Mental Breakdown

By LIAM MAYO

HONESDALE, PA – At their meeting on Thursday, September 9, Wayne County commissioners issued a proclamation declaring September to be the month of national recovery in the county.

The proclamation said, in part, that “treatment and recovery services for mental disorders and addiction and concurrent disorders are effective, and people can recover and recover in our region and across the country.”

During the proclamation, Commissioners heard from representatives of the Wayne County Drug and Alcohol Commission, Wayne County Psych Rehab Program and Wayne County Behavioral Health, as well as people recovering with each of these organizations.

Steve Bair has spoken both as a DUI coordinator with the Drugs and Alcohol Commission and as a recovering person, speaking about the stigma that comes with the recovery process.

The opportunity to talk about his experiences had arisen the year before, Bair said, but he hadn’t felt comfortable talking openly about his experiences at that time. Since then, through conversation and soul-searching, he had realized that the best way forward was to take the opportunity to speak.

“I have chosen to speak today so that the stigma of addiction can change,” he said.

Other recovering people in attendance spoke about the support they had received from Wayne County community services.

Kelly Wietry, who has been recovering for three and a half years, said that although she was forced to recover initially, “just the love you get when you walk in the door” helped her stay on the road. She was still friends with people she had met while recovering, she said; she was getting married in two weeks, and some of them would be there.

Another recovering person Autumn DeLong-VanDerhoff said Wayne County services helped hold her accountable. “I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard to stay sober.” Drugs and Alcohol Commission counselor Jim Simpson confirmed and praised the steps Autumn took to recover; she walks through weather, snow and ice to make appointments, he said, because she doesn’t have reliable transportation.

Several people recovering with Wayne County Behavioral Health also spoke, talking about their struggles and successes in recovering from mental disorders.

Carolyn Smith spoke of a period in her life when she faced several tragedies in rapid succession, losing four family members over a six-month span. She had suffered such a nervous breakdown that she couldn’t speak anymore, and working from there to talk about her experiences in front of a crowded room had been a long journey.

Bonnie Smith also spoke, listing all of the accomplishments that had been made possible by the psychological rehabilitation program: she had been out of the hospital for three years, led a healthier lifestyle and was in a caring relationship, among other successes.

Commissioners congratulated all who spoke, saying it was a big step forward for those in recovery to have the courage to tell their story.

They proclaimed September of National Salvage in Wayne County and said it would be observed in several ways: through Salvage Month road signs, through advertisements on Bold Gold Radio and through the Wayne County Drug and Alcohol Facebook page.

There would also be recovery month events, commissioners said, at the Fred R. Miller Memorial Pavilion on Main Street in Honesdale on Sept. 15, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., and on the lawn of the County Courthouse in Wayne September 22, noon to 3:00 p.m. Information on accessing services in Wayne County will be provided, along with an explanation of how the recovery community can be supported.

The River Reporter will publish special pages on the recovery community on September 30. If you have a story to tell, contact Editor-in-Chief Annemarie Schuetz, [email protected]; to support the section with personal notes of encouragement and publicity, contact [email protected]

Few films have reached the same level of notoriety as The island of Dr Moreau.

This 1996 sci-fi adventure destroyed the career of its once promising director and tainted the legacy of an all-time great Hollywoodian. Adding insult to injury, he topped the Razzies the following year after being a disappointment at the box office.

If his $ 40 million production process had gone smoothly, perhaps Doctor Moreau’s island – who turns 25 this month – would be considered little more than an overly ambitious curiosity. After all, to recap the film’s bizarre premise, at its center is a man (David Thewlis) rescued and brought to an island where a doctor (Marlon Brando) experiments on animals and turns them into humanoid hybrids.

Yet by the time the film crept into theaters in August 1996, the high-profile drama that had erupted behind the scenes cemented the film’s reputation as an all-out disaster.

The third adaptation on the big screen from the mad scientist novel by HG Wells, The island of Dr Moreau, is not entirely without merit. Special effects creator Stan Winston’s Monster Fan – a byproduct of Moreau’s determination to tinker with the evolutionary process – is one of the most disturbingly impressive to ever appear in a PG-13 movie. When castaway Douglas of Thewlis saw a horse-human hybrid deliver a mutant baby, such a moment likely marked the Blockbuster generation for life.

