The zine has been and always is my least favorite media to explore. The zine felt very cognitive, which is not a place I enjoy creating from ever, but especially lately. Logical thought and planning, Nah, I’m good! I am aware I did not have to create in this way and very well could have done an abstract depiction of my feelings associated with exhaustion, however I wanted it to make sense instead of just splashing paint around. I’m not much of a drawer so I immediately turn to collage when I am presented with this type of media. I wanted it to really express my true feelings of exhaustion. I began by flipping through magazines and found an image and redrew it with pencil and graphite. Drawing does involve a lot of thinking, planning and problem solving and for this reason, I would use this on adolescents with bi-polar and related disorders.
When I think of zines, the primary purpose of them is to inform others about something that the creator finds important. I think adolescents have so much to say and have a necessary voice in society. I think we are reaching a point in our cultural landscape in which mental illness is being spoken about more than it used to thanks to brave people on social media, yet in the world, it still feels a bit stigmatized. I think adolescents who have bipolar disorder probably have a lot of thoughts, insights and important information pertaining to how to deal with someone who is struggling with bipolar, like what to do vs what not to do, what it feels like to have bipolar disorder, and describing the high’s and low’s etc. In chapter 7 of the ETC, one thing that is mentioned that would be an incredible topic is “self-care” and how it is a multifaceted cognitive function that involves reality testing, judgement, control and synthesis and is a part of executive functioning (Hinz, 2016).” Talking about how/what adolescents do to take care of themselves would be a great resource for others living with bipolar. I think there would be a lot of valuable information that could help normalize and inform people on bipolar disorder. Often we hear people refer to lots of things/people as being bipolar without actual diagnosis, or in an insensitive manner like as a blanket statement, for example, “the weather is acting bipolar today.” I also think that being bipolar is a very emotional place to be and perhaps creating a zine that puts those with this disorder in the cognitive would allow some distance from evoking more intense emotions and feelings and allow for more logical thought associated with the function and purpose of feelings. One thing that is comforting to know about feelings and emotions is that they pass, a refreshing thing to think about when one is highly controlled by them. The cognitve framework when working with adolescents I think also poses challenges, like the experience feeling like homework.
Hinz, L. D. (2019). Expressive therapies continuum: A framework for using art in therapy. New York, NY. Routledge.
