Hi. I’m Robin, and welcome to my podcast, “Brave Enough: Tales of Mental Health & Survival,” a safe space designated to discuss living with various mental illnesses and my experiences.
The logical method would be to start at the beginning, but I thought I would drop you right into the middle of my life as I’m experiencing it today. I’ll explain what it’s like to live with several mental illnesses, especially Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), a mental illness very few people comprehend, is misportrayed by the media, and is highly stigmatized even by medical professionals.
When I overdosed in June 2018, before falling unconscious for a week and spending three days on a ventilator, I overheard one of the doctors who helped save my life say to the other, "G-d, I hate treating personality disorders." That comment is burned permanently into my brain, and until the day I die, I will never forget it. There is still a huge stigma surrounding mental illness in general, but if doctors stigmatize personality disorders, the most stigmatized of all of the mental illnesses, how will society ever accept them?
I should have written this piece while out in nature at Beat Generation poet Clive Matson’s annual writers’ retreat, which I attended last summer in June Lake, California. But, because the campsite where Matson usually holds his retreat is closed this summer for renovations, he had no choice but to find a different location, and the location change cost $1000 over my budget. There was no way I could go.
So, instead of writing out in nature, I spent last week writing on my living room couch instead, my gray female Persian cat, Alex, lying beside me as I recounted my seemingly never-ending online battle with Johnny Depp’s imposters and their determination to scam fans into buying one of Depp's "membership cards" and sharing with you their latest phone scams, of which I was a victim, in more ways than one. Despite knowing the cards were a scam, I still fell victim to the manipulations of Depp's imposters.
C’MON, IT'S JOHNNY DEPP! I may have turned 48 last month, but I’ve had “a thing” for him since I was 13, and he was a relatively unknown actor on 21 Jump Street, although, before the show made him a household name, especially among women, he had a few bit parts in movies like Platoon. I found this meme online and immediately saved it - the credit goes to whoever made it - it’s accurate and the perfect description of what many females think of Johnny Depp. I’ll admit it - I think this picture is hot, as are the others I've saved to my phone from online posts and articles over the years! And I don’tcare what you think - whether you like the man’s insides or not - you have to agree his outside is pretty damn perfect!
But the man has issues!
I’m sorry, but I can’t help but wonder what drugs he was taking, or what he was thinking when he married that __________Amber Heard! I’d fill in the blanks myself, but 1) I don’t want to get sued or get arrested for calling her what I think of her ‘cuz it’s not very nice, and 2) others may have better words than me to fill in the blanks or may feel entirely differently than I do.
But, SHE TOOK A SHIT ON THEIR BED! That’s animal behavior, not human behavior, and it's vile, disgusting, and mentally disturbing!
In my case, it all started in December 2023, when I began receiving messages from “Johnny Depp,” all of which were obviously from imposters. And anyone who knows me knows I’m not someone to screw around with. If you fuck with me, I’ll fuck with you right back. Although often, like this time, it gets me in trouble.
Next week, I'll describe in-depth the approach used by the imposters to convince me to buy one of Depp's "membership cards," which, each time, was almost identical, as though they followed a script I'll provide with the methods they used in a mock “How To" guide to becoming a celebrity imposter. But, they have recently changed their tactics and techniques as new technologies like AI emerge. Despite Johnny Depp’s management team putting out three statements since December 2023, each emphasizing Johnny Depp has no social media accounts on Facebook, Telegram, Zangi, or any other communication app, people are still getting scammed by his imposters.
Any payment request by Apple, Google Play, or Steam gift cards is a major red flag!
Canadian authorities warned against paying for anything using these untraceable payment methods because the request is most likely a scam. They are a popular scam payment method for delivery fees of fake prizes, meet-and-greets, and the ever-popular membership card. "Real fans" are expected to buy them to prove they are true fans of certain celebrities, not only Johnny Depp, although his cards are the most expensive, and his imposters were the first to introduce them as a method of scamming people.
Johnny Depp’s membership cards range from $100 - $15,000, depending on the individual imposters. Other celebrities whose imposters sell these worthless pieces of plastic resembling credit cards include Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, Tommy Shaw (Styx), and Tom Cruise, among others. I’ve even gotten requests to purchase cards from celebrities I’ve never heard of!
