Carrie Fisher: Royal General and Bipolar Queen

Good evening everyone and welcome to The Magical Mystery Blog.

2016 has to be Death’s favorite year. Death has taken almost everyone we’ve loved and now, it’s snatched Carrie Fisher. Carrie Fisher, an iconic woman who claimed overnight fame as Princess Leia, passed on December 27^th, 2016 at the age of 60 due to a devastating heart attack.

Carrie Fisher was famous before she was even born on October 21^st, 1956. She was the child of Eddie Fisher, an iconic signer, and Debbie Reynolds, screen legend who divorced when she was two. She escaped into books and was noted as a “bookworm” in her family. This later fueled her passion to write various episodes for series such as “Frasier”, “Family Guy”, “The Big Bang Theory”, “30 Rock”, and many more. She also crafted two plays (“Wishful Drinking” and “A Spy in the House of Me”), five autobiographies, three non- fictional pieces, and seven screenplays.  For some screenplays she was a “script doctor” – fixing scripts to make the films better; she helped with “Hook”, “Sister Act”, and other multiple films.  Fisher was a jack of all trades when it came to the cinema and even Broadway wherein she starred in “Censored Scenes from King Kong”, “Agnes of God”, and “Irene” with her mother, Debbie Reynolds.

Carrie Fisher has inspired many people everywhere as a warrior for women, a symbol of mental illness, and portraying many rolls from Camille (Mystery Woman) from “The Blues Brothers” to Princess Leia from “Star Wars”. Fisher used her struggles with her bipolar disorder, drug and alcohol abuse, and her parents’ divorce to empower her characters. With this, she essentially became the roles she played. It’s a common technique that many people with mental disorders execute. They utilize their struggles into a character – it’s a temporary form of escapism that allows them to become someone else.

Fisher has advocated for people to understand mental illness. As a whole, mental illnesses bear a stigma in society while people attempt to correct this. Mental illnesses are nothing to be ashamed of; they make up our genes and are a part of who we are. Yes, we can repair ourselves in various means and eventually we will emerge as someone stronger than before. Fisher inspired many to take note of mental illnesses and treat those affected like any other human being: with respect, dignity, and care. She emphasized this greatly in her interviews and targeted her own struggles to help people not only understand her better, but her bipolarity as well. She even referred to bipolar disorder as bipolar pride – a trait that is a part of those who have it. After Fisher’s death, people have taken to tweeting their mental illnesses following the hashtag #InhonorofCarrie.

Society still has a long way to go to understand just how crippling depression is, how one can be so shaken from anxiety, or how one manages to live a daily life with bipolar disorder. Yet through Fisher’s legacy of words and strength as well as being open about our illnesses, can we eliminate the stigma. Listen to her words, raise your lightsaber in her honor, buy her books, and remember Carrie Fisher as we march into a new year.

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So tell me, what will you miss most about Carrie Fisher?

October: Depression Awareness

Good evening everyone and welcome to The Magical Mystery Blog.

October is a wonderful month. It’s a time to get spooky, watch the seasons change, and to observe the various awareness this month raises. While October is mostly noted for Breast Cancer Awareness, AIDS Awareness, and many others, it also showcases Depression Awareness.

Depression is a hard hitting mental illness and in October (especially on October 8^th) most places offer free screenings for it. Growing up, I’ve encountered depression from myself, my friends, or the world around me. It’s a complicated battle that’s worth the victory.

Needless to say, October is a great time for Depression Awareness and only now do I find it conveniently strange. October is when the weather starts to grow colder which can trigger SAD (Seasonal  Affect Disorder). SAD is a condition affected by the weather – the colder it becomes, the more depressed you become. You may gain too much sleep, you may lose sleep, you may become irritable, not want to eat, and possibly withdraw from social activity. It usually occurs around the same time for anyone who has it.

In the sense, I find that screening for depression when SAD begins is nipping the disorder in the butt. Should depression be discovered within the screening, methods can be done to counteract it as well as prevent SAD.  SAD and depression have similar symptoms and treatments such as light therapy, talk therapy, and even the use of medication.

Should you or you know of anyone who has depression, please refer them to all the events October has for depression awareness. There’s multiple free screenings, counselors to talk to, and seminars diagnosing symptoms of depression. Even outside this month, there’s hotlines, therapy groups (both virtual and physical), and so many other things that can be done to ward off this illness. Do not let depression consume or win – it must be fought and dominated for a better life.

Thank you for reading tonight’s entry. If you enjoyed it, feel free to comment, critique, share, and subscribe.

So tell me, what will you do to raise awareness for depression?

A Cocktail for Murder: Narcissism and Misogyny

Good evening everyone and welcome to The Magical Mystery Blog.

