The news of Phillip Seymour Hoffman's death is tragic. It is tragic when someone so talented and erudite is swallowed whole by a disease over which they simply have no control. Addiction is a disease. No it doesn't have the same face of a physical, fatal and debilitating disease like cancer or diabetes or heart disease. But it is still very much a disease. A disease of the mind. It seems … [Read more...]
The Staten Island Family’s Celebrity Q&A: Laura Dern talks about her childhood, the stigma of Mental illness and directing one of the shorts in Lifetime TV’s film Call Me Crazy
Crazy. We label people crazy all the time. It's one of those adjectives that gets attributed as easily as retard, faggot, and other disturbing names that should be stricken from our society's collective vocabulary. And while we cavalierly pass this adjective around, being labeled as such, especially if one has a diagnosed mental illness, can be both stigmatizing and shameful. There is a negative … [Read more...]