May 14, 2025 • 29 mins
Sharron Tubes Dickerson, a Birmingham nurse and the author of the book “Sleighing the Giant of Depression” talks about how she has turned her struggle into hope for others. Then we find out the mission of Cornerstone Schools of Alabama to serve at risk kids as we talk with Coach Jermaine Jackson.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A local author on a mission to make a difference
when it comes to mental health in Alabama. Hello, and
welcome to Viewpoint Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network. I'm
John Mounts and joining me in the studio is Sharon
Tubbs Dickerson, a nurse and author of the book Slaying
the Giant of Depression. Sharon, welcome to your point.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Thank you, thank you, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Many of the authors I've had, they all have credentials,
and you've got credentials. You're certainly an expert book. What
really qualifies you to write this book is life experience.
I want you to take me on a journey, a
journey from your childhood to what led you down the
road of depression and what led you out of depression.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Okay, so I grew up here in Alabama and my
childhoop was kind of tumultuous abuse.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
And when you say Alabama in Birmingham.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Bemiyham, Yes, Birmingham, and like I have some sexual abuse.
And my father was a drug dealer. My mom says,
don't say that he tried it. I said, then he
did it. But so I just I just at the
age of twelve, just thought life was not worth living.
I was a good what I considered to be a
good Christian girl, and I was like, God, you know,
(01:11):
you could have gave this to them.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
They deserve this what I have.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
But I would go in and out of the I
would go in and out of psych wards being admitted
for suicide.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Even when you were a teenager.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yes, about the age of twelve, I started trying to
commit suicide.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
How are your grades? I think my grades were good,
so so student. It looked so to your teachers and such.
It looked like you were a model student. But on
the inside you had these demons.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yes, yes, And I just thought I could just get
out of it myself, right, So I thankfully I went ahead.
I became a nurse. I had two children, which stopped
me from trying to commit suicide because I was like,
I can't leave them here to fend for themselves.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
It gave you something to live for.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
It, did it? Did? It did?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And so I went ahead and I was what most
of my friends called very successful.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I made really good money.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I traveled a lot, I bought nice houses, nice cars,
and I was just trying to get over depressions.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
I was gonna say, do you think a lot of
that was the compensation for it. You needed to create
that facade for other people because you didn't want them
to see in. So you wanted to put something in
between you and them so that it looked like, well,
she's got it all, Sharon's got it all together. She's
got this house, she's got the nice car, she's got
the kids, she's got the life, she's living the dream.
And in the inside, it very much wasn't that way.
(02:36):
And in that happening did it kind of leave you
almost wishing the life that you had created was your life,
but it feels like it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, I wasn't really trying to shield it from them.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I was chasing it, like I was like, well, maybe
if I go to Hawaii, I'm going to be happy.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Maybe if I go to Europe, I'm going to be happy.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I need a bigger car, and I think I'll be happy,
but i'd get it, and it never, you know, it
just never came to fish and that things make me happy.
I have a I met this lady at a bookstore
at a book show, and she's beatling depression and she said,
I'm going to be a doctor and I'm going to
(03:13):
be happy. She said that was all she could think,
and it was time for graduation and she had become
a doctor and she wasn't happy.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
She said, I'm done. I was like, why are you done?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
She said, because I thought if I became a doctor,
i'd be happy, and so I don't have anything else
to look forward to.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I said, well, things.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Can't make you happy. Money can't make you happy, more
more rich, people kill themselves. You know, that does not
make you happy.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Isn't it sad when you when you see I see
like footage of I've never been to Africa, but I've
seen these kids in like some of the poorest African
countries and they have no food and they and they
live in abject poverty, and they seem happy because it's
almost like they don't have the worries of the world
in their minds and so they're They're not not saying
that poverty is a good thing, but in these these
(03:57):
kids who don't know any better, are happy. In our
world because we're presented with so much, we're bombarded by
social media. Here's how your life should look, and not
just the things, but the happiness that people seem they
present on social media. I wish, not that I hadn't
just I have those things, but I had that joy
in that happiness, and yet we're chasing it and we
can never find it. But then we can tribute because
(04:17):
we try and present on social media ourselves is also
look at me, I'm also happy.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
And the thing is when you do that, when you
look at someone else who's on social media, you're comparing
your whole life to a thirty second snapshot of them.
They pose for that picture, like say a model. A model,
she takes fifty million poses and then they you know,
they touch up and do everything. That's what you're looking
at when you're looking at someone.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Well, you see it out. You'll be out at a
restaurant and you'll see a table of people and their
food comes, but they can't eat it yet because the
first thing they have to do is get the perfect pose.
You know, I hold the camera just like right there,
I'm gonna put my fork in it. I'm not gonna eat.
I'm just gonna hold this up and look like I'm
gonna eat up in the smiles. Get the shot this way.
That's why, you know, don't don't touch anything. We're gonna
get this picture. Just perfect because I got to post
it on my Instagram.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Mean, like I said, like when I was growing up,
I'm not sure how old you are. I'm fifty seven.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I'm forty seven, Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
So when I was growing up, you know, you go
in the store and see the Cosmo Tolerance magazines or
any magazine, and that's what people would compare themselves to.
And so whenever you went in the store, it may
be a couple of a couple of commercials because everything
wasn't as sexualized at that time. And but you didn't
have you weren't. It wasn't constant comparison. Now these kids
are comparing themselves constantly, constantly because they're on that phone,
(05:29):
their on Internet and the and the sad part about
them being on all these sites so much is because
as a parent, it really limits. The Internet tends to
teach them more than you can teach them because they
spend more time with the Internet.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
And it's so ubiquitous, it's there all the time.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
So you can give them good training. It used to
be you know, if you're in a good household, you
know you're gonna get the training of your parents, and
that's that was going to be your baseline. But now
your parents can tell you that, but someone else can
come in and tell you anything.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And it's not just one person, it's an entire medium.
And then all their friends are consuming that same medium.
So then if you missed it, their friends will tell
you what they saw on their Facebook page. And yeah,
that's one of the biggest problems that we have to overcome. Well, Sharon,
let's talk. Let's talk about your in particular the rest
of your journey, because you said you went to that place,
you felt that emptiness, you felt like ending your life
(06:22):
at some point. How did you dig out of that?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
So it took me years. It took me thirty years.
But like other people was be like I didn't know
you were depressed.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I was like, yes.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
And the thing is I was a jokester of sort,
so I was always making people laugh and people like
I love being around you. But the ones who were
very close to me knew the days I couldn't get
out of bed and take a bath and comb my hair,
like I said, it took me thirty whole years of
just trying different things Like I said that one day
I was just like after I couldn't get out of
myself I figured out it was spiritual, and it really
(06:55):
is spiritual.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
And when I say the depression went away, after thirty years,
it went away and it never came back.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
And I was just glad that God gave me that,
and I thought he did it just for me. Right.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
I would see other people who tried to commit suicide
and I would go and tell them, and they had
people who had a long history of They were like,
it didn't come back. And so one of the things
I did, The first thing I did, is I stopped
saying what the world said, anything that was negative or
went against the word of God.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I just I wasn't going to say it is people
saying this is killing me. I'm sick of this.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Some you know, we say things and we think they're
just words. But no, your words have life.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
You speak meaning into things, and the power of our
words they are so they can do so much. You know,
they can hurt other people. They can cause great damage,
sometimes without even meaning it. And there's even if you
don't mean what you're saying, there's always a little kernel
of truth, there isn't there.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
When I was little, they say sticks and stones would
break my bones.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But words would never hurt me. Oh yeah, they hurt you.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Actually, you heal faster from the sticks and stones than
from the words. A lot of times, it is true.
