At age thirty-three, still fairly recent into treatment for anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder, I took up the Korean martial art of taekwondo, something I’d done as a child and had longed to return to. As I grew in my martial arts practice, I became more introspective about my mental and emotional health. Writing about my emotional growth first on my blog, Little Black Belt and later in my book Kicking and Screaming: a Memoir of Madness and Martial Arts gave me the courage to share my mental health experience with the world.

Here are five writing tips that can help you work through your mental health challenges and bravely share your story with others who can benefit from it:

1. Write for discovery.

Before I started a blog and wrote a memoir, I journaled. Journaling is an excellent tool for seeing a situation objectively and noticing patterns, reactions, and results. Some things were working for me, and others were destructive habits I needed to break. Journaling builds a writer’s self-awareness that can aid the recovery process and fine-tune the writer’s ability to articulate his or her experience for an audience.

2. Write for epiphanies.

In addition to strengthening your self-awareness, the objectivity of journaling can inspire insights and epiphanies. As you write about your experiences, thoughts, reactions, and reflections, you may be surprised by the profound realizations you gain about yourself and your life. Take these realizations as valuable lessons for how to heal from old wounds, cope with future stressors, and pursue your goals.

3. Write for lessons learned.

The insights you have about your own mental health journey are teachable moments you can share. Whether you consider yourself a cautionary tale or feel you’ve discovered the secret to success, use what you’ve learned to teach others. As a martial arts instructor, I’ve found that my own technique has improved when I’ve taught others. As you share your lessons about mental health, use the power of new knowledge to improve your own mental health situation.

4. Write for connection.

Having a mental illness is a lonely feeling. The societal stigma against mental illness infects our workplaces, our social settings, and our homes. Writing and sharing your mental illness story is a way to connect with others who share your experience. Connecting with others is a way to soothe the loneliness and isolation that can come with mental illness and share valuable lessons and insights that can help others on their mental health journeys.

5. Write for advocacy.

As I began to publicize my book Kicking and Screaming I had to confront my own bias against mental illness. I’d kept my conditions secret from most people in my life for fear of discrimination, and now I was asking people to engage in my story. It would be hypocritical to promote a book about mental illness while shying away from advocating for my own needs and for the needs of others. I became more vocal in my personal life about my mental health needs, including in my corporate job. I’ve learned to use my platform to bring attention to how common mental illness is and how people who suffer from it need support.

Writing about one’s mental health requires vulnerability and courage. Your writing talent gives you the power to both advance in your own recovery journey and to help others.

Melanie Gibson is a second degree black belt in taekwondo and the author of the new book, Kicking and Screaming: A Memoir of Madness and Martial Arts (She Writes Press).

The post #5onFri: Five Tips for Writing About Your Mental Health Journey appeared first on DIY MFA.

Jeremy is writer and freelance environmental journalist, who also happens to cohabitate with mental illnesses. He has named his OCD Steve and his depression goes by the name of Malachi. He is the author of the memoir Baggage: Confessions of a Globetrotting Hypochondriac.

As a journalist, Jeremy is passionate about wildlife conservation, climate change, forests, animal behavior, and indigenous people and many other topics. His work has appeared in Mongabay, the Guardian, HuffPost, Ensia, YaleE360, Sydney Morning Herald and others. His story on the Sumatran rhino was chosen for the 2019 edition of the Best American Science and Nature Writing.

Jeremy has traveled to over 30 countries on five continents and considers himself ridiculously lucky to have spent time with singing rhinos, dinosaur mammals, and angry clown fish. He is graduate of Macalester College with a major in English and minor in History as well as the Great Books Master’s Degree program at St. John’s College. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with his wife, daughter, and pooch. When he’s not writing, he enjoys time with friends, cups of tea, long hikes, longer naps, even longer novels, and playing Dungeons and Dragons.

In this episode Jeremy and I discuss:

• How he juggled writing about travel, mental illness, and nature in one book.
• Why he chose to write his memoir thematically as opposed to chronologically.
• What myths he hoped to dispel by writing so openly about his mental illness.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About Jeremy Hance

Jeremy Hance is writer and freelance environmental journalist, who also happens to cohabitate with mental illnesses. He has named his OCD Steve and his depression goes by the name of Malachi. He is the author of the memoir Baggage: Confessions of a Globetrotting Hypochondriac. As a journalist, Hance cut his teeth at Mongabay, beginning in 2009 and working as a lead writer and editor for six years. For over three years he wrote the blog Radical Conservation on the Guardian. Today, he is a columnist for Mongabay, writing monthly articles under the banner Saving Life on Earth: Words on the Wild.

