mental illness so what if those of us
diagnosed with mental illness are not in
fact or do not in fact have a genetic
mutation but in fact an amazing
evolutionary adaptation
what if mental illness as Malcolm
Gladwell says in his book David and
Goliath is in fact a desirable
disadvantage and if that is a case why
don’t we treat the mental illness the
symptoms and so forth with therapy
medication and then work to embrace
enhance utilize and celebrate the mental
illness what would the impact be on our
child if you could convince them that
what they have is not simply a mental
illness it is in fact a an amazing
combination of mental illness and mental
a bonus and that they’re not broken they
were actually designed that way
I believe the positive impact would be
incalculable I myself do not believe I
am broken I have two mental illnesses
one is called major depressive disorder
better known as depression and something
called chronic suicidality which is
little known which means for me and
people in my tribe the option of suicide
is always on the menu for problems large
and small a couple years ago my car
broke down I have three thoughts
unbidden one I’ll get it fixed too I can
buy a new one three I could just kill
myself it just bubbles up as an option
all the time I do believe however that
that mental illness is the flipside of
my mental illness my vivid imagination
creativity my sense of humor which has
allowed me to make a living as a
stand-up comedian and professional
speaker for the last 33 years and it’s
helped me in my personal life and this
is a story I’ve never told before to any
audience anywhere
I believe when I was 12 years old that
my sense of humor protected me kept me
from being a victim of child sexual
abuse at 12 years old on paper I was the
ideal victim for a pedophile I was 12 my
dad died very young so I had no strong
were a strong male role model
my mom worked full-time so I was
something of a latchkey kid and the
linchpin was I spent my afternoons and
Saturdays at the YMCA where they had a
nest of pedophiles
yeah pedophiles bumping into a pedophile
is sort of like the the the idea behind
real estate its location location
location and the pedophiles are great
networkers they hire one another promote
one and over one another cover for one
another so the outgoing youth director
pedophile Steve hide the incoming youth
director pedophile Wayne and I’m the
Wayne’s office one day and it’s my
mother would say apropos of nothing just
he and I he said to me Frank have you
ever been involved in group masturbation
I said Wayne you know what I never
really pictured masturbation as a team
sport more of an individual sport like
golf and he laughed until he cried and
then he left me alone so you could say
that my sense of humor saved my behind
literally yeah and like I tell you I
know a lot of comedians I must tell you
hey this proportionate number of
comedians that I know have a mental
illness there’s a guy unfortunately
recently deceased named Mike McDonald
what a comedy a comic out of Canada he
said there are two kinds of comics
diagnosed undiagnosed yeah that’s just
that’s nature of the beast I gotta tell
you my best comedy students are the
mentally ill I taught a class designed
for mentally ill people by a guy named
David Grenier in Vancouver British
Columbia
see I try go yeah that’s yeah it’s the
comedian the yeah yeah sorry about that
a little behind on my slides I was
afraid like Glenn it wasn’t gonna fire
my big gun oh my uh okay claps I’m sorry
hold on Oh Palm Pilot yeah key words
problem with this I’m always downloading
to the sink oh the the classic all stand
up from mental health is for people who
have mental illness they want to write
and perform stand-up comedy based on
their battles with mental illness the
idea to reduce the stigma and you have
to have a
diagnosis to be a student and you have
to have a diagnosis to be a teacher so
it’s part comedy class part peer
counseling session it’s it’s amazing and
they were the funniest people stuff came
out of their mouths unedited that was
ready for primetime I give a couple
examples I’m having coffee with a
potential student named David Lean David
Lane was from Kentucky I said David let
him tell about yourself she goes well
I’m from Kentucky no kiddin and I’ve had
six husbands I only shot one up but
that’s another story
whoa write that down Lisa oh by the way
last names withheld comedy coach client
confidentiality Lisa came to me she was
dual diagnosed alcoholism depression
she’d just come from a meeting where the
speaker had apparently mentioned
Christopher Columbus she comes in and
nobody got at least as she goes well I
don’t think Christopher Columbus was an
alcoholic why do you think that well his
big idea if you recall was to sail east
to get West doesn’t that sound like
something you come up with in a bar and
then he did it and when he landed like
an alcoholic he had no idea where he was
when he got back like an alcoholic you
couldn’t tell anybody where he him in
and you got a woman to finance it twice
oh they gives me chills that so good I
