Bi-Polar Comedy at TED

Mental dis-ease continues its slow walk out of the closet.

Tags: Self-Help Mental Illness Depression

Courage Comes in Many Flavors

Many flavors of courage.

Re-vlog :: TED :: Happiness & Science

There's good news in research.

"Know thyself."

[source]

Tags: Self-Help Art Depression

WLOLL :: New Media & Documentary Film Making :: Utterz & Seesmic

[source]
[Rough cut]

Tags: Self-Help Art Depression

Dissociative Identity Disorder :: DID :: Multiple Personality

As part of the research for the WLOLL documentary, found this video up @ YouTube that seems to explain it in true words.

Here's a link to Oxnam's book, "A Fractured Mind" @ Amazon.com:

Tags: Self-Help Art Depression

Capturing the Friedmans

A documentary created by the son of a pedophile, with the participation of the whole family.

Stunning.

Extraordinary.

Healing.

Tags: Self-Help Art Depression

Depression and Stigma :: Doing Something About It

Thanks, Joey.

From Joey's site, No Kidding, Me Too:

No Kidding, Me Too! is a nonprofit organization comprised of entertainment industry members united in an effort to educate Americans about the epidemic related to brain dis-ease in all forms. Through this enlightenment we will teach those suffering from it, and their loved ones who are victims of it, to talk about it openly. The goal is to tear this stigma out of the closet so these people will be surprised to find millions of others like themselves and say, "No Kidding, Me Too!"

Tags: Self-Help Art Depression

WLOLL Trailers

HERE.

Putting it all together as production sound mixer and film maker over at Faux Press TV.

Tags: Self-Help Art Depression

On Depression, Hope, Recovery, Psychology & Antidepressants

.:. Survivor .:.

Be My Friend - http://www.myspace.com/psychtruth On Depression, Hope, Recovery, Psychology & Antidepressants Dr. John Breeding, Ph.D. Psychologist discusses how to help people with mental health problems and psychological issues w/out buying into the biological psychiatry approach that a person has an incurable mental illness or mental disorder. Coalition for the Abolition of Electroshock in Texas http://www.endofshock.com/ This video was edited by Psychetruth. http://www.youtube.com/psychetruth http://www.myspace.com/psychtruth PsycheTruth is empowered by TubeMogul http://www.tubemogul.com Copyright 2008 CAEST. All Rights Reserved. This video may be displayed in public, copied and redistributed for any strictly non-commercial use in its entire unedited form. Alteration or commercial use is strictly prohibited.  

Formats available: Microsoft Video (.avi), Flash Video (.flv)

Tags: depression, hope, recovery, psychology, antidepressants, mental, health, psychiatry, illness, disorder, help, electroshock

Feeders for Human Birds :: a page from The World's Longest Open Love Letter

.:. Survivor .:.

In preparation for the Faux Parade. With Cosmic Ray.

Part of a very long meditation on the nature of love.

One of the things I love about making art in the physical world (as opposed to the digital realm) is that is creates an 'open space' in my brain for listening to what my body and soul already know.

A wise friend once told me that, "You already know all the answers. Just listen."

Making art is an indirect way to open your ears.

It also helps me breathe.

G'head.

Make a drawing right now.

A 30-second self-portrait. Even if you just draw it in the air or sand.

Pay attention to your breath as you do this.

Cool.

Formats available: MPEG1 Video (.mpg), Flash Video (.flv)

Tags: faux_press, human birds, cosmic ray, wloll, worlds longest open love letter

K.M Bihr :: Fine Art

.:. Survivor .:.

Paintings, wall sculpture, drawings.

This was a gift to my colleague Katie.

Because I can.

Because it's something she needs and will use.

Sweet.

Because part of healing is giving back.

Having - as part of my own healing journey - honored my gifts, I learn that gifts must be used lest they atrophy.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v)

Documentary Media Ripples :: Response

New Seesmic pal Karen responded to THIS video posted to Seesmic via YouTube.



I respond to Karen as above.

I continue to learn how to listen.

In researching "The World's Longest Open Love Letter" documentary I've occasion to search YouTube for folks who speak to mental health issues. Watching these profound stories brought me way down. In the parlance of survivor circles, it's known as 'triggering'.

Rather than fight it, I allowed the spiral to unfold in its way, but with an attempt at keeping my extreme artists eyes, ears and heart open so as to be able to later relate the experience. It inevitably takes longer to process this information than I expect.

Input & consequence.

I've also had occasion to gather a month or two of feedback from colleagues to whom I 'came out' of the depression closet very early on in our social network relationships. Specifically, a 'control group' at Seesmic.

In the midst of the bottom of the spiral down, I posted this entry, a longer-term project illustrating my fascination and irritation with television and film writers for having their characters say, "Are you okay?" sometimes many times per episode.

When I posted it, one of my dear new Seesmic friends - Otir - wrote me comment expressing the hope that i was indeed "Okay."

Otir said...

I hope you're Okay. I know that you are going to be fine. But if you don't feel it, I want you to know that others feel it for you and trust you will. Love.