They stay with you.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
For one of the first things I did is I
found a scripture for joy. And I don't care how
I was feeling. I could be going down the road crying.
I started just holding in on what God said on
my quick. Okay, God, this is what you told me.
Either you're lying or it's gonna come true. And I
eventually my feeling's caught up. And another thing that we're
(08:20):
having a problem with is we would exercise because Grandma
didn't let you at the house. And if you're thirsty,
to drink out the water holes, right, and so you
were always outside plane and so you were, you know,
soaking up all those minerals and vitamin D and all
that good stuff. And a lot of times people are
depressed just from lack of that.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Well, I've also heard that, you know, the lymphatic system
is the body's garbage system. Garbage system. And while we
have a cardiovascular system moves the blood around to get
the garbage out, you have to move that lymph around.
And the way that because you don't have a heart
to you know, circulate the limp. You have to move,
your muscles, have to move to do things to get
that moving. And if you don't move your muscles, if
you don't, you know, get out and more. And I'm
(08:59):
talking about like you know, you know, running a marathon,
but just get out and walk. In addition to the
exposure to the sunlight, to the vitamin D, you don't
get that garbage moved out of your system and you
just feel bad.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yes, yes, exercise.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
So when you exercise, like you said, you don't have
to run a marathon. You could just park far from Walmart,
you could take the stairs, you know. But it actually,
as you do it, you'll start to enjoy it, especially
if you're out in the sunlight, you.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Will literally start to enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
But the thing is, when you exercise and you got
the heart rate going, it increases your circulation, which also
increases the circulation to your brain. You know, it creates neurogenesis,
which is the creation of neurotransmitters. And that's you know,
that's like the little signals by which everything works in
(09:44):
our body.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So I can tell by some of the things you're
talking about that. It's interesting in your book, and we
mentioned it already. It's slaying the giant of depression that
you are taking your background in nursing, because you clearly
have a good understanding of biology and that sort of thing,
and you and bringing in spirituality and putting the two together.
And then you're adding on top of that the third thing,
(10:05):
which is your own life experience. You're weaving all that together.
How long did it take you to write this book?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
So after I was helping some people, my sister said,
that's your calling. I said, girl, no, I'm a nurse.
I made good money.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I'm a nurse.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
And then as I kept helping people, I literally felt
God that that's what I was supposed to do. To
help more people. I was like, you know, and it's
not for me. I tell people, I said, it's not
for money. I said, I just want to get to
the end of the road and to heaven. And God said,
you didn't do what I said do. And so originally
when I wrote the book, this was the first copy.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
For those of you listening on the radio, she's holding
the book up to the microphones.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, okay, I'm sorry, that's yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So originally I wrote the book, and it was mainly
all spiritual and by the time I wrote it and
I was like, well, why did it work? I know
it worked, why So then I went down a rabbit hole.
I went down a rabbit hole trying to figure out
why it worked. I said, God came first. But there
you know, there's some science behind it. So the science
behind you watching it, Like I said, your words is
(11:08):
God said, he said, you live and die about the
fruit of your mouth. But as far as science, when
you say something negative, your brain can't determine if it's.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
True or all.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So it treats as those negative.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
And then you get all the negative hormones and you
get all these negative feelings. And science has showed that
over time you can really reroute your brain.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
It's very true. You can just like they call it
neural pruning. You know when they talk about how kids
when they're two years old, how quickly they can latch
onto language because they have all of these connections in
their brain. That's why they can't focus because they have
all these connections everything else. But as we go on,
neural pruning happens, and we kind of shut down certain
parts of our brain and we train it to pay
attention to this, ignore that, and that sort of thing.
(11:47):
And you sometimes you can do it in a good
way to where you develop a healthy love for certain things,
and sometimes you do it in a bad way and
your brain gets stuck, and so you do need to rewire.
How do you all about doing that you mentioned? You
mentioned as the spiritual aspect you mentioned. We touched a
little bit on on health and healthy eating. I don't
(12:09):
know did you mention some of the foods you'd recommend
that you're a nurse, So what are some of the
foods you would recommend somebody can including their diet. What
should they avoid?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
So here's the sugar as I'm a baker, right, but
sugar I mean not saying you're not gonna ever eat it,
but that should not be a part of a staple
of your.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
And you're talking refined sugar, not not like saying apple
but not apple, but.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Like saying like fruit.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
But the thing is, you know a lot of breads,
which always like intrigues me because bread was such such
a staple biblical taste. You know, Jesus would break bread
and at some point it was good. I was like,
when did it become bad?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
When we started putting sugar in it.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, and all the GMO modifying because you can't even
find the right you know, the same seeds now. But
as far as diet, anything that is a simple car
you know, the breads, the pastas. And the thing is,
you know, it used to be that you say, eat
your vegetables, you know, or eat something of every color.
(13:06):
And the reason to that is you have what you
call a second brain, microbiomes in your stomach, and it
works with your brain and it affects like I said,
it affects your mental status, affects everything. And it's so
many microorganisms, all of them need something different. That's why
people they would say, eat some green, eat some purple,
get as many colors as possible to feed those microbiomes.
(13:27):
And if you have a sick gut a lot of times,
if you have a sick brain, and people don't realize,
you can have an unhealthy brain. And right now a
lot of us have an unhealthy brain. So eat that, like,
eat what you're supposed to not I ain't gonna say
what you're supposed to eat. It used to be a norm,
but now everybody eats fast food. And the thing is
(13:48):
like For instance, when I was going through all this,
I used to like to run, and I would notice
when I would take fish or for my knees. I'm
not telling anyone to do this because I think it works,
but make sure you check with your doctor. I would
take fish off from our knees and I would notice
I'd be heavier, and I was like, that's odd. And so,
(14:10):
like I said, the second route, I want to know
why it work. And then well, your brain is omega
threes and you're not giving any omega threes. And the
crazy part about depression, you know it's eating bad. You
know it makes us overweight, right.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, diabetes is a huge problem in this day.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yes, and that leads you know, all these illnesses actually
contribute to depression. Isolation and another thing with the I'm jumping,
I'm sorry, as far as isolation, you know, going back
to the kid spend on the internet, they're isolated. They
could sit in their room all day and talk to people.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
What's funny is it's not only a spatial isolation. You know.
