Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Supporting Mental Health in the Sauk Valley with Sinnissippi Centers

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Talk Line: Supporting Mental Health in the Sauk Valley with Sinnissippi Centers · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Souk Valley. You're listening to the Waking Crew
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Speaker 1: here on AM fourteen sixty FM ninety five to one
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Speaker 1: wi XN, where you're never more than moments away from
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Speaker 1: all the local new sports and entertainment information needed to
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Speaker 1: start your day off right. And now we turn our
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Speaker 1: attention to our talk line segment portion of the day,
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Speaker 1: where we are joined by our good friends from Sinnissippi Centers.
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Speaker 1: I'm speaking with Andy Jackson, the marketing manager over there.
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Speaker 1: How are you doing today? Andy?
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Speaker 2: Oh, good, good you.
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Speaker 1: I'm I'm well. I've been warm inside the food. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I hear. It's still foggy, little foggy out there, so
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Speaker 1: we've got some a lot of the ground to cover.
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Speaker 1: The best gift of holiday holidays is being able to
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Speaker 1: enjoy them. You kind of wanted to touch on those things.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, holiday season, Well it's here, isn't it. I
0:49
Speaker 3: mean next week, right, so it's not just around the corner.
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Speaker 3: It's kind of here, and you know, and then Christmas
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Speaker 3: of course, and then the New Year. It can be
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Speaker 3: a wonderful time for many, many of us in joy
1:00
Speaker 3: it very much as fast as it can go by,
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Speaker 3: But for some it can be also a stressful time.
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Speaker 3: It can be a sad time. Not everybody experiences it
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Speaker 3: the same way. So what we want to do is
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Speaker 3: offer some tips that I think everybody knows these. I
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Speaker 3: say this a lot. I think people know what to do.
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Speaker 3: It's just remembering the steps and putting them into practice.
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Speaker 3: So hopefully we got some good tips for you if
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Speaker 3: we're getting the most out of the holiday season, no
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Speaker 3: matter how you're experiencing them.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely do you have is your household the kind that is,
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Speaker 1: as soon as Halloween has done, the holiday decorations start
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Speaker 1: coming up for Christmas.
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Speaker 3: We've been busy. We haven't gotten that. Usually Thanksgiving is
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Speaker 3: the cutoff, I think. But we have what I call
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Speaker 3: a holiday tree, so you can program it for different
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Speaker 3: lights so the tree always stays up. And then but yeah,
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Speaker 3: I think we probably would have started putting up some
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Speaker 3: Christmas decorations this year pretty much right after Halloween almost,
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Speaker 3: but a little busy. So talking about busy, we're going
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Speaker 3: to be talking a little bit about that go right ahead,
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Speaker 3: which sure, well, I think the big one is, you know,
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Speaker 3: we get real nostalgic sometimes as adults about the holidays,
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Speaker 3: how how we spend them as kids and we think
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Speaker 3: about that, but we really can't recapture that magic. We
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Speaker 3: can't go back to being kids, but we can still.
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Speaker 3: I think if we keep our expectations for the holidays realistic,
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Speaker 3: we can still get some of that magic back. So
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Speaker 3: if you you know, if we set our expectations too
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Speaker 3: high based on that nostalgia, we're going to miss the mark.
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Speaker 3: But if we can be realistic about it, I think
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Speaker 3: we can experience a little holiday magic even if we
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Speaker 3: keep our expectations realistic, you know, And what is it
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Speaker 3: that makes you enjoy the holidays and then focus on that?
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Speaker 2: So I think that's that's number one.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I absolutely agree with you. And I actually know
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Speaker 1: some folks even sometimes in my own family, who they
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Speaker 1: have this grand idea about, you know, how the dinner
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Speaker 1: is supposed to go, and when everything's supposed.
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Speaker 2: To the Hallmark movie kind of yeah, kind of.
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Speaker 1: Visions absolutely, you know, and then things start to go
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Speaker 1: a little off track and people get upset, and it's yeah,
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Speaker 1: I think you have to remember the point is it's family, right,
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Speaker 1: the people that you love and you care about coming together.
