In July 1993, after a tumultuous relationship filled with emotions from each end of the spectrum and everywhere in between, C. Comfort Shields’s college boyfriend and first true love, Ben, drove from Washington, D.C. to Maine and shot himself in the head, completing the suicide he’d been flirting with since she met him 18 months before.
What Shields didn’t really know at the time, however, was that the 18 months she knew Ben was just the tail end of a mental hurricane that had spiraled so out of control no amount of love from anyone could have kept Ben alive. How …read more

Tickets to the Broadway revival of Equus at Broadhurst Theatre in New York go on sale today at 10 a.m. Equus will run from September 5, 2008 until February 8, 2009.
Peter Shaffer wrote the play Equus in 1973 after hearing about a real-life case in which a 17-year-old boy blinded six horses in town near London. Shaffer didn’t know any details about the crime, but Equus is a fictional account of what could have caused the crime.
In other words: Equus isn’t what happened; it’s a play based on Shaffer’s imagination of what could have happened. It’s a story.
In Equus, a …read more

Here at Mental Health Notes, I try to write about happy things as often as possible.
Sure, I gripe. I’ve been known to tell off Representatives and mental health care workers I don’t know from states I’ve never been. And yes, I even poo-poo on progress for the sake of progress sometimes and roll my eyes at strangers and remind folks that – statistically speaking – stigma is stupid.
I mean, come on. I hand out A.S.S. Awards.
I admit that, when it comes to the world of mental health, there are still so many hurdles to jump. It’s enough to make a …read more