Then there’s the performance that divides Brando as the titular megalomaniac, an individual prone to covering their face in sunscreen, wearing metal bucket hats, and playing the piano with a two-foot Mini-me ( inspiring Mike Myers in the process). For some, it was a perfectly eccentric performance that cleverly leaned on the feverish dreamy quality of the film. To others, it seemed like proof that the Oscar-winning actor had lost his mind.

As reported by the documentary 2014 Lost Soul: The Cursed Voyage of Dr. Moreau’s Island by Richard Stanley, the shooting is even Apocalypse nowThe notoriously troubled production looks like a picnic. And Brando was at the center of his storm, oddly enough.

The film’s original director, Richard Stanley, claimed to have used the powers of a wizard in an attempt to get Brando to play. Yet whatever fate prompted Brando to work on Doctor Moreau’s island also appeared to trigger a curse that struck anyone in the orbit of the film. Stanley’s mother’s house has been struck by lightning no less than three times! A poisonous spider bit his production assistant. Even said wizard ended up in the hospital after contracting bone disease.

However, not everything can be attributed to the supernatural. Stanley, who had dreamed of tackling Wells’ sci-fi classic since he was a child, didn’t really make it easy. Undoubtedly upset to learn that New Line Cinema had previously courted Roman Polanski for the concert, the then-29-year-old director repeatedly failed to attend production meetings. Stanley’s first 24 hours of filming were so catastrophic that the film’s lead actor – North exposure alum Rob Morrow – begged executives to get him back on the first plane back. And as if further proof of gender inequality in Hollywood is needed, actress Fairuza Balk was told she would never work again after making a similar request.

It was co-star Val Kilmer which proved Stanley’s real downfall. True to his reputation as a hothead at the time, the reigning Batman had previously caused trouble by negotiating a 40 percent cut to his work schedule. Kilmer had been hired rather than Stanley’s first choice Bruce Willis to play the shipwrecked United Nations Agent Douglas, but that decrease forced the director to redefine Kilmer in a less important role, as sinister vet Montgomery.

It still hasn’t appeased Kilmer, who arrived two days late for his first scene, declined to talk about Ron Hutchinson and Stanley’s dialogue, and generally reportedly acted like a Grade A jerk.

Suddenly enough, Stanley’s inability to appease Kilmer was apparently part and parcel of his faxed dismissal just three days after filming began. Despite having much more experience than Stanley, replacement director John Frankenheimer (known for The Manchurian candidate and Alcatraz Birdman) was not much luckier.

“Even though I was making a film called The life of Val Kilmer, I wouldn’t have this fucking in it, ”he once remarked.

Frankenheimer also took issue with Brando’s unruly conduct, although his behavior was more excusable than that of his wayward co-star. Brando’s daughter, Cheyenne, had committed suicide just before production began (which lends a heart-to-heart character that Moreau has with his feline “child” in the film), and the grieving actor has continually left the team in suspense as to its fate. When he introduced himself, Brando spent most of his time in an air-conditioned trailer hatching bizarre ideas about his character. (That includes a twist that the Doctor was a dolphin man from the start ?!)

Brando’s reluctance learning his lines meant he ultimately fed them through an earphone while filming. Moreover, his refusal to enter the plateau before Kilmer (and vice versa) made production as complicated as the unpredictable weather of North Queensland.

Stanley should have thanked his lucky stars for being relieved of his duties. But just when you thought things couldn’t get weirder, the ousted director planned his unusual comeback. New Line Cinema had been so worried about the prospect that Stanley seeks revenge after Doctor Moreau’s island they escorted him to the airport.

Somehow, however, the British coxswain managed to let his keepers pass and made his way to the isolated region of the Cairns region of Australia, recovering from the depression brought on by his hasty exit. Although Stanley has once joked about setting the scene on fire for revenge, he ultimately went for something more playful – he returned to set in disguise appearing in a full dogman costume.

Stanley later claimed that this secret door break was therapeutic. However, the whole experience still deterred him from setting foot behind a camera for another 23 years. Color out of space, an equally disgusting Lovecraftian tale starring another notable maverick, Nicolas Cage, was a fitting return to cinema for Stanley. However, recent allegations of horrific domestic violence make it clear that the return has been short-lived.

