The Mental Health Mirror Launch Issue
Soundtrack of the issue:
This issue is best enjoyed while listening to
Daydreaming
by
Radiohead
Links: Soundcloud | Spotify | YouTube
Brought to you by:
This week's newsletter is presented to you by caffeine-induced twitchy anxiety, a night of lavishly scooping Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie and a suppression of the extreme urge to write a parody of my life (mostly because I realised this life cannot be parodied any further)
We all draw a line 'somewhere', but that doesn't mean we are all artists. Or does it?
AKA
Ramblings of a soul, the fabric of which is anxiety.
I have a lot of questions.
Part A:
Morning cuppa
When you prepare your morning coffee, do you feel like rewarding yourself? Do you think of splashing whipped cream in your coffee for having gotten out of bed? For surviving? For bracing yourself for the day of corporate drudgery that lies ahead? Or the tedious lectures. So, do you? And if you do, if you treat yourself to the frothy cream everyday, may be even rainbow sprinkles, doesn't it cease to feel like a reward after the 3rd day? What do you do to reward yourself, when the reward has been abused to the point of monotony?
Part B:
Date
When you go out on a date, do you feel like killing yourself? Do you let your scepticism take over and convince you that your romantic life is doomed? Do you, then, do everything you can, within your capabilities, to ensure that the date is ruined? What do you do, however, when nothing you do manages to take the spark off? What do you do when all three courses of the meal have been demolished but that fire hasn't? How do you handle love after being convinced that you don't deserve it?
Part C:
This is Us
When you come out of the closet (of anxiety) for the first time, whether in front of a close friend, or a potential romantic interest, do you expect the worst? Have you already summoned all the courage you need to face rejection? Do you play all the scenarios how this could go wrong? Do you prepare a response for each one of those?
So, what do you do when they genuinely understand what is wrong and support you? When they agree to give you the space you want, to take the leap of faith that you need to make? Do you get disoriented by the twist in the turn of events? Do you find it hard to believe that someone can love you, no strings attached?
Part D:
Texting
When your risky text stays unanswered, do you assume the worst? Do you feel like making friends is not your cup of tea (or coffee or juice) because of the uncertainties of the initial month: the unanswered texts and the undeciphered actions? Do you feel like time-travelling when some idiot texts you to inform you that they will be calling you in a bit? Or worse, when you leave a text unanswered because you cannot face the world, do you think of the worst assumptions the texter could make?
I have more questions. But really, they are all just one question: where do you draw the line, the line that doesn't make you an artist, but only helps you survive?
The Time is Ripe: You Can Begin to Care Now
The experts at Oxford Dictionaries declared “Youthquake” as the Word of the (most tumultuous) year. While the word itself is not of recent coinage, its germaneness to the present state of affairs is hardly controvertible. Defined as ‘a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people’, in this word rest all our hopes to salvage the mess we find ourselves in, as we stand at the fringes of a new year.
If it isn’t obvious, I am hinting at the disarray marring the country: the plague called fascism has struck and how. Neglect for human lives, rampant sexism, protected business houses, controlled mass media, obsession with ideologies (and Aadhar). Let’s not forget this: the reason one coterie termed Youthquake as the word of the year is because another (Collins Dictionary) chose the term ‘Fake News’ to represent the year 2017. This is the Orwellian nightmare: Newspeak, misinformation, fake news.
Journalism’s business model is in disrepair. The tentacles of digitisation have been all-encompassing as the Schumpeterian creative destruction, and while legacy newspaper publishers haven’t thrown in the towel, they might as well be headed in that direction. Even if one doesn’t subscribe to technological determinism, especially given that India’s publishing industry has kept it together despite its counterparts drowning everywhere else, including the UK, the political forces influencing reportage is not good news either.
There is a distinct silence governing the country, and the world at large. This silent narrative is loud and clear, however: the entities that held influence traditionally are refraining from taking stern positions, deterring a healthy dialogue.
And this is where Youthquake becomes relevant.
What I mean when I call it the year of hustle…
It is these youths that will get shit done. And they will get this shit done on their own terms.
A quick digression for an example: The largest comedy collective in India (read: All India Bakchod), with the most astonishing reach among the younger generation, understood the power they could wield. Their John Oliver-inspired series On Air with AIB called out the authorities and used satire to bring home the indifference we had become accustomed to. But they work on logic, are not taking any moral grounds, and manage to garner support. Just because you care, doesn’t mean you need to be a Nehru jacket-clad politician. So, it isn't surprising that AIB hasn't given up on its trademark and consistent use of swear words. Cussing still remains one of the major highlights of the presentation and it is not losing this quality, for what is embedded in its very name would find it hard to detach itself from the matrix.
