From the start of the research that myself and my group began, i knew i wanted to write a story around trauma and mental health. It wasn't until I began to do my research that i realised how closely connect trauma and grief really are to mental health. I note that the effects of trauma often create these mental health issues within a person, or at least bring them out. In terms of a narrative structure, i knew that i wanted to create something that begins half way through a problem, I'm not interested in showing a traumatic experience and watching a character go through it, I am more interested in the long lasting effects of these. After my most recent tutorial with Simon, he suggested that i think a bit more smaller and perhaps look at how these mental health symptoms affect a characters everyday life.I wanted to look more into male mental health and the statistics that come with it, i found the following link to be extremely helpful and i will highlight some of the most shocking statistics that i found. (https://www.menshealthforum.org.uk/key-data-mental-health)
- 34% of men in a study admit to feeling overly stressed due to work
- Just over 3/4 suicides are men
According to the article, men are frequently less likely to access help through therapists or anything else that is on offer if they feel like they need too, only 36% of referrals from doctors to psychologists therapists are men. This leads me onto the topic of the reluctance to talk about and understand what a person is going through. The low % of men who see therapists in comparison to the high % of men committing suicide is most definitely linked. The reluctance to talk about their issues is something i would like to explore within my story also.
Previously, I had 3 potential ideas for our drama, after further research and discussion with my group and Simon, there is one I would like to look at further. I am going to write a small treatment of the idea that I have been developing for the drama. A treatment is a draft screenplay of a drama, it is a piece of prose that outlines the narrative of something.
A teenager, named Marlon, is in his last year of studies at sixth form, he is 18 years old and is being pressured to make decisions about his future. His dream was to always go to Loughborough university to study engineering and is on track to getting in, but as exams loom and the time to confirm his place gets closer, the more unsure he gets. Marlon is dismissive and angered when his parents begin to question him over his plans, his parents worry that recently he has become detached and he communicates much less with them now. On his walk to school through the long path in the park, he sees and speaks to Millie, he tells her how he doesn't want to let her or this place go, he is scared and the closer the time comes the more he knows he just wants to stay where he is. As the day goes on, he struggles to get through, constant reminders such as UCAS brochures and hearing talk of job prospects. After a hard day at school, Marlon speaks to Millie again on his walk through the long path in the park, he opens up more by telling her how he doesn't want to go home because he knows there are questions that needs to be answered and things he needs to talk about, but he isn't ready to talk yet. He spends the rest of the evening in his bedroom, only leaving to retrieve his dinner plate silently from his concerning mother. Through the night he has a bad dream, the dream is him in a dark and empty room, wearing a constricted straight jacket screaming. He wakes up the next day and leaves for school without speaking to his mum, we see his mother call out for him as he slams the door shut but he doesn't respond. As he walks to school with Millie again, she begs him to speak to someone, tells him that he needs to explain how he is feeling and what is going on because if he doesn't, something bad could happen. He looks into her eyes and tells her that its her, if it wasn't for her he'd be able to live his life to full extent that he wants too, but he cannot leave her. He rushes off in anger into the school gates and is immediately greeted by his teacher, who tells him the deadlines for UCAS is tomorrow, so he needs to confirm his application immediately. He blows up shouting at his teacher, explaining that he is sick of everyone getting involved, and he's decided for himself that he isn't going to university and he will stay right where he is. He runs off outside for some air, by this point he is extremely distressed and erratic. After sometime his teacher comes out to softly speak to Marlon and calm him down, he pulls out a GP leaflet on mental health and who to contact, advising Marlon to go and see someone, immediately after seeing this Marlon screws the leaflet up and runs home. As he arrives home his mum is sitting there with a man in a suit, his mother explains that the man is here to see and speak to him. Marlon begins to look down, as if he is about to burst into tears, his mother says to him calmly that she knows why he's upset, and that the only way he can get better is by speaking to them about what happened to Millie. Upon hearing her name, Marlon runs from his house leaving his mum in distress, he runs back into the long path in the park and sits on a bench, crying. After a distressing and intense conversation, Marlon says a complete goodbye to Millie, he speaks of her death with her and shows an understanding of what he is going through and how he is suffering. We end on a goodbye note as Marlon walks back into his house to see his mum and the doctor. The above is extremely rough and by no means a finished story, for me when formulating ides it helps me to write them down because I can adapt it much easier, as i found from my previous research when writing, you just need to start with whatever you are thinking at the time.
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