I loved the mashup. I am so impressed at all the creativity that is there. I am jealous. Yes I am. But I am going to be okay with it :-)

My feeling - having come out - is that anything I do in their eyes is first colored by the knowledge that one of my dearest, oldest - if least respected - friends is chronic depression. Is that a good thing? Maybe. Maybe the support helps rather than hurts. In the middle of the beast, it hurts.

Pain is a red flag indicative of something that requires conscious attention, and is in its own way, another old friend whom I know too well.

Yes. Otir's words of encouragement helped, thought it took some time to get to that place where I could let her loving spirit into my heart. At first, her kind words filled me with dread.

I'm unaccustomed to allowing a support system into the process. Unaccustomed to being 'seen' in this way.

In being seen, I feel vulnerable.

Invisibility was the OLD strategy; being SEEN, the new.

My biggest fear is that friendships and career will be ruined as a result of going public. My online research indicates others go public about craploads of mental health issues in droves. What I see is gutsy stuff. Full of courage, hope and technique.

It's my theory that healing and forgiveness require 'witness', one thing the Catholic Church got right. Posting videos about one's healing experiences admirably - if somewhat dangerously - fills that need.

The NY Times recently published an interesting tech article about a new social networking site - PatientsLikeMe - that crowdsources data, statistics, charts, medical metrics. For sure, the site bucks the MSM-promoted privacy-before-all-else-for-fear-of-identity-theft or death-by-pervert-stalker trend.

Here's what deputy editor of Wired magazine Thomas Goetz had to say on the subject of the social networking of mental health research:

As diseases go, A.L.S. or M.S. or Parkinson’s or even H.I.V. are relatively rare afflictions, at least in the United States. Mental illness, on the other hand, afflicts a vast swath of the country. Nearly 60 million Americans have a diagnosable mental disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, a population that includes everything from depression to bipolar syndrome to anxiety. For PatientsLikeMe, that population represents a huge market, not to mention the potentially lucrative bounty of data related to antidepressants and other mood-disorder drugs. But it also presents a challenge.

Creating a PatientsLikeMe mental-health community — or as they call it, a “mood community” — requires a new strategy for measuring mental health. The challenge is in part semantic. Where the argot around A.L.S. or M.S. is largely clinical, the vernacular around mental health is more subjective. The official diagnostic criteria for major depression, for example, include “feelings of worthlessness” and “indecisiveness.” So PatientsLikeMe faces an input problem: how to convert the ambiguities of mental illness into metrics?

Whatever its ultimate worth, the site’s answer is elegantly straightforward. Members can update their mood status every hour on a scale of 1 to 4, from very bad to very good. How they feel may be subjective, but the resulting data can be mapped across time. The site treats sessions of therapy as if they were a dose of Prozac; the type of therapy (say, group or individual) stands as the treatment, and the length of a session (say, 50 minutes a week) as the dosage.

We live in interesting times.

Music is "Mother's Blues" from Jeff Kelley's Classic Acoustic Blues album - about whom I've written in this space before.

[NY Times article]

Tags: Self-Help Art Depression

Florida Poems :: Garage Closets

.:. Survivor .:.

Closets. A closet was my refuge as a young girl.

Garage Closets

- Jan McLaughlin

Take a glimpse,
a verve,
a clock along a passage,
grim,
with the must of garage closets
whose dis-remembered contents
will not pardon,
have no mercy whatsoever.

None, at all.

The glue has come undone
from every box bottom,
spilling contents at the feet of dancers
who mark time better than middle-aged children,
latching onto life
as tightly
as reputations.

Sam Perry, artist.

Spring Raulerson, artist.

Jan McLaughlin, metaphrast.

Bruce Weber, poet.

We made the audio together for my meditation on the past.

This is one of my all-time favorites of our collaborative works in Florida.

You can see a wee bit of Arturo Rodriguez camera right and a bit of Demi, camera left.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v)

Tags: garage, closets, poetry, poem, sam, perry, spring, raulerson, arturo, rodriguez, jan, mclaughlin, stoop, painting, wloll

Media Ripple :: Robert Croma

Click To Play

Robert made this for me.

Why he made it is our secret, okay?

People begin to respond in media.

I weep with happiness.

This is the kind of conversation I dream of having with survivors and those who support them on their journeys.

[source page]
[Quicktime download]

Tags: Self-Help Art Depression

2008 National Protest, Shatter the Silence of Sexual Victims

WHAT: National Protest
WHERE: Your Local Courthouse
WHEN: February 19 @ Noon

Folks are using motion pictures and distribution, tagging, social media to get their messages out.

Go to Paving The Way to see if your county is listed.

That's 'PAVE' -

Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment is a national, multi-chapter, grassroots nonprofit. PAVE uses education and action to shatter the silence of sexual and domestic violence. PAVE's work has been featured on CNN, Today Show, and in TIME.

PAVE says:

Sexual Violence Affects You!

1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. Every person knows a survivor, but the silence that surrounds these issues allow this public health crisis to continue! Over 80% of sex crimes go unreported...

