselves with, well, you can't have that, especially a plant who knows what they're going to do with the leaves. So the way we treat people who are dealing with a mental illness is insane. First of all, just to get treatment is hard enough. If you're dealing with extreme symptoms and you need to see someone right away, we're always like, oh man, don't bring them to emergency. Don't bring them to ER. Well, people have no choice. They don't know where to turn. Family doctors closed. Also, family doctor doesn't know shit about mental illness. They're great at prescribing antidepressants, but that's about it. Okay, but then psychiatrist, I have to wait three months. Oh shoot, I can't do that. Psychologist is 200 bucks an hour. Shoot, I don't have the money right now. Okay, well, the next option is the hospital. We got nowhere to turn. That whole system is insane. And once they're in the hospital, revolving around medication and having people, trying to heal people's minds while they're in a white room, not going outside, not exercising, not having healthy food. You see where I'm going with this? Like that is absolute torture. And if you hear people who have actually been admitted to these hospitals, I was talking to a friend of mine who was admitted to a hospital. It's like, yeah, you can get better at the hospital, and then you're released, and then you have PTSD. And then you have to go to more therapy because you're trying to actually deal with what happened in there. Man, oh man. Like that, I think we're going to look back. You know, we're looking back at the 40s and 50s of how we were treating men and women with depression and how it wasn't talked about and how it was a lot of medication. Same as now, but we're going to look back in 50 years and just really just kick ourselves in the face for how we dealt with people with mental illness and how we were really the pill-pushing generation as well. It's so sad. So the other one on the list, and I think we can all agree on that one, is that the whole psychiatric system, the whole system, the whole mental health system is absolutely insane. All right, cool. I'm going to go through a few more. If you think 5G towers cause COVID, that's an insane thing. Okay, show me, like, come on now. Oh my, people are pushing down towers. Remember at the beginning? They thought 5G was creating COVID. Oh my God. I'm freaking out. And that's the other thing about social media, right? You can create these groups and find a few people that think the same thing and then there's this social proof and it becomes an actual reality and truth because truth is really based on how many people believe it, right? No matter how dumb the religion, think of like Mormonism. No matter how many people, if it's one person that believes it, it's bullshit. If a million people believe it, well, it's got to be something there. There's got to be something. So with this 5G thing, people are pushing down towers, lighting towers on fire. How removed from reality are you? When was the last science class you went to? There's educated and then there's just being ill-informed. You don't need to go to university or college to be a smart person. In fact, my gosh, man, I wouldn't even recommend a lot of people go to college or university if they don't know exactly what they want to do. But to think that 5G was causing COVID, people are like, yeah, the towers all here, see the higher rates of COVID were where all the towers are. Oh, interesting. Well, that's because that's where the freakin' highest population is, dude. That's why they have more towers to serve more people. Oh my goodness. And TikTok is just spreading so much misinformation about, well, everything. TikTok is another terrible invention. All right, so that's another test of insanity. If you're on that train of believing, whoops, that was my guitar. If you're on that train of believing 5G cause and is causing COVID, I don't know. I don't know what to tell you. Just insane. Okay, but did you pass? Let's keep going. If you think Kanye West is an actual intellectual, that's an insane thing to think. You're like, he's not a smart dude. Maybe in reference to other celebrities. Possibly. But the dude just rambles and here to there and here to there. He went on the Joe Rogan podcast. People are like, yo, Kanye is sick. This guy is just high level. I'm just like, the stuff he says is so basic and just out of order. I think we have some false idols in our world. Maybe that's why it's weird. Like, why do we idolize the people that we do? Do we not have better examples of people to look up to in our own personal lives? And that's going to be another episode too. Yeah, let's make that another episode. Because I think that's a lot of reasons why people voted for Donald Trump. I think that's why people identify with their political organization. And I think we honor and idolize some false people because we don't have people we respect in our own lives in an immediate environment. That's why having a father in the household is so, so important. Anyways. If you drink coffee, you're insane. No, just kidding. No, no, no. Enjoy the coffee. This one is, if you drink a double double, then that's insane. Come on now. You can't say you like coffee if you're having two creamies and two shuggies. That's not coffee. That's cream and sugar. Come on, man. So an easy way to do this, so you're drinking coffee flavored coffee, as my dad says, would be to start with the double double. Then go to one and a half, one and a half. Then go to one and one. Then go to 0.75 and 0.75. Slowly restrict yourself. You, man, it's amazing what you get used to. It's amazing. Another great example is people salting their food. It's amazing that you salt it while it's cooking and everything. Salt there, but once it gets to the table, salt isn't really necessary. If you're having good food, we think that we need it because we've been doing it for so long. Give your body and mind some credit that you can actually change and just forget what something was like. Like for me, bread, sugar. I haven't had bread in so long and guess what? I don't miss it anymore. It's not a thing. Give your body and mind some credit to actually say, man, I've