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Speaker 1: Some good food, for sure, there's always a plus. It's
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Speaker 1: about being together. So I couldn't agree with you.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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Speaker 3: So another one is the same theme in a way,
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Speaker 3: developing a realistic holiday budget. And then the trick is
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Speaker 3: always sticking to budgets. I mean that this applies to
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Speaker 3: all year long, but of course during the holidays. You know,
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Speaker 3: money or lack of it, is the biggest stressor of
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Speaker 3: any time of the year, but especially during those the holidays.
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Speaker 3: So if you make that budget, you stick with it.
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Speaker 3: Maybe you're not paying off the credit card until March
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Speaker 3: April May of next year. It really is the thought
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Speaker 3: that counts. It may sound cliche, but it really is
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Speaker 3: the thought that you put into it that counts into
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Speaker 3: gifts and everything else. It's not just gifts that cost
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Speaker 3: money at the holidays. And so if you can do
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Speaker 3: that and remove the biggest stressor during the holidays, I
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Speaker 3: think you'll notice you're happier and that that attitude is contagious,
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Speaker 3: so everybody around you will be happier as well.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely, if you're smiling, people are people are going to
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Speaker 1: be happy to see you in a good mood than
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Speaker 1: to know that you put yourself into debt extra five
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Speaker 1: hundred bucks over a gift.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think it's going to be noticed. But
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Speaker 3: it's up to you. It's up to you. But it's
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Speaker 3: it's a it's a good I think it's a good tip.
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Speaker 1: So so your next tip, knowing knowing one to say no.
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Speaker 3: It's kind of kind of along the same theme and
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Speaker 3: saying no to spending too much money, but also saying
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Speaker 3: no to spending too much time. We only have so
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Speaker 3: much to well, you can't really spend too much time
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Speaker 3: because you only have a limited amount of it. So
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Speaker 3: sometimes we might pressure ourselves to you know, families are
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Speaker 3: spread out, so maybe we go to three four Christmases.
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Speaker 2: I don't know.
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Speaker 3: Everybody's situation is different. We can't attend every function, we
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Speaker 3: can't make that meal perfect, we can't, you know, whatever
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Speaker 3: it is that we're trying to over commit to because
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Speaker 3: as human beings, we kind of that's our psychology. We
4:46
Speaker 3: kind of we want to please people. So but it
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Speaker 3: is okay to say no and keep things again realistic
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Speaker 3: in terms of your time resources, and again you'll live
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Speaker 3: more in the moment, you'll be less stressed, and and
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Speaker 3: it's okay, it is okay to say no and know that.
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Speaker 3: So again people are gonna notice, probably the attitude more
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Speaker 3: and if it's a positive attitude, that's that's gonna spread.
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Speaker 1: No, you're you're absolutely right. We had a similar situation
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Speaker 1: in my family where, you know, our kids are all
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Speaker 1: getting older, they go with their significant others, and so
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Speaker 1: we had family members approaching us because we usually host
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Speaker 1: for the holiday, asking can you change your time here,
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Speaker 1: And we just had to tell a few folks like,
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Speaker 1: this is the time all of our kids can be
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Speaker 1: with us, and for us that's most important. We love
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Speaker 1: if you can be here, but like I'm I don't
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Speaker 1: want to change my time and not have half of
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Speaker 1: my kids here.
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Speaker 2: Sure, absolutely, yeap.
5:37
Speaker 1: So connecting with people.
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Speaker 3: That's a big one. So, as we alluded to earlier,
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Speaker 3: sometimes we can feel isolated or alone at the time
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Speaker 3: of the year for variety of reasons. For some the
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Speaker 3: holidays remind us of lost loved ones. Maybe it's a
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Speaker 3: heightened time of family stress, other problems. Maybe we're dealing
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Speaker 3: with other serious issues during the holidays. So our kind
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Speaker 3: of human psychology is then to pull in right, to
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Speaker 3: pull away, and to pull in, and that's kind of
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Speaker 3: the opposite of what we actually need. It's kind of
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Speaker 3: odd that we do that as human beings, but it's
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Speaker 3: the opposite of what we need. So if you're experiencing
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Speaker 3: anything like that during the holidays, or even if you're not,
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Speaker 3: just reach out to people who are emotionally supportive help
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Speaker 3: get you through the holidays. And that's a good thing
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Speaker 3: to do. So remember that instinct to pull in is
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Speaker 3: for whatever reason why we do that as humans. It's
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Speaker 3: not the thing that we need to do. We need
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Speaker 3: to reach out.