As a journalist he is passionate about wildlife conservation, climate change, forests, animal behavior, and indigenous people and many other topics. His works has appeared in Mongabay, the Guardian, HuffPost, Ensia, YaleE360, Sydney Morning Herald among others. A story on the Sumatran rhino was chosen for the 2019 edition of the Best American Science and Nature Writing.

In pursuit of stories, Hance has traveled to over 30 countries on five continents. He considers himself ridiculously lucked to have spent time with singing rhinos, dinosaur mammals, and angry clown fish.

Hance is a 2002 graduate of Macalester College with a major in English and minor in History as well as a 2009 graduate of St. John’s College’s Great Books Master’s Degree program. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with his wife, daughter, and pooch. When not writing, he enjoys time with friends, cups of tea, long hikes, longer naps, even longer novels, and playing Dungeons and Dragons.

You can follow Jeremy on Twitter.

Baggage: Confessions of a Globe-Trotting Hypochondriac

An award-winning journalist’s eco-adventures across the globe with his three traveling companions: his fiancée, his OCD, and his chronic anxiety—a hilarious, wild jaunt that will inspire travelers, environmentalists, and anyone with mental illness.

Most travel narratives are written by superb travelers: people who crave adventure, laugh in the face of danger, and rapidly integrate into foreign cultures. But what about someone who is paranoid about traveler’s diarrhea, incapable of speaking a foreign tongue, and hates not only flying but driving, cycling, motor-biking, and sometimes walking in the full sun?

In Baggage: Confessions of a Globe-Trotting Hypochondriac, award-winning writer Jeremy Hance chronicles his hilarious and inspiring adventures as he reconciles his traveling career as an environmental journalist with his severe OCD and anxiety.

At the age of twenty-six—after months of visiting doctors, convinced he was dying from whatever disease his brain dreamed up the night before—Hance was diagnosed with OCD. The good news was that he wasn’t dying; the bad news was that OCD made him a really bad traveler—sometimes just making it to baggage claim was a win.

Yet Hance hauls his baggage from the airport and beyond. He takes readers on an armchair trek to some of the most remote corners of the world, from Kenya, where hippos clip the grass and baboons steal film, to Borneo, where macaques raid balconies and the last male Bornean rhino sings, to Guyana, where bats dive-bomb his head as he eats dinner with his partner and flesh-eating ants hide in their pants and their drunk guide leaves them stranded in the rainforest canopy.

As he and his partner soldier through the highs and the lows—of altitudes and their relationship—Hance discovers the importance of resilience, the many ways to manage (or not!) mental illness when in stressful situations, how nature can improve your mental health, and why it is so important to push yourself to live a life packed with experiences, even if you struggle daily with a mental health issue.

With mental illness impacting the lives of millions of people, this timely book will inspire people to step out of their comfort zones and take the road meant to be traveled. Hance proves that we all have baggage–the question is, do we leave it dusty in a closet or do we take it out in full view for others to see?

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 349: When a Story Idea Won’t Let a Writer Go – Interview with Jeremy Hance appeared first on DIY MFA.

Veena Rao is the author of Purple Lotus: A Novel (She Writes Press), as well as founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of NRI Pulse, a popular Atlanta-based Indian-American news publication. She is in the Limca Book of Records as the first Indian-origin woman to edit and publish a newspaper outside India.

Veena Rao has a background in print journalism, having worked on the news desk of The Indian Express in India, and a couple of community publications in Atlanta as editor. She has a Masters’ Diploma in Journalism and Communication from Symbiosis International University and a Masters’ in Economics from Fergusson College, India. 

She has been featured in several major Asian print publications including the BBC Telugu, the Hindu, Indian Express, Gulf News, the Khaleej Times, India Review etc. She currently lives in Tucker, GA.

In this episode Veena and I discuss:

• How her life circumstances forced her creative writing to take a backseat and how she got her writing life back.
• What skills her journalism background afforded her when approaching difficult topics such as domestic abuse and mental illness.
• Why She Writes Press was a great fit for the kind of book Veena wanted to write.

Plus, their #1 tip for writers.

About the Author

Veena Rao is the author of Purple Lotus: A Novel (She Writes Press), as well as founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of NRI Pulse, a popular Atlanta-based Indian-American news publication. She is in the Limca Book of Records as the first Indian-origin woman to edit and publish a newspaper outside India.

