Suicide Prevention Saturday - Just talking about it can help prevent it.
The live‑stream, hosted by Brooke (Speaker A) with co‑host DJ and a rotating group of community members (Mike White, Chasing Ghosts/Tara, Mario Mosin, Fiona, Michael Ballinger, etc.), is framed as “Suicide Prevention Saturday.” The host opens by noting that two‑thirds of gun‑related deaths are suicides and argues that discussing mental health can both save lives and reduce violence. The conversation is informal and conversational, moving between introductions, personal anecdotes, and practical self‑care tips. A central theme is the importance of basic hydration: the host shows a water bottle, recounts advice from friends and a medic (Caleb Causey) that dehydration contributes to headaches, migraines, and many health issues, and offers simple guidelines (e.g., ½ × body weight in ounces of water). The discussion expands to coffee, soda, sugar, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives, contrasting their health impacts and emphasizing that water remains the simplest, healthiest beverage. Throughout, the host repeatedly urges viewers to “take care of yourself,” “fill your own bucket,” and to prioritize self‑care as caregivers. The stream also serves as a community‑building platform for the gun community, mentioning recent SHOT Show interactions, upcoming mental‑health initiatives within the gun world, and encouraging viewers to like, comment, subscribe, and share. The host sets a subscriber goal (500) to fund future content like stickers. The session ends with DJ’s closing remarks encouraging safety, fun, and self‑care, and a teaser for the next episode (Hillbilly Up).
Chapters
All right, for real. Just got a shout out to DM Foss just one more time. Haven't seen her around, and I think I might have missed him at SHOT Show. But anyway, I love this. That always cracks me up. Anywho, hi everyone, it is Suicide Prevention Saturday. And why are we here? Because 2 out of every 3 gun deaths you hear about are suicides. And if we actually want to save lives, we should talk about mental health and suicide prevention because there's even a bonus here. If we do some of the things that help mental awareness and mental health, we also can manage to help prevent violence as well. So that is why we're here on Suicidal Mindset Saturday, to try to help people— me, you, the world in general. And so here we are. What is tonight? It's Saturday. What are we going to talk about? I have no idea. Which is often the case when we get on. However, I don't know if y'all got bombarded with notifications, but having been behind essentially for the past 2 months where I keep forgetting to put this up— like, this one got put up, oh, I don't know, 6:55 or something today. The next month, February and March, they're already up, so you can hit the notify button and you will get known. Oh, Um, so, all right, so let me, let me say this in order. Hi, Mike White, since you were first. And well, actually, I suppose officially DJ was first because he said hi at like 6:55 or whenever I finally put this up. Um, and then Tara, uh, AKA Chasing Ghosts, and also Tara's Kitchen. Where is it? Right there. Tara Smith's Kitchen. Um, and Mario. Hey, Mario. Is it this cold? Well, no, but I have a stuffy nose and a sore throat, so I'm trying to stay all warmy and snuggy here. I've got a heater going at my feet, although to be fair, I'm still wearing flip-flops, so it's really not that cold. So there is that. Um, hey Mike, nice to see you as well. The other Mike. So yes, we have Mike Ballinger over there on the Facebook side, and before I said hi Mike, we're talking to Mike White. Um, oh, Chasing Ghosts, what'd you say? Pulling out of water— what? Pulling water out of frack tanks will probably have to go when tank is full. All right, well, since I don't even know what that is, I'm assuming that like you said, when it's done, it's done. And then— wait— and then there's my West Coast buddy Mario Mosin. Um, and yes, next year if I go back to SHOT Show, I will give you more of a heads up so So maybe you can just pop on a plane since that's as close as I've been to you since you and I have been chatting. All right, so, um, so many things. So one, right, let's talk about mental health. Well, I'm going to show you my water bottle. Why are we going to talk about water bottle with mental health? Well, guess one of the easiest things you can do for yourself? Ta-da! Stay hydrated. No, I'm not selling this bottle or anything like that, although it is one of my favorite water bottles. But, um, prior to SHOT Show, all of my friends who had been before and had given me advice, they're like, stay hydrated before you go to SHOT Show, and then stay hydrated while you're at SHOT Show. And I did a pretty good job of that. Hold up. The problem with having a runny nose, it makes me sneeze more. So, oh please, I don't know, or not. Oh, don't y'all love that when you think you're gonna sneeze but then you don't sneeze? All right. Oh my goodness. All right, so