Voice Post: Let's Queer Things Up! By Sam Dylan Finch

2014 was a big year for mental illness in the media. Respected actor Philip Seymour Hoffman suddenly passed away from a heroine overdose after struggling for decades with his addiction. Amanda Bynes, the famous Nickelodeon child star, started demonstrating inappropriate and erratic behavior, both on social media and in her daily life, leading to multiple arrests, altercations, and psychiatric intervention. And most shocking of all, beloved comedy actor Robin Williams committedsuicide after battling depression, paranoia, and early onset Parkinson's disease.  

                                                                                                                

Blogger Sam Dylan Finch caught my attention in the same way that he caught the attention of millions of other internet users – by posting an opinion piece called “Amanda Bynes, Robin Williams, and the Spectacle of Mental Illness” criticizing the way our society treats different celebrities who clearly are dealing with mental illness. The post pointed out the idea that it seems the general public is incapable of empathizing or treating celebrities with mental illnesses as human beings with flaws (just like the rest of us) unless aforementioned celebrities were to pass away.

Finch’s article went viral, partially due to the subject matter, but also because he was able to effectively deliver the message he was trying to get across with a unique and strong sense of voice. His blog “Let’s Queer Things Up” has sinced gained a strong following, with over 5 million views since August 2014.

It’s no coincidence that readers resonated with his message and continue to read his blog. In order to further understand the different techniques Finch used to effectively deliver his message, I will be breaking the way Finch constructed his messaging in two of his blog posts written with very different structure and flow. The first is a recent blog post from February 2015 titled “A Guide to Self-Care for People with Anxiety” and the second is the original article “Amanda Bynes, Robin Williams, and the Spectacle of Mental Illness”.

Finch's writing style has a very strong sense of rhythm that creates a voice that is very colloquial because he writes as if he is having a conversation directly with the reader. He utilizes repetitive sentence structure and phrasing as well as quite a large amount of usage of the "comma" to accomplish this. This is obvious across both pieces of work. 

"Visualize a place that makes you feel safe, and imagine something soothing that you could do in that space. Find something that makes your body feel less heavy — something that involves good smells, good tastes, good feelings."

In this section of his work from the first blog post, you can see that he repeats the same notion three times regarding the importance of thinking positively by using your imagination. In fact, he uses the word "something" three times. In these two sentences alone, there are five pauses in prose that creates a very visceral sense of voice. 

Another distinctive quality Finch has in his paragraph shape and flow is that across all his writing, there is no sign of the "traditional" paragraph structure. Rarely is there any indication that he is putting together cohesive sentences together to prove a point, which then plays into a larger message. Instead, he writes much more stream-of-consciousness style and his writing reads very much as if he were speaking out loud. In both blog posts, you will find that he has no more than one to three sentences per "paragraph" before there is a line break.  In the first article, you can see more structure to his paragraphs, but only because he puts a title or "header" before each of the self-care tips he then continues to explain. In the second article, the different points Finch is making is not separated into categories at all. The entire blog post is one full page of mini-paragraphs. On one hand, it's difficult for readers to really be able to put visualize his main ideas and observations, but on the other hand the separation of paragraphs actually makes it easier to read because there aren't any large chunks of text that make it intimidating for a reader to approach the topic. 

In this way Finch is able to draw in the reader and his writing style leads to almost a conversation between reader and writer, but after the conversation is over may lack an effective long-term impact on why their conversation was important. 

Social Bookmarking Soulmate: /r/mentalhealth/

/r/mentalhealth is a unique space on reddit that allows users to discuss and share both personal stories and information/research about mental health. Users in this subreddit are active fairly often. However, it definitely isn't a big subreddit, so in order to find good posts you need to filter through a lot of the less popular materials. While the everyday poster tends to lean more towards asking for personal advice, by clicking the "top" categorization tab you can find many valuable discussions, topics, and resources on mental health. While this subreddit does not necessarily discuss mental health on college campuses specifically, it still covers a wide range of topics that are relevant and valuable to my blog.  

Interestingly enough, a majority of the top posts were actually images that visually or graphically represented a certain struggle of someone with mental illness, ranging from social media commentary to comics about depression. 