The fact Doctor Moreau’s island To have done it in theaters is an achievement. And while it’s not a misunderstood classic, it’s certainly less of an abomination than that. other massive anthropomorphic flop.

Doctor Moreau’s island is available for rental or purchase on VOD platforms.

WEST OFFICE:

Unless there is some form of respite from the devastating impact of COVID-19 soon, more people will face mental health challenges, noted Dr Beverly Scott, a respected family therapist based in the western Jamaica.

With the third wave of the virus plunging the country into its worst phase yet, many are struggling to cope. And after being suffocated for over a year, many people are now overwhelmed by COVID-related fatigue – depression, loneliness, lack of motivation, exhaustion and isolation.

Now the country has been placed under a seven-day lockdown to try to control the spread of a virus that has so far infected more than 60,000 Jamaicans and killed more than 1,300, which experts say has failed. will only exacerbate the mental health crisis.

“For those who have to go out every day and make a living from jostling or whatever, the lockdown is going to be devastating for them. If you are locked up on Monday and Tuesday, the first two days of the work week, that alone will cause anxiety and panic in human beings, not just families, ”Scott said.

Urging families to create their own internal support structure to help them cope, she added, “All families have members who are stronger than others. I believe that the strongest people need to reunite the family and see how they can best discuss how to get through the crisis. ”

In recent weeks, there has been an explosion in deaths and infections from COVID-19 in the west, to include up to 39 people who have died in Westmoreland in just eight days. With each new day bringing more disheartening numbers, it looks like the region’s medical infrastructure is on the verge of collapsing.

Earlier this week, nurses at Savanna-la-Mar Hospital in Westmoreland gave in to the pressure of long hours of continuous work without interruption. It took the encouragement of Eric Clarke, chairman of the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), to convince them to persevere as the powers that be sought to find ways to remedy their plight.

“You talk about working 16 hours a day. They can’t even find time to stop for lunch, ”said Clarke, describing the dire situation facing the nurses, one of whom said she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. .

With more uncertainty to come since news surfaced that Jamaica has recorded 22 cases of the highly contagious Delta strain of the coronavirus, Scott fears the added worry could lead to further mental problems.

“With the Delta variant of COVID-19 that has been announced, people are getting uncertain and they don’t know what’s going to happen, and it is going to look like things are getting worse. When you are immersed in unusual situations, the usual reaction is panic, anxiety, mistrust, suspicion and all kinds of emotional responses, ”Scott noted.

“Having thought that we were going to overcome the pandemic, only to hear that people who have been vaccinated are prime targets for the spread of the virus, it creates confusion and chaos in the mind. We’re going to have more people breaking down and having emotional issues. “

Like Scott, a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Dr Christopher Ogunsalu, who developed a treatment regimen for people infected with COVID-19, using Menthol Crystal, said he was extremely concerned about the latest peak but even more so because not enough effort is being put into getting people to understand the virus and how it works.

“I feel like far too many people are not properly educated about the coronavirus when it comes to transmission and treatment and this is what creates anxiety and fear,” said Ogunsalu, who has worked alongside a multinational team of healthcare professionals. and the International Postgraduate Medical College of Montego Bay on the Menthol Crystal option.

“When people understand what they are dealing with, it helps them cope better, so more effort needs to be put into educating people. This will help them cope better, ”Ogunsalu added.

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A woman whose license plate was cloned after advertising her car online said she nearly suffered a nervous breakdown after receiving fines totaling almost £ 20,000.

Claire Herron, from Hartlepool, even asked bailiffs to pay after offenses in almost every part of London were wrongly registered against her.

Victims’ organization is now calling for a review of identity theft legislation after it emerged authorities were unable to intervene because, in the eyes of the law, no crime had been committed. committed against it.

Ms Herron had advertised her Mercedes for sale on Gumtree and had no idea the plates had been cloned until speeding fines, congestion charges and the threat of arrest warrants started pouring in in his mailbox.

The first fine was imposed at Easter 2018, for using a tunnel outside London, she recalls.

“There was a picture of a car that looked like mine with my license plate – except it wasn’t my car and I hadn’t been to London,” she said.