It becomes incumbent on us now, to trigger change in the right direction. Get vocal about the cause(s) you espouse. Be a part of the awakening, lead it, if you will. Begin to care now, because if you don’t, very soon there won’t be much left to care about.
Maybe media wasn’t meant to don the activist hat originally. But since it has failed to perform the function that it was supposed to, we should let it redeem itself through a renewed role.
No wonder, George Orwell’s 1984 has been steadily climbing up the bestseller charts.
“Imagining isn't perfect. You can't get all the way inside someone else...But imagining being someone else, or the world being something else, is the only way in. It is the machine that kills fascists.”
― John Green, Paper Towns
the title of this poem is not known
I used to think the problem with depression is that
there cannot be a poster child for it, no brand ambassador,
because depression is like YouTube channels
everyone subscribes to a different set
depression, is like humour,
everyone has a different palate
And everyone draws the line of tolerance differently.
but more so,
depression is like a soup
served to you burning hot
an appetizer for a hell-hole
and everyone has different utensils.
so even if the ingredients are the same
each is a secret recipe
handed over to you by your personal dementors
But you
you successfully commercialised my illness.
made a commodity out of the dark place
did some calculations about how
desperate the depressed soul is to travel towards light
you understood it before even my psychologist did
that I'd do anything to stop drowning
even seek support in the floating straws
So you made an industry reeking of pity
and labelled it self-care when labels are what ruined us,
sold in the form of aromatic candles, bubble baths, bullet journals,
badges that shout, “good vibes”
but sucked all of mine
and money
when I was already struggling with the therapist’s fee
and all along, my depression was your ally
So does that mean
that the more wretched that people are
and the more people that are wretched
are your profits?
So does that mean
that the more wrecked that people are
and the more people that are wrecked
are your profits?
but how can someone’s misery
be someone else’s happy news?
my depression tells me
that’s just life
So I wonder (and hope)
if death would be less selfish
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)
COMIC OF THE DAY
Source: Kayden Hines on Instagram
Chose this comic because well, I want to thank you all for being the first lot of subscribers. And because, I have a theory that Thank You Notes make the best friendships!
BOOK OF THE DAY
The Worrier's Guide to Life
I wrote this review for the book on Goodreads, and I wrote all of this in
less than 2 minutes, "Of course the book is very accurate, coming from a person who is strangled by over-thinking and anxiety. I absolutely loved the book. Being a huge fan of Gemma's works, it is hard to not like each of these comic illustrations. There were puns and digs I did not even see coming, and that is a compliment of the highest order. The topics/themes she has chosen are also so damn relevant to the zeitgeist, I cannot point out to a single flaw in the whole arrangement!"
Blurb: If you're floundering in life, striking out in love, struggling to pay the rent, and worried about it all -- you're in luck! World Champion Worrier and Expert Insomniac Gemma Correll is here to assure you that it could be much, much worse.
In her hugely popular comic drawings, Gemma Correll dispenses dubious advice and unreliable information on life as she sees it, including The Dystopian Zodiac, Reward Stickers for Grown-Ups, Palm Reading for Millennials, and a Map of the Introvert's Heart. For all you fellow agonizers, fretters, and nervous wrecks, this book is for you. Read it and weep...with laughter
For a brief moment there, I was madly in love with the book. Definitely recommend!
Apropos a purpose (my take on the joke everyone's cracking)
Yeah sex is cool but have you ever closed 15 tabs after finishing a project
— daddy (@lifeofdaddy) November 29, 2017
Yeah, sexting is cool but have you ever texted someone to seek help during a panic attack and actually received genuine, helpful response?
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!
In the spirit of full disclosure, through this newsletter I am looking to improve as a journalist, a writer, a poet, and all the pursuits that have something to do with words.
To me, this newsletter is like an open mic and you are the beta readers, before I go around yelling these words at the world!
I am writing about issues that
I care about deeply
are personal triumphs or challenges
deserve to be talked about more
And so, I really hope there are multiple takeaways for the subscribers who give as much attention to each word I scribble, as I give when I scribble them. I understand some content can be intimately (and uncomfortably) talking about issues (especially when I talk about mental health) so I will do my best to give a trigger warning for such pieces. It would be a victory for me if my writing is able to provoke a chain of thought or contemplation, or maybe even action from you. 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 he's dead.
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Special thanks to Namrata Satija for the soundtrack selection and Arushi Sharma for proofreading.