You my daughter, she's fifteen, and she has friends over
to the house sometimes and they'll sit there on the
sofa next to each other and they're next to each
other and they're both on their phones and neither one
of them saying a word to each other, and they're
just and they're on their phones talking to their daughter
other and all their friends and everything else. I like
(15:02):
to talk to each other. I said, well, it's okay,
we're here. We're here on snapchat or whatever. It's no
to talk like with your mouth. You know that the
way people communicate. And it's interesting how the younger generations
they don't communicate in the same way that I guess
that your generation that my generation used to where we
actually got together because okay, even on the phone, but
your phone was attached with a cord to the wall
(15:22):
and your whole family heard it because you're sitting in
the kitchen having the conversation, or you actually would go
to somebody's house face to face, and those face to
face interactions, I think we get so much more than
just the words. It's also the non verbal cues that
come in. And that's the reason why, like the reason
why I wanted you in the studio today as opposed
to on the phone, because I think interviews go better
face to face, and I think that just regular interpersonal
(15:43):
communications they work better face to face, and I feel
like we've taken so much of that out.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
We're made for community to we're we're all a part
of our bodies.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
And we circled around religion little bit fellowship. The fellowship
is so important, and that's the reason why you know,
we're meant to go to a place of warship. It's
not about the worshiping getting a knes part as much
as being around fellow people. That there's something about that.
I think that community, that sense of community that also
it also feeds your brain.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
As well, Yes, and it sharpens.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I mean, if you have fellowship and people who you're
accountable to, it actually changes your action. You know, they
keep you in check. I keep you in check. I'm like,
you know youre not'm supposed to be doing that, you.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Know, accountability, having accountability partners on things, so that you
check in with somebody every so often. How's things going? No, really,
how are things going? In that they say, we know,
I did I feel bad because I did this? Well
you know you shouldn't, I know, but you know, it helps,
I think to be able to talk these things through
with another person and to know, you know, I'm gonna
be seeing my accountability partner later on this week, and
(16:45):
I want to be able to say I did this
good thing not well, and I slipped up and did that.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Thing another thing. I think we've redefined. I think the
devil has cleverly redefined so much stuff because Jesus I'm
the truth, and now it's your truth, everybody's true. Well know,
the truth is something that is outside of youth, that
stabilizes you.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Well, because what's happened is where the Bible says that
God made man his own image. Now man is trying
to make God in his own image, and if he does,
if you don't agree with something in the Bible, we
just ignore it that part of it, and then we'll
do our own thing and then we're surprised when it
doesn't work out. So I don't understand I'm following some
of the rules in this book. Yeah, So your book
Slaying the Giant of Depression. This it sounds like there's
a lot of great information. And I saw the copy
(17:25):
that you brought with you. It's not a long book.
It's not a big thick book. I know it's daunting.
Here's a seven hundred page book. No one'll read that,
it looks like it's about the seventy eighty pages.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
About ninety one hundred. This one had like sixty seventy,
but the new one has more pages. Like I said,
I went back, and I mean I cover a lot
more stuff, like I covered spiritual warfare, but I broke
it down a little bit more because it is more
spiritual going on than physical.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
And also I imagine you have to update it now
and again because stuff changes along the way. You know,
science changes, and well science hasn't changed, but understand about
science changes and and other things like that. So it
probably it helps. That's one of the things about you know,
the written word, is it's helpful to be able to
go back and make you know editions and change things
you know based on what's what's happening. So it's available
(18:15):
on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Available on Amazon.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yes, I'm gonna get them to take the first copy
down because, like I said, I immediately rewrote it because
everybody don't believe in God.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Right, whether you want to believe there is a higher power,
whether you want to believe there is a God or not,
you have to admit that the stuff in the Bible,
I'm not not every bit of it, but a whole
lot of it is just good advice written by really
smart people, even if you don't want to even if
you want to be like you know, Thomas Jefferson, he
rewrote the Bible. He called it the Jefferson Bible, and
he took out all the parts of it that he
(18:45):
didn't think, like Jesus turns water into wine. He said, well,
I don't believe in that, So he rewrote it, and
he left in all the parts that he thought were
still good advice. And still most of the Bible still
held in the Jefferson Bible.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
So have heard of a Jefferson Bible.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that you can benefit
from that is the Bible. Is that is just generally
good advice, even if you don't happen to be a
spiritual person. And then maybe if you want to read
the spiritual stuff and be led to the Lord later on,
so be it.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
But the thing is, you know, God gave us the
rules already.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
We just were just you know what's amazing, Like when
I would go and mentor at schools. You know, it
used to be we were the home team Christians, right,
and now we're the visiting team. You know, so we
got all the booze and the but so many of
the kids. I was like, well, when was the last time.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
You went to church?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
They were like, in twenty seventeen, my grandmother died and
I went to church.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I was like, you don't go to church.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
That's like just going to the church building.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
The thing is my dad gave My dad's a preacher.
He hadn't always been a preacher, believe it or not.
He's a recovery crack addict. He's been cleaning like thirty
two years. But he's a good man.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
But I bet they gave him a lot of foundation
to speak from. You know, Jesus ate with the sinners.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Oh yeah, you know what, when I was dating, I
could and I bring a guy to the house.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
That's the first thing he.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Said, Lord, let me tell you how the Lord delivered
me from Craig. I'm like, Dad, please, not on the
first not.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Let me.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Third or fourth date yet. Yes.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, but he.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Preached yesterday and he was talking about, you know, how
our children are blessed by us. The Bible says that
he'll reward to the thousandth generation. And I was like,
they don't even have those prayers anymore, So who's praying
for the kids?
Speaker 1 (20:23):
I think that's one of the problems for kids, and
that's what's leading to a lot of the depression you're
talking about. And so we've talked about depression from a
social standpoint, We've talked about it from a from a
health standpoint, exercise standpoint, a spiritual standpoint. All these things
and all the little piece bits and pieces that contribute
to that depression, those same things when address could work
your way out of it. And that's how you were
(20:44):
able to work your way out of it because you
seem like and we talked about creating a facade, but
you genuinely seem like now that you are in a
place where you're not only you feel good about yourself
and you don't feel that that need to harm yourself,
but you have a heart to help others.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
That's why I went through this so many years ago,
because everything that I did to come out of depression
is the norm. Now you can start working on depression today.
You know, of course, God is first with me, and
a lot of people don't believe in God. But here's
the thing, there's no doubt that Jesus lived. It's a
historical If you question Jesus, do you question George Washington,
(21:22):
You've never seen him. Do you question all these other
people you never seen? No, it's a historical book. The
only thing that people really like go back and forth
on one. Like you know, Buddhists say he's this, you know,
Muhammada say he's this or prophet, and all of these
religions identify him, right, they acknowledge him.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
They just different, They just.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Have a they reinterpret some things.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yes, in the Bible, Jesus never identified any of them.
And the thing is, I'm going I know, I'm changing subjects.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
He said, he said, who do you say? I am? Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
But the thing is a lot of these religions.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
If you go back, they were formed after Jesus. So
I'm like, so, how do you form something new? The
Muslim community was formed like six ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
At least the that's when Mohammed lives Mohammed, right, because
because it's it's built out of it's built out of
the Abrahamic you know, if you remember, if you go
back to Abraham when he's when he was he thought
he wanted a kid and he couldn't have a kid.