had a woman named Camille her back story
her backstory was nightmarish but again
because we’re all diagnosed you could
share she said I went to see my
psychiatrist he asked if I was depressed
I said yes having thoughts of suicide
yes do you have a plan she said I have
five plans five plans she goes yeah do
you want to hear them all or just the
ones that involve you it’s dark but it’s
funny and there’s not a syllable in
there that doesn’t move the narrative
forward my favorite was Trisha sure she
came in she goes yeah I got a joke last
night my boyfriend said to me I want to
break up I said I said to him why do you
want to break up he said I want to see
other people I said I’m bipolar give me
a minute
again that’s the way that came out of
her mouth no editing necessary go right
into an act go right on television they
were sometimes I feel sorry for my
neurotypical or neuro normal friends yes
I have a mental illness but I also had
this this sort of batch of mental Abel
nasaw
Kenda superpowers I believe I mentioned
the superpower thing to my sister my
darling little sister Jane who battles
anxiety and depression she goes
superpower yeah we’re not the x-men
we’re the same x-man yeah so I think I
gotta list the people here oh there you
go famous people with depression these
are rich famous and or notable people
three things I am NOT but this is uh and
you can see there are creative obviously
comedian singers politicians and so
forth the does an x-men I decided that
and when I speak to kids in middle and
high school I suggested they create a
superhero avatar DC comic or Marvel
somebody some character that they really
like and then you know sort of customize
it to their situation because if you
think about it most superheroes have
issues had something tragic happened in
their lives Superman was put into a
capsule fired into space his home planet
blew up I’m guessing he has a little
separation anxiety
Batman saw his folks going down the
street we need a child a little PTSD
spider-man bitten by a radioactive
spider okay I’m not saying they’re all
equally tragic but they all have issues
so I figured out who my super superhero
avatar would be I said but my wife said
and my wife but guess who it is I said
by day I’m mom manatees ego and
laid-back until I get mad she goes
you’re the Incredible Hulk I go yeah but
see I have to customize it a bit so it’s
mild-mannered laid-back until I get
depressed and really blue and then I’m
the incredible sulk like sulk Oh bipolar
I really do yeah let’s talk about
bipolar for a second bipolar I think
should be called tri-polar by the way
cuz you have your manic which is
sleepless for nights on end psychotic
behavior hallucinations delusions
paranoid rage and you have your
depressive which is loss of energy
hopelessness thought
suicide but in the middle of you aware
there’s the phase called hypomania
hypomanic
apple mania an amazingly productive
phase energetic enthusiastic euphoric
creative charismatic natural leader
lofty goals takes inspired risks that
when they when they work out seem
brilliant nowadays what they do
clinically is they medicate people to
normal or just a little into the
depressive why not hold them in a safe
altitude in that band of hypomania I’ll
give you the poster board for this this
is you guys know Johnny football Johnny
Manziel Johnny Manziel undiagnosed
bipolar he was just diagnosed recently
but in his young life
he was youngest person ever to win the
only freshman ever to win the Heisman
Trophy quarterback of the Year AP All
American and then of course he went to
play in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns
for two years I believe because he used
the things that he had when he was in
the you know the the high blue Matic
phase as you can see there however he
was untreated undiagnosed and the only
thing he did for treatment was alcohol
so this is what he did this is the
obviously the things that happened to
you when you are in the depressive phase
and this is what happened Johnny Manziel
arrested in charge suspended in for half
the year stopped by a policeman with his
girlfriend something about spousal abuse
picked up of the Dallas police the good
news is Johnny Manziel has been
diagnosed he is now in therapy taking
medication in talks with the New England
Patriots to resume his football career
and he’s not alone in terms of famous
people with bipolar disorder all these
folks rich famous in or notable have had
bipolar so here’s my question I
mentioned that that the people are not
broken they’re they’re made that way for
me it comes down to this if this then
that what’s the connection if this my
mental ability is just the flip side of
that my mental disability what is the
connection I believe the connection it’s
why and I believe the hawai is found in
evolution 100,000 years ago cavemen and
women anthropologists will tell you the
majority of them had bipolar disorder of
necessity because their lives were
governed by the movements of the Sun and
the seasons
so a spring approach and and summer
began to happen they would come out and
they have to gather and hunt in three
