Tom Scharpling on Suicidal Ideation, Depression, In-Patient Care, ECT, and Memory Loss

Within the comedy world, Tom Scharpling is known as a bit of a Swiss Army Knife. He’s the host of the long running Best Show, online now and on WFMU before that. He’s a veteran TV writer on shows like Monk and What We Do In The Shadows. He directs music videos. Now he’s a book writer, with the memoir It Never Ends. In that book and in our interview, he tells stories of his own mental health journey that he’s never shared with an audience before.

Tom started running into trouble with depression when he was around ten years old, which evolved into two hospital stays, the second of which involved electroconvulsive therapy. That treatment wiped out the depression but wiped out a big chunk of his memory in the process.

Get your copy of Tom's memoir It Never Ends: A Memoir With Nice Memories! at www.tomwroteabook.com or wherever books are found. Follow Tom on Twitter @scharpling.

Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. 

Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.

Help is available right away.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.

International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

The Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/

John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.

Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.

John is on Twitter @johnmoe.