The Mental Health Mirror Issue #2
Year 2018, Issue Number 2
Soundtrack of the issue:
This issue is best enjoyed while listening to
Rivers and Roads
by
The Head and the Heart
Links: Soundcloud | Spotify | Youtube
Brought to you by:
This week's newsletter has been made possible by the release of Camila Cabello's first album ('em Cuban falsettos are magical), a sugar rush, a week of under-productive overworking amidst a blizzard and, just as ironically, a lack of inspiration.
Movies and Mental Health: A Quick Quip
It is important to talk about movies when we talk about mental health, because visibility and representation in a mass medium can go a long way.
The Hindi Film industry has done the cause a great disservice for the longest time. Fallacious depictions, romanticised display of sadness, gross misrepresentations have plagued what could have been great storylines and platforms for mental health awareness: Anjaana Anjaani glamourised suicide and made a game out of it, Hassee toh Phassee is the worst offender by reinforcing the stigma.
Karthik Calling Karthik dealt with schizophrenia, but not without its idiosyncracies. Barfi tackled autism in a fairly decent manner. But even these were hyperboles.
Considering all of these problematic depictions, Dear Zindagi comes across as a novel idea. Before I put forth any argument in staunch support of the movie, let me say that even this movie wasn't perfect. But it is as close to perfection we can get. It was a mainstream movie that managed to educate us about the stages in psychotherapy in a real, raw and almost non-cliched manner. In a land of taboos, it has stirred up a dialogue, without being labelled a documentary, or being put in the binary of intelligent cinema versus commercial success.
Call to Action: Have a Difficult Conversation This Week!
Since you are here, it is hardly presumptuous for me to believe that you are aware of the conversations held around mental health. Oh wait, there aren't any. The noise may be unprecedented on social media, but in the three dimensions of real life, the shame associated with mental health and allied issues is still overpowering. The taboo is too strong to be defeated by words that are met with scanty attention-spans of 10 seconds.
Here's the deal: We, unfortunately, still live in a time where the stigma around mental health and related issues tries it's best to suppress a healthy, normal dialogue around it. So, it becomes all the more a necessity and an obligation for us to look that stigma in the eye and beat it. When fighting a mental illness, it gets difficult to understand that there's light at the end of the tunnel. The end seems concrete and dark and it becomes difficult to believe in all that is said about 'hope'. But it is not the end. If you or a loved one suffers through something like this, please know that this is absolutely not the end.
But you need to start having these conversations. With people you know would feel uncomfortable talking about it. I know for a fact that most of our parents will still get defensive if told that their kid has a mental illness. And that is exactly the kind of barrier you have to break. Educate yourself, then enlighten someone about the concept, and pull the stigma right out of the discussion.
To make the task easier for you, I have designed this 3-step approach. Let's call it the '3- De guide to talk about mental health in 3D', for pun's sake.
De-Stigmatise: It is often hard to identify and diagnose a mental illness, even by the sick person, but there’s a worse thing you can do than failing to identify a mental illness, and that is stigmatising it. Making it an issue to be discussed in hushed whispers. Attaching shame with such conditions. So the first step in the conversation is normalising a discussion around mental health. You don't have to be either preachy or didactic. You absolutely don't have to be in-the-face. Heck, it doesn't even need to be a conversation about mental health. But make sure you talk about depression like you would talk about fever/cold/cough. Normalise it.
De-glamorise: It is certainly an established narrative that mental illnesses have led to the creation of artists in the past. But here's the reality: not everyone's mental illness works the same way, and you don't have to experience a mentally unwell phase before you can create art that is worth something. Let me break it down for you: sometimes, sure, mental illnesses and the whirl of emotions and thoughts that they encompass, act as inspiration for the next masterpiece. But mostly, they don't. Mostly they are just debilitating days sans any inkling of motivation. On the other hand, suffering is not a prerequisite for the creation of a great body of work.
Do not romanticise the idea of, say, depression. Let's get something straight, for the record: it is only artistic to have a brush and paint, not a knife and blood.
De-mystify: If depression, anxiety disorder, and names of other mental illnesses sound alien, and if you find yourself at a loss of words (and actions) when someone talks about it, educate yourself. Learn to identify triggers, try to comprehend the complexity of the situation. There are a plethora of resources on the internet as well. Do humankind a favour and read them!
Even if you, or anyone you know, has a depleting mental health. Don't wait for something to happen. I repeat, do not wait for the tragedy to strike.
Tackle the awkwardness of the conversation about mental health. We got this!
Mental Health Day
You've heard of a sick day
When you coughed your guts out
Runny nose,
swollen eyes
You've heard of a sick day
When you retched,
Were wretched,
No lies
You've heard of a sick day
When you broke some bones
Painful fractures
Bandages and ties
You've heard of a sick day
When there was blood
Trickling over skin
And cries
You've heard of a sick day
When you pulled a muscle
Needed a therapy
Multiple tries
Now you will hear of
A mental health day:
And we will know the mission is complete
When in a classroom in a public school
A student can avail medical assistance for
A mental affliction, without being called weak, or a fool
Let's normalise this phenomenon,
And trivialise the naysayers
And make sure
It is never the other way 'round
The Pick-Week Papers: (This column's name is a failed pun, and this column is a collection of my picks/recommendations of random things)
THOUGHT OF THE FORTNIGHT (or as I like to call it, Fodder for the Order):
On the urgency of addressing mental health and allied issues:
Our lives are the sum total of all the options no one told us we had. We are no longer in the same world we grew up in, and it is true now more than ever. This has direct implications on how far we will push ourselves, in the name of resilience, and on the larger narrative on mental health.
BOOK OF THE ISSUE:
Quiet Girl in a Noisy World:
An Introvert's Story by Debbie Tung
The purpose behind recommending this book is two-fold: one, it is one of the few comic/graphic books that isn't lame, and/or just a reproduction of the comics from the author-illustrator's social media. Debbie has represented, with an accuracy that is simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming, the introverts and what goes on in their mind.
The second, and the more important reason behind this recommendation is that introversion, like other defining traits of a personality, often become the easy target for bullies. This leaves psychological and emotional scars, which often go undetected till the introvert is a complete adult. Make the kids around you read this book, so that they know and respect everyone's approach towards life: just because a person likes a Saturday night with cocoa and book (and a cozy blanket) over a wild, booze-filled party, doesn't make them any less, or more human/sane/normal.
Disclaimer and a word with the subscriber:
The newsletter, by the very nature of it, is a personal space, a safe space. This means that everything that I write is based on my personal experiences, and these are all my opinions. I try to base it off facts (something academia teaches you the hard way through the fear of a C grade on a 3000-word assignment), and try to form informed opinions, but I keep my doors open to correspond because I want to have a conversation: I am beyond pleased that you are one of the first subscribers, and I would love to hear from you: your feedback, your comments, your perspectives, your opinions, and even your suggestions about what I could write in the next issue!
Thank you for being on this journey with me, and feel free to reply to this email or holler at kritika@thementalhealthmirror.com. Hedwig would have delivered your letter, but she's dead.
If you'd rather publicly send love/hate/shoutouts/screams/shrieks, I am building up on the social media profiles of the newsletter too:
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PS: I would love to hear what your experience of having the mental health 3-de conversation is like!
Special thanks to those few who read the first issue of the newsletter once, twice, thrice and got back via emails/messages with constructive feedback and encouragement. You are the real MVPs!