You know, he had he had a kid by his handmaid, Hagar,
and that was that was where we got Ishmael and
the Ishmaelites. That was where the Muslim religion is spread right.
(22:31):
And then but then it was it was Muhammed around
seven hundred a d. That came along and added because
it changed the Muslim relate faith from there, And like
we don't need to go in down all. That's okay,
that's fine, Like I said, I was just I was
just trying to find a way, I guess, a center
point that we can all talk about where we can
all agree regardless of what your religion is. Why there
is there is value in even the spiritual aspects of
(22:53):
what you're saying and how it helps our mental health.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yes, there is, like you said, there is that aspect,
like I said, But you can start working on depression today.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
You can change if you change your words. It might
not feel like it, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
But when you're if you sing, if your favorite song
has a lot of negativity and you're singing it, you
think it's just a song, but it's not.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
You're repeating it over and the chorus.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Yeah, you're repeating these words over and over. One of
the first things I tell people to do. I said, hey,
write down whatever negative you say about yourself. That's the
first thing you cut out, because you know we're made
in God's image.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
You cut out the negative.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Stuff because we've already discussed what negativity does to your
neurological system and how your brain follows that. Cut that
out and then replace it with I replace it with
scripture and the other thing you do. Like I said,
I know the fast food is fast, but it's not good.
I love this particular coffee creamer. I thought it was milk,
(23:53):
and then when we start researching, most of the criminals
creamers don't even have milk.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Or that's the reason why it can sit on the
cant for a week or a month or a year.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
No, but they sit it in the refrigerator.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
That's to make you feel better about it.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
That is true.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
That is true because I was like, why is it
sitting here and it's nothing but grease and oil?
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Do you read the ingredients? For some reason? The ingredients
aren't just milk, period Like it's everything, But.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
You cannot feed your brain. We gotta get to it
will be nice to get to having a healthier brain.
If you have a healthier brain, you'll have a healthier life.
Back in the day, people didn't. I mean, you know what,
sometimes you think in America we've come so far, we
have all these benefits. They don't always work for us.
They're not always to our for our good, you know
(24:37):
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Well, it's very true. And if you have a healthy life,
you'll have a happy life.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yes, a healthy life is a health it's a happy life.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Well, Sharon Toms Dickerson, you are the author of the
book Slang The Giant of Depression. It's available, like you said,
on Amazon. You're gonna try and get it on some bookstores,
the latest edition of it. So it's check it out. Nice,
easy read and a lot of great advice. Sharon, I
want to thank you so much for being my guest
today on Viewpoint Alabama.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And finally on Viewpoint Alabama this week, JT checks in
with the folks from Cornerstone Schools.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
A couple of special guests in our studio now doctor
Nita Carr with Cornerstone Schools and also coached Jermaine Jackson,
who is the new athletic director.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Are you new there?
Speaker 5 (25:19):
I mean, well, this is going into my fourth year
athlete director.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
So relatively new since the school started went back in
the nineties. Yes, coach, you said, you've been there for
four years. What did you do before this? I worked
for Blue Cross. Okay, I was in marketing, but I
actually was coaching about four years prior to actually coming
on full time as athletic director. Okay.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
I loved the school so much too. It told Doctor
Carr and them as I hate that. Now.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Were you aware of it?
Speaker 4 (25:45):
How did you become involved with Corners? Soon?
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Donald Steel brought me over to coach, and I had
never heard of Cornerstone prior to that at all. So
once I came over, it didn't take me long to
realize I really really liked the school. The kids for
are the main main reasons, and their character. We're the
national school of Character right now, and the kids, I've
taken that.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
To another level. Congratulations series about that. And they're winning
in their athletic and they're going great in athletics. When
I came on, basketball was our big sport, but now
that's you know, the things will grow every sport. Volleyball
was in the Elite eight a few years ago. Right now,
our track team is just killing it. We dominated the
state meets last week. Well, I wanted to bring in
(26:28):
because of the work you're doing and sharing the love
of the Lord, and also what you're doing for these
kids with one hundred percent graduation and you just had
what your first one accepted.
Speaker 6 (26:37):
To Harvard, Yes, graduate school at Harvard Business School.
Speaker 7 (26:41):
How about that.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
It's incredible.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
He's spent up in Huntsville getting his undergraduate. So I'm
going to tell you we're proud of all of our kids.
We are.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Yeah, Well, I mean it's just amazing. Like you said
at the beginning of this change and growth and prosperity
for kids that are at risk and pop averreaty is
through education, and with one hundred percent graduation rate, you're
launching them into a lifelong obviously route for success.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
Thank you. So every kid's got a plan. By the way,
you don't leave Cornerstone without planning.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
How can our listeners help? I mean, I know you're
a faith based organization, You're obviously got a long waiting
list for people to get in there, and it's free.
Do you get grants from the state or the feds
or is this all fundraising? How do you make it happen?
Speaker 6 (27:30):
It's several different. We have a lot of different fundraising things.
So parents do pay a little bit, yea like having
some skin in the game is important lot, but they pay.
But we have tax credit scholarships. Anybody can do that
that can divert their tax dollars to us instead of
to the state. And that's been a real big help.
(27:50):
We now have the Choose Act. We have a big
donor base. You asked how they can help, of course
financial bit. Pray for us, Pray for us. We're unique,
and you know our kids. The world's telling you one
thing and our kids teaching another thing, and so pray.
(28:10):
Come visit us, come see who we are, Come check
us out.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Coach any messages for people that are listening for you,
as far as you know what you're doing there and
you know how they can get involved just like you did.
Speaker 7 (28:21):
Well, yes, yes, if you if you spend any time
at all at the school, you'll fall in love with it. People,
if I tell me a lot of time you talk
to me more than five minutes is going to bring
up cornerston I don't care what we're talking about. Corner
Stong is going to come up some kind of way.
If you want to really build have some character and
things like that within your kid. Our athletic program, our kids,
(28:41):
the character that we have is just phenomenal.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
And I know I'm a little biased because I'm there,
but it's it's something different. We travel and whenever where
we go some places people always come and say, your
kids are different.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Well, you guys are certainly a blessing to these kids
and to our community, and you know, to the world
because when they graduate, they go out into the world
and they bring what you've taught them along with them.
So congratulations, praise God for the work you're doing, and
continue growth and success with us, and we'll continue to
support you and try and get you as many folks
in there to help out and get this going in
(29:16):
the right direction.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Thank you so much, Tee.
Speaker 6 (29:17):
We still have a few openings. Okay, we have a
whitelist for some grades, but we do still have a
few kindergarten openings.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
So how do these six contact Toots.
Speaker 6 (29:27):
One call us. We'll get you.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
There Cornerstone Schools here in Birmingham. There you go, Doctor
Needa Carr, Jermaine Jackson, coach, thank you all for being here.
Are great appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
You've been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program
from the Alabama Radio Network. The opinions expressed on Viewpoint
Alabama are not necessarily those of the staff, management, or
advertisers of this station.
A local author on a mission to make a difference
when it comes to mental health in Alabama. Hello, and
welcome to Viewpoint Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network. I'm
John Mounts and joining me in the studio is Sharon
Tubbs Dickerson, a nurse and author of the book Slaying
the Giant of Depression. Sharon, welcome to your point.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Thank you, thank you, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Many of the authors I've had, they all have credentials,
and you've got credentials. You're certainly an expert book. What
really qualifies you to write this book is life experience.
I want you to take me on a journey, a
journey from your childhood to what led you down the
road of depression and what led you out of depression.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Okay, so I grew up here in Alabama and my
childhoop was kind of tumultuous abuse.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
And when you say Alabama in Birmingham.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Bemiyham, Yes, Birmingham, and like I have some sexual abuse.
And my father was a drug dealer. My mom says,
don't say that he tried it. I said, then he
did it. But so I just I just at the
age of twelve, just thought life was not worth living.
I was a good what I considered to be a
good Christian girl, and I was like, God, you know,
(01:11):
you could have gave this to them.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
They deserve this what I have.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
But I would go in and out of the I
would go in and out of psych wards being admitted
for suicide.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Even when you were a teenager.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yes, about the age of twelve, I started trying to
commit suicide.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
How are your grades? I think my grades were good,
so so student. It looked so to your teachers and such.
It looked like you were a model student. But on
the inside you had these demons.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yes, yes, And I just thought I could just get
out of it myself, right, So I thankfully I went ahead.
I became a nurse. I had two children, which stopped
me from trying to commit suicide because I was like,
I can't leave them here to fend for themselves.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
It gave you something to live for.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
It, did it? Did? It did?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And so I went ahead and I was what most
of my friends called very successful.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I made really good money.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I traveled a lot, I bought nice houses, nice cars,
and I was just trying to get over depressions.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
I was gonna say, do you think a lot of
that was the compensation for it. You needed to create
that facade for other people because you didn't want them
to see in. So you wanted to put something in
between you and them so that it looked like, well,
she's got it all, Sharon's got it all together. She's
got this house, she's got the nice car, she's got
the kids, she's got the life, she's living the dream.
And in the inside, it very much wasn't that way.
(02:36):
And in that happening did it kind of leave you
almost wishing the life that you had created was your life,
but it feels like it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, I wasn't really trying to shield it from them.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I was chasing it, like I was like, well, maybe
if I go to Hawaii, I'm going to be happy.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Maybe if I go to Europe, I'm going to be happy.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I need a bigger car, and I think I'll be happy,
but i'd get it, and it never, you know, it
just never came to fish and that things make me happy.
I have a I met this lady at a bookstore
at a book show, and she's beatling depression and she said,
I'm going to be a doctor and I'm going to
(03:13):
be happy. She said that was all she could think,
and it was time for graduation and she had become
a doctor and she wasn't happy.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
She said, I'm done. I was like, why are you done?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
She said, because I thought if I became a doctor,
i'd be happy, and so I don't have anything else
to look forward to.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I said, well, things.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Can't make you happy. Money can't make you happy, more
more rich, people kill themselves. You know, that does not
make you happy.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Isn't it sad when you when you see I see
like footage of I've never been to Africa, but I've
seen these kids in like some of the poorest African
countries and they have no food and they and they
live in abject poverty, and they seem happy because it's
almost like they don't have the worries of the world
in their minds and so they're They're not not saying
that poverty is a good thing, but in these these
(03:57):
kids who don't know any better, are happy. In our
world because we're presented with so much, we're bombarded by
social media. Here's how your life should look, and not
just the things, but the happiness that people seem they
present on social media. I wish, not that I hadn't
just I have those things, but I had that joy
in that happiness, and yet we're chasing it and we
can never find it. But then we can tribute because
(04:17):
we try and present on social media ourselves is also
look at me, I'm also happy.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
And the thing is when you do that, when you
look at someone else who's on social media, you're comparing
your whole life to a thirty second snapshot of them.
They pose for that picture, like say a model. A model,
she takes fifty million poses and then they you know,
they touch up and do everything. That's what you're looking
at when you're looking at someone.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Well, you see it out. You'll be out at a
restaurant and you'll see a table of people and their
food comes, but they can't eat it yet because the
first thing they have to do is get the perfect pose.
You know, I hold the camera just like right there,
I'm gonna put my fork in it. I'm not gonna eat.
I'm just gonna hold this up and look like I'm
gonna eat up in the smiles. Get the shot this way.
That's why, you know, don't don't touch anything. We're gonna
get this picture. Just perfect because I got to post
it on my Instagram.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Mean, like I said, like when I was growing up,
I'm not sure how old you are. I'm fifty seven.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I'm forty seven, Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
So when I was growing up, you know, you go
in the store and see the Cosmo Tolerance magazines or
any magazine, and that's what people would compare themselves to.
And so whenever you went in the store, it may
be a couple of a couple of commercials because everything
wasn't as sexualized at that time. And but you didn't
have you weren't. It wasn't constant comparison. Now these kids
are comparing themselves constantly, constantly because they're on that phone,
(05:29):
their on Internet and the and the sad part about
them being on all these sites so much is because
as a parent, it really limits. The Internet tends to
teach them more than you can teach them because they
spend more time with the Internet.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
And it's so ubiquitous, it's there all the time.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
So you can give them good training. It used to
be you know, if you're in a good household, you
know you're gonna get the training of your parents, and
that's that was going to be your baseline. But now
your parents can tell you that, but someone else can
come in and tell you anything.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And it's not just one person, it's an entire medium.
And then all their friends are consuming that same medium.
So then if you missed it, their friends will tell
you what they saw on their Facebook page. And yeah,
that's one of the biggest problems that we have to overcome. Well, Sharon,
let's talk. Let's talk about your in particular the rest
of your journey, because you said you went to that place,
you felt that emptiness, you felt like ending your life
(06:22):
at some point. How did you dig out of that?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
So it took me years. It took me thirty years.
But like other people was be like I didn't know
you were depressed.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I was like, yes.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
And the thing is I was a jokester of sort,
so I was always making people laugh and people like
I love being around you. But the ones who were
very close to me knew the days I couldn't get
out of bed and take a bath and comb my hair,
like I said, it took me thirty whole years of
just trying different things Like I said that one day
I was just like after I couldn't get out of
myself I figured out it was spiritual, and it really
(06:55):
is spiritual.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
And when I say the depression went away, after thirty years,
it went away and it never came back.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
And I was just glad that God gave me that,
and I thought he did it just for me. Right.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
I would see other people who tried to commit suicide
and I would go and tell them, and they had
people who had a long history of They were like,
it didn't come back. And so one of the things
I did, The first thing I did, is I stopped
saying what the world said, anything that was negative or
went against the word of God.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I just I wasn't going to say it is people
saying this is killing me. I'm sick of this.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Some you know, we say things and we think they're
just words. But no, your words have life.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
You speak meaning into things, and the power of our
words they are so they can do so much. You know,
they can hurt other people. They can cause great damage,
sometimes without even meaning it. And there's even if you
don't mean what you're saying, there's always a little kernel
of truth, there isn't there.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
When I was little, they say sticks and stones would
break my bones.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But words would never hurt me. Oh yeah, they hurt you.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Actually, you heal faster from the sticks and stones than
from the words. A lot of times, it is true.
