Page 41 - ABILITY Magazine -Cedric Yarbrough Issue

a fantastic response. Many people have come in who have struggled with mental illness saying they felt a lot of comfort to hear other people going through similar experiences.
Martirosyan: What was the process with your subjects?
Tyrimos: The actual sessions went for more than an hour, but the edited-down recordings were from 2 to 10 minutes. I cut them so they flow like a monologue, so you don’t hear me asking the questions. I did some research into each of their personal experiences before the interview. For example, I asked the politician things like, “How do you think we can look at poli- tics, and how could that help in changing legislation to help people who are going through this?” Or Leon McKenzie, he is a former premiership soccer player, and he’s now a professional boxer. It was interesting that a lot of young men could relate to him. You might think he’s this tough guy from what he does for a liv- ing, but actually he’s sensitive and vulnerable, and at the same time unbelievably strong because of what he’s been through.
I had questions, but it was an informal chat, and I think that’s why it worked and why they were so open. They could trust it wasn’t going to be sensationalized, as sometimes happens in the media.
Martirosyan: You said you had a personal connection to your subjects. Can you talk more about that?
Tyrimos: As I mentioned, several people who are really close to me deal with a range of mental health vulner- abilities and illnesses. Some are not comfortable being as open about it as they would be if it were, perhaps, a physical ailment, for fear of judgment by society. I find it heartbreaking. I feel like you should be able to talk about it. It’s often discussed as an invisible ill- ness, but part of me doesn’t fully buy that, because if I were to say I have an issue with my kidney, you might not be able to physically see that, but you’d still give me a basic level of empathy. The brain is just another organ in the body, so it almost doesn’t make sense that we don’t have the same compassion when people are suffering.
Some people are opening up, but there’s still a huge stigma. So their willingness to share their truth was my initial spark of inspiration. I don’t know about you guys, but in Britain we never would say the word “cancer” until a few years ago. It was “the big C.” I feel like we’ve come a long way in regards to that.
Martirosyan: Now we say “the little c.” (laughter)
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