Sooo...About AlienJesus...

"Bought a ticket for a runaway train, like a madman laughing at the rain...

A little out of touch...a little insane...just easier than dealing with the pain."

-from Runaway Train, by Soul Asylum

Here's a few facts: approximately 5–12% of all hospital emergency department visits are related to mental health conditions, and 20-30% of these persons require hospitalization and extended intervention. I am a statistic.

Between late summer and early fall of 2024, I experienced a severe Psychotic Break facilitated by several traumatic life events and stressors in sequence. Every year, 3-6% of the US population experiences the same. Nearly 75% of those are men, like me.

A psychotic break is a sudden, significant loss of contact with reality where a person has difficulty distinguishing between what is real and not. Psychosis looks different for everyone but common symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, and unpredictable or irrational behavior.

The break was not diagnosed or treated. I didn't know it had happened. Life went on. It would be well over a year later before I would hear the words uttered by my neurologist.

In fairness, there was a lot going on with me at the time- I had several clues and culprits to explain my symptoms. And I sure did my best to explain them, because none of it made sense, least of all to me.

I now know that the red-flag symptoms of my break were:

• Fatigue and lethargy, lack of motivation to do anything at all

• Withdrawing from personal projects and hobbies

• Hallucinations- hearing voices and feeling under spiritual attack

• Delusions- Feeling the presence of spiritual entities that tried to steer my car off the I10 bridge to Slidell 3x in one day (that was a big one)

• Emotional dysregulation

• Extreme working memory issues

• Crippling anxiety to the point of mild convulsions

• Spatial and balance difficulties

• Extreme difficulty thinking clearly and logically

• Deterioration of vision

Now, to anyone that has read anything at all that I've written over the better part of the past year, none of this will raise an eyebrow. I've written very publicly of gods, aliens, cataclysms, and AlienJesus. Psychotic Breaks happen. So do Nervous Breakdowns and Burnout. They can happen to anyone and everyone. We don't fully understand the process or why or how it happens, but at some point, humans have simply had enough, and reality breaks for them.

Stress is a cause and a symptom. Sometimes, life becomes too much. Many people choose violence against themselves or others. Many choose addiction or substance abuse. People make lots of choices when life becomes more than they can bear. I can tell you those choices are logical in the moment, not chaotic. Rather than eat crayons and stab people, I chose to face my demons and find God. That's who I am. The crisis was new but the man was not. I can tell you it was not a one-time, one-off choice. The crazy part is that the choice doesn't matter. The person finding God is experiencing the same tragedy and pain as the person eating crayons. They both need the same help. They both face the same peril and the same damage to their nervous system. If early intervention is not achieved, permanent damage to the nervous system can occur.

Everyone around me knew plainly and clearly that I was in crisis. It was obvious. When grown men who have done particular things a particularly way their entire lives one day sit down and cease to do those things at all anymore for no apparent reason other than their feelings...THAT IS A MASSIVE RED FLAG. Families do their best to go along and get along and maintain status quo. But sometimes, families have to act. That loved one in crisis needs help and should be sent to the hospital- against their strongest protests if necessary. The choice to do this is never easy. It's never clear. It's a horribly unfair position to be placed in. But the call must be made. Statistics are not clear, but one study of youth in behavioral health crisis revealed that 70% of ambulance calls within that cohort are made by 2nd-party callers (family and friends). Sometimes, families have to act.

I had to make that call for someone many years ago. She, with gun in hand and infants in the home, threatened suicide again. I made the call, and the ambulance got to the house before I did. It was not an easy or clear choice, even then. It was a horribly unfair position to have been placed in. But I made the call because that is what family does. They know when "normal" becomes "problem". They know what is uncharacteristic. Knowing is never the issue. They...YOU...must have courage to act.

When you have a loved one in a mental health crisis such as Burnout, a Nervous Breakdown, or, worse, a Psychotic Break, there are some things you can do even at home for your loved one to help mitigate the experience:

• Give them grace. They may not know they need it. They may refuse it if you offer it too loudly.

• Give them understanding. They may not be able to offer any in return.

• Give them space to be weak. Everyone needs a place to fall apart. Everyone deserves space to function as best they can.

• Remember that words matter. For me, when I lost touch with reality, I fell back on my understanding of language in order to function at all. Words were all I had to measure the realness of my reality, so ALL of them became important. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Let your Yes be Yes and your No be No.

• Avoid the temptation to weaponize their plight into blame, mockery, or isolation. These hurt and never motivate or help. If you take the crisis serious enough to mock it, then you also accept the condition enough to make a kinder, more serious choice.

• Lastly, understand that they are probably more confused, horrified, embarrassed, and upset by their behavior than you are. They are doing all they can- blind as bats, determined as hell, fierce as you always knew they were but IN THE WRONG DIRECTION now. They have no idea what is real. Let that sit. See them, and understand.

• Call an ambulance. Tell them to bring the gurney and the straight jacket if needed. Physically help them hold down and strap your family member onto that gurney if you have to, lovingly or not. It is the right thing to do. Early intervention is critical. Make the call!

Each day brings progress. Each day brings some degree of recovery. I'm up to a consistent 8-hour DoorDash workday now, 6 days a week- a far cry from mid-2025 when I was sleeping roughly 18 hours a day. I have a long way to go and am no where near out-of-the-woods. The things we go through and the things that happen to us are all ours to manage in the final analysis. It doesn't matter what it's called or what it means or how we got to where we are. It all still must be handled and we still move forward one step at a time.

While this process was a journey through a kind of hell, I also found God. What I experienced spiritually was truly the most profound and MOST REAL thing I have ever experienced in my entire life. To those that followed that process with me through my writing, what does this mean? Was it all merely psychotic rambling? Maybe. Clearly. Of course not. But I also stand by the correctness of what I wrote. If I mishandled or mistreated an idea or concept theologically, Biblically, linguistically, etymologically, or culturally, I would LOVE to have that good-natured debate anytime and anywhere. Otherwise, I will say to you now what I said to my readers when I began writing (the text remains on my blog to this day):

These are my words. I choose them for me. Enjoy, or don't. Find what truth here you can, leave the rest. I am no expert. I am not a professional. I write what I write.

I stand by those words, too. If my journey brought me Near, perhaps it can bring YOU near. If not, that's allright... AlienJesus loves you anyway. ;)

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Statistically, 3-6% of US adults experience a Psychotic Break every year. That's 10-20 Million husbands, fathers, children, mothers, wives, brothers, sisters, and friends. Every year. Statistics, all.