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Speaker 1: I couldn't agree with you more. I don't know if
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Speaker 1: it's some social construction where we've got this thing where
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Speaker 1: we need to, you know, like you said, pull away,
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Speaker 1: and you're absolutely right. It's human nature to want people
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Speaker 1: around you to be social.
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Speaker 3: So we are social beings and so that pulling away
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Speaker 3: is kind of kind of counter to who we really are.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely, what else you got for us, Andy.
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Speaker 3: Well, you know, above all, make sure you do things
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Speaker 3: that make you enjoy the holidays. So along that theme
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Speaker 3: of attitude is contagious. The joke is if Mama ain't happy,
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Speaker 3: ain't nobody happy, right, So it is wonderful to do
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Speaker 3: things for others. Don't forget to add yourself, though, So
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Speaker 3: take care of yourself first, because if we take care
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Speaker 3: of ourselves, first, emotionally, physically, whatever it is that allows
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Speaker 3: us actually to give more and to be more to
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Speaker 3: other people. So it achieves the goal when you take
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Speaker 3: care of yourself first, and you'll have more holiday spirit
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Speaker 3: to share with everybody else.
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Speaker 2: And that's the gift we talk about.
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Speaker 3: The best gift of the holidays is being able to
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Speaker 3: enjoy them, being able to give that gift, help give
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Speaker 3: that gift to other people.
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Speaker 1: Do you have some things that you enjoy doing every
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Speaker 1: year around this time?
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Speaker 3: Take a little time off just sort of relax, like
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Speaker 3: spending time with the grandchildren and the family, And yeah,
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Speaker 3: there's some things. My family spread out a little bit,
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Speaker 3: so maybe some visiting and things like that. But yeah,
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Speaker 3: just sort of taking that time a year to slow
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Speaker 3: down a little bit. We are life is fast paced
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Speaker 3: and a lot comes at you, and you just sort
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Speaker 3: of slow down there for a little bit during the
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Speaker 3: during the holiday season because it's a busy time.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, it goes by in the blink of an
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Speaker 1: eye and can be very very stressful if you're not
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Speaker 1: taking these tips into account. And I couldn't agree with
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Speaker 1: you more. And in our home, we kind of have
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Speaker 1: a list of holiday movies that takes about two weeks
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Speaker 1: to get through with all of the kids, is that
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Speaker 1: they stop buying.
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Speaker 3: There are a few musts, but what are yours? Probably
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Speaker 3: traditional Christmas story.
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Speaker 1: Yes, you'll shoot your eye out.
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Speaker 3: Shoot your eye the major award, I mean, just just
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Speaker 3: a hilarious movie, more modern, well maybe not more modern.
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Speaker 2: More modern than that.
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Speaker 3: Though, is the Polar Express is a good one? Yes,
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Speaker 3: very I think that was very well done my grown kids.
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Speaker 3: I suspect Tom Hanks did more than one character in
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Speaker 3: that movie, but I'm not sure.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to have to look that up now. I
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Speaker 1: think you would be right. I'm a big comedy guy,
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Speaker 1: so National Lampoons Christmas Vacation sure is on our list.
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Speaker 1: And then my oldest boy and I know maybe you
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Speaker 1: wouldn't necessarily think of this as a Christmas movie, but
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Speaker 1: set during Christmas time? Just Friends okay with Ryan? Right?
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Speaker 3: Well, another one that may not be considered a Christmas movie,
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Speaker 3: but some people do because it was around Christmas time
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Speaker 3: that they centered. It was trading places. Now that's an
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Speaker 3: old one, but an OLDI but.
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Speaker 2: A goodie in Oh.
