mental illness

Filed under: Themes, The UpDown Report

“We take care of our dental health, but we don’t take care of our mental health.”

—Howie Mandel

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Buy Howie’s wonderful (and candid!) book:

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Filed under: Books & Book Reviews, Irked Videos, Interviews

Over a decade ago, freewheelin’ comedian Howie Mandel (howiemandel.com) first spoke about his debilitating obsessive compulsive disorder and ADHD—when he was outed on Howard Stern’s radio show. Now, all these years later, he’s finally opening up and “telling all”…in his candid, courageous, and VERY VERY FUNNY memoir titled Here’s the Deal: Don’t Touch Me.

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Filed under: Themes, The UpDown Report, Books & Book Reviews

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This year I fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming a published novelist. The whole process of getting my book “Migration Songs” ready for print was a daunting one. My jewel of an editor saw me through the ups and downs, delivering endless pep talks to get me over the hurdles of insecurity. One minute I’d be fine, the next, sunk, but she always knew how to keep me moving from sunk to relieved. I felt like I never depended so much on another person for my mental health.

The novel is published and selling well. After a long lean stretch, I am bringing in some money from a project or two that I’ve been waiting on. And I have the support of my family and friends. But somehow I seem to be struggling with feelings of emptiness and futility.

On the surface, I have nothing to be depressed about. But does depression have to be “about” something?

We have been taught that the propensity for depression can be partly genetic and partly attributable to early life experiences, and it is well-recognized that the condition is not always situation-based. But for a long time I have believed that if I were able to change my thinking, I would be able to avoid depression.

I have consciously attempted to exchange negative thoughts for positive ones, successfully navigating a trip to Russia in 2006 on the basis of encouraging self-talk. It also helped that I was taking my medication as prescribed, as I continue to do today. But the feelings of spiritual loss have not abated.

I know I have been stressed-out lately, from dealing with certain people in my life, and because of money woes. I have also been feeling lost because of not having a clear work schedule. I shouldn’t be surprised… these are familiar feelings, and familiar scenarios. But I suppose I thought publishing my novel might just create a new kind of happiness that would not easily disperse.

Just as depression is not necessarily situation-based, neither is happiness. There may be nothing in the world that can make me happy, and only one person in the world who can—myself. And maybe, there will be times when even I, however much I work on thinking positively, may not be able to pull myself up out of the muck.

I once thought gratitude was the answer, and that if I could be grateful for what I have, the good things in my life, that I would magically be happier. It’s possible that I have forgotten to act on that lesson. But it’s also possible that there is no magic bullet, that there will be times when we just can’t seem to turn our dark moods around.

I’m going to keep trying the things that have worked in the past to increase my happiness, and the things that seem promising. But now that I am older, I am also prepared to live with a certain amount of darkness and pain.

The quest for happiness seemed like a worthwhile one, when I was young. It still seems reasonable to hope for happiness, but perhaps it is not so reasonable to expect feelings of happiness to be the inevitable and lasting conclusion of getting something “right” (whether it be thinking or attitude or being good or living a certain way).

Happiness may well be the by-product of seeing beauty in the world and other people. It may be something which must pass, the way anger and sadness do. It may be that some people have a natural talent for happiness, while others have to work at it. And it may be that our memories of happiness can feed our souls with as much light as actual moments of happiness do.

I have been happy, and have no doubt that I will be again. I also know that the times in between will not kill me, and perhaps most importantly, that they are not a punishment for having done something wrong. I am open to the idea that I can change something in order to be happier but I will refuse to assign blame to myself if I don’t achieve the kind of happiness we all hope for. Happiness, after all, is not a test, but a state of being that I believe we are all born to recognize, enjoy and long for.

My editor probably doesn’t realize she was also a kind of happiness coach for me while I was revising my novel. I got by on her kind and enthusiastic words until the next wave of despair hit. Maybe I can learn to be my own shrink and cheerleader, or maybe I can simply take what comes and deal with it then.

I’ve never liked unhappiness, but maybe I can learn to endure it a little, while waiting for the next batch of happiness to wash up.

