May My Words Be Your Wings

- A young poet performs a poem written for people undergoing emotional turmoil. “You are stronger than your sorrow,” he urges YouTube viewers. Earnest and authentic encouragement for people with mental health issues.

Laughter: Love, Joy, and Language

- What happens during laughter? It has to do with breathing, as neuroscientist Sophie Scott explains, as well as emotions, and the voice. Studying the mechanisms of laughter, she discovered it’s a social, universal expression not just in humans but even chimpanzees and rats. Brain scans revealed the areas of the brain active during laughter (interestingly, similar to yawning, another socially contagious expression). Her lab also examined polite, posed laughter vs. uncontrollable mirth, and revealed how we tell the difference.

The Fantasy Bond

- A presentation about the “fantasy bond,” defined as an illusion of a close relationship with a parent that is replayed later in life with romantic partners. Idealizing partners reinforces negative self-image formed early on. Firestone lists ways it manifests in a relationship, such as withholding emotions, polarizing, denigrating, and/or idealizing partners, and having form instead of substance, not really relating to each other. She describes three states of fantasy involvement, discusses personal differentiation, and looks at types of healthy and unhealthy interactions. Finally, she explores separation theory.

Sh*t People Say About OCD

- Although the Sh*t People Say meme is past its prime, this overlooked homemade video still rings true by parodying common things that uneducated people say to people who have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Example: “Could you clean my room?” Warning: coarse language (an obvious four letter word). Interactive transcript available. To learn real facts about OCD, visit her blog, and search PsychCentral’s vast archives for lots more information.

Come out, Come Out Wherever You Are

A call to shake off shame, come out of the closet and be open about mental health issues in order to fight social stigma. Compelling and well-written narration by Michael Kimber of the Colony of Losers blog, along with slick edited images including examples of famous people known to have psychiatric labels.

Myths of Madness: Media Representations of Mental Illness, Part 6 of 7

A clip from the Q&A after a panel presentation about mental illness in the media, discussing how people can share stories with public speaking to fight stigma. A women with bipolar disorder asks how people like her can contribute, and the reply describes a consumer who told her personal stories that were negative, and how they were resolved, and that sharing what worked for her was powerful. Another person in the audience talks about his experience with a speaker’s bureau and the importance of training and support for that work.

Greg Murray, The Quality of Life Scale

A collaboration with a psychiatry group at UBC in Vancouver and a Sydney, Australia researcher measuring quality of life in bipolar disorders, separate from its symptoms. Murray describes how they developed a scale, now available for free clinical and individual use (click here), through a series of questionnaires and analyses. They created a useful instrument for the treatment of bipolar disorder that considers important dimensions.

Michalak, E., Murray, G. (2010). Development of the QoL.BD: a disorder-specific scale to assess quality of life in bipolar disorder Bipolar Disorders, 12 (7), 727-740 DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-5618.2010.00865.x

Whats Goin On…

Mixed with the evocative music of Sia’s “Breathe Me,” an eighth grader creatively shares his story of bullying, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts, ending on a touching and hopeful note. Jonah Mowry’s video was recorded last August when he was worried about returning to school, but recently went viral and celebrities from Lady Gaga to Perez Hilton to Jane Lynch have been expressing love and support for the 14 year old gay youth.

Possible Worlds: Hearing Voices or Uninvited Guests

Art video featuring performance poetry and imagery about modern living and madness. Winner of the 2011 reTHiNK Possible Worlds award, with the theme “We are all human beings navigating the maze of life.” reTHiNK Possible Worlds was a series of multimedia performance art shows developed to reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with mental ‘illness’ in Auckland, New Zealand. It incorporated a video contest and the best submissions, including the above, were featured at the shows at Galatos during Mental Health Awareness Week.

Pamela Meyer: How to spot a liar
An expert in “lie spotting” talks about detection deception and her new book. Implications in corporate fraud and politics are raised, along with social and evolutionary reasons for lying in our “post-truth society.” She reveals some behavioural cues of lying (using methods other than Paul Ekman’s FACS system). Meyer says that although newer neuroimaging methods have value, on a practical level, human interaction with people trained in spotting deception will lead the way to a more truthful society.