Tell Me A Story

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In this episode, I explain why it has been so long since the previous episode. I then discuss the advantages I have found using the fiction genre in writing about mental illness and child abuse in my two novels, "The Overlife. A Tale of Schizophrenia" (www.amazon.com/dp/191685219X) and "Three Kidnapped, Three Siblings, Three Furies" (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DR9K6YMG).

#SameHere #Schizophrenia #SiblingAbuse #ChildAbuse #Family #Friends #MentalIllness 

Pastime With Good Company by King Henry VIII, played by The Chestnut Brass Company 

Pastime With Good Company, composed by King Henry VIII, played by The Chestnut Brass Company

Episode Transcript

Diana Dirkby (00:00):
Hello, my name is Diana Dirkby and I live with
paranoid schizophrenia.
You are listening to my podcast"Schizophrenia As I Live It.
" Today's episode is entitled"Tell me a story.
Before I get into the podcast,let me apologise for the big gap

(00:22):
between my last episode onJanuary 13 and this one on March
26.
I have often said that a mentalhealth consumer is not defined
by their mental illness.
The proof is that I have beenplagued for many months with an

(00:43):
as-yet- unexplained infirmitythat has nothing to do with
schizophrenia, except thatcoping with it brought on a
two-week schizophrenic relapsein February, which was cured by
my medication, by resting and bymy spouse's care.
I corresponded with my doctorabout it, so she knew about my

(01:06):
progress.
The non-schizophrenic infirmityconsisted of a series of
unexplained falls over manymonths, several of them quite
severe enough to sprain jointsand break bones.
The worst to endure was afractured vertebra in my upper

(01:28):
back, which confined me to bedand painkillers.
As I suffer from mild epilepsy,and after running some blood
tests that showed the dosage ofmy epilepsy medicine was too low
, my doctors doubled the dosage,postulating that epilepsy was
causing the falls.

(01:48):
This idea turned out to becatastrophic, as I started to
have digestive problems.
After two weeks when I couldn'tdigest anything, I returned to
my regular dosage and mydigestion bounced back quickly.
I am too thin now, but I don'texpect that to last, as I am

(02:10):
already putting on weightsteadily.
I have had no more falls sincethe short schizophrenic episode
in February.
Of course, I am being extracareful where I put my feet.
Now to my podcast.
From my previous podcast, youwill know that I recently

(02:30):
published two books "TheOverlife, a Tale of
Schizophrenia," and ThreeKidnapped, Three Siblings, Three
Furies" ( Furies".
Both books are fiction novels.
Most books about mental illness, including the brain disorder,
paranoid schizophrenia, arescientific books or memoirs, and

(02:53):
the same can be said for booksabout child abuse.
These books are primarilyvaluable educationally and help
reduce ignorance, which is oftenthe source of stigma.
By contrast, there are manyfictional TV shows and movies

(03:14):
that cast the villain as someonewith a mental illness, usually
a psychotic disorder, and teachthat we must fear such people,
thereby adding to stigma some ofits worst traits, especially
fear of mental health consumers.
There are some notableexceptions, like the movie "A

(03:35):
Beautiful Mind about the NobelPrize-winning mathematician John
Nash, who lived withschizophrenia, and the Apple TV
series "The Crowded Room,"inspired by the story of Billy
Milligan, who lived with DID,dissociative identity disorder,

(03:56):
once known as multiplepersonality disorder.
In an earlier podcast episode Iexplained how schizophrenia and
dissociative identity disorderare not the same mental
disorders, even though they areoften confused.
Then there is the recent movieby Nadine Crocker, "Contnu,

(04:19):
which treats suicide.
These pioneering movies and TVseries that get it right are
welcome in a movie library thatmostly gets it wrong.
Most people don't get to makemovies, but they do get a chance
to express themselves throughwriting, whether it's a greeting
card, an email, a blog or, moreambitiously, a poem or a book.

(04:45):
The underused fiction genre inwritings about mental illness
has many advantages.
Your fiction book can containas many facts as you care to put
into it, as long as you writewell enough to tell the reader
what is fact and what is fiction.
One significant advantage Ifound was that, unlike memoir, I

(05:11):
could leave out many people whoexist in my real life but who
have no place in my book ordidn't want to have a place in
my book due to the stigma ofmental illness.
Unfortunately, the excludedpeople include members of my
family and my spouse's familywho I always treated well and

(05:35):
who didn't miss out on anythingbecause of my schizophrenia.
It's the word "schizophrenia"they can't cope with, especially
if they fear you will one dayturn up on their doorstep with
your mental health problems,something I would never do.
The excluded people alsoinclude work colleagues who I

(05:57):
had known for many years withoutmentioning my schizophrenia.
Once they witnessed symptoms ofmy relapses, they didn't want
to know me, even if I recoveredwell and caused no harm to
anyone.
Like Sarah in my book "TheOverlife A Tale of Schizophrenia
," some overreacting peoplecalled the police on me, only to

(06:19):
be told by the police that theywere, indeed, overreacting.
Tragically, not all encounterswith law enforcement go well for
the mentally ill.
This awful situation is one ofthe main preoccupations of many
mental health advocacy groupsand they are right to fight.

(06:40):
To a more stressless advantageof fiction.
You can get all your factsacross and tell a good story
simultaneously.
It's like putting a pill thattastes strange inside peanut
butter, honey or anything elsewhose taste you like.
You can deal with a serioustopic, which is exhausting for

(07:02):
the author and reader, and stillhave fun with human interest
tales.
I know my books will have amore challenging time getting
recognized because they arefiction, whereas people are
looking for books on mentalillness and child abuse
containing only facts, butthat's a choice I consciously

(07:23):
made.
As the brilliant writer WalterMosley, author of "Devil in a
Blue Dress," said in his courseon the Masterclass app, and here
I don't have the exact quote,but he said words to the effect

of (07:38):
"no matter what you write, tell me a story.
Thank you for listening.