From Wildfires to TikTok: Navigating Chaos

Its been a wild start to 2025. I've found myself grappling with a mysterious illness, the aftermath of wildfires decimating California, advocating for Emma through the educational maze.

The digital landscape, too, has been disrupted as TikTok went dark following a ban, stirring conversations on the vital role social media plays in our lives. While some dismiss it as mere pixels on a screen, for many, it's a vibrant space for expression and connection. This episode unpacks these layered issues, reflecting on the interconnectedness of our mental health, the rapid technological shifts, and the personal resilience needed to navigate this evolving world. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

Hello everyone, welcome back to Mental Health-ish. We are three weeks into the year 2025 and so much has happened already. Like it's literally unbelievable. It literally feels like I'm waiting for a new episode to drop on this season. It feels like everything is just full of suspense. What worse could happen? Like everything's just kind of like one thing after another.

Speaker 1: 0:42

Right, I haven't been able to record since December because I've been sick. If you follow me on Instagram, I've talked a little bit about the fog, which is now gone, these mystery fogs that California was having towards the end of December. I got sick New Year's Eve, so I was pretty much like under the weather for like two to three weeks. It seemed like I thought I was finally getting better, but then today I woke up with a sore throat and a dry cough. So I'm back to coughing again. I'm back to just not feeling well, feeling low energy. But I figured I'd record something because I feel like there's been so much going on that I haven't had a chance to just sit down and record. So one of the things, obviously, is I feel like everything's kind of just been crashing down, like there's literally four, three to four or whatever different wildfires going on right now People are losing their homes. People are losing homes that have been in their families for generations. The new president just got inaugurated and things are already going downhill. So yeah, just a lot of different things.

Speaker 1: 1:56

I finally got Emma to do some testing through Kaiser with a psychologist. So if you've been following this podcast, you know that that was one of the big things that caused a lot of anxiety and trauma for me last year was going through the IEP process for Emma and the school psychologist brushing it off and saying that Emma had intellectual disability and wanting to put Emma in special education classes, which I 100% disagreed with and had to fight for and decline for her to be put in special education classes. It was a very stressful time. So I took her back to the psychologist through Kaiser to get some testing done just to roll out ADHD, which I think she has, or just whatever. I just wanted to get some answers. So we finally went to the psychologist this week and, after scoring some of the testing that she did, the psychologist called me back yesterday to just kind of give me a quick little update on her findings so far and she completely agreed with me and said that she doesn't think that it is intellectual disability just by the looks of the results from the cognitive testing that Emma completed with them and I was like, yes, I knew it. I freaking told you, no, but for all I knew that it wasn't that and I knew that they were trying to brush it off and say you know, this is what it is, just to kind of just push her into like special education classes. So, anywho, that's the update on that. The psychologist is still going to get in contact with the psychologist at the school to consult, you know, and talk about you know all these things and really try to get to the bottom of how we could best help her. But that's been, I mean, one of the many stressors right so far.

Speaker 1: 4:00

Another thing was this whole TikTok ban thing. So I'm sure you guys had heard that TikTok is a social media app application, you know, just like Facebook, instagram. So TikTok is another social media app that was temporarily, I guess, banned by the government and so it went completely dark on the 19th of this month, so just just four days ago. It seems like so long ago already, but it hasn't been that long from now from when I'm recording this. So, yeah, that was like a whole nother thing. I've never made. I've no, I've never made any like money off TikTok. So it's not like I'm like this you know big creator that is making money off this app or whatnot. I have gotten like a lot of free products and free samples through TikTok to make reviews for, so that's like the only thing and so, yeah, I haven't made any money off that, but yeah, it was just really.

Speaker 1: 5:07

It was just really sad to see and I know a lot of people were like, oh, it's just an app. Oh my gosh, like you're being, you guys are being so dramatic. It's just an app that is being banned. Oh my gosh, go touch some grass, so do something else. You know, get a real job. Not to me directly, but these are all things that I was seeing and reading online and hearing people say and it's not so if you don't, if you are a person that hasn't used TikTok, tiktok is not just an app, right, I think when it first during the pandemic right like 2020, a lot of people really started downloading this application and at first I was one of those people where I was like I'm not downloading another app, I'm not going to download this application.

Speaker 1: 5:53

It looks stupid. There was like I felt like it was childish right, like there was a lot of kids on there, there was a lot of dancing and just things like that. I was like I'm not going to download this app. But yes, I ended up downloading it and over the years it's become a super popular application where people of all ages are on the app Literally all ages right are on this application. To me, and then, obviously, like a lot of other people on the app agree, like from what I was seeing online, it's not just an application and it's not just a social media app.

Speaker 1: 6:36

So, through this application, a lot of people were able to get information directly from the people, from the source, which is the people experiencing the things. So, for example, you could search up, you know, on the TikTok search bar Palisades fire. I don't know, that's an example and you would get a lot of videos of what is going on, of the Palisade fire, from people, from direct people, whether it be, you know, people that were affected, friends of people that were affected, like whatever, like residents you know in the area. You would get a lot of information and videos from actual people. On the other hand, if you were to search that same thing up, like on Google or I don't know, maybe even Facebook, I don't know, I haven't searched on Facebook a lot you wouldn't get that. Instead, you would probably get news, videos and news articles from big news channels big news, you know people, whether it is Fox News, abc, whatever, like you would get your information from them.