G-Webs, to ask— answer your question, if that is not your first chat then no, your chats are not posting. If that was your first chat, then yes, your chats are posting. All right, so friends and family said make sure you're hydrated before you go to Vegas, it's so dry, which is sort of, um, and then while at Vegas I did my best to drink at least 2 or 3 of these a day, and then I came home and I started slacking. Now to be fair, I came home and I started teaching on Sunday. I flew home late on Saturday night, and I've taught Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, uh, Sunday, Monday, went to appointments and stuff on Tuesday, then have been teaching all the week. So my— I was gonna say my alcohol content, but no, my water content has not been as good, which is probably why once I got home from SHOT Show and I was fine because I let my water consumption go down I did not, um, I did not stay healthy. So mental health and water, who knew that was something that could be so simple? One of the guys in my classes today, actually, he says how he has headaches every day, and I said, oh, do you drink enough water? And he's like, maybe, maybe not. He wasn't really sure. So, uh, the reality of it is, is most of the things that happen to us are because we don't have enough water. Like I have headaches, I get migraines, that sort of thing. If I start to get one, the first thing I do is drink more water because I assume that is dehydration. I have a friend of mine, Caleb Causey, from, um, what's the name of his company? Hmm, something that Lone Star Medics. And he will tell you now, he's been over in the sand playing and everything else. He's a serious medic. In war zones and all that fun stuff. And he says probably 80% of the issues that he has could be avoided if the people actually drank their water. So hydration, super important. Guess what? Did you know that your brain is made primarily of water? That the reason your head is so heavy is because the squishy material in there is like a giant sponge, basically. So what do you need to do? Oh wait, hint, water. Yes, there we go. So, um, mental health. Sometimes we have to remember to put ourselves first. We need to make sure that something as simple as drinking our water is us taking care of us. As a human being, often We are caregivers, whether we're a dad taking care of a kid, a mom taking care of a kid, or right now my life is starting to turn the other way as my children are getting old enough to leave the house. My mom is now in need of care. So we go through our phases where we're caregivers for others or we're being taken care of. And to remember that we have to fill our own bucket first. So all of those things are mental health issues. You want to pay attention to what's going on around you. You want to make sure you are taking care of you with something as simple as, ah, some water. So those of you who happen to have some water on hand, go ahead, take a swig. I give you permission. Ooh, DJ, I did not say a gallon of water. This is only 32 ounces. And if you do 2— sorry, I'm going to finish this— do 2 of these, this is 64 ounces. That's what they generally suggest. I just did the 75 Hard, what, 3 years ago, 4 years ago, and I did do a gallon a day, and I would not recommend a gallon a day. A gallon a day when you start and you're dehydrated, because here's the other thing about hydration. We often don't realize that we are dehydrated. So no, I wouldn't suggest a gallon a day. Uh, like I said, when you start, if you haven't drank any water, it's good to help bring that all up. But, um, yeah, uh, they— there's so many different metrics you can do. One is take your body weight, put it in half, and that's how many ounces. So let's say you weigh 100 pounds. None of you weigh 100 pounds, or none of us that I'm aware of. So if you weighed 100 pounds, you would drink 50 ounces of water, which is 1.5 of these. If you weigh 200 pounds, now you're drinking 100 ounces, which is 3 of these, roughly. I can do math, I swear. So here's the reality that I think I learned while doing 75 Heart is drink until you are content. But make sure you're drinking enough. We were laughing at Fiona keeping hydrated, drinking water, nothing else, because everything else isn't good for you with all that sugar and caffeine and stuff. I don't know what the rules are on live, what you can say and what you can't, but y'all can read what that says. I don't have to say it. So there are things that are good for you, and water is just the easiest, simplest, cleanest thing for you to do. And you can drink other things sort of, kind of, but if you're trying to be hydrated, water is absolutely the best because, as DJ says, but that is what's recommended. Um, all right. Hello, Tactical FUD. Uh, now here's the thing. I've been taking DJ's job, so we're 10 minutes in. I'm gonna mute myself for a moment and take another thing while I throw DJ up on the screen, and he's going to do a roll call anyway so y'all can hear his dulcet tones for a minute.
