animated minds
First transmitted November 2003
Animated Minds uses real testimony from survivors of mental illness, combined with engaging and sometimes humorous visuals, to climb inside the minds of the mentally distressed.
Fish on a Hook
© C4
Mike suffers from panic attacks and agoraphobia, and often finds it difficult to get out of the house. As he describes in visual detail what it's like to suffer from debilitating anxiety, we witness the trials and tribulations of how even a journey to Sainsbury's can be "like a bloody nightmare."
Dimensions
© C4
Chattering, whispers, sometimes benign, sometimes malevolent. Disordered thought, tangential ideas, and delusions of grandeur, persecution and paranoia. This piece focuses on what it is to experience psychosis, but more importantly what it is not: it is not split personality, it can exist in otherwise 'normal' people, and it does not give rise to a culture of violent people, unable to function or be connected to the 'real' world.
Obsessively Compulsively
© C4
Steve describes how whenever he thought of Saddam Hussein he thought that he was contributing to the conflict in the Gulf. Walking, talking, eating, and drinking – all these actions had to be completed in the absence of an intrusive thought about Saddam, otherwise he would have to repeat the action again and again and again. A rare glimpse into the struggle for those faced with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
That Light Bulb Thing
© C4
A woman's story about becoming more manic, as she soars to the heights of euphoria, floating on the winds of dis-inhibition. And then, without warning, we see the fall to despair, to a dark world without meaning; an inner-world of depression made all the worse by the still-fresh memory of euphoria. This is the world of manic depression, from the oh-so-highs to the oh-so-lows, when the brightness within her – that light bulb thing – has gone out.
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