How writing comedy saved me from suicide.
First article, let’s come out swinging!
I’m not a super serious kind of guy, I spent too much of my life doing that, now most days I try to see everything in a comedic way. But to put it simply, I’ve had a long, unromantic relationship with mental health most of my life. Shock horror I know, statistically 1 in 5 Australians suffer from mental illness so I don’t see it as anything special, but it still sucks.
Great now you’ve all been caught up with my life story, let’s move onto the click-baiting headline you saw that lead you here. For the past year or so I’ve been writing a comedy show with one of my best mates Josh. It’s been a wild journey so far, we’ve made the pilot, written out a series bible/scripts for future episodes and now in the pitching phase to get some cash money to fund the rest of the first season. (If any network execs are reading this, kindly slide into my DMs to discuss further)
To be honest, I never saw this much happening with this project, when Josh first approached me with the idea I thought “awesome! Let’s write out some ideas and maybe we can shoot a sketch bit or a sizzle reel to put out there for our mates to see” so to be this far in the process is something I never thought could be possible, I see that as a win in my books!
Moving right along, previously to this project a lot of scripts I was writing for were focused on things that have happened to me in the past, mainly traumatic. I found it as a way of therapy, writing about suicide attempts, drug addiction, abuse, and just in general being a shit person that I was many years ago. I didn’t realise it at the time, but that in itself was a method of self sabotage that I’ve been giving myself over the years.
I thought it was the right thing to do at the time, and maybe one day I’ll share some of my more darker events in life on the big screen, but in reality I was just reliving some of my past trauma and just digging myself another grave. It’s okay, I’m not hunting for sympathy with this, just sharing another harsh life lesson learned with my good mate depression and his trusty sidekick anxiety!
So what was the turning point for me? Comedy of course! The show we’ve written follows a somewhat serious storyline, but it’s explored through comedic events. In doing this I’ve been able to see things in my life I would normally loathe, and laugh at them.
I spend most of my days now coming up with ideas for sketch videos, or funny segments I can put into our show. It’s been a total refresh not only for my creativity but for my mental health also. It’s great seeing something happen in real life, and instead of seeing it negatively, just laugh instead. And after watching countless hours of sitcoms and standup specials during this quarantine, I believe those creative minds do something similar as well.
I think I read in a book years ago that a method of being happier in life is just to force yourself to be happy, I saw it as some motivational speech crap at the time but now I see there’s some truth to it within this journey. Instead of making a nasty comment about something I make a joke out of it and I don’t let it ruin my day like it used to, it then becomes something I enjoy that I want to share with others to make them laugh also instead of bringing everyone down.
Don’t get me wrong, I still have my down days, I’m still seeing a therapist regularly as well to help me deal with all the shit I can’t deal with on my own (shout out to universal healthcare for making this financially manageable as well, you’re the real MVP) but over the past year I’ve slowly learned that life’s not all that bad.
I’m not sure if there is an underlining message to this article, I’m not here to spread a message of hope or be the spokesperson for mental health. I’m just sharing my experiences and if you can relate, then that’s pretty fucking cool, makes me not feel alone in this you know? If I had any advice though, is that if you are someone suffering from mental illness as well, please go seek help, seeing a therapist for the last few years has also been lifesaving and I highly recommend it.
Lastly, I just want to give a special mention to Josh for opening my eyes to comedy and pushing my creative limits, it’s been really cool seeing our ideas come to life and here’s to many more of them my dude!
This is me signing off now, how do I sign off on these things? Thanks for reading. That’s a nice sign off. But do you like and subscribe? Do I start plugging my socials? Where’s my coffee.