Shatter the Silence of Sexual Violence!

Their flyer for Albany, NY is enclosed.

Silence kills.


Tags: Self-Help Art Depression

Doug Sends a Video Email

Click To Play

Delighted to introduce you to Doug. We've known of one anothers' work in video for a couple of years, and in that time have had more than a few deep conversations.

Now the conversation gets deeper.

The Harry Harlow clip that's mentioned may be found HERE.

Doug's is a moving statement on the nature of lovelessness.

Emotional abuse. Each time I name it, the thing has less power.

I admire and aspire to his comfort level with the subject matter.

Cruelty begets cruelty.

From what plant comes its seeds?

Rumor has it some of the social services folks have some ongoing cultural expeditions engaged. Look forward to getting the skinny on all of that. Very exciting and innovative thinking going on. Stay tuned.

Do you suppose a layperson could attend conferences on the subject at hand in order to conduct interviews?

My generation missed the benefits of such places and people. It does my heart good to know things change and grow; as have I.

[Quicktime | .m4v | Flash]

Tags: Self-Help Art Depression

Process :: a Film Making Model for This Project?

This is "Four-Eyed Monsters" and their approach to film making in the digital age.

I'm scared, but will not allow the fear to stop me.

NOTE: The last two Mission Statement videos (#1 / #2) were created using varying levels / styles of filmic anonymity. Trying to find a style that works. Color for sure. The crawl? What do you think?

Listening to them again, see that I'm hopefully giving just enough of my story for you to have faith in me, to establish a bit of street cred.

With the publication of these videos I publicly come out of the depression closet. Dang. This is big. Only came out to my family two years ago. It's all good.

Hi. My name is Jan and I'm a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and associated depression. I am as successful as a human being as I am capable of being. I've made a life with depression for myself. A life that works.

I want to speak with others who have mastered the craft of living with - not despite - depression. How do YOU do it?

Tags: Self-Help Art Depression

Making the WLOLL Documentary a 'Safe Place' for Survivors

.:. Survivor .:.

WARNING: a couple of cuss words in here, and potentially squicky mention of p*rps.

I left the A.S.A.R. newsgroup because of s*x-related spam squicking me. it's ugly.

Tom. Whatta guy.

Appreciate Tom's insightful pointing out where I went a bit off message in an earlier invitation for survivors to participate.

His point: the invitation says something provocative if not incendiary to the survivor.

Yeah. Incendiary would be the correct word.

In the video I ask whether or not it would be appropriate to include interviews with p*d*ph*l*s in The World's Longest Open Love Letter.

For me, the answer is, "Yes." Convince me otherwise.

Yes because loving evil kills it.

My mis-step was in not warning survivors in advance of the content.

In survivor circles, words like perpetrator are couched in typographical euphemism thus:

p*rp
s*x
p**n

Furthermore, textual forays into difficult subjects are respectfully announced in subject lines, often in caps and surrounded by exclamation points.

Consciousness practice. To be ultra-conscious of others' feelings. A big first step in healing when you are yourself unable to feel.

Behavior Modification through the moral imperative of Political Correctness changes minds.

So, thank you, Tom, for your valuable reminders about survivor protocols.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v)

Tags: depression, strategies, childhood, sexual, abuse, survivor, documentary, grassroots, anger, rage, art, emotion, wloll

A Kind of Introduction RE: a Documentary on Surviving

Click To Play

Sorry for laughing as I say the words. Humor can cover up a lot of discomfort, can't it? :)

First responses to the invitation to participate in the documentary about strategies for surviving childhood sexual abuse begin to come in. Actually the responses came right away. Getting to actually speak with folks takes a little longer.

Survivors often have big-time trust issues. It seems trust things stretch to both ends of the spectrum. Some, like me, trust too much at first blush. Others never seem to trust, not without a lot of time and work. Even then it's fragile. but always when it gets to the nitty gritty of adult human relationships, survivors require a great lot of patience as they grow to trust anybody enough to let them 'in'.

It's the fragility that often makes me shake my head with frustration.

Anyway, spoke at length by phone with Tom, creator of A Sanctuary website for survivors. He's given me permission to use his first name and link to the website, a safe place where folks may find a lot of basic information on what this phenomenon looks like whether you're a survivor, suspect abuse, or just love one.

He offered valuable feedback to the WLOLL project which I've taken to heart. It's my hope that in due course he and I will come to a place where we feel comfortable enough to record an audio and/or video interview.

I don't honestly know what this documentary will turn out to be. It depends on the people who step up to speak, and what is most important to them on the day we speak as they make their ways along their healing paths.

Farther into the video, I speak to my qualifications for doing this thing if you wonder how / why / whether it might be done.


Tags: Self-Help Art Depression

Sanitary Napkins :: Aftermath

.:. Survivor .:.

A wee bit of a meditation on body image.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v)

Tags: faux_press, jan mclaughlin, sanitary napkins, unsanitary, art, cognition, intelligence, philosophy, poetry