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Mental Illness Recovery

mental illness

Jeremy Larsen interviewed his friend and  fellow band member Robert Keller about living with a mental illness in the StoryCorps booth in St. George. They talk about how Larsen learned how to manage his  illness thanks to the help of his friends like Jeremy, and Southwest Behavioral Health Center.

They also talk about their band, which is a day program based at a mental health facility. and the challenges they face as a group that could make them excel.

" My wife came up with an interesting point the other day. She was commenting on social skills, and usually people say people with mental illness lack social skills," Jeremy said, " Well the reality is the people who are moving to the side of the road, who don't want to be near you are the ones lacking social skills."

" Our challenges have just been with mental illnesses," Robert said," We have got it under control pretty well. We have just had to have a little extra time to get things together, a little bit more than most bands. "

"I kind of see that as a strength though, Jeremy said, " The challenges that we are facing, that we are overcoming, I really see that as a strength of the band."

"People that are challenged maybe are a little bit stronger in some ways," Robert said," Because people who get it easy all the time, how do you get stronger if you get it easy all of the time?"

"And in that strength you become like a light to other people," Jeremy said, " Sometimes it takes the darkness to highlight the light."