and a half four months what they’re
gonna need for eight months so they
would slip into the hypomanic phase they
were super hunter super gatherers and
hyper sexual because it’s keep the
numbers up in the tribe they had to have
a lot of kids by the way to this day one
of the groups at most at risk for
bipolar are women of a reproductive age
so all summer long they would hunt
gather and then as the day’s grew
shorter and the night’s grew colder they
would begin to slip into the depressive
phase not so much interested in sex and
they’d find a place to hunker down
hibernate and and bear and keep the
children alive until the summer time so
the question is are there any other
mental illnesses from you know that date
to that time period that were survival
skills OCD you have to take the four
months where the hunting and gathering
and store it in such a way that it’ll
sustain you for eight months who better
to be your quartermaster or supply
sergeant that’s somebody who is obsessed
with organization and cleaning rituals
parasites bugs germs no Purell hand
sanitizer somebody that tribe had to go
no no do not eat that that’s the person
with OCD that it’s it’s is a disability
now it was a it was a survival skill
back then kids with a DD ADHD nowadays
you know we make fun of kids because you
put them in a desk shame them down force
them to look at a board for six and a
half hours and wonder why they disrupt
the class it’s because they’re wired
like the kids a hundred thousand years
ago back then though somebody with a EDD
nowadays we make fun if a kids easily
distracted squirrel but back then when
everything and everybody could kill and
or eat you it wasn’t it was not funny it
was Velociraptor that’s a survival skill
so I would have the people with ADHD a
DD ADHD as my my um guards to feel that
what’s and watch at night or my security
detail I’ve always said I was gonna open
up security company called Tweaker
security because they don’t eat they
don’t sleep and they’re paranoid so who
better to look after your stuff
so some of that a DD who’s hyper alert
and always on guard for something would
be ideal for a tribe like that
finally dyslexics this is my favorite
you guys know dyslexics have better
peripheral vision than ordinary humans
yep and ordinary humans generally when
they’re looking they’re seeing
whatever’s in the frame directly ahead
of them they can see the rest but
they’re not focused on anything but this
does Lexie’s tend to focus on the hold
of panoramic so yeah and they can end
have the uncanny ability to spot the
anomaly what’s wrong with the picture
never play Where’s Waldo with a dyslexic
for money cuz they’d be like there so I
would have them I assume they probably
did they were the scouts they walked
point as they as the tribe went from you
know like the winter grounds to the
summer grounds because they were talked
to a field forest across here everybody
else just sees a solid wall of bushes
and trees the dyslexic goes you see
right next that oak tree what looks like
a bush that’s a guy covering leaves and
twigs with a spear
that’s the that they’re able to pick out
the anomaly all right now as in Glenn’s
slide sure why should we care what
difference does that make now adays
here’s what I think we should do with
that information we should change the
IEP the individual education plan for
students with mental illness to treat
and minimizing them illness and embrace
enhanced energize and celebrate the
mental able Nakia with OCD should have a
curriculum that requires attention to
detail and precision STEM science
technology education mathematics perfect
arts and humanities forget it yeah flip
the equation
the kid with dyslexia forget stamp arts
and humanities fewer letters fewer
numbers and multi-dimensional complex
tasks why not play to their strengths
and the kid with a DD I’ve got a friend
in AJ who is a professional trumpet
player who taught public school band the
public school for couple years
he’s the Frank some of the kids the a DD
they were the best students I had and
Bar None the trouble was I could tie me
to a chair for 50 minutes making
practice scales but
ten minutes that next 40 minutes sitting
any better so what he did was he bought
an egg timer he said to the kid look ten
minutes you gonna practice your scale
till the egg timer goes off when he went
ding he goes okay set it for ten minutes
now you gonna practice that piece you’re
performing on Saturday until the timer
goes off ding okay now we’re in practice
our breathing for 10 minutes and he said
the transformation was amazing because
they are extremely capable just in short
bursts so bottom line is we are just now
beginning to scratch the surface to
figure out why it is our brains go wrong
early research shows that it is probably
because what we call mental illness
today is actually in fact an amazing
combination of mental illness and mental
illness and by the way I put those lists
of famous people up there you do not
have to be mentally ill to be rich
famous and/or notable but apparently
doesn’t hurt thank you very much [Applause]