My life is, by every objective measurement, very very good.
And in spite of all of that, I struggle every day with my self esteem, my self worth, and my value not only as an actor and writer, but as a human being.
That’s because I live with Depression and Anxiety, the tag team champions of the World Wrestling With Mental Illness Federation.
I’m very fortunate in that my parents mostly took my mental health issues seriously. We should all be so lucky. Where I was told I was exaggerating was pain from the dentist.
As an adult, my dentist told me that people with reddish hair (in my beard, not my mop) are less susceptible to Novocaine. She jacks me up with more than the standard dose and I’m fine. Teenaged me suffered badly at the hands of dentists.
But, getting back to the original topic, a specific mental illness seems to run in my family. I’m not the only one, so getting recognition has been more of a “I have the same experience.” I can’t imagine if I was the first and had parents who considered it alien.
We need to treat mental illness with compassion. Thank goodness I didn’t live during the era where it was expected that someone just toughen up and suppress their feelings or “be a man” about it.
Huh. I have (or had, it’s mostly grey now) red hair in my beard despite having so dark brown that it’s almost black hair on my head. I wonder if that’s why novocaine never seemed to work on me. I got two wisdom teeth taken out under gas and novocaine and I felt it. I don’t know why the dentist didn’t stop because I know I was struggling and not keeping my mouth open.