[click image to find prompt post and other 5-min Friday ‘journey’ posts]
I’ll start the journey of this post with a humble yet really encouraging milestone:
Watching the old stats mount up is one of the little pleasures of blogging, no?
Over 50 people have checked out wee ditty today, and 900 lifetime visitors!
My Twitter stats are fun to watch right now, too. I am in a period of rapid growth.
Over 4k tweets! 5.5k+ following! So cool. Thanks to Twitter, I managed to give away over 200 copies of my books this week. That is so cool to me!
Know what’s not cool though? When people give away your books without permission.
I’ve tracked this site through a few incarnations now. It changes names but not tactics.
But best not to dwell on the negatives. Moving right along… I’m discovering many many incredibly talented people as I journey along. One of the artists who has really wowed me lately is Monika of DestinationHumanity.com. Click her rad selfie below to visit her.
One of the articles which has interested me greatly this week is an interview in the August 8, 2016 issue of New York Magazine, in which Winona Ryder discusses how she feels she is perceived by the public, as well as her role in Stranger Things. The following excerpt from WinonA Uninterrupted By Heather Havrilesky really effectively addresses the stigma on anxiety…
[PHOTOGRAPH BY NORMAN JEAN ROY]
“I wish I could unknow this, but there is a perception of me that I’m supersensitive and fragile. And I am supersensitive, and I don’t think that that’s a bad thing. To do what I do, I have to remain open.”
She says that sensitive is so often used as a bad word — a euphemism for weak or crazy.
“There’s a line in the show where someone says [of her Stranger Things character], ‘She’s had anxiety problems in the past.’ A lot of people have picked up on that, like, ‘Oh, you know, she’s crazy.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, wait a second, she’s struggling.’ Two kids, deadbeat dad, working her ass off. Who wouldn’t be anxious?”
“Even that word, anxious. It’s a bad word. And so like all of these words — it’s kind of what I tried to do with Girl, Interrupted, and why I was so invested in that book and trying to get it made [as a movie]. My whole point was, this happens to every girl, almost.”
Yet in trying to remove the stigma our culture places on common emotional challenges by talking about them, Ryder only stigmatized herself more.
“I remember I did Diane Sawyer, and I talked about my experiences with anxiety and depression when I was that age. And I think by doing that, maybe coupled with my physical size, there’s this ‘crazy’ thing. And I’ve realized recently it’s literally impossible to try to change that story.”
I’m very clued into M.I. stigma right now, obviously. It’s exciting when you find a cause which truly inspires you to dig in your heels and haul on the old tug-of-war rope!
I just dashed off a post using the acronym S.M.A.R.T. to evaluate my goal of fighting M.I. stigma… When I was researching Sz for another recent post – “What is Sz?” – I found evidence that the wrong-headed association of Sz with violent behavior is actually getting worse! Isn’t that pretty awful? Gets me to cussing. All the more reason that now is an important time to “Raise. Your. Voice.”
On the more writerly (not a word, I know, but I cannot resist using it!) side of my journey, I continue to get great writing practice from other bloggers’ challenges, prompts, and questions. Which reminds me, I’ve run over five minutes in composing this post! Quick shout outs to these recent linkups which have inspired my posts:
Six Word Saturday (#6ws)
Stream of Consciousness Saturday (#SoCS)
Sandbox Writing Challenge at Impromptu Promptlings
dVerse, Haiku Horizons, & Sunday Photo Fiction
The Sunday Whirl, Sunday’s Whirligig, & Sunday Scribblings 2
I share those not merely to promote my own contributions, but to encourage you to participate! There are more…
…but I really must bring this journey to some sort of finishing point.
Since it has become something of a post round-up, I would be derelict of duty not to mention that this week, I was interviewed by the Simulacrum of Tony Lovell, as well as by a fair facsimile of The Scribble Bug!
Aaand finally, my book, Way Out: A True Account of Schizophrenia, is free for the asking.
Enough. Thanks for reading. If you click every link in this post, you’ll become a unicorn.
Peace and Elbow Grease,
Uttley
wee ditty 
Pleased I am to read in your space
No intention to get in your face
just a bystander that likes to connect
And i am carefull who I select.
Pleased to virtually meet to follow and read
your artistry called and my interest was peaked.
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