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Learning from experience
"When I was seventeen I got very ill in the mind—if I went out late at night and saw a ‘stop’ sign, that sign was there for me, part of the cosmic drama unfolding in my head."
"Phantoms circled my thoughts, shadows stretched along walls whispering to me, all the while going “I’ve got the answers!” with no question in my mind. I stumbled into the office of a mental health worker who introduced me to magical thinking—how we tell ourselves stories to understand the world. Then I stumbled further, into a youth centre, where I learned that I had a voice, and a loud one at that."
Published: Culture, Health, Wellbeing Alliance
Outside In
"Aged seventeen, I dropped out of college where I was studying film, following this I experienced a prolonged period of severe mental health challenges mentioned above. Within the context of my upbringing this was not a surprise."
"I came from crumbling council accommodation, living on benefits, with my mum having her own physical and mental health difficulties and my older brother has severe autism. There is currently a mental health crisis worldwide, in my experience this suffering arises from an inability to recognise, communicate and process trauma. I found I could do all these things, through the medium of authentic and honest creative self expression."
Published: Outside In
Fly Don't Fall
"There’s a constant fluidity within the lava-like prismatic overlays– a feeling of moving on, the promise of better days."
"Candid shots of the team at BYH team reflect the easy atmosphere they create at the centre. We learn that they have a ‘snug’ where young people seeking compassion and understanding are listened to and supported.
Casey’s words speak of the kindness, generosity and encouragement he experienced. There are signs of the spiritual aspects of his growth and echoes of a new mantra adopted from the William Ernest Henley poem Invictus ‘I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul,’ a quote passed on to Casey by another friend and mentor (Andrew Henshaw).”’.
Published: The Beestonian
Fly Don't Fall - Casey Soma
“We had many deeply philosophical conversations during which I mostly bombarded Sam with a stream of consciousness shopping list of influences..."
"...including album after album after album, the musician and artist Goldie’s Aurum Gallery in Thailand, various films that have influenced me including ‘A girl walks home alone at night’ and ‘Fight Club’, esoteric and rather vague ramblings on depth psychology and eastern mysticism, that Sam later would transform into the beautiful illustrations that mirror the poems themselves."
Published: The Mighty Creatives
For The Joy Of It
“Eventually I relent, defeated and with slightly aching arms, I look up, beyond his glasses and into his eyes and then he says something I will never forget."
“One day you’ll be strong enough so you don’t have to put it down”.
"Then and there I had received the affirmation of the thing I always knew, beneath that fear in my stomach, beneath the headaches in the middle of the night. At the back of my brain the belief that everything, eventually, would be alright.“
Published: Casey Soma’s LinkedIn
The Art of Balance
“Mad Truth began in a youth center where I learned that my creativity could be honed, and crafted, in the same way we learn a language to better understand and communicate with the world around us."
"This is where my practice began. I’m inspired by everything because I’m interested in everything. Specifically I like the soul, if something contains within it the essential essence of a person, a place in time, or somehow encapsulates an authentic feeling."
"I’m interested in the power of art for the real world impact it can have on our lives. The way a song can move you to tears, or a movie can change your life, these are powerful energies that are often maligned for more ‘tangible’ materialistic pursuits."
Published: Thortify
Mad Truth : Creativity and Mental Health
“Strange things happen when you can’t sleep. Separated and removed from waking life, I would find myself wandering sometimes for miles in the early hours, without direction or purpose chasing the answer to a question I didn’t even know."
It’s hard to talk about mental illness, for many reasons, it’s unpredictable, volatile and confusing. Ranging from depression and anxiety to addiction, to more serious and sinister conditions such as schizophrenia.
To take into account the fragility of the mind and even of the body is heresy in a society where the core religion is the rat-race, where the value of a human being is stripped back and skinned to numbers and statistics, a person is not judged on their ability to love and be loved, to fulfil their individual potential as a human being in a buddhist sort of way, but their economic and societal status.”
Published: Nottingham City of Literature