“I immediately contacted Transport for London and was told the problem would be fixed after the holiday, but it didn’t, and that was just the start of a very long nightmare.

“The fines kept coming in – parking fees, speeding notices and demands from almost every borough council in London.

“One was from the City of London Police for crossing London Bridge at 3 am, while I was at home in bed in Hartlepool, with my car parked outside my house.

“The car was triggering cameras everywhere and I couldn’t stop it.”

The stress affected his mental health.

Ms Herron said: “I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and started to panic; that was potentially pretty sinister, what if whoever cloned my plates did something really serious like killing someone in a hit-and-run or something?

“It really started to have a negative impact on my mental health; I reached a point where physically I could no longer open my message.

The story continues

The worst was yet to come when bailiffs visited her 80-year-old mother’s store demanding £ 1,200.

Ms Herron said: “I told him it was a mistake and to do nothing, that I was on my way.

“When I got to the store, those big, beefy bailiffs were there, demanding money.

“I hadn’t told my mom everything because I knew it would stress her out.

“I tried to explain and went to get all the evidence, but by the time I came back my mother had given in to the pressure and given them £ 1,200.

“She just couldn’t take it and wanted them to go.”

While using someone else’s identity to steal is a crime, because Ms. Herron suffered no financial loss, technically she was not considered a victim.

She was transferred between the Cleveland and Metro Police Force and it wasn’t until the Victim Care and Advice Service – a charity funded by its Regional Police and Crime Commissioner – that the nightmare was solved.

Dave Mead of the charity said: “Claire got caught up in this automated system, and not being seen as a victim meant she couldn’t be heard at all.”

With the help of the advisory service, the license plate was entered into the automatic recognition system and the car was found shortly after, the bailiffs refunded the money.

Steve Turner, Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner, said: “Claire was caught in a nightmare situation, which she did not provoke and struggled to break free from.

Exclusive:

Sirli Kellian plans to leave Australia for good due to being stranded for months in Estonia, with no affordable way to return to her daughter’s country of birth until next year.

A new mom and baby are stranded thousands of miles from home after rushing to the bedside of a dying family member.

Sirli Kellian and her young daughter Rubi are two of 38,000 Australians lining up to return to the country amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The 31-year-old is currently in Estonia where she flew in April to visit her dying mother Piret, who has end-stage stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

Sirli had to leave her husband Isaac at their home outside Perth for fear of missing the opportunity to say a final goodbye to her dying son.

Five months later, the chances of the mother and her one-year-old child returning to Australia this year, which recently halved the number of return passengers to 3,070 per week, are slim.

The toll of family separation has been so heavy that Isaac has taken leave of absence due to his mental health and the couple are now considering relocating to their homeland of New Zealand.

“My partner says he’s fine, but when he found out we couldn’t come back and the next available flight we could change to might be in January, he had to take a week off due to mental illness, ”Sirli told the Miroiter.

“My daughter doesn’t quite understand the concept yet. We face Isaac every day. It’s very difficult.

“I’m glad I went, but every day I wonder if I made a mistake. The only good part that keeps me from having a complete nervous breakdown is being here with my parents.”

Sirli, who is originally from Estonia but now has Australian citizenship, met Isaac on a Down Under hike nine years ago.

They had planned to present their baby to the family’s European wing when she was one year old, but the pandemic struck.

Australia has taken a very proactive approach to controlling the virus, tightly controlling borders and requiring inbound travelers to quarantine for up to two weeks in hotels at their own expense.

While Sirli was aware of the hardships and cost of leaving and then re-entering the country, she realized she should take action when her mother fell ill in December 2020.

“It took three months, but then she was diagnosed with stage three pancreatic cancer,” she said.

“From there it was in the back of our minds, what would we do if something happened? Would I go or not?

“Around April, we decided that we didn’t know how long the pandemic would last.

“The decision was the most difficult we have ever had to make. Willingly break up a young family without knowing when we will be reunited.

“But we had hope. We had hoped that the Australian government would take care of us and let us go home when the time came.”

After applying for a travel exemption that required him to explain how badly his sanity had been affected by the absence, Sirli left for Eastern Europe.

As soon as she could, she volunteered to get two shots from Pfizer, hoping it would make her return to Australia easier.