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Speaker 1: That is one of my top ten Eddie Murphy dan
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Speaker 1: Ackroyd films. There so absolutely love that. Yeah, another one
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Speaker 1: you wouldn't think of, but it gets played in my
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Speaker 1: house of ears. Grimlins, Okay, sure, yeah, And I mean
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Speaker 1: by now, I don't think anybody's terrified of the little
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Speaker 1: muppet looking creatures anymore, but that one's always been.
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Speaker 3: I'm an odd duck on horror movies. My reaction horror
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Speaker 3: movies usually is laughter.
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Speaker 2: I don't know what it is. They just I find
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Speaker 2: them funny, not scary.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of you know that it's not real
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Speaker 1: so anymore. It's just kind of like, okay, you.
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Speaker 3: Know, I'm I'm really saying how old I am here
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Speaker 3: people Blair Witch Project. Everybody told me how terrifying the
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Speaker 3: end was, and I just looked at it and went, okay, whatever.
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Speaker 3: I just I don't know what it is about horror movies.
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Speaker 1: I just that's not no, I totally get it.
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Speaker 3: That one was like the People Lost in the Woods.
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Speaker 3: I was laughing at that because I've done that. Yeah,
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Speaker 3: people totally lost in the woods and doing silly things.
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Speaker 3: You weren't video camming at the scena, no, but we
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Speaker 3: we had a couple of trips during high school like that.
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Speaker 3: So Andy, I think you missed your chance, So that
10:20
Speaker 3: was funny.
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Speaker 1: Million two. I do want to cover for listeners. People
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Speaker 1: listening may not everybody know, tell them a little bit
10:29
Speaker 1: about Sinissippi Centers and what it does and what it offers.
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Speaker 3: Sure well kind of the The big overview is Sinnesipy
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Speaker 3: Centers is a behavioral health care agency, so what is
10:39
Speaker 3: that mental health treatment, substance use treatment. But we do
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Speaker 3: so many other things. We have a Healthy Families Illinois
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Speaker 3: program that helps new and expecting mothers. We have recovery
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Speaker 3: homes for those with the substance use disorder sometimes called
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Speaker 3: sober homes or sober living homes. We have apartment sites
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Speaker 3: for those that have a serious mental illness that they
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Speaker 3: live there for a time and then eventually get back
11:01
Speaker 3: into their own home or apartment or whatever in the community.
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Speaker 3: Just so many things. It's the agency has been growing.
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Speaker 3: We had our newest office at one time was Freeport,
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Speaker 3: now it's Byron. So we have offices in five counties,
11:16
Speaker 3: so carrodly Ogele, Whiteside, and Stevenson and serving people from
11:22
Speaker 3: other surrounding counties to a degree as well coming.
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Speaker 2: To those offices.
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Speaker 3: So it's it's been a big time of growth. When
11:29
Speaker 3: I first joined the agency in two thousand and six,
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Speaker 3: I think we were at probably about one hundred and
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Speaker 3: thirty employees.
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Speaker 2: Now we're well over three hundred.
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Speaker 3: So it has it's it's that's kind of the overall
11:41
Speaker 3: thirty thousand foot view I guess of Mississippi. There's a
11:45
Speaker 3: lot more to it. But really, any any service within
11:49
Speaker 3: that behavioral health care area for any age is what
11:55
Speaker 3: we do. From really literally birth, like I said, healthy
11:58
Speaker 3: Families Illinois, You're you're basically taking care of that baby
12:02
Speaker 3: before it's born because you're trying to help help the
12:04
Speaker 3: mother on through any any age.
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Speaker 1: So that is a wide range of programs and very comprehensive.
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Speaker 1: Is there anything that you folks haven't had that maybe
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Speaker 1: you have on the horizon or would hope to pull in,
12:17
Speaker 1: you know, sort of your Christmas list for citicention?
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Speaker 3: Well a great question. Yeah, would be inpatient treatment, particularly
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Speaker 3: for substance use, but maybe even for mental illness, but
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Speaker 3: that's exceedingly difficult.
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Speaker 2: Uh.
