Before Russell Crowe, we had never talked about it.
Ever.
It was a big part of his past, and maybe it contributed to his depression. Maybe he felt like we wouldn’t understand, or maybe he did talk to people and they didn’t hear him. Maybe he thought he could do it himself. Maybe he didn’t know how.
But it wasn’t until Russell Crowe that my Dad started talking about how he felt and what he went through as a young father.
A Beautiful Mind
He was glued to the screen, completely engaged in the story and rooting for Nash to come out all right in the end. He bought the book and watched the movie again and again. When it came out on DVD, he bought that too. He wanted to soak up as much information and experiences as he could.
We must have watched it at least fifty times when it aired on HBO. Russell Crowe, let everyone in on the struggle and we became aware of how difficult this could be on anyone and their family.
My Dad found pieces of himself in Russell Crowe that day and was brave enough to share, and granted their stories were different, and their journeys were different, but for the first time in a long time, he saw something out there dealing with mental health, dealing with the realness of it. Consequences and successes.
I rediscovered of bits and pieces of my childhood and moments of my dad’s journey through adulthood and parenthood. I understood why there were times my dad had been so afraid, why he might have drank, and perhaps why he had been dealing with depression for a large part of his life. We didn’t get all our answers that day, but what we were able to do was talk … talk about how he felt, he realized he wasn’t the only one, and that gave him the confidence to speak up. He wasn’t alone in this. Here’s this guy …this genius mathematician that’s living through mental health issues as well.
It wasn’t the same, but at least Russell Crowe gave him an opening and mental health became something he could talk about freely.
And I was grateful for that, because he did get help, and that seemed to help with the depression, for a while.
So seeing how someone informed me that it was World Mental Health Day, I thought I’d spread awareness the only way I knew how … through story.
Spread the word … Mental Health Matters. Talk about it.
The Wish Factor 