They stay with you.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
For one of the first things I did is I
found a scripture for joy. And I don't care how
I was feeling. I could be going down the road crying.
I started just holding in on what God said on
my quick. Okay, God, this is what you told me.
Either you're lying or it's gonna come true. And I
eventually my feeling's caught up. And another thing that we're
(08:20):
having a problem with is we would exercise because Grandma
didn't let you at the house. And if you're thirsty,
to drink out the water holes, right, and so you
were always outside plane and so you were, you know,
soaking up all those minerals and vitamin D and all
that good stuff. And a lot of times people are
depressed just from lack of that.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Well, I've also heard that, you know, the lymphatic system
is the body's garbage system. Garbage system. And while we
have a cardiovascular system moves the blood around to get
the garbage out, you have to move that lymph around.
And the way that because you don't have a heart
to you know, circulate the limp. You have to move,
your muscles, have to move to do things to get
that moving. And if you don't move your muscles, if
you don't, you know, get out and more. And I'm
(08:59):
talking about like you know, you know, running a marathon,
but just get out and walk. In addition to the
exposure to the sunlight, to the vitamin D, you don't
get that garbage moved out of your system and you
just feel bad.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yes, yes, exercise.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
So when you exercise, like you said, you don't have
to run a marathon. You could just park far from Walmart,
you could take the stairs, you know. But it actually,
as you do it, you'll start to enjoy it, especially
if you're out in the sunlight, you.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Will literally start to enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
But the thing is, when you exercise and you got
the heart rate going, it increases your circulation, which also
increases the circulation to your brain. You know, it creates neurogenesis,
which is the creation of neurotransmitters. And that's you know,
that's like the little signals by which everything works in
(09:44):
our body.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So I can tell by some of the things you're
talking about that. It's interesting in your book, and we
mentioned it already. It's slaying the giant of depression that
you are taking your background in nursing, because you clearly
have a good understanding of biology and that sort of thing,
and you and bringing in spirituality and putting the two together.
And then you're adding on top of that the third thing,
(10:05):
which is your own life experience. You're weaving all that together.
How long did it take you to write this book?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
So after I was helping some people, my sister said,
that's your calling. I said, girl, no, I'm a nurse.
I made good money.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I'm a nurse.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
And then as I kept helping people, I literally felt
God that that's what I was supposed to do. To
help more people. I was like, you know, and it's
not for me. I tell people, I said, it's not
for money. I said, I just want to get to
the end of the road and to heaven. And God said,
you didn't do what I said do. And so originally
when I wrote the book, this was the first copy.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
For those of you listening on the radio, she's holding
the book up to the microphones.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, okay, I'm sorry, that's yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So originally I wrote the book, and it was mainly
all spiritual and by the time I wrote it and
I was like, well, why did it work? I know
it worked, why So then I went down a rabbit hole.
I went down a rabbit hole trying to figure out
why it worked. I said, God came first. But there
you know, there's some science behind it. So the science
behind you watching it, Like I said, your words is
(11:08):
God said, he said, you live and die about the
fruit of your mouth. But as far as science, when
you say something negative, your brain can't determine if it's.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
True or all.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So it treats as those negative.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
And then you get all the negative hormones and you
get all these negative feelings. And science has showed that
over time you can really reroute your brain.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
It's very true. You can just like they call it
neural pruning. You know when they talk about how kids
when they're two years old, how quickly they can latch
onto language because they have all of these connections in
their brain. That's why they can't focus because they have
all these connections everything else. But as we go on,
neural pruning happens, and we kind of shut down certain
parts of our brain and we train it to pay
attention to this, ignore that, and that sort of thing.
(11:47):
And you sometimes you can do it in a good
way to where you develop a healthy love for certain things,
and sometimes you do it in a bad way and
your brain gets stuck, and so you do need to rewire.
How do you all about doing that you mentioned? You
mentioned as the spiritual aspect you mentioned. We touched a
little bit on on health and healthy eating. I don't
(12:09):
know did you mention some of the foods you'd recommend
that you're a nurse, So what are some of the
foods you would recommend somebody can including their diet. What
should they avoid?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
So here's the sugar as I'm a baker, right, but
sugar I mean not saying you're not gonna ever eat it,
but that should not be a part of a staple
of your.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
And you're talking refined sugar, not not like saying apple
but not apple, but.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Like saying like fruit.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
But the thing is, you know a lot of breads,
which always like intrigues me because bread was such such
a staple biblical taste. You know, Jesus would break bread
and at some point it was good. I was like,
when did it become bad?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
When we started putting sugar in it.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, and all the GMO modifying because you can't even
find the right you know, the same seeds now. But
as far as diet, anything that is a simple car
you know, the breads, the pastas. And the thing is,
you know, it used to be that you say, eat
your vegetables, you know, or eat something of every color.
(13:06):
And the reason to that is you have what you
call a second brain, microbiomes in your stomach, and it
works with your brain and it affects like I said,
it affects your mental status, affects everything. And it's so
many microorganisms, all of them need something different. That's why
people they would say, eat some green, eat some purple,
get as many colors as possible to feed those microbiomes.
(13:27):
And if you have a sick gut a lot of times,
if you have a sick brain, and people don't realize,
you can have an unhealthy brain. And right now a
lot of us have an unhealthy brain. So eat that, like,
eat what you're supposed to not I ain't gonna say
what you're supposed to eat. It used to be a norm,
but now everybody eats fast food. And the thing is
(13:48):
like For instance, when I was going through all this,
I used to like to run, and I would notice
when I would take fish or for my knees. I'm
not telling anyone to do this because I think it works,
but make sure you check with your doctor. I would
take fish off from our knees and I would notice
I'd be heavier, and I was like, that's odd. And so,
(14:10):
like I said, the second route, I want to know
why it work. And then well, your brain is omega
threes and you're not giving any omega threes. And the
crazy part about depression, you know it's eating bad. You
know it makes us overweight, right.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, diabetes is a huge problem in this day.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yes, and that leads you know, all these illnesses actually
contribute to depression. Isolation and another thing with the I'm jumping,
I'm sorry, as far as isolation, you know, going back
to the kid spend on the internet, they're isolated. They
could sit in their room all day and talk to people.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
What's funny is it's not only a spatial isolation. You know.
