This Week In Southern History: A Georgia Boy Goes To Therapy

This week in southern history, we go all the way back to Wednesday, February 9th, 2022, and here's what the world looked like then!:

After a critically acclaimed first season, The Book Of Boba Fett aired its finale and brought tears to the eyes of grown nerds everywhere, including ya boy!

Donald Trump's former White House trade advisor Peter Navarro was subpoenaed by the January 6th panel. This is the 80th subpoena for the committee, and I am certain it is inching us closer and closer to having this whole thing wrapped up with the perpetrators behind bars. Oh right, you're reading this, so my sarcasm isn't coming through, and you cant tell that I had to retype this six times because I was laughing so hard. My bad. Moving on.

It was also announced on February 9th that all Dollywood employees who are planning to seek higher education, including full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees, will have their tuition completely covered. I do not have a joke for this. Still, I thought it should be pointed out because usually when Tennessee pops up in "This Week In Southern History," it's because they set a new world record in minorities discriminated against or some shit. I thought it would be nice to mention that it ain't all-white hoods and Mountain Dew keggers down this way. Thank ya, Dolly!

Up in the North Georgia city of Chickamauga, GA, in one of America's most Gerrymandered districts, another very against-type event was taking place as local comedian and dipshit Corey Ryan Forrester, aka ya boy, attended therapy for the first time.

Yes, that's right, this edition of This Week In Southern History is a little different, and I am sorry to disappoint, but I'd like to get it off of my chest! I have talked a mean game about depression and anxiety for quite a while, and it was bout time I practiced what I preached. Sure, I have made so much progress in the past couple of years in changing my diet, exercise, and general relationship to my brain. Hell, just acknowledging out loud that I suffered from some type of mental illness was a huge relief to me because it allowed me to realize that I was truly not alone.

I am a fortunate man and am blessed to have readers worldwide, so some of you may be confused about why this is such a revelation. Perhaps where you are from, mental illness has always been talked about in the open, and depression and anxiety are not considered weaknesses. Well, I am from the South and can tell you that you couldn't even get depression down here until bout 2008, maybe 2009. Before that, depression was just something your Meemaw had to live through when a bunch of banker men in New York guessed wrong in some money game and f*cked the whole world up. It certainly wasn't something that a MAN had!

Suck it up, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It's all in your head, try smiling, put on a happy face, keep your chin up. What do you have to be depressed about? It's all in your head! I've heard it all before, and boy, am I sick of it. Btw.... it IS all in your head... that's kind of the problem! Where I'm from, you have to be a man, and men are tough, and tough people do not get depressed—end of story.

Well, I would like to re-write that story if possible. If you are reading this and you are suffering from a mental illness (which most people would say is a requirement for being a fan of mine), I would like you to know that A.) You are not alone, and B.) You are not a weak person. Not because of your mental health issues, at least, frankly, I don't know shit else about you. I was just trying to be nice.

I’m rambling, I know, and it’s also possible that being so open about my struggles and being venerable in such a public place like the internet (see: cesspool of hate) has made me take a few steps back in my journey towards mental wellness. That’s just something I’ll have to live with because if there is one thing I could have used as a kid, it would’ve been a grown man who sounded like me telling me that they were going through the same thing and that I was going to be alright. If I can’t be anything else in this world, I can at least be that guy for someone.

Thank you for reading this, and remember to be kind to one another… seems like about the only thing we can do!

Next week we will return to our regularly scheduled program where I will most likely write a story about some insane thing that Mark Twain did!

Get help if you need it folks! I genuinely feel 10x better just for taking the next step and talking to someone!

‘Corey