Seeking Help From Dr. Sbaitso

Last week, Elmo took to social media to ask "How is everybody doing?" and it triggered a wide range of responses.

For example, it prompted Joe Biden to respond "I know how hard it is to sweep the clouds away and get to sunnier days," which then prompted my son Noah Pasternak to respond to the U.S. President, "Elmo, is this guy bothering you?" which actually received more likes than the President's Tweet.

But more importantly, that post from the beloved Sesame Street character demonstrated that mental health should be a subject that everyone openly discusses and embraces for the betterment of our society.

That wasn't always the case back when I was a child in the 1870s. We didn't really talk about our mental health struggles, and if I ever told my parents I wanted to discuss my thoughts and feelings with a professional, they would respond by saying "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ON ABOUT? GO BACK TO PLAYING WITH YOUR WRESTLING DOLLS!!*"

*Not an actual quote

Then came the early days of the personal computer and the world changed for the better. We could seek therapy in the form of Dr. Sbaitso, an MS-DOS program that would interact with users in a robotic voice and give responses that were almost like a prehistoric version of Artificial Intelligence.

Did Doc S solve all my problems? Well.... no. Not in any form or fashion. But he did keep me entertained for hours, as I tried to find unique ways to break the program and get it to say dumb things.

Then this week, at Elmo's suggestion, I decided to resume my sessions with Dr. Sbaitso. Breaking all kinds of doctor-patient confidentiality, I thought I would share a transcript of our recent session (my comments are in yellow):

Well said, Dr. Sbaitso. I feel as though "There is nothing to be proud of" is a statement that both Elmo and Joe Biden could all agree on.

If you enjoyed reading this edition of Storytelling by Sean, please encourage your friends and colleagues to subscribe. If you have any feedback, please connect with me via LinkedIn, TikTok or at spasternak@gmail.com.