You my daughter, she's fifteen, and she has friends over
to the house sometimes and they'll sit there on the
sofa next to each other and they're next to each
other and they're both on their phones and neither one
of them saying a word to each other, and they're
just and they're on their phones talking to their daughter
other and all their friends and everything else. I like
(15:02):
to talk to each other. I said, well, it's okay,
we're here. We're here on snapchat or whatever. It's no
to talk like with your mouth. You know that the
way people communicate. And it's interesting how the younger generations
they don't communicate in the same way that I guess
that your generation that my generation used to where we
actually got together because okay, even on the phone, but
your phone was attached with a cord to the wall
(15:22):
and your whole family heard it because you're sitting in
the kitchen having the conversation, or you actually would go
to somebody's house face to face, and those face to
face interactions, I think we get so much more than
just the words. It's also the non verbal cues that
come in. And that's the reason why, like the reason
why I wanted you in the studio today as opposed
to on the phone, because I think interviews go better
face to face, and I think that just regular interpersonal
(15:43):
communications they work better face to face, and I feel
like we've taken so much of that out.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
We're made for community to we're we're all a part
of our bodies.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
And we circled around religion little bit fellowship. The fellowship
is so important, and that's the reason why you know,
we're meant to go to a place of warship. It's
not about the worshiping getting a knes part as much
as being around fellow people. That there's something about that.
I think that community, that sense of community that also
it also feeds your brain.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
As well, Yes, and it sharpens.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I mean, if you have fellowship and people who you're
accountable to, it actually changes your action. You know, they
keep you in check. I keep you in check. I'm like,
you know youre not'm supposed to be doing that, you.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Know, accountability, having accountability partners on things, so that you
check in with somebody every so often. How's things going? No, really,
how are things going? In that they say, we know,
I did I feel bad because I did this? Well
you know you shouldn't, I know, but you know, it helps,
I think to be able to talk these things through
with another person and to know, you know, I'm gonna
be seeing my accountability partner later on this week, and
(16:45):
I want to be able to say I did this
good thing not well, and I slipped up and did that.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Thing another thing. I think we've redefined. I think the
devil has cleverly redefined so much stuff because Jesus I'm
the truth, and now it's your truth, everybody's true. Well know,
the truth is something that is outside of youth, that
stabilizes you.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Well, because what's happened is where the Bible says that
God made man his own image. Now man is trying
to make God in his own image, and if he does,
if you don't agree with something in the Bible, we
just ignore it that part of it, and then we'll
do our own thing and then we're surprised when it
doesn't work out. So I don't understand I'm following some
of the rules in this book. Yeah, So your book
Slaying the Giant of Depression. This it sounds like there's
a lot of great information. And I saw the copy
(17:25):
that you brought with you. It's not a long book.
It's not a big thick book. I know it's daunting.
Here's a seven hundred page book. No one'll read that,
it looks like it's about the seventy eighty pages.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
About ninety one hundred. This one had like sixty seventy,
but the new one has more pages. Like I said,
I went back, and I mean I cover a lot
more stuff, like I covered spiritual warfare, but I broke
it down a little bit more because it is more
spiritual going on than physical.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
And also I imagine you have to update it now
and again because stuff changes along the way. You know,
science changes, and well science hasn't changed, but understand about
science changes and and other things like that. So it
probably it helps. That's one of the things about you know,
the written word, is it's helpful to be able to
go back and make you know editions and change things
you know based on what's what's happening. So it's available
(18:15):
on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Available on Amazon.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yes, I'm gonna get them to take the first copy
down because, like I said, I immediately rewrote it because
everybody don't believe in God.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Right, whether you want to believe there is a higher power,
whether you want to believe there is a God or not,
you have to admit that the stuff in the Bible,
I'm not not every bit of it, but a whole
lot of it is just good advice written by really
smart people, even if you don't want to even if
you want to be like you know, Thomas Jefferson, he
rewrote the Bible. He called it the Jefferson Bible, and
he took out all the parts of it that he
(18:45):
didn't think, like Jesus turns water into wine. He said, well,
I don't believe in that, So he rewrote it, and
he left in all the parts that he thought were
still good advice. And still most of the Bible still
held in the Jefferson Bible.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
So have heard of a Jefferson Bible.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that you can benefit
from that is the Bible. Is that is just generally
good advice, even if you don't happen to be a
spiritual person. And then maybe if you want to read
the spiritual stuff and be led to the Lord later on,
so be it.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
But the thing is, you know, God gave us the
rules already.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
We just were just you know what's amazing, Like when
I would go and mentor at schools. You know, it
used to be we were the home team Christians, right,
and now we're the visiting team. You know, so we
got all the booze and the but so many of
the kids. I was like, well, when was the last time.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
You went to church?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
They were like, in twenty seventeen, my grandmother died and
I went to church.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I was like, you don't go to church.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
That's like just going to the church building.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
The thing is my dad gave My dad's a preacher.
He hadn't always been a preacher, believe it or not.
He's a recovery crack addict. He's been cleaning like thirty
two years. But he's a good man.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
But I bet they gave him a lot of foundation
to speak from. You know, Jesus ate with the sinners.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Oh yeah, you know what, when I was dating, I
could and I bring a guy to the house.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
That's the first thing he.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Said, Lord, let me tell you how the Lord delivered
me from Craig. I'm like, Dad, please, not on the
first not.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Let me.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Third or fourth date yet. Yes.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, but he.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Preached yesterday and he was talking about, you know, how
our children are blessed by us. The Bible says that
he'll reward to the thousandth generation. And I was like,
they don't even have those prayers anymore, So who's praying
for the kids?
Speaker 1 (20:23):
I think that's one of the problems for kids, and
that's what's leading to a lot of the depression you're
talking about. And so we've talked about depression from a
social standpoint, We've talked about it from a from a
health standpoint, exercise standpoint, a spiritual standpoint. All these things
and all the little piece bits and pieces that contribute
to that depression, those same things when address could work
your way out of it. And that's how you were
(20:44):
able to work your way out of it because you
seem like and we talked about creating a facade, but
you genuinely seem like now that you are in a
place where you're not only you feel good about yourself
and you don't feel that that need to harm yourself,
but you have a heart to help others.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
That's why I went through this so many years ago,
because everything that I did to come out of depression
is the norm. Now you can start working on depression today.
You know, of course, God is first with me, and
a lot of people don't believe in God. But here's
the thing, there's no doubt that Jesus lived. It's a
historical If you question Jesus, do you question George Washington,
(21:22):
You've never seen him. Do you question all these other
people you never seen? No, it's a historical book. The
only thing that people really like go back and forth
on one. Like you know, Buddhists say he's this, you know,
Muhammada say he's this or prophet, and all of these
religions identify him, right, they acknowledge him.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
They just different, They just.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Have a they reinterpret some things.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yes, in the Bible, Jesus never identified any of them.
And the thing is, I'm going I know, I'm changing subjects.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
He said, he said, who do you say? I am? Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
But the thing is a lot of these religions.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
If you go back, they were formed after Jesus. So
I'm like, so, how do you form something new? The
Muslim community was formed like six ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
At least the that's when Mohammed lives Mohammed, right, because
because it's it's built out of it's built out of
the Abrahamic you know, if you remember, if you go
back to Abraham when he's when he was he thought
he wanted a kid and he couldn't have a kid.
