THIS is an example of being a leader, an advocate, a humanitarian – a HERO.
Kevin Smith, the director & co-producer of the cult hit: Clerks, who played Silent Bob – & then followed that up w Mall Rats & Chasing Amy revealed a very vulnerable & personal MH story yesterday.
One morning last January, Smith awoke in terror, convinced he was losing his mind.
Damn is that relatable to my own experience in Florida. A MH crash.
He called a friend who brought him to get help, inpatient, & began learning in therapy how several childhood traumas had led him to create & even hide behind a “larger than life” public persona he now calls “the other guy” that eventually eroded the core “self” he knew.
An insinuation of suicidal ideation, he said: “At that moment, I wouldn’t have been averse to not being around any longer. I called a friend & said, ‘I’m in a weird, dark place. I need to go somewhere and get help.'”
Kevin, earlier in life, had dealt w sexual abuse & shaming over his weight by adults/authority figures! It left psychological wounds that he’s spent his whole life trying to compensate for.
In compensating, that’s when ‘the other guy’ started to appear. He said: “I decided to be entertaining & make people love me before they noticed I was fat.”
He began immersing himself in his work—churning out movies, comic books, TV shows & podcasts—fearful of what might happen to his career if he ever took a break.
As someone who figured out they have a work addiction that helped avoid dealing w pain from childhood traumas, this is so relatable.
Kevin learned: “There’s no differentiation [between levels of trauma] to the human nervous system. Internally, trauma is trauma.”
Getting help, he learned mindfulness exercises —like concentrating on his breath—that he now uses to stay focused in the present.
A public figure, large following, who opens up abt his struggle, doesn’t label it, talks abt past traumas, abt the WORK he now does to feel better, & compares it to his openness abt a a physical health condition (heart attack) & how he just wants to help ppl. HERO.
This is THE formula for normalization.