Speaker 1: 7:47

So I think that's what I think made it like sucky, I guess, for a lot of people is, you know, through this application, like a lot of people get a lot of real time information on things that are going on, things that not a lot of people get. A lot of real time information on things that are going on, things that not a lot of like you can't find it in regular news a lot of the times, and if you do, it's probably something that is censored, something that is fixed or you know a certain way, like it's not 100% true or like as it is most of the time. And so that was like one of the things I know, even for myself, like I, you know, could stay up on TikTok, like looking at videos, searching things up on different things, whether it is you know, whatever, like you could literally just find anything on it like real time information. I know I stayed up a few times like looking up the the Bayside Mall aliens you know the fog, the mystery fog that I was talking about earlier. People's experiences about the fog all across the US, or you know whatever like people's actual experiences the hurricanes, you know. Whatever Like people's actual experiences the hurricanes, you know. Whatever I know I stayed up lots of times like just looking at things and learning.

Speaker 1: 9:08

But yeah, another thing was a lot of people were going to lose their income through this app. So through the TikTok app, like, you're able to make money and there's a lot of different ways to do so. Obviously, once you get up in followers and you're able to join, you know their creator program or whatnot you could get paid for views on your video. That's one way. Like I've mentioned, you could create like a TikTok shop so you could get like free samples to promote and review. That's another way, right, that you're making money. You can make money through sales on those products or on your shop. So your shop are like different products that you recommend. You could make money through just a bunch of different ways. And not only that, but a lot of small businesses were using TikTok to make sales. So like there's people that would like go be on live, you know, for hours on in the day while they're packaging orders or while they're promoting you know their product or their service and they would generate a lot of sales. So a lot of small businesses were using that to make money. So that was another thing.

Speaker 1: 10:24

Also, what I was seeing a lot is like through this application, it's kind of a different vibe too. So, like with Instagram, facebook, you have a lot of your connections and friends and followers are people that you know from the past, right, like it could be your family members, your ex, you know coworkers or ex classmates from college, like that type of thing. Through TikTok, most of the support is coming from strangers, so not a lot of people have those connections the same connections you have like on Instagram, facebook or other platforms like you don't really have those on TikTok. I've heard of a lot of people actually blocking family members and like people that they actually know on TikTok Because it's like a place that's kind of like unofficial. This is unofficial, like it's a place to connect with strangers, and so the same video that you post on Instagram, if you post it on TikTok, you're getting like double, triple the engagement. So like the likes, the comments, like people are just super supportive and that's just the type of vibe. But, anywho, all this to say is that I know you guys are like why are you talking about this application? But all of this to say is that this was a big deal for some people. It was a really big deal for some people because it felt like you know why are you banning this app? That is helping a lot of people, making people happy, but yet you're ignoring other bigger problems, right? So that was one of the things.

Speaker 1: 12:01

Another thing is, people are allowed to feel joy and I want to say that again. People are allowed to feel joy and happiness in whatever way that looks like for them. Okay, so if people want to scroll through TikTok and look at videos and laugh and funny videos, you know, look at live videos from people that they just like watching and you know it brings comfort to them in some way. If people want to I don't know watch videos or live while they clean or while they get through the day, or just want to be on this app, you know, in these communities to get through their depression or through their loneliness. Like let them be. Like people are allowed to feel happy and even if that's different than what you would do, it's okay. Like we're all different and we're all going to have different things that make us feel good, make us feel happy, that may help us pass the time when we're bored, right.

Speaker 1: 13:00

And another thing is like not everything should be so serious all the time. Not everything should be so serious all the time. Not everything should be a life lesson or a learning opportunity. Like at the end of the day, at the end of a long day at work, where I'm just like exhausted, mentally frustrated, I don't want to learn something, or, you know, sometimes I don't want to read a book. Like, sometimes I just want to be in bed watching videos or watching TikToks or watching something funny, you know, to kind of decompress. Like not every minute of the day has to be productive or be you know what I mean Like be doing something productive or be doing something like learning something, or blah, blah, blah. Like allow people to be happy in whatever way that is for them and that's it.

Speaker 1: 13:56

Like don't make people feel bad, don't make people feel like, oh my gosh, like you're on this app, do something else. It's just an app, like it's not, you know, for a lot of people, and I wasn't like affected big time. I'm not saying this for myself, like because I just told you guys I didn't make any money off this app. I'm speaking just in general because I saw how much it affected other people and just the things that people were saying online. But, yeah, I don't know, let me know what you guys think. Were you guys affected by this? What are your thoughts? Let me know. But that was just what I was thinking and it was just like really stressful to watch people stress out so much about it. Like I really felt bad. I felt for people and just some of the things that I was hearing. I was like my gosh. Like it's, yeah, but anywho, if you guys want to follow my social media, the links are all in on my website, mentalhealthishcom. The usernames for all my socials are Zuppie, sue, which is just what I stuck by for everything. Um, yeah, let me know what your thoughts are on this, but that's just one of the many things I feel like.

Speaker 1: 15:04

The year 2025 has been so crazy, so stressful, and I just so like what's next? You know like what's coming next, and it's only week three. It's only week three, you guys, so let me know what your thoughts are and how you have been doing this year so far, and hopefully I'm back to recording more consistently now that I'm getting. I am getting a little better. I'm not as sick as before, so, yeah, I have so many ideas on on different topics that I want to discuss, so I'm really excited. But, yeah, thank you guys for being here. Remember to subscribe, like, share and follow my social media pages for more updates, and I'm also going to be writing a new blog, and so check out my website at mentalhealthishcom for all past mental health blogs, and I will talk to you guys soon. Bye.