Right on. Thanks, Brooke. There are more people out there listening than commenting in the text chat. Remember, everybody hit that thumbs up and share the live today. Out there we have Mike White Chasing Ghosts is also out there doing something about some water and some tanks. Mario Mosin's out there saying hey. Gun Websites is in the room, so is Fiona. And most recently Tactical Thud Buck is here today. On that Facebook side, we have Michael Ballinger. He's out in the crowd. What about you, Brooke? You ready to come back?
Yes, sir, I am fine. Well, I'm relatively fine. Oh wait, I, I swear I didn't hit any button. I swear. All right, um, G-Webs, I appreciate the water with coffee in it. So I think it was my daughter who actually said that. She's like, what? Oh, what was it? It was coffee is just bean juice. And I'm like, thinking about coffee as bean juice made it not seem quite as appealing if I think of it like bean juice. But you have coffee beans, they get shredded, and then you're filtering water through it. So is she right? It's bean juice. I don't know. Um, so there we have it, uh, water, coffee, all of that. So here's the thing, sort of back to what Fiona was saying about coffee actually, or anything besides water, is that coffee by itself is actually shown to do good things for you. Like that little bit of caffeine, a little bit of diuretic, all those things are actually not necessarily bad for you. The challenge we have, us Americans generally, is that we throw other crap in it, like what Fiona was saying, sugar and cream. Then it's not so bad. Then it's not so good for you. But coffee by itself, like anything else in the world in limited quantities, is actually not actually bad for you. And no, DJ, 144 ounces or so of soda does not count. As far as at all, so here's the reality of it. Just like everything else in the world, can you find a study that will tell you it's okay to drink soda? Yes, it will tell you there is hydration properties within it. However, then there's the other study on the other side, like Fiona was talking about with sugar. The challenge with sugar when it goes into your body is it creates inflammation. And your body's inflammation response is part of what makes, like, you swollen and everything hurt. For those of us who are older, arthritis— what is it? It's just a type of swelling. Sickness, right? My stuffy nose right now is my membranes slightly, whatever that's called, swollen and annoyed, right? So there's liquid in soda. So yeah, that counts sort of. Unfortunately, the bad side effects of what the sugar does to you is not awesome because nobody needs more inflammation in their lives. Now I have a girlfriend who is addicted to Diet Coke and like that, I love her to pieces. She's from Winstead, Fiona, you might know her. But anyway, she loves Diet Coke. Like, as far as— that's what she drinks. Diet Coke, Diet Coke, Diet Coke. So there's no sugar there, but there's other fake chemicals that are making it sweet. And ready for this? This is the most horrible study yet, is that even though she's not drinking the sugar, because it tastes sweet, her brain says, oh, I have something sweet, therefore And I'm gonna do the same immune response. I am going to crave it more because we like sweet and all of those things. So, um, what does it say? The soda is made of water thing. Yes, it is. It's true. And, uh, yeah. All right, sorry, I didn't really— I clicked the wrong one. All right, so this is the problem with watching and talking. All right, so aspartame is bad. Oops. And Chasing Ghosts, hi. I guess there's, um, Arthur was one of the worst of those Wrightist boys. Yeah, I don't, I don't know what Grandpa from 1998 is, or is that what your grandpa actually says? Um, because arthritis does suck for sure. All right, so I take it Tara's, uh, water tank is empty now. So bye, Tara, nice seeing you while you were here. And Diet Coke, he then could be pounding chocolate bars. Well, yeah, so here is actually my take on this is if I'm gonna have something sweet, I'm gonna have something naturally sweet. I'm going to have my pear, my apple, my carrots. Um, if I'm gonna have a soda, I am absolutely gonna have a regular soda because there's lots of bad things in soda, the colors and everything else. But