This is hugely important mental health advise on
what helps you and others get through tough times:
TLDR: The life savers: Therapy and Medication. Secondary:
Friends just hanging out without trying to fix you, to try and fix anything,
but just acknowledge that it sucks. Being part of a supportive community of
people who want to leave the world better than they found it. Adventure, fresh
air, and role playing to explore your thoughts and feelings in a context with
no real-world consequences. Absorbing and telling stories to help you
understand yourself and encourage you to be a better person.
If you like the story or information in this transcript,
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This content isn’t free to produce. Cast and crew need money to live, and
overhead like rent or equipment is far from pocket change. There’s a lot more
good content in the show than the little bit I cherry pick to write down.
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Transcript method notes: http://otdderamin.tumblr.com/post/153539301510/a-note-on-my-transcription-method
Scene runs: Alpha
Question, Brianshairline of Reddit: “For everyone (even Brian): Critical Role and your positivity saved my life (no exaggeration). What is something that has helped you guys through
your toughest times?”
Alpha 1:03:31, Twitch
1:29:57
Travis: “I
think, sharing time is always important to me. In my toughest times, it wasn’t
necessarily someone coming in and going, ‘Are you okay?’ or asking questions.
It was just being there with me. So, I think sharing time, meaningful time with
people, is under-valued, but to me has been the most important thing.”
Taliesin, with a
laugh, “Therapy. Medication.” They all laugh hard. “Yeah, no,
not kidding.”
…
Brian: “Both
really helpful. No, seriously…”
Taliesin:
“Twice- But no, I’ll lay that down.”
Marisha:
“Yeah. No one should feel ashamed of therapy.”
Brain: “No,
they shouldn’t.”
Marisha:
“Therapy is great.”
Travis:
“Don’t misview our laugh. He just said it really well.”
Taliesin, with a
laugh: “Friends are great, adventure is awesome, fresh air is amazing.
Therapy and medication, life saver.”
Brian: “I
would say, feel ashamed if you’re too prideful to go to therapy. It’s not hard
to do.”
Matt: “Yeah.
We’ve all had our past there.”
Marisha:
“Yeah, I mean, it’s hard. Same kind of thing. Friends are always massively
important in getting through a tough time. D&D helped get me through…
When this game started, I was going through a life-transitional period, and it
helped me. It can help you work out issues, or explore thoughts or feelings,
that you can’t do in real life without massive consequences. We can play in
this world without any real consequences, and I think that’s something that’s
huge. But I wouldn’t be connected to geekdom, and all the nerdy shit that I
love, if they didn’t get me through or inform me about who I was in some way.”
Matt:
“That’s an interesting point, informing who you are. There’s something
about games like Dungeons & Dragons, even video games, and stories you read
as kids. I’ve talked about how modern media like this is our- modern storytelling,
is our myths of our ancient tribal days of human civilization. The stories that
the elders around the camp fire would tell the younger kids to aspire to be
like these heroes, the Gilgameshs, the Hercules… … But these forms of
modern media, these stories, are our version of that. All the video game
characters that I- all the Final Fantasy characters that I grew up playing, all
the D&D characters that I played growing up, these were the type of
individuals that I aspired to be, or discovered facets of myself that made me
want to be a better person, through it. So, gaming has been a huge therapeutic
thing for me growing up, and the community around it. I think Community is
another big thing. Community, and finding solace in other people that have had
shared dark experiences, and like you said, just- We call it the ‘that’s rough
buddy,’ from Avatar [the Last Airbender], where you don’t need to be fixed, you
don’t need someone to try and fix your issue, or make you feel better,
necessarily, but just to share in that moment and be like, ‘That sucks, man.’”
Marisha:
“Yeah. Just someone who says, “That sucks!’”
Taliesin:
“The acknowledgement. ‘That’s awful. Ugh!’”
Marisha:
“’That sucks.’” She goes on to talk about how her favorite show
probably legitimately saved her life.
…
Brian: “For
me, it’s kind of a running theme, right, community reach-out. I think if you
fight isolation, that’s half the battle. Because if you isolate yourself,
sometimes it can be healthy to take time away, but if you’re really going
through it, find other people who want to leave the world better than they
found it. That’s what I tell people. Look across your scope of friends, and see
who’s really trying to make the world better, leave the world better than they
found it.” Sarcastically, “And despite you guys, and my other
friends, I haven’t figured out how to find those people, yet, and spend my life
with them, but I hopefully will soon.”
What they don’t say, but show constantly with their actions,
is laughing at how terrible life is with your friends, mocking everything that’s
awful. Not mocking who its awful to, or that they were unfortunate enough to be victimized, but mocking the awfulness of the thing so that it has no power over any of you. Commiserate in laughing in life’s face as it has
laughed in yours. There’s nothing as powerful for banishing demons as laughter.
Alpha 1:08:18 , Twitch
1:34:04
Critical Analysis 