These celebrity imposters tend to lure innocent victims away from Facebook Messenger under the guise of talking privately to untraceable communication apps such as Telegram, Zangi, Signal, and the most recent addition, WhatsApp.
WhatsApp is now being used to hack into people’s phones!
Scammers are constantly creating new ways to con people out of money. The latest for them is to use WhatsApp to take control of your phone.
This past week, I woke up to two text messages from Gmail (?) - I didn’t even know you could send a text using Gmail!
One text said they had emptied my phone of all its contents and would post everything online if I didn’t pay them a certain amount (in Bitcoin, of course) by this past Thursday. I didn’t even look at how much they were demanding, but I checked to see what they messed with in my phone and found instead of where my contacts were supposed to be listed, all of my previous debit card numbers were listed! Then, they suddenly disappeared, and all my contacts reappeared.
I immediately reset my iPhone 15 to factory settings, then uploaded the latest backup from my MacBook Air onto my phone, for which I ordered a new SIM card (which will take 5-7 business days to arrive.) I now do everything I can using my laptop, allowing all calls to go to voicemail and returning any calls via my landline instead.
Technology has advanced to such an extent no one is immune to it, and for old gals like me, 48, it only makes my life more difficult. I still believe pen and paper are the way to go. I’m old school and prefer the old ways, like cursive writing, which these days can be a secret code for adults to write messages they don’t want their children to understand.
Have you been scammed? How? What were the circumstances? What did you do about it?
While writing this, I got a phone call I'd been expecting from a collection agency because I had let my credit card surpass its limit. I gave up trying to pay it off because the monthly fees were killing me and preventing me from making any headway in paying off the balance.
I decided to start my podcast with something informative which has been in the news lately. But next week, as I said, I will explain from A to Z how these scammer-impostors convince you to send them money and how the scammers played on my vulnerabilities, insecurities, gullibility, and desire to be loved - and yes, I know how pathetic that sounds.
As time progresses, I’ll delve into more personal and more in-depth issues, such as how hard it was to write this while depressed, the massive mistake I made where and when I volunteered for two years, and how I’ve been trying to fix my error to no avail because I’m a technological idiot (but keep trying to correct my mistake,) how and why I decided to resign from volunteering at a job I loved, my estrangement from my family at their request, how I sat on my couch and cried after the call from the collection agency despite knowing it was coming, how I cried while talking to my lawyer about how to deal with it, and after hanging up with him, how I cried I couldn’t call my mother for comfort because of being forbidden from contacting her. In a nutshell, I’m a horrible person and pray every night before going to bed I won't wake up the following morning.
I felt it more important to advise people about celebrity imposter scams and how someone could hack your phone using WhatsApp. My personal stories may be more entertaining and relatable, but if I could save even one person from getting their phone hacked like I did, I would feel I helped someone.
Also, I’ll discuss how my illnesses caused a meltdown, resulting in me sobbing in the pharmacy and the grocery store this week, discuss my impulsivity and how it’s one of my most troublesome symptoms, how some days I can’t bring myself to clean or shower or do anything but sleep, and how one of my symptoms, uncontrollable anger, almost got me evicted from my apartment. Also included will be more details and updates on my dealings with Johnny Depp’s imposters and how my mental illness symptoms and behavior affected my life in each situation.
I encourage feedback - what do you want to hear about? Should I go back to my original format of writing everything in my newsletter and read one of my stories and poems as my podcast?
Please bear with me and offer suggestions as I attempt to figure out what formula works best and is most appealing for you.
What do you prefer? What do you want to read/hear about? All feedback is welcome; I want you to enjoy the stories and articles in the weekly newsletter and discuss topics you want to hear about in my podcast. So, please leave a comment with your preferences. In addition to providing new stories and poems, I want to educate people about mental illnesses and their effects, including Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, ADHD, Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), and various traits of Adjustment Personality Disorder (APD), and Avoidant Personality Disorder (AvPD), as well as the therapy we finally found after 20 years which is slowly making a positive difference in my life.
Please watch for an article I wrote about how it's not only okay to discuss your mental health publically but is also encouraged, which I'll be sending out in the next couple of days.
I wish you a wonderful week, and until then, I send you light and love.
Protect Yourself From Fake Celebrity Profiles Hacking Your Phone