Veena Rao has a background in print journalism, having worked on the news desk of The Indian Express in India, and a couple of community publications in Atlanta as editor. She has a Masters’ Diploma in Journalism and Communication from Symbiosis International University and a Masters’ in Economics from Fergusson College, India. 

She has been featured in several major Asian print publications including the BBC Telugu, the Hindu, Indian Express, Gulf News, the Khaleej Times, India Review etc. She currently lives in Tucker, GA.

You can find out more about Veena on her website. You can also follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

 PURPLE LOTUS: A Novel by Veena Rao

 Providing the reader with a glimpse into small town Indian culture in the American South, the forthcoming debut Purple Lotus: A Novel by Veena Rao (on sale September 29, She Writes Press) is a timely and important addition to Southern literature that takes an oft told immigrant story of identity and assimilation and makes it a visceral, layered, ultimately feminist narrative of a woman’s journey in America. 

Winner of the She Writes Press and SparkPress Toward Equality in Publishing (STEP) contest, Purple Lotus is an invaluable #OwnVoices story personalizing the immigrant experience with a universal message: there’s hope even if you feel inadequate, powerless, fearful. It is never too late to take control of your life – we must choose to live, not just exist. Dealing with themes of domestic violence, fighting the patriarchy, and seeking the right to self-determination, Purple Lotus is a story inspired by Rao’s own experiences as an Indian immigrant in Atlanta, GA.

Three years after her arranged marriage to tech executive Sanjay, Tara moves to the American South from Mangalore, India. Tara’s memories of childhood abandonment and isolation mirror her present life of loneliness and escalating abuse at the hands of her husband. Constantly pressured by her patriarchal family to make peace with her circumstances, Tara learns to confront the victim-shaming society she was raised within, finding strength, self-worth and support in kind-hearted strangers, new friends and her first love. 

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 334

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If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 334: The Unexpected Female Protagonist – Interview with Veena Rao appeared first on DIY MFA.

But here I am, sharing my mental illness—as well as travel—stories with the public in my new book Baggage: Confessions of a Globe-Trotting Hypochondriac.

Like many writers, I don’t feel like I ever woke up and said, okay I’m going to write this book. Instead, it was the fact that once the idea got in my head, I simply couldn’t shake it off. I tried. God knows, I tried. But the concept stuck like a burr, until it began to form from just an idea into themes, chapters, and scenes. 

Probably, the most difficult thing about writing a memoir around one’s mental illness struggles is the decision to share such things publicly. The decision was not easy for myself nor my wife – and there are still times when I wonder if this really was a good decision – but in the end it just felt right. I increasingly wanted to write about my trips around the world chasing endangered species as an environmental journalist, but I also knew I couldn’t do so honestly without delving pretty deeply into my OCD, extreme anxiety, and even depression. I knew, as the book grew further from a seed into a full-blown tree, complete with branches and arches, that I’d also need to jump back in time and show at least portions of my childhood.

Only I’d do it in my own way. I decided early on I didn’t want to write a book about mental illness that focused solely on the despair and anguish of living with mental illness.  Others have written such important books before and it was, simply put, not the book I had in me. Instead, I wanted to be honest about the struggle of living with chronic mental health problems, but also show more of the humorous side. After all, running around the world with OCD does lead to some ridiculous situations. Laughter is one of the best parts of being human—and, at least for me, a pretty good way to keep the demons at bay.

As I began to write the book, increasingly the theme of resilience began to take shape. How resilience shapes the lives of those who live with mental illness, and what, really, resilience means. It’s not just about doing what’s hard—though that’s part of it—but also recognizing our limits. Since the book also took place across eight countries, and featured any number of endangered species and places, it’s also about the resilience and fragility of our natural world.

Such themes hadn’t coalesced when I imagined the book, but only as I wrote it. The once somewhat discursive episodes of travel began to form together into something more whole, something that spoke to my larger experience on this Earth—both in my personal mental illness and in my career as an environmental journalist—even as much was left behind, unnecessary for this story.

Writing a memoir isn’t really telling the details of one’s life—that’d be unbearably boring even for the most interesting lives (unless you’re Proust—Proust could probably pull it off)—it’s really pulling out the themes, like harvesting the grain and leaving the chaff.

