This, the first full week in October, is Mental Illness Awareness Week. Mental illness is still such a touchy subject that most people keep their personal histories and experiences close to their vest. As a veteran of the mental health care system, learning about the recent behavioral health care provider debacle that resulted in patients slipping back in their treatment and losing trust in the system was heartbreaking. Working Downtown, it’s de rigueur for me to run into at least half a dozen mentally ill people on my daily smoke breaks; some are also homeless, and some are handicapped. It’s hard to get behavioral and mental health care in this town. Even armed with insurance and tons of moxie, it took me several months to link up with a caring, dedicated psychiatric professional in Albuquerque. It might not be an open letter concisely summing up the current mental health care crisis in New Mexico, but as a destigmatizing gesture, I offer my own acronyms—GAD, OCD and PTSD—and a playlist of songs themed on mental illness: bit.ly/MIAmix. And if you read this while feeling particularly blue, know that help is literally a phone call away. In case of a truly heavy situation, keep Agora Crisis Center—277-3013 or 866-HELP-1-NM—on your speed-dial, as well as the digits of your closest, kindest family and friends. 1) Joy Division – “She’s Lost Control”2) Siouxsie and The Banshees – “Christine”3) Fairport Convention – “Crazy Man Michael”4) Nick Drake – “Black Eyed Dog”5) Porter Wagoner – “The Rubber Room”6) Lou Reed – “Kill Your Sons”7) The Modern Lovers – “She Cracked”8) They Might Be Giants – “Absolutely Bill’s Mood”9) Alice Cooper – “For Veronica’s Sake”10) Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band – “Canyons of Your Mind”11) Daniel Johnston – “I Had Lost My Mind”12) Roky Erickson – “I Think of Demons”13) Radiohead – “Black Star”
Black Eyed Dog And Yellow Wallpaper: Songs In The Key Of Blue
Songs In The Key Of Blue
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