Hello everyone, this is your intrepid pittsman, Mr. Michael Swain, and welcome back to Tales from the Pit,

a show that I'm going to be sunsetting for a little while to reference another depression.

No, that's sundowning. I almost thought I did something clever there, but I didn't.

Regardless, this show is going to be going on hiatus or a season gap or whatever you'd like to call it, a sad badical.

I decided I'd like to wrap up in part by revisiting my first subject.

My mom, Ellen Swame, who has been, of course, a model for me and an inspiration when it comes to

developing healthy coping skills and a more helpful relationship with my own severe depression

issues. Everyone is on their own unique different journey with different ups and downs,

but we both do share pretty textbook treatment resistant

depression. And so it's been helpful for me certainly to be the child of someone who understands

what is going on for me. And she in a large part inspired this podcast because I'd like to try and

provide some of that useful, basic mental health hygiene, you know, sort of awareness, normalization,

and survival strategy tips that she did for me. And you know, I think I might have inherited even that impulse from her because she's also

writing a book about many things, but also her experiences with abuse growing up.

So consider this your content warning.

We'll be opening the episode with a reading of two short passages from that upcoming book,

and they do include themes of suicidality, cutting, and abuse.

In case you're curious, I usually write my short stories that I open these episodes with after the interview. They're often

inspired by the interview I had with the person. And indeed, this interview with my mom did

inspire me to write a short story. But that short story is expanding so much of its own accord

that it's more of a novella now. And so when I wrap that up, I will probably put that up on the small bands

Patreon shop as an audiobook or part of larger collection.

...