if I'm gonna have it, I I'm going to have regular soda. Excuse me. So that I just have regular sugar because our bodies— ooh, there's so many things. I don't know if you guys know, but our bodies actually decompose slower because of all of the artificial— what are those things called that make things last longer? What is it that makes a Twinkie last forever? What are they called? Those things that make food not go bad? Preservatives. There we go. All right, I'm sure someone's going to type that right away. So because of all the preservatives that are in our bodies, when we get buried now, we decompose slower than we did 100 years ago, even when we are, uh, are trying to eat healthy. Preserved. See, I knew someone would write it. Of course it was UT Webs. So Yes. And since we're going with Arthur was the worst of those Wrightist boys from Grandpa, we'll do other quotes such from Mike. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt. Absolutely. So onwards and upwards. Yeah. Preservation rules. There is that you do get to live long. Well, you don't live longer, you decay longer. So there's that. How we got from water and the fact that we decay slower, I don't know. That's why I say I never know how these are gonna go. All right, so mental health, suicide prevention. I just got back from SHOT Show. There's a ton of stuff that's in the works to try to help bring together more— what I want to say— more mental health awareness within the gun community. And I'm looking forward to sharing more of that with you as we go. For tonight, I don't have any specifics because I don't think I'm allowed to talk about some of this stuff until stuff actually happens. So, uh, with what DJ said, if this is your first time watching, we thank you for your viewership. We hope that you hit the like, comment, and more important, perhaps most importantly, the subscribe buttons. Oh yes, because I am trying to get at least up to 500— that's 100 for each one of my fingers, for those of us who are mathematically challenged like I am, uh, 500 subscribers so you guys can do fun stuff like do fun stickers and that sort of thing during these things. So, and, uh, yeah, sorry, I'll do the full thing. So if you've been here a lot, like most of you that have at least commented, Mike Ballinger, by the way, wins the award for being the longest, uh, watching, because he's over on Facebook, which is where I've been doing this since 2018. And in all honesty, I don't know when I came onto YouTube, but Mike has been watching me since the beginning. So there we have it. All right, y'all have fun. It's Saturday night. I'm sure you have more fun things to do than sit here watching me and DJ play. And drink some water. Hydration, one of the easiest, simplest things you can do for your overall health, your mental health. And that's kind of it. All right, Mr. DJ, what are your parting words of wisdom before we go?
Enjoy what you drink and make sure that it's at least partially water. I don't know, asking a soda addict to come up with something positive to say on a Drink Your Water cast, I'm not sure that I was the best guest. I did enjoy seeing everybody out there tonight. Do appreciate the interaction out there in the text chat. So once again, tonight we were joined by Mike White, Chasing Ghosts, Mario Mosin, Gun Websites. Fiona was out there, and Hillbilly Up, the latest in the room, is going to have to listen to a replay. Michael Bellinger was out there on the Facebook side. Until we see everybody again, be safe, have fun, take care of your crew and yourself, and rock!
Oh yeah, and I almost forgot to tell everybody, since you're here right now Mr. DJ. I got to see DJ live and in person for the first time in our lives last week at SHOT Show, and I got to watch him be Mr. Effort— effervescent. Oh well, he was super like chatty and sweet to our waiter and all of that. So, uh, what is it, about half an hour? 10 o'clock my time, 9 o'clock Central. Hillbilly Up is gonna be popping on and talking about everything else, uh, random. I don't know, it's always something fun. And, uh, yeah. All right, adiós muchachas and muchachos, and I will see you next week. Like I said, I put them out for the next 2 months, so go ahead, hit the notification buttons too. All right.
