TED Talk - Ruby Wax: What’s So Funny About Mental Illness?
In the last couple of days i have revisited this talk a fair few times. We have come a notable distance in terms of awareness of mental health since 2012 when the above was filmed, but on the whole the words that Ruby Wax says here still hold relevance. Perhaps an indicator into the reality of trying to encourage a nation, a world to give more time to a particular subject.
Earlier this year my beautiful-inside-and-out friend Harriet asked me if i wanted to see Ruby on her Frazzled tour. It was incredible to hear that she was coming to the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich and as i read my friend’s invitation on Facebook i clutched at the screen as if grabbing the ticket she was offering.
Though i wasn’t 100% certain about what angle Ruby would be taking and the content of her talk it was superb. Her naturally frantic monologues combining personal insight with rampant intellect, her attentiveness to herself and to the significance of mental health generally and in the 21st Century, her respectful hostility towards those that take a dim view of mental health and her pure adoration for the opportunity to speak with an ever-widening audience. And as for the audience i was part of it? Well it clearly weighed heavily on the intellectual, the professional and students. Through audience interaction there were perhaps needless to say a sizeable amount of people who had experience of mental health problems, past, present, and i’m afraid i can’t rule out the other tense. And here’s hoping a new demographic was reached too, even if to a small extent.
Awareness is so incredibly important. How else does anything ever happen??? If you spent half the time you spend on social media interacting with mental health, within a week you would have a significant insight into the subject. Mental health is intrinsically human, it has always been a part of us, and will only affect more of us negatively if we do not take note and educate ourselves. And that could be by reading a book, watching YouTube and the growing mainstream entertainment outlets that are portraying variants of mental health, seeing a piece of theatre, attending feel good workshops, listening to music, talking with friends. The creativity of learning knows no bounds and to apply that to the subject of mental health will only be of benefit to you and everyone around you.
