From now until the end of the year, if you purchase a copy The center of the earth is lonely All profits will be donated to mental health charities. Although Mindcharity has been mentioned, its exact content has yet to be announced. If you can, go support this effort and buy a copy because it’s for a good cause.
There is a sad reason why this happens. Zoe Thorogood Recently lost her brother, who took their lives just days ago. This is a hard topic to talk about but I think it needs to be talked about so I’ll try, as a former mental health professional with seven years of experience caring for people dealing with the same thing…
But first, here’s Thorogood’s statement.
Those words you heard in therapy – so and so – have disappeared. Worse yet, you lose a friend. Someone who loves it. Part of you acknowledges that, like a penetrating cancer of internalized wounds, depression is a very real thing. Taking human life is even more so.
I’m sharing this story on The Beat to draw attention to it. As a former mental health worker who worked with severely mentally ill people trying to prevent the same thing from happening – I must stress that I have too many of these stories in my life. Of my peers who completed their PhDs, everyone had a story to share…and so did I. Moments of intervention that could have saved lives.
Going through this experience can be scary. This was a big reason why I quit my job and became a writer. In some ways, art has a wider impact than any single moment of my intervention, and although I have saved many lives, I can’t help but feel that I haven’t done enough. That’s why you’re here reading these words today. I think my writing can make a bigger difference.
Based on my experience, I don’t think we as a society do enough to support people with mental illness. There’s always not enough money, and the people who make these decisions are often very stupid. Agencies and programs that do good community outreach are needed more than ever because allowing patients suffering from these difficult emotions to feel like they are part of a community and gain a sense of belonging is often more effective for the community than pushing drugs. I Today The inpatient-outpatient revolving door seen in mental health.
That’s why I think what Zoe Thorogood is doing is a great thing and we should thank her for sharing her story. I’ve always thought that Lonely in the Center of the Earth was an important work that needed to exist in the world. So if you can, buy a copy and – oddly enough – it might help someone feel less alone right now.
To Thorogood and anyone who has been through this or has had to go through this (myself included), I think I speak for the entire arts community that our hearts are with you.
