Breaking the Silence: Women with Mental Illness Speak Out

While watching the Today show this morning, I was excited to see a story on women with mental illness, where Kat Kinsman's forthcoming book about living with anxiety was featured.
http://www.today.com/health/hi-anxiety-women-hide-their-mental-illness-out-shame-says-t94606


Likewise, Women's Health Magazine, in honor of Mental Health Awareness month (May 2016), has a series of photographs and stories of women who are living with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, OCD, anxiety, PTSD, depression, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder. Editor-in-chief Amy Keller Laird says that she her own public relations team was concerned about her disclosing her own struggles with OCD, saying,  "Our public relations folks also initially expressed concern that if I, as the head of this magazine, were to come out publicly about having OCD, I might be seen "differently" in the industry—or be judged by my peers—and that I would have to accept that risk if I moved forward."
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/amy-keller-laird-obsessive-compulsive-disorder


The stigma that these women talk about is one of the reasons I start our class with Lori Schiller's book, The Quiet Room.  Lori's choice to share her story about living with schizophrenia was one of great courage.


As I reread Lori's book this summer, I find myself thinking about her life today. Here is a blurb from Schiller (now Lori Jo Baach) in a 2013 newsletter:


"I now work full-time in the mental health field, do motivational speaking, teach CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) training to the police on how to treat the mentally ill, sit on the Board of Directors at South County Mental Health Center, sit on the Jansen Pharmaceutical Mental Health Advisory Board, won the Peer Specialist of the Year Award for the State of Florida in 2009, and have been ac-tively involved with NAMI Palm Beach County including being founder of the "Consumer Coun-cil" (now known as "Peer Council"), P2P mentor, P2P Mentor State Trainer, and Board member. Well known as Lori Schiller, I often hear "You’re the one who wrote that book (The Quiet Room)."  http://namipbc.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Newsletter-The-Voice-2013-June.pdf


Here's a picture of Lori from a 2013 "Breaking the Silence" symposium in Boynton Beach, Florida.

Good Books, Summer 2016 - Here We Go!

I'm excited to be teaching EN 110 Good Books again this summer. I kept the same format as I did last year because students' comments were very positive about the class.


This past winter term, we read Resilience: Two Sisters and a Story of Mental Illness by Jessie Close as our Diversity Common Reader book at NMU. I enjoyed reading the book, hosting a public discussion about mental illness and the book, and attending the talk by Jessie Close on March 21st. The book, and Jessie's talk, reminded me of the power of story - how sharing our stories with each other can help us to heal and to help others to better understand us and the world around us.


That is what Good Books is all about, really. Reading stories and developing a better understanding of ourselves and those we live with around the globe.


Jessie and her sister, Glenn Close, started a nonprofit organization called Bring Change 2 Mind. Their mission is to "end the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness."
http://bringchange2mind.org/


That's one of my goals as well: to use literature to help end the stigma of mental illness. In 2014, I published an article in the Language Arts Journal of Michigan about this issue: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/lajm/vol30/iss1/6/


Last summer, in New York, I presented on the issue at the International Federation of Teachers of English/Conference on English Education convention as well.
http://commons.nmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1126&context=facwork_conferencepresentations


I'm looking forward to a wonderful six weeks in Good Books this summer!

Kia Jane :)

Good Books - Part Deux, Summer 2015

I am so happy to be teaching Good Books again this summer. I am using the same books as I did in Summer 2013. With 33 new students in this section, I am hoping to learn even more with and from them about The Quiet Room, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, The Lovely Bones, My Friend Dahmer, The Hour I First Believed, She's Come Undone, and I Know This Much is True.

As I am reading their individual blogs, I am reminded of the power of words, images, and sounds. Many students are posting links to video clips, ads, and music; others are writing in response to questions and already integrating what they are learning from the literature with what they already know or have learned by beginning to investigate the topic of mental illness, the theme we are exploring in Good Books.