You know, he had he had a kid by his handmaid, Hagar,
and that was that was where we got Ishmael and
the Ishmaelites. That was where the Muslim religion is spread right.
(22:31):
And then but then it was it was Muhammed around
seven hundred a d. That came along and added because
it changed the Muslim relate faith from there, And like
we don't need to go in down all. That's okay,
that's fine, Like I said, I was just I was
just trying to find a way, I guess, a center
point that we can all talk about where we can
all agree regardless of what your religion is. Why there
is there is value in even the spiritual aspects of
(22:53):
what you're saying and how it helps our mental health.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yes, there is, like you said, there is that aspect,
like I said, But you can start working on depression today.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
You can change if you change your words. It might
not feel like it, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
But when you're if you sing, if your favorite song
has a lot of negativity and you're singing it, you
think it's just a song, but it's not.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
You're repeating it over and the chorus.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Yeah, you're repeating these words over and over. One of
the first things I tell people to do. I said, hey,
write down whatever negative you say about yourself. That's the
first thing you cut out, because you know we're made
in God's image.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
You cut out the negative.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Stuff because we've already discussed what negativity does to your
neurological system and how your brain follows that. Cut that
out and then replace it with I replace it with
scripture and the other thing you do. Like I said,
I know the fast food is fast, but it's not good.
I love this particular coffee creamer. I thought it was milk,
(23:53):
and then when we start researching, most of the criminals
creamers don't even have milk.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Or that's the reason why it can sit on the
cant for a week or a month or a year.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
No, but they sit it in the refrigerator.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
That's to make you feel better about it.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
That is true.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
That is true because I was like, why is it
sitting here and it's nothing but grease and oil?
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Do you read the ingredients? For some reason? The ingredients
aren't just milk, period Like it's everything, But.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
You cannot feed your brain. We gotta get to it
will be nice to get to having a healthier brain.
If you have a healthier brain, you'll have a healthier life.
Back in the day, people didn't. I mean, you know what,
sometimes you think in America we've come so far, we
have all these benefits. They don't always work for us.
They're not always to our for our good, you know
(24:37):
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Well, it's very true. And if you have a healthy life,
you'll have a happy life.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yes, a healthy life is a health it's a happy life.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Well, Sharon Toms Dickerson, you are the author of the
book Slang The Giant of Depression. It's available, like you said,
on Amazon. You're gonna try and get it on some bookstores,
the latest edition of it. So it's check it out. Nice,
easy read and a lot of great advice. Sharon, I
want to thank you so much for being my guest
today on Viewpoint Alabama.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And finally on Viewpoint Alabama this week, JT checks in
with the folks from Cornerstone Schools.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
A couple of special guests in our studio now doctor
Nita Carr with Cornerstone Schools and also coached Jermaine Jackson,
who is the new athletic director.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Are you new there?
Speaker 5 (25:19):
I mean, well, this is going into my fourth year
athlete director.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
So relatively new since the school started went back in
the nineties. Yes, coach, you said, you've been there for
four years. What did you do before this? I worked
for Blue Cross. Okay, I was in marketing, but I
actually was coaching about four years prior to actually coming
on full time as athletic director. Okay.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
I loved the school so much too. It told Doctor
Carr and them as I hate that. Now.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Were you aware of it?
Speaker 4 (25:45):
How did you become involved with Corners? Soon?
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Donald Steel brought me over to coach, and I had
never heard of Cornerstone prior to that at all. So
once I came over, it didn't take me long to
realize I really really liked the school. The kids for
are the main main reasons, and their character. We're the
national school of Character right now, and the kids, I've
taken that.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
To another level. Congratulations series about that. And they're winning
in their athletic and they're going great in athletics. When
I came on, basketball was our big sport, but now
that's you know, the things will grow every sport. Volleyball
was in the Elite eight a few years ago. Right now,
our track team is just killing it. We dominated the
state meets last week. Well, I wanted to bring in
(26:28):
because of the work you're doing and sharing the love
of the Lord, and also what you're doing for these
kids with one hundred percent graduation and you just had
what your first one accepted.
Speaker 6 (26:37):
To Harvard, Yes, graduate school at Harvard Business School.
Speaker 7 (26:41):
How about that.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
It's incredible.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
He's spent up in Huntsville getting his undergraduate. So I'm
going to tell you we're proud of all of our kids.
We are.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Yeah, Well, I mean it's just amazing. Like you said
at the beginning of this change and growth and prosperity
for kids that are at risk and pop averreaty is
through education, and with one hundred percent graduation rate, you're
launching them into a lifelong obviously route for success.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
Thank you. So every kid's got a plan. By the way,
you don't leave Cornerstone without planning.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
How can our listeners help? I mean, I know you're
a faith based organization, You're obviously got a long waiting
list for people to get in there, and it's free.
Do you get grants from the state or the feds
or is this all fundraising? How do you make it happen?
Speaker 6 (27:30):
It's several different. We have a lot of different fundraising things.
So parents do pay a little bit, yea like having
some skin in the game is important lot, but they pay.
But we have tax credit scholarships. Anybody can do that
that can divert their tax dollars to us instead of
to the state. And that's been a real big help.
(27:50):
We now have the Choose Act. We have a big
donor base. You asked how they can help, of course
financial bit. Pray for us, Pray for us. We're unique,
and you know our kids. The world's telling you one
thing and our kids teaching another thing, and so pray.
(28:10):
Come visit us, come see who we are, Come check
us out.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Coach any messages for people that are listening for you,
as far as you know what you're doing there and
you know how they can get involved just like you did.
Speaker 7 (28:21):
Well, yes, yes, if you if you spend any time
at all at the school, you'll fall in love with it. People,
if I tell me a lot of time you talk
to me more than five minutes is going to bring
up cornerston I don't care what we're talking about. Corner
Stong is going to come up some kind of way.
If you want to really build have some character and
things like that within your kid. Our athletic program, our kids,
(28:41):
the character that we have is just phenomenal.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
And I know I'm a little biased because I'm there,
but it's it's something different. We travel and whenever where
we go some places people always come and say, your
kids are different.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Well, you guys are certainly a blessing to these kids
and to our community, and you know, to the world
because when they graduate, they go out into the world
and they bring what you've taught them along with them.
So congratulations, praise God for the work you're doing, and
continue growth and success with us, and we'll continue to
support you and try and get you as many folks
in there to help out and get this going in
(29:16):
the right direction.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Thank you so much, Tee.
Speaker 6 (29:17):
We still have a few openings. Okay, we have a
whitelist for some grades, but we do still have a
few kindergarten openings.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
So how do these six contact Toots.
Speaker 6 (29:27):
One call us. We'll get you.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
There Cornerstone Schools here in Birmingham. There you go, Doctor
Needa Carr, Jermaine Jackson, coach, thank you all for being here.
Are great appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
You've been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program
from the Alabama Radio Network. The opinions expressed on Viewpoint
Alabama are not necessarily those of the staff, management, or
advertisers of this station.
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