Mark Brazaitis: "The Incurables"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-12-11/mark-brazaitis-incurables
Award-winning writer Mark Brazaitis talks with Diane about his latest collection of short stories.
Guests
Mark Brazaitis
director of the creative writing program at West Virginia University and author of "The Incurables."
Related Items
Read An Excerpt
Excerpt from "The Incurables" by Mark Brazaitis. Copyright 2012 by Mark Brazaitis. Reprinted here by permission of University of Notre Dame Press. All rights reserved.
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
No disrespect to Mark or his account, but I can see how his amnesia from electroshock has relieved his depression. He has been relieved of disturbing details and issues but I would expect a relapse because he is a person of deep communal feeling. A partial death of Mark's brain is a little death, an appeasment and a temporary reset. How crude it seems and how tragic he was unable to share his real concerns about our planet with students, family and friends. After all, the appropriate reaction of a sane person to these real conditions is often categorized as psychotic.
Maybe I get away with it because I have an assured income and a role as a community activist.
The recent DSM edition (psychology manual) combines environmental depression with clinical depression as if "unproductive behavior" is something to be rubbed out by drugging or shocking regardless of the justification of these feelings by real events and situations. So the surviving spouse is to be treated identically with the chronic worrier gone overboard. That doesn't seem equitable to me. Mark is a person whom I think was at least partially justified in his depression so it is a double shame some sort of proportional treatment was unavailable.
Electric current has not advanced despite better anesthesia and a euphemistic renaming of electroshock. Maybe Foxxconn could have saved their Apple workers who jumped off the roof if they'd only had a shock gurney. Newly minted zombies could have been marched harmlessly back to the assembly line. Teaching college is becoming meaningless repetitive creation of crap too.
so you reached out,,,what about those who don't reach out, how would you say it is best to approach those individuals
so you reached out,,,what about those who don't reach out, how would you say it is best to approach those individuals
I'm Todd from Raleigh, NC. I'm curious whether Mark finds writing and journalling are therapeutic. I, too, am an author with mental illness. I am diagnosed with bipolar with mixed states. My writing has helped me imensely, I believe, as much as ECT, talk therapy, meds, etc. Further, I find that through publising my story has been a way for me to help others with mental issues.
M. Todd Henderson
"Shifting Sands: His Hell. Her Prison."
What can you say to someone who lost their father to suicide? I was divorced from my children's father and I don't think we knew how bad it was. How can I help them feel better now?
Maybe I'm more radical kathleen, but because we are the only commentators so far, I think we both share some of Mark's gifts and vulnerabilities. Today, just giving a care is punishable. I love hearing your fragmentary story in the same way we both enjoy hearing Diane draw Mark out. Her old spark remains though I suspect she gets depressed by the limits imposed upon her show. At root, running a bidness ain't much fun after awhile.
I was greatly encouraged by today's interview with someone not ashamed to discuss his own mental demons. I do feel compelled to add to the discussion the issue of class distinction when it comes to depression. When my husband suffered from anxiety depression, I recognized the fact that he needed help, but came up empty handed when reaching out. His parents, most of his friends, and even his professional associates treated him with disdain. They distanced themselves from him, as if what he suffered from was contagious. I worried constantly that he might harm himself. We somehow got through that very difficult period, and his disposition has improved. However, the whole sordid experience altered our lives forever. I sincerely believe that if he had come from a wealthy family, we would have recieved the help we badly needed. Although he worked hard to earn a college degree in order to improve his life, his poor working class background rendered him crazy rather than ill.
Very interesting guests and discussions on Dec. 27, thank you! I can identify all too well with Mark's experience, but fortunately for me, after several serious bouts with depression and a number of more minor ones, I was saved (literally!) at age 27 after a serious suicide attempt by good drug therapy - available for the first time in my life. I was lucky it worked well, and I'm still on some form of it at 63 and sessions with a psychiatrist several times a year. I am a very strong believer in the biochemical basis for depression although I realize that living through very serious parental marital problems throughout my childhood and losing my mother age age 22 also contributed a great deal -- as did genetics.
I've been surviving with treatment-resistant depression since 1995 (among additioanl diagnosis), although I've felt depressed most of my life. In 1995 I had a "break" & my first suicide attempt. Since then, I have been on just about every medication/medication stew, and have have both unilateral and bilateral ECT. Nothing has been effective. I am a visual artist and when I am able to create it has helped me much. It is as if I enter a bubble where the pain does not enter (or is still there, but doesn't "have" me) and I can breathe again. But, there have been so many times when I can't even lift a pencil to make a mark or actually make my art/sculpture. I'm continually trying to find a way of getting into the studio because it helps. I have had multiple hospitalizations, one in NYC for 5 months, which helped me the most, but it didn't last. No family support. But I'm still here. As my therapist once said, "Jen, your good at so many things, but you're really bad at killing yourself and I'm so thankful." I have come to understand this may be with me always & I'm finding a way to live with it; have it, rather than it having me.
Hi. I have a great article that I'm trying to publish on this topic. If you're interested please email me at Survivor65@ymail.com. Thanks.