I happen to be a schizophrenic who has struggled very hard to overcome handicaps that have caused me difficulty in socializing with other people and obtaining good grades in my university studies at McGill. Rather than prescribe strategies for other mentally ill individuals, my article will explain what I have done to help me have friends and succeed academically despite severe mental illness. I will begin by describing some of my social challenges, and then I will relate to you what I have done to help myself in school

My major social problem has been paying attention to those who are speaking with me. My attention span is extremely short if I am not making a strong, dedicated effort to attend to my partners in conversation. I have also often complained to my father and brother while asking them for social advice that I have difficulty figuring out what is and what is not appropriate in different social contexts. I have told my father that I feel as if I have no clue how to navigate the social terrain that surrounds me. My strategy for paying attention has been to try my hardest to become sincerely interested in what my conversational partner has to tell me. I also try to plan what I will say next; a strategy that forces me to pay attention in order to pick up cues to which I can respond. To deal with my tendency to gaff during social experiences, I often ask people very close to me for social advice. Sometimes I explain what I said or did and ask whether that was appropriate or not if I feel it might have been uncalled-for. Since I do not ask for advice overly often, people very close to me are willing to share their wisdom with me.
(Part 2 to be continued next week...)

Jason Settels

Two years have now gone by since we started The 80/20 Project. Amazing, isn’t it? Back then the idea was to establish a web site and eventually make a documentary of Mike’s life. Of course, every time you embark on this kind of an adventure, your objectives change and evolve, most of the time for the better. At first, we wanted to document Mike’s life living with a severe mental illness in producing a classic documentary film of his coping skills. But then we discovered that the better way of doing this was through an educational DVD. This way people living with a mental illness and the people close to them could use it as a tool to understand how Mike has become the human being he is today.

The web site is still there after two years of gathering information like blogs, videocast and movie episodes. Altogether, hundreds of articles have been written, 17 movie episodes and 29 videocast episodes. We are very proud of all these interviews. The technology we use to produce these episodes has considerably gotten better since 2006. It is now possible to broadcast live Mike’s presentations on the web through the Mogulus Network. We are very excited about this because of the many possibilities that live broadcasting gives to Midacom.

And what about Mike’s dream of speaking in front of large audiences?

This objective was also there from day 1. I think that it is more alive now than ever before. Mike has continued to present to audiences in the greater Montreal area. He is not only doing a better job as a presenter but he is also getting more and more attention from mainstream media. Mike was part of The Globe and Mail‘s recent special coverage of people living with a mental illness across Canada. He was also interviewed by CTV News-Montreal in a 3 minute report that was aired just before Christmas. Both were great successes and he got recognition and praise for his perseverance and dedication.

Dear Mike, I am very proud of your involvement in this project. You are a model not only for those that suffer from a mental illness but to everyone that searches for there own light. You give hope to those that need it the most. Continue on this path and all shall be well. Long live Mike’s Story.

Daniel Gervais
Film Director