So I spent about a week or so in January working on a piece for Witt’s
website around a first person perspective on the current conversation around
mental health and the need to change it. I thought it was a pretty solid effort
on my end and here’s some of the highlights:
·
I don’t think there’s one right or wrong way to
try and live with a severe mental health issue like bipolar disorder, but I do
think there is a way. That may not sound like much of a breakthrough to you but
dammit that’s like a huge revelation for me.
·
I know it’s crazy to think that these mental
health stereotypes and stigma will ever cease to exist and I’ve obviously made
peace with that per the previous really bad word play.
·
It’s all around us so go be a hipster and check
out Daniel Johnston’s documentary on VHS, how about being even more ironic and
listening to a Beethoven hit or two just
for pleasure, or maybe just stare at a Catherine Zeta-Jones picture for a few
minutes, not to mention Van Gogh’s aren’t too hard on the eyes either. Oh I
don’t know, like say, I’m really getting into Demi Lovato’s sound right now and
you should too. Actually, just ignore
that last one but you all get the point. I hope I have persuaded you to help and try
and change the current conversation out there about mental health; I think we all
need that.
I’m not sure if you’d call those highlights but they were my jokes
that were cut out of the final edit of my op-ed piece (is it still
in my voice if nearly 25% of it is removed during edits?). Look I
know my humor isn’t for everyone and that was made obvious by an early critic
who believed the only person who could benefit from my book was a recently frat
boy diagnosed with bipolar disorder (harsh, right). But I kind of feel like
that’s who I am and the whole point of the article.
I should be fair and say it wasn’t a terrible article afterwards
and I definitely could have gave the OK to the article (and did for like an
hour) to let it run. I mean overall it was still a pretty good article aside
from it not really sounding like me. I think there still was a valid message in
the article about the need to get away from stereotypes and stigma currently in
the mental health conversation but it just didn’t sound like me.
Let’s be honest, I don’t have a lot in my life right now that’s
purely mine. Not money or job, nor career, no house, nein girlfriend and the list could
go on but who doesn’t have problems (hell Russia is already stockpiling snow
for the Olympics next year by making orphans shovel it instead of being adopted
in the US-now I see how some don’t get my humor). Right now though my voice is
one of the few things that I believe is truly mine and I’d like to hang on to
it.
You know being an indie writer with literally tens of books sold I
should jump at any opportunity for some press. But my whole point of the
article was to have people look at mental health differently. Looking through a
creative lens rather than one that seems to be only filled with stigma. So it
just didn’t feel right putting something out there that wasn’t really me, in
fact, that sounds exactly like what I was trying to change.
Since many of my manic experiences involve music I’ve decided to
add random music videos to the blog for my enjoyment and your inconvenience.
Enjoy!
Coming Correct,
d01roK
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