Just two years ago,  "President Obama proclaimed May as National Mental Health Awareness Month and brought the issue of mental health to the forefront of our nation’s thoughts." 
  http://www2.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=May_is_Mental_Health_Month

The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that "the number of adults with any diagnosable mental disorder within the past year is nearly 1 in 5, or roughly 43 million Americans.^"
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2015/mental-health-awareness-month-by-the-numbers.shtml

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a web site dedicated to helping promote conversations about mental illness and ways to help those living with anxiety disorders, behavioral disorders, substance use disorders, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, eating disorders, and suicidal behavior. http://www.mentalhealth.gov/index.html

One of my favorite sites is Bring Change 2 Mind. "Bring Change 2 Mind is a national anti-stigma campaign aimed at removing misconceptions about mental illness. The idea was born out of a partnership between Glenn Close and Fountain House, where Glenn volunteered in order to learn more about mental illness, which both her sister, Jessie Close, and nephew, Calen Pick, live with."
http://bringchange2mind.org/

Thanks for listening.
Kia Jane

Source for image: National Alliance on Mental Illness

Isolation and Space in Dahmer

 As I read My Friend Dahmer this summer, I found myself really noticing the theme of isolation in the book (perhaps because I was also focused on that in The Lovely Bones - if you want to know more - see my posting about the penguin in the snowglobe). Not only was Jeff Dahmer alone on a regular basis, but even when he was with others, he found ways to separate himself through his behavior, his drinking, his choice to go to the shed behind his house. He is portrayed as a 'loner' in Backderf's book through the visual representations as well: in the "Prologue," Jeff is shown as a tiny image on the bottom right of page 13; the road, which is stretched out before him, rolls and shows a combination of dark and light spaces. But Jeff is located proximal to the darkest part of the road, which moves from the dark forest (often used in literature as a representation of the base part of human nature - the wildness of human beings) to the brighter city (which is connected - notice the telephone poles and wires).

Here is a discussion of the concept of isolation from Peter Gutiérrez. (Peter is a spokesperson on comics and graphic novels for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and is a frequent contributor to School Library Journal.) This excerpt is taken from the Teacher's Guide, page 2):

In an online review of My Friend Dahmer for Time, Lev Grossman writes about the feeling of isolation that Dahmer felt. In the late 1970s,
“there was no Internet and no cell phones. Back then you could actually be alone, truly, deeply alone and isolated in a way that’s almost
impossible now. There was no Twitter, no Facebook, no global network of electronic confi dences and confessions open 24/7. Whatever was
going wrong in your house, and in your head, you dealt with it, or not, by yourself in your room.” 

Thinking about Snow Globes and Lovely Bones

In terms of The Lovely Bones, this time, I was thinking about the penguin in the snowglobe and its connection to the people in Sebold's story. Here is the quote from the epitaph: "Inside the snow globe on my father's desk, there was a penguin wearing a red-and-white-striped scarf. When I was little my father would pull me into his lap and reach for the snow globe. He would turn it over, letting all the snow collect on the top, then quickly invert it. The two of us watched the snow fall gently around the penguin. The penguin was alone in there, I thought, and I worried for him. When I told my father this, he said, 'Don't worry Susie; he has a nice life. He's trapped in a perfect world."' At first I thought the penguin was Susie, trapped in her perfect heaven. But instead of focusing on the penguin this time, I'm focused on Susie's concern for the penguin, who perhaps represents her family members who are trapped in their physicality and in time as well. They cannot escape the tragedy of the loss of Susie Salmon, and though they can run away (like Abigail) or obsess over not being able to protect Susie (like Jack or Len), they are trapped in their grief. Here's a picture of a penguin in a snowglobe that reminds me of the one in the novel. http://www.milanoworldwide.com/picts/Prosperity%20Key%20Chaines%20and%20Pictures%20Snow%20Globes/Key%20Chain%201.5%20inches%20Plastic%20Snow%20Globe%20Penguin.jpg ALSO - Here is a poem you might enjoy by Theodore Roethke which talks about a woman,"lovely in her bones." I recommend you listen to him reading the poem aloud; I love the movement - and the power of his phrasing reminds me of the power of Susie Salmon over her attacker. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcjk6jrPZnA I Knew a Woman I knew a woman, lovely in her bones, When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them; Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one: The shapes a bright container can contain! Of her choice virtues only gods should speak, Or English poets who grew up on Greek (I'd have them sing in chorus, cheek to cheek.) How well her wishes went! She stroked my chin, She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and stand; She taught me Touch, that undulant white skin: I nibbled meekly from her proffered hand; She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake, Coming behind her for her pretty sake (But what prodigious mowing did we make.) Love likes a gander, and adores a goose: Her full lips pursed, the errant note to seize; She played it quick, she played it light and loose; My eyes, they dazzled at her flowing knees; Her several parts could keep a pure repose, Or one hip quiver with a mobile nose (She moved in circles, and those circles moved.) Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay: I'm martyr to a motion not my own; What's freedom for? To know eternity. I swear she cast a shadow white as stone. But who would count eternity in days? These old bones live to learn her wanton ways: (I measure time by how a body sways.)

