What the hell, Brain? Video Podcast Proposal

VIDEO TITLE (working title):

What the Hell, Brain?

THEME/CONCEPT:

Mental disease’s under-representation in society.

GENRE:

Nonfiction/Science

SYNOPSIS/FREE-WRITE: 500 words or less.

Someone gets the flu. Immediately, they are allowed to resign from society. People close to them being washing hands, making the sick person is fed, and allowed to recuperate in their own time. Schoolwork is adjusted, maybe work gives them trouble, but arguing with a 105 fever is difficult. The person gets better, and then the period is talked about. Except maybe for the off reference “Remember that time you got delirious and started rambling about Kung Fu Panda with a 105 fever?” But the person recovers and then is rapidly able to reintroduce themselves into society.

(Sick Role – sociological construct that defines the ill’s role in society)

But now let’s head to a person with Depression. They have no external symptoms. They have no temperature, no change in pallor, no congestion. But they live a life that is torturous to themselves. Unfortunately, they aren’t afforded the same leeway as someone with the flu would be. Of course, depressive episodes can last far longer than the flu can, and maybe it’s just unfeasible to move work and responsibilities away that far. But this depressed person can’t actually function. Because they aren’t just “sad”, the way their mind works has changed, either due to genetic tendency or external effects. They work differently now, and that needs to readjusted to normal levels, before they can act as a regular member of society.

Mental Disease is highly prevalent issue in today’s society. Yet there isn’t much of an effort to get people really understand what goes on in such disesase. Mental disease is peculiar, seeing as we are our minds. We rarely ever see what is, instead seeing what our brains regard at salient. The world we see is unique and ours is a patchwork quilt stitched up by the various parts of our brain working in tandem. This is all well and good until you reach a point where it goes wrong.

                Goes wrong? Okay. Just fix it. But if the entity generating your very reality “goes wrong”, what do you do? First of all, if it’s generating your reality, how do you know something’s wrong? How do you know if it’s internal or external? Second, how can you possible get anyone else to understand? Your reality was already unique. Now it’s abnormal and unique. How can anyone relate? It’s a struggle that that many struggle to fix.         

                There are many issues with how society deals with these very prevalent issues. In a lot of these afflictions, they impair the person’s ability to summon motivation, physically altering the neural pathways that would give the person drive to complete a task. Today, this would be looked at as “lazy”, or someone “not applying themselves”. This is simply not true. Saying that is like trying to make a car with no gas start by hitting the pedal harder. This just doesn’t work.

                This creates a stigma against discussing mental issues.

VIDEO STYLE (what does it look like? What other examples are similar? What is your style?):

Radiolab on NPR.

It’s very interview-y, with a focus on suspenseful story telling to convey scientific ideas.

BREAKDOWN OF POSSIBLE SCENES:

Don’t know what mental illness I’m going to focus on, interested in Depression and PTSD.

·          A couple of statistics (not too many) to quantify the numbers involved

·         Maybe an explanation of how some of these disorders work.

·         Descriptions about how the modern world is really not equipped to deal with it.

·         A suggestion that maybe the way the world works right now is to blame for the increase in numbers.

·         Things to do in the short term to help oneself or those close to you

·         Societal refocusing that maybe could create a better environment for our minds as humans.

TARGET AUDIENCE (who are you making the video for):

Those afflicted, those close to those afflicted. Info for the general public

LENGTH OF VIDEO:

5-10 minutes.

OBJECTIVES:

Get people educated and aware about the matter.

Find sources of issues within society that make mental issues prevalent.

See how mental illness would affect a persons place in the world.

               

SETTING(S):

My room. Maybe clips of people online? School.