They actually do allow you to mention it in marketing; I've worked with them for a consumer product. What you can't do is use it in "paid" marketing.
Emails, social media posts, website landing pages, collateral in-store/retail is all fully acceptable. You can also pay additional fees to them for additional materials to use in communications.
A few years ago now, I went through the most traumatic experience of my life. In a moment, all of my thoughts about how life was, is or was going to be were shattered.
I didn't sleep a full night for about a year following. From that moment on, I was in the grips of the most terrible depression - mixed with anxiety - I've ever faced. I woke up every day feeling that my life was worthless. I wanted it to be over. I cried most days. I was trapped in endless rumination (and I mean endless - nearly all my waking days, and nightmares continued on the same themes). I felt that I may be going insane. I could not imagine how I'd ever move forward. I felt like I was in a hellish 'Groundhog Day', nothing changing. Barely making it through work, through time with my children. I'd cry just thinking of how terrible it was to be this way around my children - that they'd be subjected to a father who couldn't pull himself out of the darkness.
After a few months of agony, I decided to try Zoloft. I couldn't make it past the 3rd day. The anxiety was too much, and I was terrified of what would happen to me on "ssris". Instead, over the ensuing months, I did multiple solo and guided mushroom experiences. I tried MDMA (in therapeutic sessions). I tried Ketamine. I did almost 2 years of therapy. I tried Buproprion (which I remained on, on the lowest dose, at the request of my doctor - despite it having no discernable impact). Countless books, supplements, diet, exercise, sleep. Nothing made the slightest difference. I woke up every day and viscerally felt that I hated my life.
I was terrified to trying SSRIs, because of the fear of sexual side effects, and all of the nightmare stuff I'd read countless sleepless nights reading medication reviews (brain zaps, etc).
Then, a few months ago now - after speaking at length with a friend who suffers from bi-polar, who depends on medication to function (and is grateful it's available) - I made a decision: I was not going to let fear of unknowns decide my future. I decided that, if there was a chance my life might improve - that I might be able to reduce my suffering be even 10% - that it'd be worth it. Not just for me, but for my family.
I decided to commit to trying Zoloft again - this time at the smallest dose available (25 mg). I figured, the worst that could happen is that it wouldn't work, and that I'd stop taking it.
I had no side effects to speak of. Within 3 weeks, I noticed a slight change. I wasn't ruminating as much. I found myself wanting to go out for a walk. I was able to play with my daughter for an hour - and enjoy it. I felt something might be shifting, but I didn't want to "jinx" it.
However, by the 6-8 week mark, it was undeniable. I was laughing again. I was able to sit down and watch a movie, without needing to saturate myself with intense stimuli (ie: competitive video games) just to keep the rumination at bay. I was able to read for pleasure. It was remarkable.
Now, 3 months later, I almost don't remember what I felt like before. While I have moments in each day where the traumatic experience rises up, it just passes. I can let it go. I'm not riddled by anxiety. My therapist is blown away by the change. I actual look forward to my job now. I enjoy things. I have my life back. It feels like a miracle.
I'm still on the smallest dose, have encountered zero side effects, and feel no need to increase.
I would never tell anyone what to do with their life and health. But for 2 years I listened to the fear instilled in me via internet forums, articles, etc - people all demonizing SSRIs. I went through absolute hell.
I wish I'd committed to giving them a shot earlier.
I am so insanely grateful for SSRIs. They have saved my life.
Thank you for your story, I'm glad you are in a better place now.
> without needing to saturate myself with intense stimuli (ie: competitive video games) just to keep the rumination at bay
I can relate to this so much. I have racked up countless hours (literal thousands...) on competitive games over the last decade or so, mostly as a coping mechanism. I have stopped a bunch of times because I realized even if I was good at these games I didn't actually enjoy them, I just played them because they masked the other things I was feeling.
Not to put words in your mouth, but "Just get married" sounds eerily close to "someone else will fix you".
Sure, marriage can bring lots of purpose and meaning to your life. It may even 'fix' you, for a time. However, it can also bring devastation. Being betrayed by who I felt was my partner in life nearly destroyed me, and years later I'm still struggling to find my footing.
Relying on union with another person is not, in my eyes, a viable solution for the long term. At best, you're punting the internal work that's truly called for down the road to another day.
This is a wonderful post, and really represents my lived experience for the past few years. It's like having to start all over again - a complete dismemberment experience - only with 1/10th the energy and 100x the responsibilities (ie: kids).
Your words inspire me and help me to feel that there's an after, because it's been a very long and grueling few years.
I would be careful with that line of thinking. We often envy illusion. We don't truly know that 'those people' are living nearly as wonderful a life as we're inclined to think they are. Further, in my experience, the "perfect life" is always one moment away from "disaster" - be it a health complication, sudden loss, or any of the myriad of ways things go awry. Pain and suffering is not something any of us seems likely to avoid in this life, and inflicting misery upon ourselves due to comparison with what is likely projected fantasy is just one of its many shades.
I keep seeing this study referenced. However, I find it pretty glaring that the Range Hoods they used are not even adequately rated for gas stove usage.
For instance, they listed "flow rates for the models used as 160–220 cubic feet per minute".
These are range hoods typically used for electric models - not gas. 400 CFM is generally considered a baseline hood for gas stoves (100 CFM / 10000 BTU).
I would feel much more confident in their results had they used more powerful range hoods that were more appropriate for the stoves in question.
I've never had a kitchen with a 400CFM+ range hood, despite 50-50 gas appliances. All but one have been micro-hood combos and those don't move much air at all.
I share your dismay. Even if you're someone who doesn't care about the issues that have come to light over the past year, the blatant mismanagement (dare I say running into the ground) of the once golden Blizzard portfolio has been painful as a long-time Starcraft 2 fan.
