geek therapy

Depression Quest: A different kind of adventure

November 25, 2013 · Discuss on the GT Forum

As a mental health professional, I feel as though I need more ways of understanding how my clients view the world. To feel a piece of what it’s like to be them.

Lately I have been finding many comics that let readers take a look at what it is like to have a mental illness. These are great because visual representation makes things a bit more real and accessible than just written word.

(Image via Gameranx)

My most recent discovery (one that I find especially exciting), is actually a computer game called Depression Quest. The game is set up much like a choose your own adventure book. It is an interactive story designed to help those who know someone with depression to better understand their loved one’s experience.

It was also designed for those suffering depression, in order to normalize their feelings and let them know that they aren’t alone in their struggles. That there are others who go through the same or similar battle to get up in the morning or to spend time with their significant other.

(Image via Sparklebliss)

Depression Quest simulates the experience of having depression so well that the creators have placed a warning on main page which reads “This game is not meant to be a fun or lighthearted experience. If you are currently suffering from the illness and are easily triggered, please be aware that this game uses stark depictions of people in very dark places.”

As someone who has lived in some of those very dark places, I can tell you that their warning should be taken seriously. I feel as though I am in a good place currently in my life, but have had similar struggles in my past to many of the situations depicted in the game. Afterward I definitely needed some self-care (by way of gratitudes and video games).

(Image via Medium Difficulty)

One of the important things to take away from this game is that there are many levels of depression, and many ways of being depressed. There are three bars at the bottom of the game that constantly give you your status on: your depression level, how therapy is going, and if you are taking medication. You can play multiple times and have many different outcomes.

And the biggest revelation which comes from the game?

That even when things feel good, therapy is helping, and the medication is working, depression can still hit like a sledgehammer from time to time.

Even when things are okay, they aren’t. Which could both be scary and relieving for someone struggling with depression. On the one hand, it could feel like things will never be good. On the other hand…it could help to know that the bad days are normal even in treatment.

(Image via Been Playing)

Being able to understand our clients’ frame of reference is part of what makes empathy work. We may not have to completely understand everything someone has gone through, but having a glimpse into the experience is definitely eye opening. It can make things more real and help us understand why people do what they do, or react the way they do.

I urge anyone working in the mental health field, or anyone who knows someone with depression, to play this game. It may not be the most fun game ever…but it will definitely be eye opening.

Oh! And play the game with the sound on. The creators did an amazing job with the soundtrack. It really adds to the vibe of the game.

Seriously.

Invisible Injury: Beyond PTSD

November 21, 2013 · Discuss on the GT Forum

I’ve written before about mental health comics as a way of coping for the artist. Last week I came across a mental health comic created for a different (just as important) purpose.

(Image via Public Insight Network)

Dr. Jonathan Shay had an issue with the term PTSD. His problem was that it did not cover the full extent of the effects of combat. PTSD is the immediate reactions we face after trauma…the avoidance, reliving, and hyperarousal. But what about the moral implications when we ourselves are the cause of the suffering?

This is not victim blaming. This is when the individual themselves has something to do with causing harm to another, whether forced or on their own. Shay calls it moral injury.

(Image via Robot 6)

To help others understand this issue, Public Insight Network collaborated with WBUR and Symbolia to create a comic. This comic may not come from the personal experience of someone who has been through war, but Andy Warner’s art definitely brings attention to the haunting aspects of the decisions these men made.

(Image via Public Insight Network)

You can see how tormented they are.

Comics like these are important to help simplify complex topics and bring them to the masses. They make very clinical or academic issues accessible to everyone. They can be used as tools for clinicians to help their clients normalize their experiences and understand what is happening to them.

People who have their feelings validated and normalized have better outcomes. These types of comics can help accomplish that.

Sorry for the short post, this comic deserves a full review. I’m still at the end of the semester crunch, but I definitely wanted to bring attention to this beautiful and informative piece of work.

You can read the full comic here. What do you think? Would you use a comic like this to explain tough topics with clients?

Batkid: Young Knight Rises

November 18, 2013 · Discuss on the GT Forum

There are few times that an entire city comes together. When asked to think of a city or country uniting, it usually brings up images of facing adversity. 9/11. The Boston Marathon bombings. Hurricane Katrina. Superstorm Sandy. These tragedies brought us together as people in ways that stick in our minds forever.

Traumatic events force us to look at our own lives, appreciate what we have, and want to help those touched by what has happened. Is this sense of community only created by negative events?

(Image via webvisionsevent.com)

I witnessed such a gathering this past Friday. Not as a result of tragedy, but of triumph and celebration.