Like shells on the beach of my life.

Anna Quon is a Nova Scotia-based writer, and a much-cherished ongoing contributor to Irked Magazine. To purchase her critically-acclaimed debut novel click here.

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Filed under: Campaign Watch, Themes, Auties & Aspies, Irked Videos

Lizzy Clark, represented by Cinel Gabran Management, was the first child with Asperger's syndrome to play an Asperger's syndrome role in a major television drama.

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A provocative new campaign…after the jump

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Filed under: Themes, The UpDown Report, Addictions

The Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival, happening as we speak in Toronto, explores cinematic representations of mental health and addiction. Film and video programs are followed by post-screening panel discussions with people who receive mental health and addiction services, as well as writers, directors, actors, health care professionals and academics.

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Filed under: Themes, Bum Deal, Campaign Watch

The sessions—which are free and open to the public—will be moderated by highly-acclaimed journalists Kathryn Gretsinger and Charlie Smith, and the great David Diamond (Headlines Theatre’s trailblazing co-founder and current Artistic Director). They “will get at the nuts and bolts of creating safe, affordable and supportive housing. Each day deals with location, financing and necessary supports and services.”

Moderated panels will be made up of people who have experienced homelessness, Metro Vancouver city councillors and business leaders.

Panelists will each present a short talk on the day’s topic, followed by an open dialogue with the audience.

The ideas discussed at the Sessions will generate an official Community Action Report—designed “to inform policy.” In fact, Headlines Theatre has written agreements from the following organizations to receive the report for their research for national, provincial, regional and local strategies on mental health and homelessness:

• The Mental Health Commission of Canada
• BC Housing
• The City of Vancouver
• The Greater Vancouver Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness
• RainCity Housing
• Coast Mental Health

If you’d like to participate (and you really really should), The Community Dialogue Sessions are being held in Vancouver at the Firehall Arts Centre:

280 E. Cordova Street
Vancouver, British Columbia
November 24, 25 and 26 @ 1:30pm each day
Admission is free and open to the public

For more information call 1-604-871-0508 or email info@headlinestheatre.com.

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Learn more at headlinestheatre.com

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Filed under: Themes, The UpDown Report

Quoting Natalie Angier via NYTimes.com:

If you’ve ever had a problem with rodents and woken up to find that mice had chewed their way through the Cheerios, the Famous Amos, three packages of Ramen noodles, and even that carton of baker’s yeast you had bought in a fit of “Ladies of the Canyon” wistfulness, you will appreciate just how freakish is the strain of laboratory mouse that lacks all motivation to eat.

The mouse is physically capable of eating. It still likes the taste of food. Put a kibble in its mouth, and it will chew and swallow, all the while wriggling its nose in apparent rodent satisfaction.

Yet left on its own, the mouse will not rouse itself for dinner. The mere thought of walking across the cage and lifting food pellets from the bowl fills it with overwhelming apathy. What is the point, really, of all this ingesting and excreting? Why bother? Days pass, the mouse doesn’t eat, it hardly moves, and within a couple of weeks, it has starved itself to death.

Behind the rodent’s fatal case of ennui is a severe deficit of dopamine, one of the essential signaling molecules in the brain. Dopamine has lately become quite fashionable, today’s “it” neurotransmitter, just as serotonin was “it” in the Prozac-laced ’90s … Continue reading this article

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Filed under: Themes, The UpDown Report, Campaign Watch

Wichita State University’s Psychology Clinic is offering a free 12-session program for adults coping with depression. ”We are looking for as many people as we can get,” said Rob Zettle, the psychology professor at WSU who is conducting the clinic. No drugs are prescribed, Zettle said, but people who are currently on depression medication can participate . . . Participants will be screened and evaluated for the program. One-on-one sessions will then be scheduled. For more information or to schedule a screening evaluation, contact Zettle at 316-978-3081 or robert.zettle@wichita.edu. [via]

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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

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Filed under: Themes, The UpDown Report

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Antidepressants “work instantly”

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