“But in the meantime, the number of inbound passengers was halved again and two weeks before we got home on August 12, 2021, our flight to Perth was canceled,” she continued.

“To be precise, our flight was not canceled but me and my 1 year old daughter were kicked out of the flight.

“All the Australian Embassy in Sweden could tell me was that it was a shame to hear about my situation but there was nothing they could do.”

Sirli is grateful that she was able to spend time with her mother, who is receiving hospice care.

However, she is keenly aware of being a financial burden on her family, who had not prepared to take care of the now unemployed restaurant manager for many months.

The only way Sirli and her daughter can get home before February of next year, when the next economy class flight is up for grabs, is to pay £ 8,000 for a business class flight.

“I didn’t have the money to come here in the first place, let alone to allow myself quarantine when I returned,” she said.

“But we made it work. We scratched every penny we had to make to make this happen so I could see my sick mother one last time.

“We already had to access our super (pension funds) last year to survive. My husband continues to work long hours in Australia, paying taxes, to make sure we have food on the table. and bills paid to the house waiting for us to come back. “

Sirli says she feels intense pressure from Australians not to return and feels they don’t understand why she left during the pandemic.

She said: “I don’t see how this is fair. My husband and I are both citizens. Do we want to continue our life in Australia if this continues?

“My husband is New Zealand. New Zealand would be very supportive of our situation. They want to bring their people home.

“Do we want to stay in Australia if that’s the way life is? We just feel like no one cares.”

I can’t believe my kids are going back to class in a week. This summer has gone by too quickly, and now I’m tagging school supplies, washing backpacks, and attending orientations. Every morning I find my inbox flooded with emails about bus schedules, updated policies, and reminders. Our summer happiness quickly turns into another year of pandemic education.

Unlike past years, when I deliberately worked to keep track of my children’s grades and check with their teachers, this year there will be very little. As many of us have been reminded over the past year and a half, very few things matter as much as the mental health and general well-being of our children. During this school year, I plan to fire or cut back on anything that doesn’t really matter academically and instead make sure my kids are doing really, really well.

We and our children have been through so much. Between distance and in-person learning, or sometimes a mixture of the two, the debates over masks and vaccines and the confusion, the loss of extracurricular activities and the constant changing of guidelines, we’ve all lost our minds. The teachers, many of whom are parents themselves, have become some of the pandemic’s superheroes, but they never asked for the role. Instead, like all of us, they were thrown into a hurricane of confusion and expectation.

If distance learning has taught parents anything, it’s that being a teacher isn’t that easy. They are overworked and underpaid. We just got a taste of what it means to be a teacher, and whoa, most of us left jobs we were never hired to do.

Knowing what we know now, with some pandemic experience under our belt, I have to share this. Parents, we have a duty to fulfill this year. It’s simple: Fire.

The most important part of our children is not their knowledge of books, nor their test scores. Our children have not fallen behind and need to be pushed to catch up. Think about it. Behind who? We have to extend a lot of thanks to our children who have endured a traumatic and continuing situation. In addition, our children’s teachers need the same level of empathy, recognition and support.

I really hope the pandemic has taught us that what matters most is that our children are doing well mentally, emotionally and physically. They should know that it is better to focus on rest over equations and movement over bulletins. Healthy peer engagement is so much more important than writing a perfect research paper. We need to set an example for them, encourage them to do their best, while giving them a lot of support and encouragement. Doing your best and going above and beyond, to your detriment, is not the same thing.

Before you piss me off, DM me that what I’m saying is fine for the little ones, but you have a high school student, I already know that. Yes, preparing older children for life after high school is important. I am a former university professor. I’ve had a lot of students who couldn’t function well without their parents (and teachers) responding to their every whim. I also had students who were very successful because they were prepared. Life after high school absolutely matters, but if the only thing these almost young adults are prepared for is education, parents fail. I have seen students collapse due to unmet mental health needs.

Children of all ages need to know that they care about everything. The overall health of our children doesn’t just depend on their measurable intelligence. I have had brilliant students who went into mental breakdowns after being pushed by themselves and their parents to be successful at all costs. Although I did not teach during a pandemic, I have come to understand that without general well-being, children do not succeed, no matter how admirable their surrogacy is.

