“Young Sonoma County team sets out to educate teens on mental illness - Santa Rosa Press Democrat” plus 1 more

Young Sonoma County team sets out to educate teens on mental illness - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Posted: 21 Nov 2010 06:50 PM PST

Published: Sunday, November 21, 2010 at 4:42 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, November 21, 2010 at 4:42 p.m.

Alexis Wilson had a psychotic break at age 15 and no one knew.

She heard voices, often what she thought were other students calling her names, and for years engaged in what she now knows was behavior provoked by cues and fictions created in her head.

Her parents at first thought she was rebelling and acting out, though they later tried to push her into therapy, which was too late to forestall hospitalization but ultimately helped with her continuing recovery.

Oscar Guzmán was just 16 when he vowed to take his own life once he reached the age of 20.

He was shy, depressed and suffered in silence so complete that his family was totally unprepared when he disappeared one day, and the hospital called to say he had tried to end his life.

Guzmán remembers waking up and having a nurse ask what happened.

"I had been holding this in for years," he recalled. "I just said, 'I don't want to live,' and just started crying.

"But honestly, that was the beginning of the healing," Guzmán said.

Now in their 20s, Wilson and Guzmán are part of a team of four young adults who have agreed to share their stories with Sonoma County high school students as part of an effort to educate teens about depression and other mental illnesses, and to reach out to those who may need help.

The discussion includes an effort to distinguish between normal sadness and the persistent feelings of hopelessness that may signal a serious problem.

Presenters distribute literature and phone numbers students can use to find help if they're contemplating suicide or having other symptoms of serious depression.

And they provide statistics that make it clear those who might need help are not weak or alone in their pain.

"It was helpful, a lot of information," Windsor Oaks Academy student Gloria Alvarez, 18, said after seeing Wilson and Guzmán talk to her class. "People don't always really talk about depression."

Experts say about one in four adults in the United States suffers from a mental disorder or illness in a given year.

Many have their first experiences with it as teens or young adults, when it may be difficult to distinguish teen-age angst from severe disturbances, and before they have the education or life experience to understand what's going on.

Wilson, 27, said she thinks she had symptoms as early as 12 or 13 but did not recognize them.

"I had no clue what mental illness was," said Guzmán, 29, who, though born to Mexican parents, has albinism that makes him pale and fair-haired, and also impairs his sight.

Now coordinator of client programs for the Sonoma County Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and a psychology student at Santa Rosa Junior College, he said he withdrew socially as a teen, never thinking he was good enough.

But mental health providers are increasingly trying to reach young people with information and assurances that help is available.

Talking to students last week, Guzman said: "My hope is, when I do this kind of stuff, that you can talk to your friends so they can avoid, so they can live happy lives."

The NAMI panel has given presentations to 11 mostly health classes in Cloverdale and Windsor since October at schools with active Project Success programs run by community-based organizations and aimed at helping students and families through high stress and stages of high-risk behavior.

Teddy Pierce, who coordinates the program for NAMI, said students so far have been extremely attentive.

"We've had 90-minute classes where nobody moved," she said.

Students also have an opportunity to submit questions anonymously and to receive information directing them toward help.

In at least one case, a student said after a recent presentation that she'd been considering suicide but was rethinking that after hearing what the NAMI panel had to say, Pierce said.

Wilson, an artist who credits her ability to find humor in life with helping her survive so far, said it helped tremendously to learn about brain chemistry and the fact that mental illness is not a sign of personal deficiency but a medical disease.

"It was hard for me to have compassion for myself and for people to have compassion for me without the understanding that I was sick," she said.

Sharing her story, Wilson said, "is healing for me."

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.

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Smallville gives us Saul Tigh as Deathstroke (and erotic waterboarding) - io9.com

Posted: 21 Nov 2010 06:00 PM PST

Smallville gives us Saul Tigh as Deathstroke (and erotic waterboarding) Friday's Smallville — "Patriot" — was a heaping platter of hammy political metaphors, illegally tortured beefcake, and Atlantean cheesecake. Also, Michael Hogan dons the eyepatch again as General Slade Wilson, and Aquaman blew up an oil rig a superhuman prison.

"Patriot" was very much par for the course for Season 10 of Smallville — we had the barely veiled allusions to today's political climate (superhuman prisons are hidden in oil rigs, Darkseid controls unscrupulous military officials), the obligatory, totally random appearance of Kryptonite to slow down Clark (a Kryptonite cage!), the "Smallvillization" of new DC characters (Deathstroke and Mera), and hunky men in bondage — is William Marston literally ghost-writing episodes? The episode's main focus was General Wilson going rogue in the wake of the Vigilante Registration Act's passing (he has a superprison in Alaska) and Lois and Clark's relationship squabbling (he's too mysterious, she's too nosy).

Hogan played Wilson as a no-nonsense military man who views superheroes as demagogues who threaten democracy with their idealist agendas (he refers to them as would-be Hitlers and Saddams). Wilson uses his military clout to "waterboard" Green Arrow in a dunk tank. Later in the episode, we discover that Slade's under the thrall of Darkseid — Clark uses his X-Ray vision to discover an omega symbol etched onto his skull — and the explosion of his super-bondage prison gives him his signature Deathstroke eyepatch.

Smallville gives us Saul Tigh as Deathstroke (and erotic waterboarding)

As for the relationship subplot, "Patriot" also added Mera and Arthur Curry's aqua-hippie relationship as an aspirational counterpoint to Clois (or is it Lark?) but the Atlantean dyad was annoyingly self-righteous and semi-useless — Mera accused Lois of being a superhero groupie and both Mera and AC were vexed by General Slade's evil heat lamps. On the plus side, this episode did have a scene that will spawn a thousand slash fictions:

So yeah, this wasn't a bad episode — the action was fast-paced and the milieu was sexy. The presence of Hogan playing Tigh redux was welcome, and it kept up the BDSM that has inflected almost every episode this season. We've seen the Vigilante Registration Act before, but it keeps bringing classic DC characters to the small screen. A solid B episode. Play us out, sex dungeon Aquaman.

Smallville gives us Saul Tigh as Deathstroke (and erotic waterboarding)