Contributed by: Janet Reynolds, Creator of Mental Health Connecticut’s Write On! program
For Keith, joining Write On! was the next logical step in his recovery process. “I was already on a positive trajectory when I discovered Write On!,” he says. “I’d always liked writing and felt I was a good writer.”
Before the class, though, Keith mostly thought about his mental health challenges when things were not going well. (He has lived with anxiety and depression since he was a child.) “I thought mental health was something that’s been part of my life but something that when things were going well I didn’t want to talk about it or deal with it. And then when things were a problem I was forced to deal with it. I thought Write On! might be a good way to explore my mental health in a proactive way.”
The class was also, he hoped, a way to get back into writing. “I had done some screenwriting with one of my friends before Write On! but hadn’t been consistently writing in the lead up to it. This would be a good way to get me writing again too.” Which is exactly what happened. Since finishing Write On!, Keith has taken a sketch comedy writing class with Sea Tea Improv in Hartford.
He’s also more open now talking about mental health. “The class made me more comfortable talking about it and putting everything on the table,” he says. “In the past I would go to a therapist and see my own recovery and mental health journey and see it as out of my hands. Now I see it as something I can actively shape and work on.” In addition to joining support groups, Keith recently became a certified peer support facilitator for NAMI.
A digital engager at Lego who helps monitor online content, Keith, who is 27, has begun taking graduate classes in communications and digital design at night. When he’s not at work, you can likely find him satisfying his lifelong love of all things movie-related.
And now, here’s the piece he performed for Write On!
To learn more about the Write On! program, go to: www.mhconn.org/writeon
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