Below here I've shared some two posts I thought were particularly powerful and were popular on the subreddit. One is just an image (the first) and the second links to a blog post about "The Spectacle of Mental Illness". Links are below the images.

http://www.reddit.com/r/mentalhealth/comments/28ed5k/i_dont_think_there_could_be_a_better_picture_to/

http://letsqueerthingsup.com/2014/10/16/its-all-fun-and-games-until-someone-dies-amanda-bynes-robin-williams-and-the-spectacle-of-mental-illness/

Profile Post: A Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey

I had a particularly difficult time finding another blog that resonated with the central topic of my blog. First of all, the topic I'm blogging about, mental health and its relationship with college students, is quite a specific niche. When looking for blogs on this topic, you will come across either professional blogs by psychologists who focus on the science of it (you'll find yourself knee-deep in medical jargon and statistical research), or you'll find amateur bloggers who post about their everyday experiences - stream of consciousness style.

I pivoted and shifted my focus to finding a blogger who I hoped to emanate in my own writing. I was looking for a blogger who was a good writer, first and foremost. I wanted to be able to read about mental illness and personally connect, but I also had zero interest in reading deeply personal and unedited diary entries. I hoped to find a writer who was self-deprecatingly funny and brutally honest about their personal experiences with mental illness, but also someone who actually had opinions about the bigger picture about impacts of mental illness has on society and science. After widening the net for my search, I came across long-time blogger Douglas Cootey.  His blog "A Splintered Mind" was everything I hoped to find and has been an pleasure to follow ever since.

Cootey began blogging about mental health in order to accomplish three key goals: to overcome personal stigma and shame around having a mental illness, to connect with others with similar struggles, and to train himself as a writer. Needless to say, in the ten years since Cootey began blogging on "A Splintered Mind", he has accomplished all of his goals and more. He has become a highly recognized figure in the online mental health community, recently celebrating over 400,000 unique visitors to his website. Some of the most recent awards his blog has won include: the Psych Central 2014 Best of the Web Blogs - Top Ten ADHD Blogs, the WCG 2013 Top 10 Social Health Makers - ADHD, and ShareCare Bio - Best Depression Blogs of 2013. He is also a contributing writer to ADDitude Magazine.

Cootey writes with a refreshing perspective on mental illness, with a strong sense of voice and humor that often makes you feel like he is speaking to you directly. This is critical for a writer who writes about their own struggle with behavioral disorders because people often perceive the mentally ill as incapable of coherent and clear thought - which is not true at all. He is also a strong advocate for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, a popular form of treatment for mental illness that focuses on self-reflection and self-awareness as a way to understand and overcome mental illness without the help of psychotropic medications. Because of this, many of his blog posts and articles are focused on raising awareness, both in the form of advice for those who might be searching for help, but also around the idea that mental illness is something you can work on by being aware of it. 

One example of this is a recent post he wrote in his "Hack Your Mind" blog series. This particular post was titled "4 Steps to Take Charge of Your Daydreaming", and he shares his personal experience with how his ADHD leads him to lose focus often and how much it frustrates him because it often feels out of his control. He shares them in such a straightforward and honest way that people with mental illness have come across their own fair share of self-help books might actually stop and read more. He goes on to break down the four steps that he personally uses to combat ADHD daydreaming and emphasizes the actual methods that he uses to combat it. Most importantly, his self-help advice doesn't sell itself as a magic cure-all. In fact, Cootey makes sure to let the reader know that if they mess up, it's not their fault, but they still deserve to give themselves a shot.

He also writes many "slice-of-life" posts - updates on the ongoings of his personal life. One post I particularly enjoyed was titled "News Alert? I Still Have ADHD & Depression". In this post he updates his readers about the ongoings of his quest to finish writing a book, but also to discuss the very real reality many people with behavioral disorders deal with - even though he is a lot better at handling it on a day to day basis, he still struggles with mental illness. But he emphasizes the point that the one thing they can count on is his determination to fight to be better.

At the end of the day, you really only need to see the comments of his readership to understand that he plays an important role in the mental health blogosphere. Cootey represents someone who is fully aware of his condition, is honest about the difficulties without complaining, and is truly a funny writer who comes across a genuine human, flaws and all.

To read more about him, please visit www.douglascootey.com or follow him on Twitter @SplinteredMind.

Apples and Oranges: Preventative Mental Health Strategies in the World of Western Medicine

Mental health problems are complex by nature because of our inability to grasp the full parameters of each disease and its impact on different individuals. It isn’t something you can study in the physical sense, and many scholars view the study of psychology as a soft science - unclear, unquantifiable, and incomplete. Because of this, there is a divide between general care and mental health care, where health problems in the physical sense are considered primary care but mental health is seen as an extraneous service. It's as if treatment of someone’s psychological well being is of the same value as their dental care or chiropractic care. Additionally, mental health is a crucial determinant of patient compliance with treatment and is often at the root of physical ailments, but is not the main priority of a traditional primary care doctor. 