By relaxing and drastically reducing our efforts, we teach our children to do the same. It is neither healthy nor useful to charge through our emotions and experiences, to avoid the realities of schooling in a pandemic, and to move forward as if nothing had happened. Much has happened and is still happening. Every day we receive a wealth of new information about masks, vaccinations and what each school district is doing about it.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had days when the pandemic hit me. I’m frustrated, I’m confused, I’m angry, and I’m heartbroken. If I feel these emotions, why shouldn’t my children, who wear a mask six hours a day while being supposed to learn, not be allowed to feel them too? None of us could have ever imagined, or ever wished for, this pandemic. At a minimum, we need to make room for the ups and downs that come with trying to learn during this time.

Yes, the pandemic has challenged us to be more flexible than ever. This is not a bad thing. But pushing ourselves to the brink of total collapse, always demanding that our children do and be more, and the same demands on teachers, is simply not sustainable. What if we all just signed a unified authorization form that says it’s okay to do the bare minimum, leave room for creativity and rest, and give up the rest? What if we granted grace every moment instead of criticizing and demanding?

I hope that despite all the obstacles, this school year will be both memorable and joyful for my children, and yours too. I hope our children learn to fully honor themselves, to listen to their bodies, and to recognize that their grades don’t matter as much as their well-being. I think it can happen, if the parents show the way.

A man from Jharkhand, missing since the coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdown last year and presumed dead by his family, has been reunited with them through the efforts of a Telangana-based nonprofit, announced today hui of those responsible.

Marcus, a resident of Simdega district in Jharkhand, left for work in Goa in February 2020, they said.

When the lockdown was announced in March 2020, he decided to return home like other migrant workers. But he reached Khammam district of Teleganan instead of Jharkhand.

Unable to find refuge in a new location amid containment and reportedly suffered abuse from people, the 45-year-old suffered a nervous breakdown and was turned over by the district administration to an organization not government (NGO) led by Dr Annam Srinivasan.

About 10 days ago, Marcus managed to remember his name and address, after which the NGO contacted local authorities in Jharkhand, said additional district judge Madhuresh Kumar Verma.

Marcus finally reunited with his brother in civil court in the presence of the Additional District Judge and Chief Magistrate Anandmani Tripathi on Thursday.

The family, who had presumed him dead after receiving no information about him for 16 months, were ecstatic after his return.

The relieved family said the NGO Dr Annam Srinivasan was a boon to them as her efforts helped Marcus recover and remember everything.

“On August 5, Marcus was handed over to his family members by the NGO in court in Simdega. The NGO also handed over 25,000 rupees to the man, ”officials said.

The journey – expanding the mind, personal horizons and self-perception of a lonely woman – is one of many tonics taken by an irrepressible Bette Davis as the traumatized Charlotte Vale in Now Traveling. The 1942 Irving Rapper film, shining in crisp, crystal-clear monochrome, after a 2K digital restoration by Warner Brothers, returns to UK screens this month thanks to BFI. A remarkably forward-thinking film, it approaches mental health and well-being with a frankness and compassion unusual in the time of its production.

While it must be said that some extraneous elements to the plot are rather exaggerated and frankly a bit ridiculous in places, the treatment of its core issues and an informed examination of non-traditional family dynamics and motherhood remain relevant and cut across four- twenty years from now. Charlotte, who begins the film as the single aunt of a wealthy Boston family, is oppressed, manipulated, and emotionally abused by a domineering matriarch (Gladys Cooper, who, along with Davis, would receive an Oscar nomination for her performance).

“Firm, proud and resistant to novelty,” says Claude Rains, a characteristic cheeky, as preeminent psychiatrist, Dr. Jaquith, admiring the family home in Vale. Taking an interest in Charlotte in order to gain her trust, her thinly veiled jibe challenges the old battle ax’s retrograde and callous claim that her daughter’s nervous breakdown brings shame to the grand surname. Echoing, no doubt, the dominant belief of a certain generation, although Now Traveling examines the psychological well-being of an adult woman – and later a young girl – it wouldn’t be long before many young men returned to America in dire need of such help; a need that William Wyler The best years of our life would deal so devastatingly four years later.

