Filed under: Themes, The UpDown Report

Arcadio Morales, one of six residence deans at Stanford University, has lived in an apartment in the campus dorms for 15 years, often fielding late-night phone calls from students about everything from Frisbee injuries to mid-term anxiety to alcohol poisoning. He says some arriving freshmen have always packed emotional baggage along with their laptops and books. But the mix of problems he’s called to weigh in on has become more serious in recent years.

“Early on,” he says, “most of the issues that surfaced were roommate issues, compatibility issues.” He still gets that sort of thing, along with the calls from “very involved” parents who want him, for example, to go down the hall and wake up their son or daughter. But these days, Morales is getting more calls about students in need of substantial psychiatric support.

“We’re getting students that wouldn’t have been here 10 years ago,” Morales says, “because they’re on antidepressants or antipsychotic medication, and they’re functioning fairly well.” But it can be a big challenge for colleges when these students have crises, he says.

National epidemiological studies confirm that what Morales is seeing is happening on campuses nationwide, irrespective of the type of college or its size …

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Continue reading this very important NPR report
Listen to the corresponding NPR audio segment

Then…

Read Irked posts tagged “mental illness”

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Filed under: Themes, Cerebral Ballsy

Glenda Watson Hyatt shares her experiences living with cerebral palsy to motivate and inspire others to think about how they perceive their own situation and their own world around them. She does all this by typing with only her left thumb!

Quoting the great Glenda Watson Hyatt:

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One thing about being in a loving and supportive marriage is taking an interest and learning about one another’s hobbies and passions. One of Darrell’s interests is watching car racing, particularly NASCAR. Over the years I have learned way more about NASCAR racing than I ever thought I wanted to know.

Sunday afternoons during the season typically finds Darrell watching the televised NASCAR race. I watch a few laps with him, ask a few pesky questions—Why was a caution called? What does [insert racing terminology] mean? How many more laps?—then I carry on folding cloths, cleaning the cat box or tweeting with friends before going back to watch a few more laps with my hubby.

While watching one race, Darrell mentioned that his dream was to ride in a NASCAR and to feel the speed.

For a guy who was heartbroken at 16 because he was not able to learn how to drive, even with hand controls available, because of his double vision and lack of depth perception, his dream had extra meaning.

I filed away that tidbit.

Then, during a race earlier this spring, I received an email from… [Continue reading this post on Glenda's blog]

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Read all Irked posts tagged “Glenda Watson Hyatt”

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Filed under: Themes, The UpDown Report, Irked Videos

Glenn Close is an Emmy, Golden Globe and Tony Award winning actress. Over the last year, she has worked with some visionary groups to start BringChange2Mind.org, an organization that strives to inspire people to start talking openly about mental illness.

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Mental illness and I are no strangers.

From Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction to Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire to Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Sunset Boulevard, I’ve had the challenge — and the privilege — of playing characters who have deep psychological wounds. Some people think that Alex is a borderline personality. I think Blanche suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and everyone knows that Norma is delusional.

I also have the challenge of confronting the far less entertaining reality of mental illness in my own family. As I’ve written and spoken about before, my sister suffers from a bipolar disorder and my nephew from schizoaffective disorder. There has, in fact, been a lot of depression and alcoholism in my family and, traditionally, no one ever spoke about it. It just wasn’t done. The stigma is toxic. And, like millions of others who live with mental illness in their families, I’ve seen what they endure: the struggle of just getting through the day, and the hurt caused every time someone casually describes someone as “crazy,” “nuts,” or “psycho”.

Even as the medicine and therapy for mental health disorders have made remarkable progress, the ancient social stigma of psychological illness remains largely intact. Families are loath to talk about it and, in movies and the media, stereotypes about the mentally ill still reign. [Continue reading Glenn's beautiful thoughts...]

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Watch this full-of-love-and-life video of Glenn and Jessie Close. They embody the term “sisterhood”:

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Visit BringChange2Mind.org

And…

Watch BringChange2Mind’s YouTube channel

And…

Watch Glenn & Jessie on Good Morning America

And…

Jessie’s son Calen Pick, a brilliant painter, has schizo-affective disorder

Then…

Read all Irked posts tagged “mental illness”

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Filed under: Irked Audio

Singer-songwriter Dan Mangan, speaking to Q radio host Jian Ghomeshi about the song Basket:

It’s a bit of an ode to my grandfather. After he passed away, I kind of came up with this idea that your life is a basket, and throughout your life you’re putting greeting cards and letters and notes into this basket. And every story, every  experience that you’ve ever shared gets fueled into this basket that becomes you. And you are shaped by everything that’s ever happened to you or around you. He started to lose his memories, he started to mix things up, he started to call me his own brother’s name, and he’d confuse my brother and I. And I thought, y’know, that’s really tragic, and what do you do when the basket starts falling apart, and all those letters and stories fall to the ground? So the song is about getting old and pissed off, but then at the same time it’s about the redemption, it’s about holding on to those memories.

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Listen to Dan Mangan’s overwhelmingly-moving live performance of his song Basket off the new album “Nice, Nice, Very Nice” (Then go buy Dan’s music on iTunes!):

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Learn more at DanManganMusic.com

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Filed under: Themes, The Skinny on Fat

Quoting Laurie Toby Edison and Debbie Notkin, writing on their always-engaging Body Impolitic blog:

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“We’ve been thinking about the story of Alex Lange, which was in the news earlier this month . . . [The Rocky Mountain Health Plans insurance company] didn’t change its mind because it thinks it was wrong: it changed its mind because Alex’s dad works in television.”