After all a memoir is still a story, and a story is different from life. A memoir should be entirely true, but it’s also told in a way that accentuates whatever themes are most important, and diminishes the rest. It tells a story, and a story—whether true or not—is always about artistic and narrative choices. This does not mean the prosaic should be left on the cutting room floor. The prosaic can be just as telling, just as beautiful as the dramatic, but it should all be chosen with great care.

At the same time, unlike fiction, a memoir reveals the deeply personal, whether it be physical or mental illness, poverty or wealth, grief or gain, suffering or joy. Whether it be about coming-of-age or meeting the end, most of the great memoirs I can think of shine a light on what’s often hidden, exposing the inner workings of our subjective lives, and perhaps saying something about the greater collective of human existence.

These elements—a story built from the select stones of truth—are what make the best memoirs so goddamn compelling.

I never thought I’d write a memoir. And I’m not sure I’ll ever write another. But, like any story that won’t let go, memoirs have a latent power, a power to change and shape our lives.

Jeremy Hance is an environmental journalist and author of Baggage: Confessions of a Globe-Trotting Hypochondriac. For three years, he wrote a popular blog for The Guardian with over two million views. He is also a columnist for Mongabay, one of the most highly respected environmental news sites in the world. He has been interviewed on NPR’s Living on Earth and Sea Change Radio, among others.

The post How I Decided to Write a Memoir about My Hilarious Mental Illness appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Miriam Feldman.

Miriam is a painter, writer, and mother originally from Los Angeles, California. After her son, Nick’s, diagnosis with Schizophrenia more than ten years ago, she began writing to document and explore the ways this new reality affected her relationship with her children, her husband, and herself. Her blog, https://www.miriam-feldman.com, explores issues of motherhood, mental illness and the politics of our mental health system.

She is also the founder and owner of Demar Feldman Studios, Inc., a specialty painting company that focuses on architectural finishes, murals, and decorative art for residential and commercial locations in Southern California and abroad. Clients include Samuel L. Jackson & LaTanya Richardson Jackson , Wolfgang Puck, Patricia Heaton & David Hunt, Tony Shalhoub and Brooke Adams, Jay & Mavis Leno and many more. She has run the company for 30 years.

Miriam holds an MFA in fine art from Otis College of Art and Design. Her paintings are in collections across the United States.

Today we’re discussing her memoir He Came In With It, in which she chronicles her experiences as she came to grips with her son’s mental illness.

In this episode Miriam and I discuss:

• How she chose what stayed in her memoir and what got cut
• What her family said about the content of her memoirs
• Her experience switching mediums from painting to writing

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About the Author

Miriam Feldman is a painter, writer, and mother originally from Los Angeles, California. After her son, Nick’s, diagnosis with Schizophrenia more than ten years ago, she began writing to document and explore the ways this new reality affected her relationship with her children, her husband, and herself. Her blog, https://www.miriam-feldman.com, explores issues of motherhood, mental illness and the politics of our mental health system. She has written a completed memoir, and is represented by Deborah Hoffman at the David Black Agency in New York https://www.davidblackagency.com.

She is also the founder and owner of Demar Feldman Studios, Inc., a specialty painting company that focuses on architectural finishes, murals, and decorative art for residential and commercial locations in Southern California and abroad. Clients include Samuel L. Jackson & LaTanya Richardson Jackson , Wolfgang Puck, Patricia Heaton& David Hunt, Tony Shalhoub and Brooke Adams, Jay & Mavis Leno and many more. She has run the company for 30 years.

She holds an MFA in fine art from Otis College of Art and Design. Her paintings are in collections across the United States. She is represented by Hamilton Galleries in Santa Monica, Ca.

Most recently, she joined Bring Change 2 Mind, Glenn Close’s organization to fight discrimination and educate around mental illness. She is on the Advisory Council and has a monthly blog on the website https://bringchange2mind.org. She is a frequent guest on mental health podcasts including: https://player.fm/series/who-lives-like-this/art-and-chaos-with-mimi-feldman and https://www.sheilahamilton.com/category/podcasts/. Find her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mimitheriveter/ where she is busy building a community of family and loved ones dealing with serious mental illness.

Miriam now resides on a farm in rural Washington State with her husband, Craig. Nick lives in the small town nearby. She splits her time between the farm and Los Angeles, painting, writing, and staying active in the mental health community.

