It’s a cliché that actors win Oscars when they play people with mental illnesses. The history proves it true, though. At my last count, 16 Oscars went to actors playing people with mental health or substance use conditions. The way they handle the topic varies with the time period, but overall, the roles are not positive. One of the most recent offenders is this week’s movie, A Beautiful Mind.
This week, I was invited to a special screening of the documentary Happy, along with a question and answer session with Therese Borchard, author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression and Anxiety and Beating Bad Genes (and guest at our upcoming Annual Conference!). Before the screening, I was only vaguely aware of the documentary, but I’m glad I saw it.
I want to give Harvey star Jimmy Stewart a hug (not actually, though then I could cross “hug a zombie” off of my bucket list). I watched Harvey this week after accepting that Safe wasn’t going to happen, and he is the best. My DVD had an interview with him as an introduction to the movie, and his insights into how people deal with his character, Elwood P. Dowd, and his imaginary friend Harvey, were delightful. Between this and It’s a Wonderful Life, his contributions to reducing the stigma around mental health conditions should get him a prize (on top of the Oscar nomination he got for both roles). On top of that, Harvey is a wonderful movie.
I know I was supposed to review Safe, the Todd Haynes-Julianne Moore movie about hypochondria and allergies, but due to a number of unforeseen circumstances (mostly of my own making), I wasn’t able to get a copy of it. Instead, I did what I always do when things aren’t going my way; I went to the movies. At the suggestion of a colleague, I saw Iron Man 3. It turned out to be a great movie on a lot of levels, especially in its discussion of mental health.
A few weeks back, in my blog about Maria Bamford’s Special Special Special, I mentioned a podcast called the Mental Illness Happy Hour as being one of the new places where comedy is openly discussing mental health issues. I wanted to talk about the podcast in depth a little more because it’s doing something truly unique in the worlds of podcasting and self-help.
Coping with plenty of leisure activities and sense of purpose in life
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