Big Feels: The Book
Readerly Recluses! Graham here.
First up, before we dive into that little teaser of a post title. . .
We have some more ‘hey look people are taking us seriously!!?’ news, and it's a doozy.
We are now able to officially announce that we are a finalist in the VicHealth Awards.
What??
The VicHealth awards recognise trailblazing health promotion work across Victoria. This year's crop of applications was the biggest it's ever been, and we made the coveted short-list!
Read about the good stuff being done by other finalists here. Winners announced next month.
One thing that strikes me, as far as I can tell we are the only one in our category -- Improving Mental Wellbeing -- that isn’t funded by government grant money or the health system.
That’s right. Little old us, running this thing from our living room on the smell of an oily rag.
(We can’t even afford a new rag people! Although I suppose we could at least... wash it?)
And yet here we are, being recognised on the same stage as big-name mental health services and impressive multi-agency programs.
On top of the Third Coast Festival award for No Feeling Is Final, it’s a sign that this weird overshare-y work we do is making waves not only in the art world but even service delivery land too.
Woop!
It’s a rare thing we’re doing (but it shouldn’t be)
It feels good to be recognised with these awards.
And yet it if I’m honest (and I tend to be, here at least) it also feels… a bit mixed?
Like, hey wouldn’t it be nice if all this kudos we keep getting turned into actual financial support from our health system?
Not just for us, but for the whole new approach we represent.
From what I can tell, not only are we the sole example of a self-funded initiative in this mental health award category. We’re also the only initiative run explicitly by people who’ve been through this stuff themselves.
This isn't a problem with the awards system, it's simply a reflection of where things stand in Australia today.
It’s 2019, and in this country it is still damn near impossible to find mental health initiatives designed and delivered by people who actually know what it feels like to need a mental health initiative.
Not for the first time I find myself wondering, why is that?
Thanks for keeping this feelings ship afloat
For now, we’ll keep on pushing our little feelings wagon as far as we can take it. Doing our bit, marvelling daily at the strength and wisdom of this virtual Big Feels community. And wondering what the world might look like if there were a whole lot more mental health initiatives owned and run by the people who need them.
A shout out here to all you sensitive cats working in mainstream services and doing your best to change this system from the inside (we see ya). And also to the small handful of amazing mental health and addiction services in Australia that are led by people with their own messy life experiences. In particular SHARC - the Self Help Addiction Resource Centre - our most persistent cheerleader within the health system.
To any of y'all who are currently supporting us, or have done in the past -- thank you. You’re the reason we can keep on doing this work while we wait for the health system to catch up.
And as ever, if Big Feels means something to you, you can directly help keep us afloat by becoming a card-carrying member.
Click here for more info on the grave power and responsibility that comes with that. (Plus, the spiffy membership card!)
Okay, on with that teaser of a subject line. . .
Big Feels: The Book??!
I’ve been working on something new lately.
A book. More specifically, a book for people who are sad or scared a bunch of the time.
A self-help book?
Well, kind of. More like a ‘what if the help doesn’t help?’ book.
Here’s the thing. One in two cases of anxiety and depression will last multiple years, even if you’re doing all the right things.
But nobody tells you that.
So if that’s you out there, doing that slow, tedious work you have to do to keep your head afloat, and feeling like you’re often right back at square one...
You can start to think…
Well I must just be really fucked up.
There are a million books that claim to address this experience. (I know, I’ve read most of them.)
But almost all of them are either written from the perspective of an ‘expert’ with yet another once-and-for-all fix, or they’re memoirs from people like us who’ve ‘gotten through it’, and are here to tell you how you can one day do the same.
My experience is so much messier than that. I learn things, I forget things, I fuck things up and learn again.
When I’m at my most desperate, I dearly want to hear from people who get it, who aren’t ‘all better now’. People who are right in the thick of it, but who nonetheless have a few clues about how to live well as a sensitive cat.
Not to mention how to live well as a sensitive dog...
It's those rare, 'right in the thick of it with you' books that have most helped me over the years. That I keep in my bag for weeks after I've finished them.
So I’m writing one of those books. And you can help me do it.
If this sounds like something you’d want to read, tell me of your keenness! Click that big, pink button below and pop your email address in the page that follows.
The book is provisionally titled What To Do When You’ve Ruined Your Life. It’ll be a mix of past Big Feels issues, expanded and reimagined, and new stuff I’ve been pondering over the past few months.
Not sure yet whether it’ll be hard copy or an e-book or both - depends on the reaction I get from this post. So have at it lovelies. . .
