环球英语 — 228：Beautiful Minds

Voice 1

Hello and welcome to Spotlight 1. I’m Ruby 2 Jones. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

Voice 2

‘Welcome to my mind. My name is John Cadigan. I am an artist with schizophrenia. The world inside my head has no order. It is filled with insecure thoughts, creativity 3, fear and desire. It is a world that I struggle in every day. I try to know what is real and what is not.’

Voice 1

Schizophrenia is a complex 4 mental sickness. John is an artist and film–maker. Through art, John Cadigan is trying to understand his own mind. And then, he is trying to help other people understand it too. This is important. Many people have false ideas and opinions about mental health sufferers like John.

October the tenth is World Mental Health Day. On this day, different groups and individuals work together. They work to support mental health sufferers. And they work to change society’s opinions about sicknesses of the mind. In today’s programme, we share information and stories about mental health issues 5. The stories come from people who deal with mental health problems every day. They come from people with mental disorders 7 – and their carers.

The first story is from Laura Axton. Laura is her mother’s carer. Her mother has bipolar disorder 6. This mental sickness causes intense 8 moods and emotions. These moods change between different extremes 9 – such as intense happiness, and intense depression 10. The different moods and energy levels strongly influence sufferers’ behaviour and actions. For example, during a period of depression, a sufferer may not feel like leaving the house or talking to anyone. But during a ‘manic’ period, the sufferer can be very active and busy. People around them may think their behaviour is out of control. These intense moods can create frightening behaviour and strange thoughts. Marina Santee shares Laura’s story. It is written as a kind of journal 11 – a record of each day.

Voice 3

‘I think my mother is sick again. She seems extremely 12 happy and full of energy. She seemed to laugh a little too long at that joke. Oh no – she is singing! That means 13 the depression period will follow. This means more medicine, more watching and waiting for her to feel better!’

‘Wait a minute. I seem to have forgotten something. My mother is human too. She has the right to feel happy – just as I do. Sometimes even ‘normal’ people laugh uncontrollably about something that is not so funny. So why do I find it so hard to deal with her laughing?’

‘I am getting worried. I am waiting for the bad time to come again. I am watching her every mood, her every feeling and her every action. I am waiting for the period of depression to start.’

‘It is a common mistake for the relation or carer to make. We are always waiting for our loved ones to go into a period of depression. This makes us insane 14! It can make us insecure all the time. And my mother stops being my mother. Instead, she is just an event waiting to happen. Carers have a fight everyday. The have to fight to see the person instead of the sickness. Society often sees the sickness not the person. Yet how can we blame other people? We do it in our own homes!’

‘I wanted to tell how difficult it can be to keep the mind open. It is hard when I am trying to protect one of the people I love the most. All I want to do is protect her and her safe. I want to keep her away from that horrible 15 place that comes when she is not well.’

‘After a while I got tired, extremely tired. I was close to not dealing 16 with things at all. And it would be no good with both of us sick. So I changed. I started to laugh and sing with my mother. When she was down and sad, I started to sit with her in silence. And then, finally I understood: This is my mother and I am her daughter.’

‘“Sick person” and “Carer” no longer defined 17 us’.’

Voice 1

Our second story comes from Anthony. Anthony is a young man in his twenties. He also has bipolar disorder. He wrote a poem about the way people see him:

Voice 4

‘I am a name, bipolar, maybe worse.’

‘I am a number

Part two or maybe three.

It depends which doctor you see.’

‘I am a medicine order.

I collect drugs with names that are hard to say.

But still I am to swallow them each day.’

‘I am a fear.

One of those people who hear voices.

The others, the frightening ones.

The ones that should be locked away.’

‘In another time, or another place

Would you make your mark on my brain?

Would you send a shock through my skin?

Would you tie me up in your restraints 18?

Would you throw away the heavy key – and hide your eyes so you do not see?’

‘I am tired.

Not a threat 19.

I hear the quiet talk, laughing at me.

Some real, some I imagine – so I am told.

Never private, never free.

I am my sickness, never me.’

Voice 1

Our final words come from Carla Passino. Her brother, Sam, has the mental sickness schizophrenia. Carla tells how her brother’s sickness made her and her family stronger:

Voice 5

‘Sam’s sickness created worry and sadness in our family. This made us stronger together. We had to organise 20 caring for Sam. We had to organise his visits to hospital. We had to work together with a common goal. It sounds strange, but sometimes family members do not communicate with each other – until there is a crisis 21.’

‘I have learned 22 from Sam’s experience. I have seen the difficulty 23 of mental sickness. And this has given me great respect for people who experience it. I like to think I am more patient and accepting now. I do not mean just towards people with mental health problems. But I am more accepting of anyone who is ‘different’ in some way.’

Voice 1

World Mental Health Day is a chance for people to educate themselves – and their communities. It is a chance to listen to the voice that is not always the loudest. It is a chance to recognise the common life that is in us all.