For example, negative lifestyle choices driven by depression may lead to diabetes, but the doctor will only treat for diabetes. It is not within his job description to provide treatment options for depression, nor is it his place to diagnose the patient without a license in mental health. However, the two issues are not separate!

According to The Global Burden of Disease report, major depression imposed the fourth greatest disease burden worldwide in 1990. This is measured by the number of years the average person lives with a significant disability. The study projected that by the year 2020, depression would be ranked second, only behind cardiovascular disease. Additionally, 21.8% of total Years Living with Disability were accounted for by mental health and substance abuse problems.

This is a pressing problem that has enormous cost implications on public health, medical care, and quality of life. Just because western medicine has advanced further in research on physical ailments does not mean that comparing preventative mental health care strategies to primary care treatment is like apples to oranges. The two health concerns are one in the same, entwined to represent each patient who has a complex set of symptoms that require treatment. 
Our healthcare system preaches the idea that patients should treat their health with not only a reactive attitude, but also preventative mindset. You shouldn't be going to the dentist only when you're in so much pain you have to get a root canal (at least I certainly hope you're not), instead you should be going for bi-annual teeth cleanings and oral examinations. Women over the age forty are recommended to get a mammogram at least once a year to screen for breast cancer, especially for patients with family history. If you don't, you run the risk of finding out about your breast cancer when it is already too late to combat it. It makes sense to apply the same logic to mental health, as we are all susceptible to developing behavioral problems due to the circumstances surrounding our lives. Currently, we are living in a system where patients are only going to see counseling specialists after a dire change in their emotional well-being, and often times have developed a disease that they will have to fight with for the rest of their lives. By the time they are getting help, they are already dealing with severe cases of depression, anxiety, and OCD. What the general population often forgets is that mental illness does not always start out that severe - a majority of the time it begins quietly, almost unnoticeably, and is self-diagnosed as a result of stress or a personality quirk. It only becomes severe because of a lack of medical attention and lack of professional care. 
In the same way that breast cancer doesn't kill you overnight, neither does mental illness. But you can't get chemotherapy or surgery before you know you have cancer. Similarly, you can't begin to try and learn how to live a healthy life in a holistic manner without being aware that the behavioral and emotional stressors you are dealing with may in fact be warning signs of the development of mental illness. 
Mental health and physical health are equally important in the greater definition of personal welfare and both are crucial to living fulfilling and meaningful lives. So why do we treat mental health as such a separate issue from primary care? As we look to the future, perhaps it's time for us to reconsider a more integrated medical care system that coordinates the treatments of both types of health problems to produce the best patient outcomes and lead to people living healthier and happier lives. 

To learn more, visit: http://www.integration.samhsa.gov/integrated-care-models/primary-care-in-behavioral-health

Sources:

Buck JA, Teich JL, Umland B, et al. Behavioral health benefits in employer-sponsored health plans. Health Affairs. 1999;18:67-78. 

Facebook and FOMO

I am amongst hundreds of thousands of other college students who were raised to socialize in a way that humans never did before. The development of the cellular technology, the world wide web, and various social media platforms empower us and allow us to live in a world that is deeply connected.

Our generation has helped to fundamentally change the way human beings communicate. There are a myriad of benefits to these developments - deeper cultural understanding, increased access to information and education, and global collaboration - just to name a few. 

But how does this impact the individual? How does this affect someone in their everyday lives, their relationships, and communication methods when they have only been taught to communicate via technology?

Earlier this week, I woke up naturally for the first time in a long time and instinctively reached for my cell phone on my bedside table. I couldn't find it in its usual spot and felt a sudden wave of anxiety. I needed it to be connected - to feel like I knew what was going on in the world. My cell phone holds my entire schedule, reminds me of things I have not yet checked off of my to-do list, connects me to my friends and family, wakes me up for class, and entertains me in my free time. As I fumbled sleepily around my bed to try to find it, I realized that I had accidentally left in my mom's car back home in San Francisco on the way to the airport.

I spent the first day without my phone feeling crippled. I felt anxious, unprepared – naked. In the wake of not having my cell phone, I had to find different ways to manage my daily tasks. I dug up a dusty alarm clock, a planner to manage daily tasks, and resorted to hanging out on campus to meet up with friends.