For a moment, I was truly hopeful that we might see some reinvigoration for blundered projects like the Warcraft III reforged.
Perhaps even some hope that Microsoft might breathe new life into Starcraft II, which still stands as an incredible game.
Everything under Blizzard's portfolio feels like it has been left to rot. The only thing they seem to put effort into is their Pay-To-Win card game, Hearthstone.
Unfortunately even under new management I don't see Starcraft getting much love, the focus is now on cross-platform games and RTS games are PC only (which is a small niche compared to the overall market).
Given how ActiBlizz doesn't even want to acknowledge Starcrafts existence anymore, excluding it from Blizzcon e-sport highlights and leaving the broken ranked system unfixed for I don't even know long it's been, I believe change in company culture there would need to be pretty substantial to bring some love back to Starcraft.
They catapulted over the shark with the conclusion of SC2's campaign, so it wouldn't surprise me, buuut if I've learned anything in this era of reboots, it's that no IP is really dead, some of them just hibernate for a while, and promises a popular franchise is done aren't worth the electrons inconvenienced to convey it.
I'm not so sure. Microsoft recently revived their Age of Empires franchise, and has has been pretty good about supporting it as an e-sport (sponsoring tournaments & streamers, reliably re-balancing, releasing updated versions, etc.). I wouldn't be surprised if they took a long term view for the much-larger-RTS Starcraft, especially given its size relative to AoE.
Wait, did they start putting effort into Hearthstone? I stopped playing a couple of years ago. To me, the bellwether is whether the game still locks up for a second right before a match starts as it synchronously produces a megabyte of logs or something.
The game never really felt that great after Ben Brode left. Battlegrounds was pretty OK though.
They put a lot of effort into their new game mode (which might as well be an entirely separate game from Hearthstone), but by all indications it flopped pretty hard.
There has been more activity than normal on the core game mode and Battlegrounds, although mostly focused on content (whether actual cards or cosmetics) than actual technology changes or new features.
Thank you very much for sharing this. Me too. Like yours, mine occurred early. Like you, I was exposed to my abuser many times afterward.
As a boy, I carried my shame in silence, and learned early to dislike and avoid extended family gatherings, masking my avoidance in a blanket of "family sucks/is boring" cynicism.
As an early teen entering puberty, I grew increasingly disturbed about had happened. I tried to force the feelings away, almost ritually, but grew increasingly mired in confusion about what was wrong with me. Why did I (despite the fact that I was but 5-6 years old at the time) not take action? Did this mean I enjoyed being abused? Did this mean it wasn't abuse? Did the fact that I didn't stop the abuser mean I was not heterosexual? I began bombarding myself with pornography, almost as a salve against the uncertainty and doubt about who I was.
It wasn't until nearly 40 - and in the context of therapy to try to prevent the most important relationships of my life from falling further apart - that I had even considered the fact that I'd survived abuse. I felt ashamed to even think about accepting that statement, as I knew many others had suffered so much more serious forms of long-term abuse.
Only now have I come to marginally accept that decades of suffering internalized shame, fear, pain and mistrust deserve to be called survival.
I now have children who I love with all my heart. I cannot fathom inflicting such suffering upon them - or anyone else, for that matter. I will never be able to entrust them to the care of close family or friends. It's a constant internal struggle when they ask about sleepovers with friends. Such trivial things as "going over to someone's house" trigger immense uncertainty and fear, which I do my best to not burden my children with. I don't know if I will ever truly be able to shed the thick cloak of cynicism - largely a defense mechanism - that has and continues to impede my ability to relate meaningfully to the world and the people around me.
I hope I can - and I hope that awareness grows, so that other people aren't exposed to a similar experience.
> I now have children who I love with all my heart. I cannot fathom inflicting such suffering upon them - or anyone else, for that matter. I will never be able to entrust them to the care of close family or friends. It's a constant internal struggle when they ask about sleepovers with friends. Such trivial things as "going over to someone's house" trigger immense uncertainty and fear, which I do my best to not burden my children with. I don't know if I will ever truly be able to shed the thick cloak of cynicism - largely a defense mechanism - that has and continues to impede my ability to relate meaningfully to the world and the people around me.
My heart aches because you sound so much like my mother.
What I will say is that as her child, one thing I appreciated so much is that I never had to worry if my parents would believe me if something happened. Your kids will have you always in their corner and that makes such, such, such a difference. So much of my mother's turmoil is related to her mother not believing her + the victim-blaming. You're helping and shielding your kids just by being who you are, even if you don't want to worry them.
Thank you for saying this. You're very much right; part of my fear was that - like other members of my family - I wouldn't be believed (or worse, blamed as an "instigator"). Things my children will never have to experience, to be sure.
Kidpower is my favorite resource for how to talk about personal safety with kids and teach them skills to help them stay safe with people. The Safety Comics are a good place to start:
And I also learned a lot and had some big mindset changes from reading the giant Kidpower Book for Caring Adults, which really goes in depth and is good at breaking things down into simple practices.
I really like the mindset of teaching kids how to be safe in a positive way (i.e. without scaring them about potential dangers) and the serious-business approach to our responsibilities as adults.
As someone who has done both on multiple occasions and not come out of the experiences suffering any less, I can say that these are by no means the panacea they're often held out to be. It's fantastic that these options seem to be very helpful to many, but I feel that MDMA and Ketamine - as well as Psilocybin - are suggested with far too much confidence on the outcome.
Emails, social media posts, website landing pages, collateral in-store/retail is all fully acceptable. You can also pay additional fees to them for additional materials to use in communications.