A stay in her Vermont “sanatorium” and a plan concocted for Charlotte for a South American pleasure cruise work wonders. Outrageously bushy eyebrows are cropped and elegantly shaped, hair is styled, weight is lost, and old-fashioned clothes are replaced with splendid dresses and hats. Wholeheartedly believing that this jaw-dropping transformation takes a considerable leap of faith, but Davis pulls off the transfiguration with consummate ease, donning high heels when she lands. From a chrysalis emerges the most beautiful of butterflies. But the one who remains deeply troubled, internally. In this conflict between inner and outer beauty, to love oneself without affirmation from others, altruism, self-truth vs. societal expectation and discover that happiness comes from within, Now Traveling – and his principal lady – flies away.

Screenwriter Casey Robinson adapted a novel by Olive Higgins Prouty for the film’s screenplay. While respectful of its subject matter, it’s not the sinister psychological trauma of Alfred Hitchcock’s feature film, Spellbound, for example. There is emotional compassion and a sincere desire to understand the doubt and anxiety experienced. And that patient ear comes in the form of a dashing Paul Henreid as traveling companion, Jerry Durrance. Robinson, whose work on Casablanca the same year would not be credited, throws in another illicit and radical romance, with emotions and internal conflicts reinforced throughout by the striking strings and brass of Max Steiner’s Oscar-winning sheet music.

The influence of Curtiz’s film reverberates in a will-they, right-they, emotional farewell at stations and airports, and another potential suitor arriving on the scene. And though quivering with a little more passion than David Lean’s stiff upper lip Brief meeting, even when allusion is made to “primitive instincts” and “lovemaking”, all this remains quite normal. Without ever being too sweet, this restraint, a subversion of convention and the introduction in the film’s final stages of a character who unites Charlotte and Jerry, brings this classic melodrama to its harmonious, albeit unexpected, much-quoted conclusion.

Now Traveling releases in select theaters across the UK on August 6th.

Matthieu Anderson | @ MattAndo63

WINCHESTER – Keygan Mullineaux was 15 when he started hearing voices in his head. Two years later, he attempted suicide and became catatonic, leading some doctors to believe he would never make a full recovery.

But thanks to a loving mother and a passion for video games, the Winchester resident, 17, goes beyond his potentially crippling mental health issues and envisions a bright future.

Keygan has already endured a lot in his young life, including the death of a younger brother and his mother sent to jail on charges related to his former drug addiction.

“It’s become too much for him,” said his mother, Kelly Dodson, in an interview Monday at Esports Arena at Shenandoah University in Winchester.

In March, Keygan swallowed two handfuls of Tylenol. He survived the suicide attempt, but his kidneys suffered permanent damage.

Dodson, who has been out of prison for nearly a decade after regaining her sobriety while behind bars in 2008, was focused on helping her son.

She was unaware, however, that Keygan was suffering from something called schizoaffective disorder, which can trigger hallucinations, mania, depression, delusions, and disorganized thought processes.

She also didn’t know he was self-treating with marijuana.

In April, Keygan smoked weed containing DMT, a potent drug that causes hallucinations. Since Keygan was already suffering from schizoaffective disorder, the effect of DMT was so strong that he became catatonic and was hospitalized in a mental institution in Maryland.

“It was the most serious case [involving a DMT-related mental breakdown] in this unit for the past 20 years, ”said Dodson.

Keygan slowly recovered from his catatonic state about three weeks after being admitted, but there was little reason for optimism.

“Keygan at the time thought he was communicating with his late sister,” Dodson said. “They told me at one point that if he didn’t start to recover, they were going to send him to long-term care.”

Dodson refused to believe the doctors and nurses who doubted his son’s chances of having a normal life. Thanks in large part to her relentless perseverance, Keygan was healthy enough by June to return home to Winchester.

The 17-year-old now suffers from severe short-term memory loss, so his mother works with him every day to make sure his medications are working and his surroundings don’t become overwhelming. Dodson even gifted his son a support dog, Alexis, who has become Keygan’s constant companion and learns to recognize when the teenager becomes confused, agitated, or overwhelmed.

“It’s come a long way but it hasn’t stabilized yet,” Dodson said.

Two of the people Dodson contacted during his quest to help Keygan were Tina and Rodney Culbreath, founders of the Winchester-based nonprofit I’m Just Me Movement. The Culbreaths agreed to speak to Keygan, that’s when they learned how much he enjoys playing video games online.

