Through Art, Hope

Jerome Lawrence
Fine Artist and Special Projects Coordinator
Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network

During his senior year as a Studio Art major at Georgia State University, Jerome was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He continued to paint, studying privately for many years after graduation with Joseph Perrin, a world renowned artist and head emeritus of the School of Art and Design at GSU.

Jerome is now many years into recovery, and deeply involved in the creation and the business side of art. In 2004, the Carter Center in Atlanta invited him to give a solo art exhibit to an audience that included President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. His art donations to the center have brought as much as $13,000.00 for a single painting at auction.

What do you wish people knew and understood about mental health and mental illness?
It is important for people to understand that mental illnesses are on a spectrum.  We all move along the spectrum from “better” to “less well,” and we are not stationary. It isn’t the case that one person is perpetually “well” and another eternally without joy. I wonder in our country how many exist that are mentally healthy all of the time. People who are considered “well” may still have issues that drastically affect their mental, physical, emotional, spiritual and financial well-being.  

Taking the right medicine can be important to your mental health.  When I was young I would suffer headaches rather than take aspirin and considered medications to be bad.  This type of thinking only adds fuel to an inferno when it comes to treating mental illnesses.  Medications can be uncomfortable and have unpleasant side effects.  But, medications today are created with the reduction of side effects in mind; they are better and have fewer side effects. Still people can react differently to the same drugs. 

When I started medications for my mental illness, it was very difficult for me.  It seemed to me at the time, by taking medicine, I’d become a “mental patient” instead of being a free “individual.”  Recovery for me really began when the side effects from the medications were greatly diminished. 

How do you know when it is time to access additional support for your mental health?  What gives you the courage to finally act on this knowledge?
The human mind is a lot like a PC.  You cannot get the correct output if the data entered is wrong, in which case you’re stuck in a “garbage in – garbage out” mode. In the case of mental illness, our PC like mind is a machine that cannot correct itself.  It is difficult to stand outside of ourselves and with insight fix the problem.  With mental illness, the machine (or mind), is broken and constantly misinterpreting data. It is then nigh impossible to use calculations based on this erroneous data to repair our mind so that we may again correctly interpret data. We’re trying to use our mind as a tool to fix our mind, but we cannot because our tool is broken. 

As a result, in the case of mental illness, community is very important.  I don’t know when I first start to get sick, so I watch other people and see how they are reacting to me.  Based on this feedback, I know that something may be wrong on my end, and any miscommunication may have something to do with me.  I intentionally have people in my life who will give me reliable feedback and not overlook too many things.  At first, it is hard for me to acknowledge this feedback, and I have a period of conflict where I do nothing more than be aware that a problem exists.  Finally, with time, I realize it is in my best interest to change my approach, thought patterns and behavior in order to accomplish my goals and begin to believe it would be better for me somehow.  So, I seek help.

What do you do to take care of your mind and spirit on a daily basis to maintain your health?
I problem solve to determine if what I am doing with my time is serving me well; it helps me to avoid distractions.  By identifying my goals and aims, I can figure out if what I am doing is helping me to achieve these goals.  A question I will ask myself on a frequent basis is “How can I take what I have and use it to get the results I’m after?”  For example, I may say to myself, “I need money, but I am watching TV, and how much money have I made during this 2-hour movie? But, having already watched the show, how can I use what I have learned to help me in life?” This is much like the creative problem-solving that I do with my art - how do I mix the paint and apply it to get the composition, color and “feel” that I want? 

What is one thing you think we could do as a community to reduce the stigma of mental health and mental illness?
It is important for us, as a community, to fight against what is natural to us at times.  I think the stigma of mental illness is a natural reaction to a break in stability.  When someone gets sick with a mental illness, there may be unpredictability or unreliability in their behaviors.  Fear of personal and societal damage caused by irrational behavior turns those living with mental illnesses into outcasts. Instability and irrationality are not characteristics we seek in a business; when we are consumers of a product or company, don’t we look for reliability?  It is a matter of economics and self-preservation to be accountable and build credible, sterling reputations, yet even the best of us fall prey to mood swings, depression, and obsessive and harmfully compulsive behaviors.

By giving the person with a mental health diagnosis extra consideration, we fight against our nature to favor the strong and shun the signs of instability.  Why is it that we give some people extra chances, needed help and loving patience, but not others?  I think people will find that with these extra considerations, those with a mental health diagnosis can become productive members in any community with individual strengths, bountiful talents and the ability to acquire new skills like any other.