I is can be famous now?

[seiberwing]

So an anchor from WATE came over to interview me and my mom this morning for a feature, and it was kinda cool. Mom answered a bunch of questions on what it was like having two kids with mental disorders (not that my brother and his issues aren't enough for three kids) and talked up the handbook she wrote for parents of children in the same situations. And damn if she doesn't deserve attention and praise for that, considering all the work she's done on it for the past two years and the grant managing and the staying up until four in the morning some nights trying to get it done in time.

Me, it was mostly "what was it like, when did you first know (Hint: When I scored high in a Reader's Digest quiz on depression), what's medication like, do you have any advice for other teens who have been newly diagnosed". Mom says I didn't do too bad.

It'll be airing on the first of next month, if anyone's curious. Not sure about the time yet.

Comments

[florentinescot.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

My dad was initially against me doing it, worried that if someone dug it up later on it would hurt my chances of getting a job because of the stigma attached to mental disorders.

My response was, "Well, that's the point of me going on TV and talking about it openly, isn't it?"

[florentinescot.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Thankfully there is much less stigma now than when I was your age. Of course, I wasn't diagnosed till I was 28 -- because "teenagers didn't get depressed." I can look back through paper journals and I *know* I'd been depressed for 10-15 years by that time. And of course, when that's been "normal" for so long -- there can't be anything wrong, right? This is the way it's always been.

*sigh*

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Hell, I don't even know what 'normal' is supposed to be, anyway.

[florentinescot.livejournal.com]

"Normal" is just a setting on your Dryer .....

:-D

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

So I've heard.

[nightwind69.livejournal.com]

Good on you for raising awareness and de-stigmatizing. (Look Ma! I made a new word!) Good on your mom, too, both for the book and for the parenting. :) You'll have to post up the thing on YouTube for the world to see...

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

My mom is freakin' awesome. No clue how to get it on YouTube, though.

[nightwind69.livejournal.com]

Well, you'd kinda need a DVD recorder, I suppose. Then rip from the recorded DVD and upload to YouTube. Either that, or a digital camcorder aimed at your TV screen. Or con a DVD-recorder-owning friend to record it for you, then follow Plan A. :)

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Don't have a DVD recorder, although I'll ask around.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

... you have a mental health issue? :: boggles:: I didn't notice.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Bipolar II, to be specific. I've been on medication the entire time you've known me so it wasn't an issue, but back before that...yeah, I wasn't so well off.

[koilungfish.livejournal.com]

Oh, right. I did not know that. Obviously.

:: hugs::

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

*is slimy from fishhugs* Like I said, it really hasn't been a noteworthy problem since middle school

[navigatorsghost.livejournal.com]

*huggles*

I think you're awesome, you know. Just saying. And apparently, so is your mom. *snuggles you, and chucks confetti for her*

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

*will pass along the confetti mentions*

I'm just the one talking on TV like every other attention whore out there. Mom did the real work.

[navigatorsghost.livejournal.com]

No, because you're the one who is coping with actually having the illness. I've seen what happens to people with mental illnesses who fail to look out for themselves, and the long and short of it is that nobody's hard work would do you any good if you weren't doing your very own share of it. So you are awesome. *snugs!*

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

*snugs* I don't even remember most of it because they caught it when I was about eight and I've been stabilized on medication for most of what I can remember of high school. Don't think that's my own work, just the support network.

Of course I had to be all powerful and survivory for the cameras, but that was mostly just giving them what they wanted.