“It’s a community that he connects with,” said Tina Culbreath.

Coincidentally, an esports summer camp was offered at Shenandoah University in Winchester, which is one of the first colleges in the country where students can earn degrees qualifying them for lifelong careers as producers, video game creators, artists and writers. The Culbreaths contacted Joey Gawrysiak, director of SU’s esports program, and covered the cost of Keygan joining the camp held in the college’s esports arena on Millwood Avenue.

“We asked students to work together to understand what’s going on in esports and gaming as an industry… and how to be a healthy player,” Gawrysiak said Monday. “Keygan participated in all of these lessons.”

Thanks to the camp, Keygan realized that he could turn his passion for video games into a high-tech career. He’s set a goal of going to college to learn skills like computer coding and video production that he can use to work in the video game industry, which Variety magazine says generates nearly $ 200 billion in revenue per year.

“I want to stay in esports,” Keygan said on Monday, with a focus on producing live streams of competitive gaming events such as the World Cyber ​​Games, the League of Legends World Championship and everything related to his favorite Xbox game, “Call of Devoir.”

Meanwhile, Keygan has decided to share his story in an attempt to reach others who, like him, silently suffer from mental illness.

“He wants to help other people,” Dodson said.

One of the first people he hopes to help is his mother. Keygan said he wanted to get his driver’s license soon so he could drive his 20-month-old sister to preschool and give his tired mother a break.

Mumbai-based radio jockey Rohini Ramnathan has spoken of her husband’s sudden death after four years of marriage. In an interview with Humans of Bombay, Ms Ramnathan said she went through several stages of mourning – shock, anger, numbness – after learning of her husband Kaushik’s death four years ago. She drowned in labor and sought therapy for her mental health. It took months before she started to feel like herself again, she says.

“I met Kaushik through mutual friends,” recalls Ms. Ramnathan in her interview. “As RJ I loved telling stories when he was a writer; we hit it off.”

The two started spending more and more time together after they first met and eventually started dating. After three years of dating, Kaushik proposed – much to Ms Ramnathan’s delight. “We were that couple who completed each other’s sentences. And so after three years he asked me to marry him, I said ‘yes’!” she says.

The next four years were happy for the couple, who traveled, kissed under the Eiffel Tower and “fell in love”.

“We often dreamed of moving to New York – it was her favorite city. But four years after our marriage, Kaushik passed away… It was so sudden,” Ms. Ramnathan says.

The sudden loss of her husband shocked her. “I felt so much emotion, shock, anger, and then I went numb. I wanted to block it all out,” she says. After 14 days, she drowned in work and resumed filming – although she was often subjected to petty remarks from people wondering how she was feeling so soon after her death. husband.

“But while I was putting on a harsh exterior during the day, every night I would break down,” says Ms. Ramnathan.

This pattern continued for 10 months before she sought therapy. “It took me months to start feeling like myself again,” says RJ.

But even then, moving forward was not easy. Ms Ramnathan says the simple things – like choosing a sofa – have gotten difficult. “And every time I filled out a form, I had to be aware of choosing ‘single’ instead of ‘married’,” she adds.

The hardest time for her, she says, has been in New York City. She visited the city to understand why Kaushik had loved him so much – but to be there was “to live the future that we could never have had”.

“I hated it,” she said. “But it was also important because being there made me embrace my emotions. Slowly I started to put myself forward; I knew Kaushik would have wanted that.”

Over time, she started to find it in little things – like her favorite food, rasam chawal, or when she made a joke, she knew he would have liked.

“It’s been four years since he left us, but even today, if I’m stuck, I think about what he would say and do exactly that,” says Ms Ramnathan. “We couldn’t have an eternity, but in our 7 years together, Kaushik has given me memories for a lifetime. And they will keep me alive until the day I meet him again,” concludes- it.

Ms Ramnathan’s touching tale of love and loss struck a chord with social media users. On Instagram and Facebook, his post garnered thousands of reactions and comments.

“You have always been an amazing human being and an inspiration to so many people. I don’t think you stop mourning the loss of a loved one, but you have kept Kaushik alive within you,” wrote one commentator. .

“So beautiful and emotional, I have tears in my eyes. Stay strong,” said another.

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