My city transformed from San Francisco into Gotham City for a 5 year old boy named Miles Scott. If you’re reading this and haven’t heard his story, you probably live under a rock…but here’s a recap anyway!

Miles has been battling leukemia for most of his little life. 3 years, to be exact. He’s now in remission…and hopefully he stays that way! During his treatment, he told the Make-A-Wish foundation that he wanted to be Batman. Looking forward to being Batman helped give him hope for the future and fight off the cancer.

You see, for a kid who can only remember feeling sick, fighting, and struggling, the idea of something to look forward to can mean everything. To look forward and believe you have a future worth fighting for can give you an energy boost. And this boy’s boost was Batman.

(Image via Business Insider)

Research has shown that mental imagery has a huge impact on the health of those who are fighting chronic disease. Imagining that you’re strong, in charge, and a survivor (all qualities of a superhero) can cause you to actually be those things. I mean, look at Miles in the photo above. He could take anything on, couldn’t he?

…Even a crowd of thousands upon thousands of people, cheering for him.

Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to any of the Batkid events, due to previous appointments…but I am kicking myself for not cancelling and going to see this outpouring of support.

From what I’ve heard, Miles was shy and a bit overwhelmed at the start of the day. Who wouldn’t, if they had never seen what 10,000 people look like and all of a sudden you’re surrounded…and they all know your name…and are looking at you?

By the end of the day though, he had gotten somewhat used to it and was taking on villains like the Riddler and the Penguin. Two major villains in one day! He saved Gotham, rescued a damsel in distress, stopped a bank robbery, and save the SF Giants mascot, Lou the Seal. And at the end of it all, he had a huge smile on his face.

(Image via CNN)

This is a day this boy will never forget. And if someday he has to fight off bullies, or stress, or (god forbid) cancer again, he will have this memory to pull strength from and believe that he is Batman. That is something no one can take away from him.

In fact, the entire city of San Francisco (hell, the entire SF Bay Area and beyond) were there to help create this memory for him. Rather than coming together in tragedy, we came together in support and hope that Miles will never have to face something like this again. In celebration of his remission, and to help him keep fighting to keep his immune system strong.

(Image via ABC)

It was incredibly moving to see my city do what it did for one boy. He was our hero for a day. I’d gladly see it done for any other child in need of some hope. Patricia Wilson, an executive at Make-A-Wish has said that as far as she’s concerned, every child facing a life-threatening condition is a superhero to her.

I hope that more children get the chance to feel like a hero.

I’d love to be out there for Thorkid or Captain Amerikid.

Thor as Therapy, Who Would’ve thought? (Spoiler free)

November 11, 2013 · Discuss on the GT Forum

Over the weekend, I had the chance to see Thor: The Dark World (yeah, me and a few million other people). The movie was pretty awesome, but what made the experience even more powerful for me was the opportunity I had to see it with one of my young clients.

(image via sciencefiction.com)

I’m a behavior specialist, so I work with some intense youth. The young man I took with me to see the movie has a tough exterior to those who don’t really know him, but he’s a big teddy bear.

He’s 15, hard headed, listens to a lot of hardcore hip-hop, swears like a sailor, quick to anger, and has a hard time controlling himself. He’s also a huge geek, and asks me what the coolest thing I saw was every time I come back from a convention.

Comics, video games and fantasy are this kid’s motivation. They’re what gets him going in the morning. He has done nothing but talk about wanting to see Thor with me for months.

Being a behavior specialist, I had to make him earn a trip to the movies with me. Lately he’s been having a problem with being disrespectful when an adult asks him to do something or tells him something he doesn’t want to hear. 3 or 4 times a day he curses someone out.

So I made a behavior contract with him. If he could make it 5 out of 7 days without being disrespectful, we would go to the movie. If he could make it 5 days straight, we would go opening weekend.

This kid surprised everyone and made it in the first 5 days.

(image via screencrush)

So I got up and went to work on a 3 day weekend, to see a movie that I wanted to see, but wasn’t on my priority list. And I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.

Because I’m not the biggest Thor fan, I had no idea what was going on other than what I learned from the first Thor and Avengers movies. But that didn’t matter. I got excited because he was excited.

Watching him clap out of excitement and sit on the edge of his seat was worth getting up early on my day off. He kept asking me questions about who certain people were…and I had no idea, but we later figured it out together.

I guess my main point is, that he felt comfortable being himself with me. This is a kid that acts tough and fights other kids…and he was able to let down his guard to be a kid in a superhero movie.

Can we as clinicians provide anything more important to a client than to allow them to let down their guard and be themselves? I don’t think so.

This boy’s therapists don’t really get the superhero thing, but I do. Maybe that’s why he likes talking to me. Having that connection and not feeling judged can be major, especially for an adolescent trying to figure out his place in the world.