You can find Miriam on her website, and on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

He Came in with It 

In an idyllic Los Angeles neighborhood, where generations of families enjoy deep roots in old homes, the O’Rourke family fits right in. Miriam and Craig are both artists and their four children carry on the legacy. When their teenage son, Nick, is diagnosed with schizophrenia, a tumultuous decade ensues in which the family careens permanently off the conventional course. Like the ten Biblical plagues, they are hit by one catastrophe after another, violence, evictions, arrests, a suicide attempt, a near-drowning…even cancer and a brain tumor…play against the backdrop of a wild teenage bacchanal of artmaking and drugs. With no time for hand-wringing, Miriam advances, convinced she can fix everything, while a devastated Craig retreats to their property in rural Washington State as home becomes a battlefield. 

It is while cleaning out a closet, that Miriam discovers a cache of drawings and journals written by Nick throughout his spiral into schizophrenia. She begins a solitary forensic journey into the lonely labyrinth of his mind. This is the story of how mental illness unspools an entire family. As Miriam fights to reclaim her son from the ruthless, invisible enemy, we are given an unflinching view into a world few could imagine. It exposes the shocking shortfalls of our mental health system, the destructive impact of stigma, shame and isolation, and, finally, the falsity of the notion of a perfect family. Throughout the book, it is the family’s ability to find humor in the absurdities of this life that saves them. It is a parable that illustrates the true definition of a good life, allowing for the blemishes and mistakes that are part of the universal human condition. He Came In With It is the legacy of, and for, her son Nick.

This book will resonate with all mothers, it is the universal condition, amplified. A story about what it means to persist in a life where all the rules have suddenly changed, He Came in With It is a clarion call to new understanding and compassion about mental illness. Through its honest and raw depiction of one family, it asks us to change the way we regard mental illness and contend with the chaos that is our mental health system. It makes sense of the impossible by making it relatable. This book will open your heart and your eyes.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 315

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 315: From Painting to Memoir, a Visual Artist’s Journey Into Writing – Interview with Miriam Feldman appeared first on DIY MFA.

Jeff is an author, musician, and podcaster and his debut novel, Symptoms of Being Human has received a ton of accolades. It is an ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection, Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and has garnered starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly. 

Before becoming a novelist, Jeff acted on TV and toured as the lead singer of a rock band. He has a BFA in Film from Chapman University and lives in Southern California.

Now, I have been looking forward to this episode since last July, when Jeff and I met at a ThrillerFest cocktail party. We connected right away and when Jeff told me about his new novel The Lightness of Hands I knew I just had to have him on the show. This book grapples with some heavy topics, but one in particular that really hits home for me: mental health.

I am so thrilled to be recording this interview (finally! After 8 months!) and to introduce Jeff and his moving (sometimes gut-wrenching) YA novels to my word nerd listeners.

In this episode Jeff and I discuss:

• How real life experiences inspired Lightness of Hands
• Living with Bipolar II
• Breaking the stigma around mental illness
• Starting a book with a question you can’t answer
• Writing a character that is hyper-attuned to her inner life
• The power of mindfulness meditation
• The hero’s journey, applied to writing and life

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About Jeff Garvin

Jeff Garvin is an author, musician, and podcaster. His debut novel, Symptoms of Being Human, is an ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and garnered starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Before becoming a novelist, Jeff acted on TV and toured as the lead singer of a rock band. He has a BFA in Film from Chapman University and lives in Southern California. Check out his podcast, The Hero’s Journey, and connect with him on his website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.   

The Lightness of Hands

Sixteen-year-old Ellie Dante is desperate for something in her life to finally go right. Her father was a famous stage magician until he attempted an epic illusion on live TV—and failed. Now Ellie lives with her dad in a beat-up RV, attending high school online and performing with him at birthday parties and bars across the Midwest to make ends meet.

But when the gigs dry up, their insurance lapses, leaving Dad’s heart condition unchecked and forcing Ellie to battle her bipolar II disorder without medication.

Then Ellie receives a call from a famous magic duo, who offer fifteen thousand dollars and a shot at redemption: they want The Uncanny Dante to perform the illusion that wrecked his career—on their live TV special, which shoots in Los Angeles in ten days.

Ellie knows her dad will refuse-but she takes the deal anyway, then lies to persuade him to head west. With the help of her online-only best friend and an unusual guy she pairs up with along the way, Ellie makes a plan to stage his comeback. But when her lie is exposed, she’ll have to confront her illness and her choices head-on to save her father—and herself.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 301

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 301: Dismantling the Stigma of Mental Illness – Interview with Jeff Garvin appeared first on DIY MFA.