This is a difficult video to watch, because it frankly discusses living with multiple severe mental illnesses. And it’s important, because it is difficult.
We hope to raise awareness: not only for Robison’s problems, but to use his example as a basis for storytelling, for raising awareness. Not all of the symptoms of mental illness are simply medical–some of them are crippling to a person and their family, with dire consequences.
The more we talk about mental illness–and the wins that we make, and the help that we give–the more we remove the stigma and let people talk about this openly.
Even if we just change one mind–to get them to see that people who have mental illness simply have a disease, like the flu, or pneumonia, rather than an archaic view where those with mental illness were viewed as “Unclean!” then we’ll count it as a win.
To that end, a group of authors have created an anthology called Altered Perceptions. Some writers have donated new stories, but then there are cut scenes. Those are the ones that I’m really excited about.
And it’s what I donated. I’m including a scene that I cut from Valour and Vanity. I pulled it from the manusctip because it showed Vincent struggling with depression and readers consistently thought it was “whiney” and that he needed to “man up.”
I’ll just leave that link to the Altered Perceptions fundraiser here for you.
I’ve also donated a guaranteed spot in one of my short fiction workshops, plus an additional hour of private coaching on your work.