On the drive to the movie, he just wanted to listen to music loudly and not talk. On the way home…he turned my stereo down and would not shut up! He kept going on and on about different plot points. How I called them, or how he and I were both totally surprised by certain events.

(image via Hypable)

We were also able to use the movie to talk about his feelings about what happened. It was a safe space (because it was about Thor and Loki and Odin, not him) to explore how he felt about betrayal, honor, family, and values. I doubt he realized that we were talking about his values…but it was an important conversation all the same, and it allowed him to open up.

Since I was an adult, he expected me to know everything about the world and the characters, which I didn’t. So as I said earlier, we worked together to figure things out. This gave him an experience of an adult being real, honest, and imperfect with him. And also the experience of those things being okay.

I think that the most important take away from my therapeutic Thor experience (other than the plastic Thor figurine he gave me from his cup) would be that a connection can be made, even if the interests are not the same.

Thor is probably my least favorite of the Avengers. But I really wanted to see this movie with this boy because it was something that made him happy. I was able to open up my mind to new things and see things through his eyes. He felt seen. He felt that he had made a connection. And he felt that someone else (an adult, nonetheless) understood why he was passionate about this character.

I can’t think of a better way to spend my weekend.

Extra-Life…Extra Long

November 4, 2013 · Discuss on the GT Forum

Yesterday was Extra-Life, the 25 hour gaming marathon to benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. I participated…and I’m still feeling the effects.

Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing! I loved doing it, and I’ll do it again next year. But…I need some time to sleep. Writing a blog when you’re exhausted is not the smartest idea. We could end up with something like:

First, I played Batman Arkham Origins….pink banana…my back hurts…one fish, blue fish….dragon, dragon, dragon fire. We don’t want that.

So as soon as I’m all rested up, I’ll start writing about my 25 hour gaming adventure. Check it out Thursday. It’ll be a doozy.

Spoiler alert! My team raised just shy of $2,000! Rare Candy, you rock. I’m so proud of you guys.

Time to dream of batarangs and Deckard Cain.

Something Terrible is Anything But

October 31, 2013 · Discuss on the GT Forum

There are so many things I could say about “Something Terrible” by Dean Trippe, but I honestly have no idea where to start.

I suppose I can start with how I found out about this intensely moving comic. While I was at NYCC, I passed a booth that had a print with just about every comic book character (or geeky character, for that matter). The art was amazing, I took some time to study it and then moved on. It was called “You’ll Be Safe Here”.

I got lost in trying to find my favorite characters, and you can probably see why.

Fast forward to the past week or so. I’ve seen Dean Trippe’s name come up a billion times in the geek therapy world on my twitter feed, so I decide to check him out. And I see the same print I saw at NYCC. I had no idea that it was part of a larger story. I just thought that it was a stand alone illustration.

The result of that search ended up in me spending one of the most well spent dollars (his entire comic is only 99 cents) I have ever spent. I would have spent more!

The art is beautifully simple. It is so crisp and simple, which really draws you into the story. The storytelling is brilliant. Trippe’s ability to convey so much emotion with so few words is an accomplishment to be proud of. I can barely tell such an emotionally loaded story coherently using words.

Maybe that’s part of the reason why it works. The words don’t get in the way.

By now (or maybe a bunch of paragraphs ago), you’re probably wondering what the story is about. Trippe tells his life story in just a few panels, but the message is strong. Essentially, the story is about his having been molested as a child, and how Batman saved his life.

Batman, through watching the movies and reading the comics, became Trippe’s personal hero. Trippe also became Batman. He became a trauma survivor who was able to do something with his life.

Unfortunately, Trippe grew up believing that because he was abused, there was something terrible inside of him. That he would someday become an abuser himself. I can’t imagine living through life constantly worrying about harming a child. Especially my own.

In the end, Batman helps him see the truth about himself, and he is able to build a positive relationship with his son.

Something Terrible is the epitome of geek therapy. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I will keep it as vague as possible. Trippe was able to heal a major wound due to superheroes and comics. It helped him to heal and become the man he is. It helped him to become the incredible cartoonist he is.

In the process of writing the comic, he was able to change his narrative. He re-wrote his story to help him feel better about what happened to him. Trippe did something on his own that many people do in therapy, with or without the comics.

Dean Trippe is a brave man to put his story out for all the world to see. His story shows the power that one childhood (or lifelong) passion can have, and the healing properties it can possess.

I’m sure that resonates with some, if not all, of us with a geeky obsession.

If you’d like to buy Something Terrible, you can do so here! (And you should buy it. You won’t regret it!)