been having double doubles for so long. I've been popping my collar for so long. Maybe, just maybe, I can change. I think I can. Give yourself some credit. Have some confidence in yourself. Now the hardest thing for human beings is behavior modification. That's why people sign up to do coaching with me. It's not because they need some incredible advice and some newfound perspective. Sometimes, yeah. But it's like, Scott, I've tried before and I just quit after a week of meditation. I quit after a week of this diet and I quit after a week of exercising and like this. I just need to stick to the plan. And it's like, boom, that's it. I had to pay a lot of money for coaching just so I could stick to the plan when I was getting off medication. That's it, man. People have a lot of trouble sticking to things. You try hard. Yes, but you don't try long. Play the long game, baby. Play the long game. Okay, let's go through a few more. This is going to be a series. I'd love to make this a series because there's so many things of judging decisions, not judging people. So get rid of your double-double. Have your coffee black or maybe just one creamy cream. All right, cool, cool, cool. If you gave your kids a cell phone, by grade four, even grade five, even in elementary school, ooh, you're playing Russian roulette, man. Oh my goodness, giving kids phones at such a young age. The dad is there. It's so bad for your kids. No! The new generation. I'm working for the new generation. I'm living for the new generation. I'm living for the new generation. I want the world to succeed for another 500 years at least, right? Oh, but no, then the parents are giving their kids Facebook accounts and phones and letting them bring their phones into their bedroom. No! And then in the US and Canada, that's exactly when children are sending nude photos on Snapchat. They get shared to thousands of people on child pornography sites. And then parents can actually get arrested. Why? Because the phone's under their name because they signed the contract because the child is not of legal age. No! Don't give your child a phone. No, man, please. And if you do, don't let them bring it into their bedroom. They have the internet. Oh my gosh, 70% of 12-year-olds have already watched porn on their phones. You know that mom and dad listening? Come on now. I know you give them a phone because parenting and life is hard beyond measure. It is the hardest thing ever. Yep. But you know what's harder? It's getting a knock on the door from the police at 4 a.m. saying we just saw Timmy's dick online. That is... That's reality, man. I'm not just making jokes here. This is serious business. You ground yourself in the reality of how dangerous phones can be for children. How much trouble they can get into. And they do. And it just like, ah, that wouldn't be me, that wouldn't be my son or daughter. Nope. It could be. Alright, and last one. You're insane if you don't exercise. Not that you can't exercise. Come on, if you're listening to this in a wheelchair, don't get mad. You're the strongest and coolest person ever. But if you're not exercising, like if you're not walking, running, lifting weights, doing bands, doing yoga, sports, gin-ups, I don't understand. I don't get it. I didn't come from that privileged of a background that I was just like nobody knows the secrets of exercise except me. Like it's not an upbringing thing. I don't know what it is. But I meet people and they're just like, Scott, I'm so anxious, man. I'm feeling so low lately. I just don't know why. What's your exercise regime like? They're like, I don't exercise. I'm like, oh. Okay, cool. Like what? So you feel bad and you don't exercise and you wonder why? What? This person judging the decisions like we have to know by now. We don't need any more studies on exercise, scientists. We know. We know that exercise is just as if not more effective than most antidepressants. They've done double-blind studies and control groups. They've done this with thousands and thousands of people over so many years, even 6 to 60 since Prozac. They've done this. They've done testing. Or was it 80s Prozac? They've done the tests. Exercise helps with depression. Exercise helps with anxiety. And I know at the beginning exercise doesn't feel good but I guarantee if you get into a rhythm you're going to crave it because your body wants to move. It was designed to move. Your body wasn't designed to sit still. You know humans are the fastest runners out of any animal in the world. That's right. We evolved to hunt. We evolved to run. We evolved to move. So you have to give your body what it's demanding. You have to actually pay attention to your body in reality. And if we float too much and don't listen to our body and are just consumed by thought all the time and lost in that that's insane. You know we got to get back to basics people. That's what the world is demanding of us. That's what our bodies are demanding of us. We have new technologies that come out all the time. We have new ways to think of things and this new app comes out and this new thing comes out and we get so consumed and the new and flashy and shiny things but people get bored of it so quickly. And what do we do? Eventually everyone comes back to this basic acknowledgement that humans just need a few things. We need water. We need shelter. We need security. We need people around us. That's it. We need a sense of community. We need security. We need a bit of control in our lives. That's it. That's it. Why are we always looking for something new? Why are we always looking for the shiny object? Getting back basics is what we need to do. Ground ourselves in reality. Don't flick the cigarettes. Don't pop the collar. Wave at people when they let you in their lane. Don't leave your new dog to fend for itself on the street. Exercise. Don't give your kids a phone in elementary school. Treat people with respect if they need psychiatric care. If you're going to drink coffee or don't have a double-double just go with one cream. No sugar, baby. Kanye West is not an intellectual. He's kind of dumb. And 5G did not cause COVID. All right. Now if you're on this side, you did it. You're not insane. Congratulations.