Hey everyone. September has come and the first week of the annual Suicide and Mental Illness Awareness Theme Read has begun!
As I've said repeatedly during my "plug-my-own-event" campaign, it is very important for people to be open and supportive about mental illness and suicidal ideation. Some people have absolutely no empathy for suicide - they feel that if someone wants to die, let them die. What these people fail to see is that suicidal people are ill. Their perception of reality is often distorted, and they honestly feel that death is the only way out. They need to be reminded of why life is wonderful. They need (and want!) help. Suicide is a tragedy - not only for the individual, but for all the friends and family.
Stigma pollutes our culture, discouraging people who need help from speaking out - it's the people who talk who end up healing. We need more healthy people in the world, and suicide and mental illness advocacy is one way to promote this goal.
To participate, all you need to do is post about something related to suicide and / or mental illness. This can be a book you've read, a movie you've watched, or just some random thoughts you want to share. You can share publicly on FB or Goodreads etc if you don't have a blog. So anyone can participate.
Here is a list of movies and book suggestions that I posted a few weeks ago:
Popular Mental Illness books (Goodreads list) - Several of the books on this list I have already read or are on my TBR mountain.
11 of the most Realistic Portrayals of Mental Illness in Novels - This is a pretty interesting article with some good suggestions. And don't miss the embedded list of 20 Greatest Memoirs of Mental Illness.
Mental Illness in Fiction (Wikipedia) - This interesting list includes some much older books as well as some unexpected inclusions (LOTR? - Ok, yeah, I guess Golem was mentally ill, but...it DOES make kind of a fun list, though. And you can feel free to be )
Contemporary YA books featuring mental illness - What is a list of books without YA these days? ;)
NAMI Blog: The Top 10 Movies about Mental Illness - This is a really good list (should be, coming from NAMI). I've seen 6 of them. :)
10 Gripping Films about Mental Illness - This list seems pretty good, as well.
10 Best Portrayals of Mental Illness in Modern Movies - This list, I suspect, is more about the acting than about psychology. From I totally agree with the assessment of great acting on this list!
Thanks for hosting this event Rachel. I will try to get a post up.
ReplyDeleteI love the Wikkipedia list. There are all sorts of unexpected entries on their list. I did not expect to see the hobbit there.
Hi Brian! I'm glad to host the event! I only hope that I'll have more time in a couple of weeks to post on my blog. I've just been swamped lately! But at least I've been feeling better. :)
DeleteWow. Someone else just told me about this, and this is great! I am hosting a whole discussion about mental illness and books and resources over at my site (Strong in the Broken Places) this month. I will have a few book reviews and an interview with debut author of Don't Touch, Rachel Wilson. May I post these lists and mention your "theme read" on my site?
ReplyDeleteHi Pam! Sorry it took me a bit to get back to you about my Suicide and Mental Illness theme read - I've unfortunately been swamped and this has been my first day off in a long time. Of course you can use the lists and mention my event. I'm going to write some posts today, so I will steer people over to your blog as well. :) I haven't had time to read your blog yet, but it's looking good. I love the decor, too. ;) I'm about to have mine professionally redone was I switch to WordPress.
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