Mental Health Notes

Success Story: Using Mental Health Humor As A Coping Skill

by Alicia Sparks, NAMI Affiliation Leader on May 1st, 2008

Wow, May is going to be a busy month here at Mental Health Notes, huh? Not only is it Mental Health Awareness Month and my blirthday (as Angelique called it!), but it’s also the month for the This Is Why I ROCK! series, which is what we’re beginning right now!

The smiling face you see to the right is 37-year-old Chato B. Stewart from Port Charlotte, Florida, and he definitely embodies the whole spirit of the This Is Why I ROCK! series. Not only is he an avid mental health advocate, but he is also a married father of four who, during some rocky times learning to not just survive - but to live with - bipolar disorder, discovered the joy of cartooning.

Chato is an inspiring man indeed, and I invite you all to read his story and check out his hilarious mental health humor!

A Massachusetts native, Chato B. Stewart and his family moved to Florida seven years ago, where he was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder (”and a few other things, to boot” he says).

Chato went through a familiarly hellish process many of us go through, whether it’s before or after the diagnosis of mental illness, which included trying medications that initially worked then fell short of effective; experiencing psychotic breaks that led to trips to the local Crisis Stabilization Unit; trying new medications; losing health insurance; deciding to make a go of it without medication; and doing it all with family members who may or may not really understand what’s going on.

So, how did Chato go from struggling with mental illness to virtually kicking its ass with artistic abilities and sense of mental health humor? I’ll let him tell you.

While on vacation in Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) in March 2008, I started to journal, but it came out like a comic book… I just drew cartoons about my stay, and when my vacation was over I had a thought. Wow, humor can really help heal! Why don’t we see cartoons about mental health from our perspective? You know, how we, as consumers see events and things might be funny or humorous in a cartoon. I searched the web and only found a few but mostly they were about the therapist, or psychiatrist or joke with someone on a couch…

So, I thought, and I will quote the kids Animated film Robots, “See a need, fill a need.” I could help fill the need by drawing cartoons about a subject that many people would want to avoid talking about… Mental Health! Maybe with the cartoons, I can help a few consumers by putting a smile on their faces using humor to heal. So, after making sure this idea was not some grandiosity symptom of my Bipolar Disorder, I set about making and drawing the cartoons.

I’m happy to say we are off to a good start; www.MentalHealthHumor.com had almost 2,000 visitors this month alone and we have posted 10 cartoons and have more on the way. We also have been contacted by a few mental health websites interested in using the cartoons for their site and maybe in some publications. Hey, I know my humor and website might not be for every one, but from the many comments I have received I can see it doing some good… So after all, maybe I don’t ROCK, but I do know, I’m a productive pebble in this ocean we call life.

Well, I disagree. I certainly think Chato ROCKS!

Because his cartoons have been published locally and are gaining attention from other mental health Web sites, Chato knows he’s “a professional cartoonist in some sense of the word,” but still considers his cartooning a hobby that he hopes to one day take to the next level.

Professional endeavor or enjoyable past time, his mental health humor cartoons have helped bring Chato successes for which we should all strive.

Not to quote James Bond, but in Tomorrow Never Dies – there was a line I liked, it goes “The distance between genius and insanity is measured only by success”. Well so far, I’m not a successful millionaire, but I measure success in other ways. One, of course, is family success, and the next would be for me, successfully using tools and coping skills to prevent my disorder from causing distress to my family.

It helps me focus and some times I just get lost in the idea and it brings a peace to an otherwise distorted mind.

For more information about Chato and his mental health humor and cartoons, visit his Web site, Mental Health Humor. And above all else, be sure to let him know he ROCKS!

This post is part of the Mental Health Notes This Is Why I ROCK! series. If you have a mental illness and are still living the life you love, head on over the the official announcement post and enter!

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POSTED IN: Bipolar Disorder, Guest Spots, Have Some Fun, Mental Health Advocacy, Mood Disorders, No Prescription Needed, Rants & Raves, Self-help, Sites of Interest, This Is Why I ROCK!