Blogging in Good Books - Week 3-4

I am hoping that as we move into the reading of My Friend Dahmer and The Lovely Bones that students will post not only to their own blogs but also in response to each others' blogs (including mine).

I am truly enjoying reading everyone's blogs in EN 110 but am surprised that no one is posting in response to anyone else's blog. Perhaps the discussion in EduCat (our NMU Moodle system) is working well, and we don't need the blogs to extend the conversation. Perhaps it's hard to remember to go to the list of student blogs that I created and posted each week and visit them. Perhaps everyone's busy. I'm not really sure.

My intention with including blogs in this class is to encourage students to express themselves through a new format, to encourage conversations between/among students, and to encourage reflection upon the books we are reading.

Thanks for listening. I hope that sharing this will inspire people to share more and to talk about how blogging in this class is/is not beneficial to them individually or as a group.

Kia Jane :)

Moving from The Quiet Room and into The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian

I'm thinking =====Thinking:

As I finish up reading the postings and blogs and papers in response to The Quiet Room, I am blown away by students' insight into how the stories in Lori Schiller's book seem to complicate the stories we have already heard about mental illness through film, television, advertising, etc.

We are bombarded with advertisements about various medications that can help individuals with mental illnesses such as depression, OCD, schizophrenia, etc. This is new to those of us who grew up in the 20th century and got our medical information from friends (often in whispered conversations) and from doctors (and sometimes, only if we asked for help).
FOr instance, I have seen this commercial many times this week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGymr78FtbU

And this one, more recently, about Seroquel XR:
http://alittlespark.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/new-seroquel-xr-commercial/
Note that the blogger makes a reference to the cloud that follows the depressed people around.

I'm wondering if Lori Schiller made a commercial for Clozapine, what it would look like.
I'm thinking it would include clouds, blobs, Voices, and some weird outfits.

Did you know that in 1994 Lori Schiller (Baach)was"approached by Sandoz Pharmaceuticals (now Novartis), the makers of Clozaril [...] to tour the country on their behalf" - giving speeches about her life with support from her mother who traveled with her? Wow!  ("Afterword" - added in 2011, p. 267)

If I were doing a commercial for the various medicines I've been on over the years, I think I would have to include music as a key part, and I'd have to invite Adam Ant to be in the commerical (even though he lives with bi-polar disorder and I have anxiety and dysthymia (low grade depression), I have loved his music for 30+ years, and I think he'd have a lot to say about living with  mental illness. :)
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/q-a-adam-ant-on-returning-to-music-from-bipolar-disorder-20130219
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopmusic/9809653/Adam-Ant-interview-You-should-never-feel-ashamed-of-madness.html

Kia Jane