Wednesday night I had the pleasure of attending a talk by  Lizzie Simon

author of Detour: My Bipolar Road Trip in 4D.  The talk was organized by the Central Access and Student Development office at CCSU, NAMI On Campus, and the Farmington Valley Chapter of NAMI-CT.   She started with describing how she explained mental illness to a hockey team — the person with mental illness is like the goalie, but instead of one team charging towards him/her, there are three: the disease itself, the mental health system, and stigma.  So, the goalie needs support from the rest of his/her team.  Great analogy!

I wish some of my students from my disability history class had been able to attend.  I think it would be helpful for them to see a young person  who is more typical of the majority of students with mental illness — i.e. neither violent nor weird.  Maybe her book will be as useful as Clifford Beers’ memoir from the early twentieth century.