Headcase LGBTQ Writers & Artists on Mental Health and Wellness

by Schroeder, Stephanie; Theophano, Teresa

• ISBN13: 9780190846596
• ISBN10: 0190846593
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2019-02-05
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Headcase is a groundbreaking collection of personal reflections and artistic representations illustrating the intersection of mental wellness, mental illness, and LGBTQ identity, as well as the lasting impact of historical views equating queer and trans identity with mental illness. The featured pieces offer personal views from both providers and clients, often one and the same, about their experiences. In the anthology, readers will access the inner thoughts of contributors who collectively document the difficulty of navigating flawed healthcare systems that limit affordable access to genuinely affirming, effective services. Traversing boundaries of race and ethnic identity, age, gender identity, and socioeconomic status, Headcase appeals to LGBTQ communities and, specifically, LGBTQ mental health consumers and their friends, families, and comrades.

Author Biography

Stephanie Schroeder, JD, is a freelance writer based in NYC. Her work has been anthologized in the anthologies That's Revolting: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation, Here Come the Brides: Reflections on Lesbian Love and Marriage, and Easy to Love, But Hard to Live With: Real People, Invisible Disabilities, True Stories. Schroeder is a part-time peer advocate and the author of the memoir Beautiful Wreck: Sex, Lies & Suicide.

Teresa Theophano, MSW, is a freelance writer/editor and full-time social worker working with LGBT older adults in New York City. The author of Queer Quotes (Beacon Press, 2004) and contributor to numerous anthologies and websites including xoJane.com and glbtq.com, Theophano has been involved in mental health advocacy and LGBTQ movement building for years. She is the co-founder of the NYC Queer Mental Health Initiative (QMHI), a peer-based support network based in Brooklyn, and is at work on a co-written volume about queer suicide prevention and postvention.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Stephanie Schroeder, JD and Teresa Theophano, LMSW

Foreword
Kai Cheng Thom

I. Conversations about Mental Health and Wellness
1. Falling Through the Cracks of Queer and Black
Tanisha Neely
2. Queer-Affirmative Therapy
Arlene Istar Lev
3. Not All Wounds Are Visible
Louisa Hammond
4. Border/lines
Juan Antonio Trujillo
5. Sa Kanyang Sariling Mga Salita: Health, Identity, and Articulations of Self
Donald V. Brown, Jr. with Fidelindo A. Lim
6. Trust Me, I'm a Doctor
Lynn Breedlove
7. LGBTQ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Issues: A Provider's Journey
Joseph Ruggiero
8. The Bone Crushing
Bill Konigsberg

II. Stories of Survival
9. In Chiron's Footsteps
Paula J. Williams
10. Not Our Fault
Chana Wilson
11. Figuring it Out Together: Mental Health Survival Strategies from Detroit's Queer and Trans Youth of Color
Lance Hicks
12. Sisyphus (or: Rocks Fall and Everyone Dies)
Sullivan Voss
13. The Family Legacy Ends Here
Teresa Theophano
14. Roll the Dice and The Wall
Michael Brown
15. Jesus and the Closets
Charlie Zaanti
16. The Lived Experience of LGBTQ Veterans: Finding Support within the VA Healthcare System
Kathryn Wagner

III. Encounters of the Mad Kind
17. Madhouse, Madhouse... Memories of Incarceration
Kate Millett
18. Surviving Science, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Being Mad and Queer Calvin Rey Moen
19. Knowing Reynolds
Lucy Winer
20. On a Subway Platform, a Life Flashes -- Here, Gone
Antoine B. Craigwell
21. This Work Is About Digested Socks
Gabrielle Jordan Stein
22. Taming My Inner Fundamentalist
Kelly Barth
23. Fix Me Please; I'm Gay!
Guy Albert
24. Crowdsourcing My Antipsychotic
Stephanie Schroeder

IV. Pushing Boundaries
25. On Listening to Clients
Christian Huygen
26. Problem Glyphs
Eliza Gauger
27. Erasure and other poems
Gabriella M. Belfiglio
28. Informed Consent
Ash Wickell
29. Bad Penny
J.M. Ellison
30. The Big Pink Elephant in the Therapy Room
Thomas Mondragon
31. GLEAM
Nikkiesha N. McLeod

V. The Poetics of Mental Health and Wellness
32. Outlier: The Agoraphobia Fragments
Kevin Shaw
33. Were You Confused as a Child?
Stephen Mead
34. Battling Depression as a Queer Mom
Crista Anne
35. Doctor Anonymous: A Play, and a Lesson in Medical Ethics
Guy Fredrick Glass
36. JEKYLL'S LOVER, T Is for Them, and Fools Gold
James Penha
37. Feathers
Benjamin Klas

Contributor Bios
Acknowledgements
Resources