Reading Roundup | June 18, 2021
Posted June 18, 2021
Mental health issues in the media and as the central themes in creative endeavors.
“6 Thought Patterns That Increase Anxiety” — Dimitrios Tsatiris, MD, Psychology Today (6/12/2021) [article]
The title of this one says it all. Dr. Tsatiris outlines six thought patterns that worsen anxiety. Being aware of these thought patterns is helpful in being able to recognize when you are falling into them.
“It’s no wonder we still think OCD is a neatness illness – it’s mainly how we see it on screen” — Martin Ingle, The Guardian (5/18/2021) [article]
Like the article last week from the Georgetown Voice, Ingle writes about a desire just to be “seen” as a sufferer of OCD, to the point that he was glad to watch a film with a character with OCD even if the film essentially got it all wrong. But Ingle advocates for the need to get it right, to show OCD in the media as it really is for people—not as some neatness quirk, but as a constant battle and desire to be well. He notes that he didn't even realize when he developed OCD that that was what it was, because it didn't match what he had seen in the media. That's a huge problem because it leads to delays in seeking out and receiving treatment. Although representation of OCD on screen has started to improve, there is still a long way to go.
“Bo Burnham: Inside” — Bo Burnham, Netflix (5/30/2021) [comedy special]
In this song-filled special, filmed on his own in a tiny studio apartment over the course of the past year, Burnham contends with isolation circumstantial (COVID), personal (he shares that for several years before the pandemic, he had withdrawn from performing in public because he was experiencing panic attacks on stage), and societal (the internet manifests in many solitude-bolstering forms: Instagram, gaming, texts, the strange reality of "reaction videos." Jeff Bezos shows up in two songs). It's rare to see issues of mental health as the central focus of a performance where those issues are neither moralized nor pitched as something that's been overcome. Burnham is suffering and would prefer not to be. Rather than the special being the product of a tortured artist, you find Burnham using the process of creating the special as a means of coping with his anxiety.