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*If you’re unfamiliar with the story, here’s a blurb/video that explains the details. And click here to read Laurie and Debbie’s full post.

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Read all Irked posts tagged “body image”

Read all Irked posts tagged “Laurie Toby Edison”

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Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries, Bum Deal, Campaign Watch, Irked Videos

Huffington Post:

“After a whirlwind week that saw their family featured on the front page of The Huffington Post (and Irked!) and $30,000 raised to help them pay their overwhelming medical bills, the Stein family is back with a message of gratitude and hope for the HuffPost community. TampaBay.com visited the Steins at home on Sunday morning. They discuss how amazed they are that the [online community] came out in such strong numbers to support them. Gary Stein thinks of them as a symbol of the hardships faced by families across America.

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Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries, Campaign Watch

Quoting The Huffington Post:

On September 28, HuffPost featured the story of Monique Zimmerman-Stein, a mother who shares a rare genetic disorder with her children that causes blindness. Though Zimmerman and her family have health insurance, they are still saddled by astronomical debt from medical bills, which has forced this mother to save her daughters’ sight by sacrificing her own. Many readers, touched by the Stein family’s story, have asked for a way to help them. HuffPost Impact got in touch with Gary Stein, Monique Zimmerman-Stein’s husband, a Hillsborough County health department employee, who reported that the family’s medical bills have continued to amass. A few months ago, Stein had a heart attack scare and his daughter had a playground accident that sent her to the emergency room. After tests and scans came out clear, both hospital visits were deemed medically unnecessary and the family was charged additional co-pays, which have since gone into collection. A few weeks ago, Zimmerman-Stein had a minor stroke, known as a TIA, possibly caused by stress. She suffered no lasting side effects… other than the bill for the three-day hospital stay, which so far is $5,000—after insurance—and mounting. Despite this, Stein says “we find, every day, a reason to be brave because our system is difficult. I have a family to support and we make tough decisions every day on how to move forward and how to be normal.” Stein says they know they aren’t the only ones struggling to remain hopeful in the face of mounting health care debt. ”It just wrenches your gut to think that we live in such a great country but people can’t get the medical care they need and that they have to make decisions on what bills to pay, what things to forgo.” The Steins are acutely aware that their story is just one of hundreds of thousands, and Zimmerman-Stein is adamant in her belief that free clinics need to be supported and that our representatives need to be held accountable. “I don’t care who you are, everyone in this world gets sick,” she said. To help the Stein family, [The Huffington Post has] created a widget (see below) where readers can make a direct impact . . . You can give directly to the Stein family via their PayPal account by clicking on the widget below (the PayPal account should read “Just Dolphins”).

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UPDATE: Due to an “overwhelming response,” The HuffPost is extending the length of this fundraiser and have raised their goal to $30,000 (they were originally hoping to cover the latest round of the Stein’s medical bills—but, thanks to your generosity, they are able to help out with their other outstanding bills). Over 860 contributors have given more than $26,000 since last Tuesday afternoon. Quite an amazing accomplishment for the first day of the Impact section! Gary Stein, Monique’s husband, says the family is absolutely overwhelmed by the response from the online community. “We’ll do whatever we can to pay it forward,” he says. “I hope and pray that this amazing response can be repeated.”

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Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries, Irked Videos

Quoting Julian Hattem, via The Huffington Post:

Monique Zimmerman-Stein has been nearly blind for the last two years from Stickler syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. She recently decided to forego her own treatment to save funds to treat her two daughters, who also suffer from the condition, reports Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times. The family is covered under husband Gary’s Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan, but that coverage only pays for 80 percent of medical expenses. She will no longer get treatment to preserve that last slice of light. The injections that might help cost $380 after insurance, and she needs one every six weeks. She could be spending that money on her daughters’ care. If forgoing treatment might help them see, she said, “That’s a choice any mom would make.”

Read the rest of this article >>

Read Gary Stein’s beautiful statement >>

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Tampabay.com put together an excellent video to accompany the story:

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According to examiner.com, if you would like to assist the Steins in their struggle, you may contact them at:

Monique Zimmerman-Stein
P.O. Box 7506
Wesley Chapel, FL
33545

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Filed under: Themes, Deaf Jam, Irked Videos

Many of you may remember Drew, the youngest child in Ohio to ever receive simultaneous, bilateral cochlear implants.

It’s hard to believe that Drew celebrated his third birthday last month!

Happy birthday Drew!

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Just to make the day a little sunshinier, here’s a clip of Drew singing the great Ohio State University game day anthem Carmen Ohio (lyrics can be found here):

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Learn more at turnonmyears.blogspot.com

Tune in to the “DrewTube” channel here

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Filed under: Regular Contributors, Lewis Schofield, Themes, Auties & Aspies, QuIrked Kids

“I just want them to know the facts

instead of all this gibberish.”

— Lewis Schofield

CBC.ca:

A 14-year-old Regina native, now living in Ontario, is earning recognition for his efforts in dispelling myths about autism, a general term for neurological disorders that can impair development. Lewis Schofield is a Grade 9 student in Peterborough, where Trent University is honouring him with a Community Leader Award for Youth. Schofield is often online, using blogs, artwork, videos and podcasts, providing information about his health issues including Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. He also participates in a Family Autism Forum on Yahoo. ”I was just doing what I always do,” Schofield said in an interview with CBC News. “I always do my best. It’s just how I was raised.” ”He was very surprised and very shocked that he had been nominated, never mind had actually won this honour,” Elyse Bruce, Schofield’s mother, told CBC news.

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Read the rest of this great article >>

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Read all Irked posts by Lewis >>

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