Emily Smail
Case Study: Alika's story
Whilst conducting my research on mental illness, I came across this video on youtube. The young man who is singing is obviously being mocked by the man filming him. The video was posted on youtube and now has over 2 millions views. People left comments such as:
No one seemed to care why Alika was singing the way he was. And in this day and age, who would? It seems that anyone being seen doing anything out of the ordinary are different, and everyone else should mock them.
Well, Alika is actually suffering from bipolar disorder.
Bipolar disorder is a condition which effects your moods which makes them swing to one extreme to another.These swings usally alternatate between depression, where you feel very low about yourself, and mania, where you feel very overreactive and high. Alika stated that he was having a:
"manic episode and breakdown and music was the only way to deal with all the things that were going on in my brain"
I have chosen to do my film about people who suffer with schizophenia and although Alika suffers from bipolar, the reaction he got from people is the perfect exam on why I am so passionate about my film topic.
Even in this day and age, people are still struggling to come to terms with what mental illness is, and what effect it can have on you. This whole case study reinfornces my initial point that you cannot always tell who is mentally ill because it effects different people in so many different ways.