Issue 1: It begins!
So I guess this makes December 5th Neurotopical's birthday.
Hey! It’s really happening! It’s the Neurotopical launch! While I roll around on the ground shrieking into my hands about this, here’s some info on what we’re all about:
There’s a lot of information online around understanding ourselves and how our minds work. But brains are tricky things, and when it comes to individual ones, there’s so much variety that many mainstream articles wind up giving pretty generic advice: ‘Eat balanced meals! Get enough sleep! Exercise! Drink water!’
Which, look. Those are all sound pieces of advice. But they’re the ‘make sure your car doesn’t run out of fuel, and don’t drive it underwater’ level of assistance when it comes to the mechanics of our minds.
What I’ve wanted to know, is ‘why is my brain’s engine always making that weird clicking noise, and while we’re here, it’s kind of run out of juice… how do I jump-start it?’
In order to find my own answers, I made myself into a test subject. I nicknamed the test “Unstable Process” and started investigating my own mental mechanics.
Over time my experiments showed me ways I could personally manage my executive dysfunction and anxiety issues a little better, but there was something else that gave me a boost nothing else could – hearing other people’s personal experiences with their own mental health.
In my case, it was this comic about autism in women that opened my eyes to a lot of things about myself that conventional wisdom never had.
There are so many useful stories like these, that let us as a community pass on our experiences to help other people struggling with similar issues. When it comes to brains and mental health, it’s impossible to find one-size-fits-all answers. By sharing stories of our own experiences along with traditional sources of info, I feel we all have a much better shot at finding the answers that work for us.
Okay, so there’s the background, now for the nitty-gritty. I guess I can stop rolling around on the floor to go through the basics:
Neurotopical is predominantly a newsletter/website. The website will share all the main articles publicly, but the newsletter will sometimes contain extra things just for our subscribers.
We won’t send more than three emails a month, generally only two.
Eventually Neurotopical may expand to other things – podcasts and videos being near the top of the list.
I have a couple interviews and other articles lined up to share with you, but in early 2020 I’ll also be reaching out to the community in general for people’s personal stories around specific topics.
We have a code of ethics to protect both our contributors and the community, and some more information about Neurotopical in general.
If there’s subjects linked with mental health, psychology or neuroscience that you would love me to collect stories about, you’re welcome to reply directly to this email – I’ll read every response! You can also @ me with suggestions at the Neurotopical twitter account.
Time to swallow my anxiety at finally making this thing A Thing and press send,