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Speaker 3: The impatient treatment UH is generally in larger towns a
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Speaker 3: lot in Chicago, particularly for mental illness, and even even
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Speaker 3: that even for substance use in some cases, that's a
12:43
Speaker 3: that's a Chicago thing, although there's some other organizations that
12:46
Speaker 3: do have some of that in other larger towns. I
12:49
Speaker 3: think the first one on that on that list that
12:52
Speaker 3: I don't know might be doable in the future, but
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Speaker 3: it's been very exceedingly difficult and probably won't happen, but
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Speaker 3: it would be cool if it did, would be the
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Speaker 3: patient substance use treatment, so that people don't have to
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Speaker 3: go so far outside the community sure that they live
13:05
Speaker 3: in around here to get that.
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Speaker 1: Well, what's the kind of you said, you know, kind
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Speaker 1: of very difficult thing. What are some of the hurdles
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Speaker 1: you know that you guys are trying to like leap over.
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Speaker 3: Well, I think cost is probably the big one. Cost
13:21
Speaker 3: can be quite prohibitive to do that. Sure, I'm not
13:24
Speaker 3: privy to all the details of that just as the
13:27
Speaker 3: marketing person, but I've heard us talk about it. But
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Speaker 3: the cost is one. There are probably some regulatory things,
13:34
Speaker 3: there are probably some other things that are a big
13:36
Speaker 3: challenge to having that in a smaller community, not just
13:40
Speaker 3: in our area, but all over Illinois. It would be
13:42
Speaker 3: a challenge and probably in other states. I don't know
13:44
Speaker 3: about other states what they have or don't have in
13:46
Speaker 3: that area, but it's one of the more difficult things
13:50
Speaker 3: to do, and that's why it's often centered in larger towns.
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Speaker 1: Well, I am hoping the best of luck that one
13:56
Speaker 1: of these years that will be under your folks is
13:58
Speaker 1: Christmas tree over at Sinnssippi Centers. A few moments of
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Speaker 1: anything else that you wanted to.
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Speaker 2: Share, No, I think.
14:06
Speaker 3: We just want to wish everybody who listens thanks for
14:09
Speaker 3: listening to us, and have a great holiday season, have
14:12
Speaker 3: a great Thanksgiving and Christmas as well. I know we'll
14:16
Speaker 3: talk before Christmas, but still wish you good Christmas, holiday season,
14:20
Speaker 3: happy New Year, and all of that if you if
14:22
Speaker 3: you don't hear us in December when we talk so.
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Speaker 1: Well, absolutely, and folks, this is a perfect time of
14:28
Speaker 1: the year to touch on this subject. So yeah, no,
14:31
Speaker 1: go ahead, thanks.
14:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, I did forget we were getting we were talking
14:34
Speaker 3: there and got a little off track of my head.
14:36
Speaker 3: I forgot to mention, yes, one other thing, Thanksgiving clothes.
14:39
Speaker 3: Your Sinnissippi Center's offices will be closed for Thanksgiving holiday Thursday,
14:43
Speaker 3: November twenty seventh and Friday November twenty eighth next week.
14:46
Speaker 3: We'll reopen for regular business next week. Already it's just
14:49
Speaker 3: hard to believe. We'll reopen for regular business hours Monday,
14:52
Speaker 3: December first. As always, though, if you're in crisis and
14:55
Speaker 3: you need immediate assistance, we have staff on call all
14:57
Speaker 3: the time. It doesn't matter when it is. It's twenty
15:00
Speaker 3: four hours eight hundred and two four two seven six
15:02
Speaker 3: four to two, and that number is on the website
15:04
Speaker 3: at Ssssippi dot org. If you didn't get that written
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Speaker 3: down in one or.
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Speaker 1: Two, there you go, folks. There you have it. Andy Jackson,
15:10
Speaker 1: marketing manager over at Sinnissippi Centers. Thank you very much,
15:13
Speaker 1: sir for coming up.
15:14
Speaker 2: Thank you appreciate it.
15:15
Speaker 1: Coming up, We've got more local news, sports and entertainment
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Speaker 1: the Waking Crew on AM fourteen sixty FM ninety five
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