So apparently Rodgers was diagnosed for Aspergers and the media wasn’t making it up. However, I still stand by my following points:

• Aspergers is a form of Autism, which has no correlation with violence.

• Because of said correlation, the Aspergers is not to blame for his crime.

• The media using his Aspergers as a scapegoat for his murders is sickening. Rather they should focus on the real issue at hand: misogyny.  By blaming killers for their mental illness (if they have one), it gives a negative perspective to those who suffer from the disease(s), and are trying to live normal lives.

Yet the Aspergers could explain why he had very few to no friends. One of the symptoms of this mental illness is awkward social interaction.  This obviously led to his loneliness and depression, but where did the narcissism and misogyny come from? According to his manifesto, his father influenced him with the concept of ‘if you’re attractive, women will come to you’. This was sparked in Rodgers mind when his father got a girlfriend no sooner he divorced his wife. Rodgers held his father in a higher regard for being such a handsome man to immediately attract women.  He also believed that once a young man hit puberty, opportunities of sex and pleasure would appear before him.

Rodgers was also brought up with the rich life: Hollywood red carpet premieres, the latest fashions, trendy hair styles, the newest gaming consoles, and many other luxuries.  He became dependent on this particular lifestyle for the best experiences of life and to mold him into a handsome man who could easily attract women, just like his father.  

He was determined to look the best, have the best of things, and be the best; thus resulting in narcissism. Narcissism includes a lack of empathy for anyone and an extreme sense of self importance. Those afflicted with narcissism are angered when they aren’t given any form of gratification (ex.: social status, sex, having a partner, having something, etc.). They also tend to hold offensive ideas of women, believing they are gold diggers, temptresses of sex who don’t deliver, and pranksters who like to get men under their thumb. This illness combined with his already negative view of women, caused Rodgers to evolve into a narcissistic misogynist; believing that he was entitled to women and intercourse.

Rodgers is an example of what men should not be, nor root for. He was a man who not only disrespected women, but brought to light the horrific misogyny in this world. I hope there will be a day when misogyny is tossed like an old shoe into a flaming garbage pile, never to surface humanity again. 

Autism and Aspergers =/= Violence or Misogyny

Good evening everyone and welcome to The Magical Mystery Blog.

Last Saturday I reflected on the tragedy of the Santa Barbara shootings. Within my entry, I have claimed that some sites are labeling Elliot Rodgers, the gunman behind the atrocity, as being written off as mentally ill. More specifically, Rodgers was supposedly suffering from Aspergers.

Aspergers is a high functioning form of Autism. It can often lead to awkward social interaction, repeat behavior, and clumsiness. These symptoms often start in the early normal language and cognitive development. Notice that nowhere in that definition is the word ‘violence’ included, but look at stories of Rodgers and you will notice that ‘Aspergers’ is splattered throughout the articles.

I find it sickening that the media would use such a scapegoat for something that they refuse to acknowledge. Instead of noting that what Rodgers did was out of hatred and misogyny, they choose to pinpoint it to a mental illness he doesn’t even have. While in other stories it was stated that Rodgers went to multiple therapists, we don’t know what exactly for. He could have possibly gone for the loneliness that he claimed he had, which was caused from his lack of friends and many rejections. However, his loneliness doesn’t connect to Aspergers, especially for the definition I just said. Plus wouldn’t the therapists have diagnosed him with Aspergers prior to the event, if not the first few visitations? And would the therapy and possible medication have stopped the shooting? We will never know.

Even some articles claim that Aspergers and violence have no connection whatsoever and they’re at the complete opposites of the spectrum. Instead, children who have Aspergers are often targets for violence as opposed to committing it. So rather than acknowledging misogyny and that it is incredibly wrong and flawed, the media chooses to use a mental disorder as a scapegoat. Not only does this make Rodgers and Lanza seem like tragic characters who were acting under the influence of an illness, but it gives a bad name to those who actually have this specific disorder. The media is damaging thousands of people who unfortunately have Aspergers, leading them to be attacked and discriminated against because of the “terrible things” their disorder can cause them to perform.

I’ve known people with Autism and Aspergers and to be honest, they’re no different from you and me. They’re just trying to get through life, if not with a little more difficulty. For them to be labeled as a part of a group where someone who couldn’t handle rejection well or felt like shooting up a school is just disgraceful. Those killers don’t belong in that group, especially Rodgers; who should be in a separate, acknowledged group of misogyny crime and not crime caused by a mental illness he didn’t even have.

Feel free to reblog, comment, and as always, feedback and followers are welcomed. So, what are your thoughts on Rodgers? Do you think he had Aspergers and why?