Jim Stitzel
Jack-of-All-Trades, Master of WordsExcerpts from Life
Mental Health Redux: Four Days in a Psych Ward
It's been two years now since my first (and hopefully only) inpatient treatment for depression. In so many ways it feels like forever ago because in the intervening months, so much has happened in my life. I've struggled to regain my feet and reassamble my life after...
Mental Health: Things People Say
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and while great strides have been made in recent years to remove and reduce the stigma associated with mental illness, we still have a long way to go to eradicate it completely. So we dedicate this whole month to awareness...
The Least Helpful Thing You Can Say to Someone With an Anxiety Disorder
When you have a mental illness, let alone multiple illnesses that compound on each other, you get used to a certain amount of well-intended but inane advice from any number of people that comes with the intention of helping you out of a rough spot. This generally...
Fiction
Gravity Waves
Lindsey thumbs her comm off and looks around her. Her bridge crew are all strapped into their respective seats, busy with their jobs. An alert pops up on her dash. "Helm," she calls out. "What's this alert about? I see we've made three course adjustments in the last...
Data & Analytics
"Well, we won't put together a landing party until the crew is recovered from hibernation, so three days at least. In the meantime, let's go over the data we have." Lindsey toggles her comm. "Zach, report." Zach Iverston is her chief science officer, and she can tell...
Space Zombies
"I want you to feel special," the zombie said, standing before me. The zombie in question was my former first mate, Emorson Brunnos, now somehow become one of the undead. Myself, I was the captain of this starship, before the horde overran it and turned 90% of the...