As someone who struggles with anxiety and depression on a daily basis – what was shocking to me was how liberating not being connected all of the time felt. I focused on what I wanted to do everyday instead of checking my phone all the time. When I was waiting for a friend to meet up on campus, I didn’t have a phone to look at to pass the time. Instead, I looked around. Enjoyed what was around me and actually saw what was going on. I wasn’t constantly barraged by information and had to choose to seek out knowledge. 

I was surprised to find that there is actually a substantial amount of evidence being curated by researchers around the world that social media actually may increase negative symptoms in those with existing mental health conditions, generate pathological behavioral addiction problems, and lower self-esteem.

All the research I found made so much sense. It made me reconsider the number of times I use social media on a daily basis solely out of habit and lack of impulse control. Rarely do I ever feel good about myself or feel like I spent my time productively after an hour on Instagram. Mostly, I feel unaccomplished and I always get a big dose of FOMO - fear of missing out. 

I was not only unhappy to start with, but trapped in a cycle of constant reminder of my inadequacy, comparing myself to the highlight reel of someone else's life.

Just as mental health problems are rooted in both biological and psychological chemistry of the brain, it's interesting to see the biological and psychological effects of social media on our brains. 

Take a look at this infographic and think to yourself - do you genuinely think that social media is beneficial in terms of allowing us to live a fulfilling life?

And more importantly, do you think you could click "log out"?

Annotated Bibliography

Shepardson, Robyn L., and Jennifer S. Funderburk. "Implementation of Universal Behavioral Health Screening in a University Health Setting." Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings 21.3 (2014): 253-66. ProQuest. Web. 5 Feb. 2015.

Researchers Robyn Shepardson and Jennifer Funderburk from Syracuse University conducted research on implementation of universal behavioral health screening as one way to tackle growing mental/behavioral health issues at university campuses. This paper was particularly unique because of its exploratory focus on determining new ways for administrators and healthcare providers to better serve a student body. In this paper they hypothesize that early identification of behavioral concerns via universal screening techniques could facilitate early treatment and increased usage of mental health centers. Additionally, the researchers do a great highlighting that as of 2014, there are no universities that implement this type of monitoring, and as such the execution of surveys are still in developmental phases. What will be particularly useful for further research was their clarity on the decision points involved in screening, what to screen for, whom to screen, and how to deal with students who test positive.

Hello World!

College – the promised land. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been told that if I just made it to college, things would be okay. If I just worked hard enough in high school, I would be on the right life path and things would figure themselves out.

In reality, when I got to college I was burnt out from high school, feeling like a minority for the first time, and experiencing rejection for the first time. By my sophomore year of college, I was clinically depressed.

Imagine how shocked I was to find that when I finally mustered the guts to reach out to the student health center that not only did I have to set an appointment for a phone evaluation first, but in order to speak to a professional in person, I had to wait my turn on a six week wait list.

Six weeks? Do you know what can happen in six weeks?

Only bad things. Ultimately, I did not get any professional help, and proceeded to have the worst 4 months of my life. My grades suffered, my relationships suffered, and two years later I am still dealing with the repercussions. 

For some reason, it’s not really acceptable to talk about the hard parts of college. No one wants to be the guy who says college wasn’t all that they thought it was going to be. Nobody talks about how genuinely terrifying it is to be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a degree they aren’t even sure they want. No one posts on Facebook about how scary it might be to pursue your passions – or even worse, not know what your passion is and where to find it. That’s not to say there aren’t good times, new friends, and awesome triumphs. In college you definitely experience the highest of highs, but with those highs also come the lowest of lows. And while some are able to handle these experiences with grace, what we see on social media is a completely inaccurate portrayal of reality.

Since my sophomore year I have slowly worked towards living a healthier and more meaningful life. However, my experiences have only opened my eyes to the lack of conversation about mental illness and lack of resources for students on university campuses.

Mental health is a fundamental driving force in personality development. It determines someone’s entire quality of life and how they interact with and interpret the world around them.

So how is it that recent studies in 2011 have found more than 40% of U.S. students were depressed during their four years in college, and that in the last 20 years the likelihood of a college student suffering depression has more than doubled, with suicidal ideation tripling? My story is a testament to the following statistic: up to 85% of students with positive screens for mental disorders do not receive any treatment from professionals, even with available resources on university campuses.

The reason I am writing this blog is because I believe that the lack of conversation about mental health resources on university campuses is a dangerous oversight by school administrators. In this blog I will be discussing the cross section between mental health services and university campuses. I hope to explore the fundamental issues in young adult mental health crisis, the negative and positive effects of technology on communication, and treatment and prevention methods found effective in addressing the mental health epidemic among university students.