I experimented with telling the same story on the same day with my friend Cammy from Glasgow. The story incorporated features that each of us do and took 2 weeks to plan and execute.
When Bauscher Happ sent me a soup bowl
In January 2017, 15 people on Snapchat volunteered to receive a soup bowl from Bauscher Happ business development salesman Bill Flannery. As Bill said,
All this materialized over a 24 hour period, which is amazing! So far, I have people from Canada, Texas, NYC, California, Switzerland and 11 other states that have decided to participate.
Our challenge was to tell a creative story using the soup bowl. I took mine to the streets of Brooklyn and gave it a stress test. For laughs, of course.
I collaborated with a few other popular Snapchat storytellers in order to help me embellish my tale.
How I Learned Therapy Wasn't Only for My Daughter With OCD
[Originally posted on The Mighty]
Parents. Caregivers. Friends. You need support, too.
When our daughter was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the first thing my wife and I did was get her into therapy. We spent a lot of time researching OCD and interviewing therapists until we found the right person.
Yet the more we learned about OCD, the more we realized we needed someone to talk with as well.
I mean, there were things our family and close friends just didn’t or couldn’t understand about OCD therapy. We needed to talk with people who knew about the OCD roller coaster and wouldn’t be quick to judge us for our questions, concerns or ERP homework.
First, we joined an amazing group on Yahoo called OCDandParenting.
A few months later, we started a support group for parents of kids with OCD. Our group is made up of local families in Brooklyn and Manhattan and offers us a way to talk face-to-face with other parents.
I have since found supportive OCD communities on Facebook, via the OCD Foundation and on sites like The Mighty and Wisdo.
I guess my message is fairly obvious by now: If you’re a parent or loved one caring for someone with OCD, please find some OCD-focused community that allows you to talk, share and yes, vent.
6 more fantastic people to follow on Snapchat that no one is telling you about.
I’m over the stage where I feel like I must watch any Snapchat influencers. I find their snap content is mostly self-promotional anyway. Plus, influencers rarely chat you back.
If you’re looking to add some unique Snapchatters to your daily watch list, these 6 folks are as authentic as they come. I’d put them on my front page of Ghostcodes and Snapdex any day.
None of these folks tell stories the same way, but WHY I think you should give all of them a look is that they:
- Love collaboration! They all find ways to incorporate you in their stories.
- Are approachable and conversational with one-on-one chats.
- Use Snapchat tools (lenses, stickers, Memories) to express their creativity.
- Don’t take themselves or their content too seriously.
Add Ramon, Des, Leslie, Bret, JoAnn and Jayson, and then get to know their unique brilliance. Snapcodes coming up.
Ramon Ortiz: So randomly funny. Must see snaps, snaps, snaps.
OrtizRamon77
Des Herbert: Love the weekly features: 3 facts from 33 years ago and Who Said That!
DesHerb
Leslie Gustafson: Lip syncer, wine enthusiast and, most notably, Snapchat’s resident sex therapist.
LDGustafson
Jayson Booth: Every day Jayson has a new way to entertain with your help, like #Rumors, Scavenger Saturday and Snapchat sign language.
JDCX4
Bret Fish: A manic burst of lenses, filters and quirky creativity. Daily.
Flopppyfish
JoAnn Krall: She’ll clear a path to peace of mind. Very Zen. (Just don’t tell her alter ego Patty.)
JoannKrall
Got someone you love on Snapchat? Give me a comment with their code or screenname.
How Snapchat Lens Filters Help With OCD therapy
Reposting this article from THE MIGHTY
Dear Snapchat's awesome and wacky lens filter designers: THANK YOU!
Thank you for inventing new and free mental health therapy opportunities each day.
Wait, Snapchat for therapy? Yes, let me explain.
I know most people use Snapchat Lenses to make stories more fun, but my daughter and I use them as part of her therapy. See she has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and this mental disease causes severe anxiety and disruption in her life. While OCD affects people in different ways, my daughter’s issues center around contamination (vomit) and intrusive thoughts about personal safety.
This is where Snapchat Lenses help out.
The most effective therapy for OCD is called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). With ERP, kids learn to face their OCD. They start with exposures that are easy to do, then work up to more difficult, tougher exposures. The more a child challenges OCD, the more he/she gets comfortable with the anxiety and realizes OCD is lying. (This is an oversimplification of ERP, but hopefully you get it - Confronting not Avoiding.)
So given that my daughter fears vomit, can you guess our favorite Snapchat lens? Yes, vomiting rainbow.
This little puking dynamo is a great way to slowly face her fear. It takes something she finds scary and makes it, unexpectedly, fun. We love all the vomit lens variation – vomiting Ping Pong balls, vomiting pineapple, etc.
Keep them coming Snapchat!
Lenses make great beginner ERP. My daughter frames them as a level one or two anxiety. Perfect for simple reminders to fight back against her fear. (Yes, we build up to harder, more difficult ERP outside Snapchat.)
Overtime Snapchat designers have upped their design game and their experiments have allowed us to do more ERP. Lately we’ve been using the scarier lenses, I’m talking about these X-Ray Skeleton and Zombie themed lenses. These test her OCD worries about intrusive thoughts and “bad people.”
The scarier lenses do induce OCD anxiety and this is a good thing. If we can start in a controlled environment, like Snapchat, we can work up to harder, real world exposures.
The lesson here is every little bit helps. And I'm thankful that my daughter and I can use a platform we both love to help her stay strong. So thanks again Snapchat. For giving us one more tool to fight a tough disease.
Simple Snapchat Type Hack
This will only take a minute to explain.
5 people to add on Snapchat that no one has told you about
This is for everyone that doesn’t feel the need to follow the generic set of social media “influencers” or the internet-famous on yet another social channel. So if you’re looking for people on the ghost who don’t fill their stories with self-importance, name dropping or consistently subtle self-promotion, start by watching these five folks:
Emily Shatters Snapchat: edmw_shatters
Eric Hultgren Snapchat: PolymathAndVine
Cat Davies Snapchat: CatXDavies
Nick Rishwain Snapchat: NJRish
BizAaron Snapchat: BizAaron
None of these smart folks uses the platform in the same way. But WHY I think you should give them a look is that they:
Are approachable and authentic and sarcastic and funny and friendly.
Use Snapchat to express their creativity.
Won’t over snap. (Generally)
Don’t pander, bullshit or take their lives too seriously. (see first bullet)
Most importantly, Cat, Aaron, Nick, Emily and Eric enjoy using Snapchat’s best feature: the chat button. (It might be their favorite thing about the platform.) So chat them up because that is how you will get to know them best.
Here are their codes: