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Category: Gary Gulman

  • Comedian Gary Gulman: Opening Up About Depression Has Been "A Reward"

    Comedian Gary Gulman: Opening Up About Depression Has Been "A Reward"

    “The easiest way and the most comfortable way for me to address anything real is to make jokes about it.”

    Back in October comedian Gary Gulman released a vulnerable and inspiring HBO special called The Great Depresh where he discussed his lifelong struggles with depression. Critics and fans alike applauded Gulman for being so open and honest about what depression looks like and how it has changed his life.

    Gulman recently sat down with People magazine to discuss how the special has affected his life and how he treats his chronic depression.

    “The easiest way and the most comfortable way for me to address anything real is to make jokes about it,” the comedian explained.

    “Depresh” is a cutesy nickname that Gulman gave depression to make it easier to digest for those who have never battled the mental health disorder. For Gulman, it’s all about starting a conversation about mental illness in an effort to end the stigma surrounding it.

    “I had called it that to sort of lighten the impact of the illness,” Gulman said. “I mean, I either consciously or subconsciously figured out that people would feel more comfortable if you were immediately making fun of it.”

    Normalize It

    Gulman feels as though using his voice to normalize the disorder that affects more than 300 million people globally. 

    “I got such a reward for opening up about this,” the 49-year-old told People. “I thought that this was a great way to sort of redeem the experience and exact some revenge on the time lost and that it was actually a way to, I guess, make the two-and-a-half years that I had suffered not be just useless.”

    Though Gulman has lived with depression since his childhood, the disorder hit him hardest in 2015 when he was placed in a psychiatric hospital for treatment.

    “By the time I did go in, there was no question that that’s where I belonged. I wasn’t functioning on any level.”

    Sleep changes are one of the most common symptoms of depression. During his lowpoint with the disorder, he was sleeping 18 or 19 hours a day and when he wasn’t sleeping, he was experieincing anxiety and suicidal ideation.

    His Darkest Moments

    “I was spending every moment I was awake — which was sometimes only like five or six hours a day — … in pain from anxiety and also just contemplating painless suicides and ruminating on mistakes and regrets,” he detailed.

    Electroconvulsive therapy, meds, talk therapy and support from loved ones, Gulman was able to make it through his darkest days to tell his tale. 

    If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org. 

     

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Comedian Gary Gulman On Toxic Masculinity, Depression

    Comedian Gary Gulman On Toxic Masculinity, Depression

    Gulman gets candid about depression in his new comedy special, The Great Depresh.

    There’s a lot of pain in comedy writing, but comedian Gary Gulman wants to push back on the idea that you need to be depressed in order to be funny. 

    “It’s a romantic myth, ‘I need to be troubled to write well,’” he said in an interview with The Daily Beast. “But it’s not true.”

    In his new comedy special, The Great Depresh, Gulman speaks openly about his mental illness, and how he keeps depression at bay today. The 49-year old said that he has had a lifetime struggle with depression. 

    “I’ve had episodes of depression since I’ve known myself. Since seven years old I can remember having these feelings. The episodes would never last more than a few months,” he said. However, in 2017 he was hospitalized after a severe episode. “This one lasted for two and a half years.” 

    Difficulty Coping With Mental Illness

    As a kid, Gulman wasn’t taught healthy ways to cope with mental illness. In the special, he jokes about growing up in the 1970s. 

    “The only antidepressants we had access to was ‘snap out of it’ and ‘what have you got to be depressed about?’ That was the second-leading brand of antidepressant,” he says. 

    Gulman was told to toughen up, a message about being masculine that undermined his health, he said. 

    “That didn’t work on me and I paid a price for it in my psyche,” he said. “I was always hiding things about myself and keeping things secret. Name-calling and bullying, either physical or verbal, was very painful for me growing up and when I saw the stance that millennials seem to be taking, I don’t have nostalgia for that. I could have used some more nurturing than I got and it just happened to be the generation I grew up in. We were just so mean to each other.” 

    Constant Vigilance

    Today, Gulman said he doesn’t feel depressed most days. 

    “But it’s in part because I’ve adopted 18 or 20 things that I do every day to stay this way. I’ve never been more vigilant because I’ve never fallen that far.” 

    That’s led him to the “longest, sturdiest recovery of my life,” he said. 

    Gulman told The Daily Beast, “I’m only comfortable talking about it now because I’ve come out the other side.” However, his comedy special opens with a scene of him at a Boston comedy club, right after he was released from the psych ward in 2017. 

    “I have a mental illness. I have a severe mental illness. It’s excruciating,” Gulman tells the audience. “It’s excruciating. This is like a cosmic bottom. This is like a bottom.” 

    Gulman remembers that night, and says he felt like he needed to share his pain. “I had to acknowledge that I was suffering,” he said. 

    Today, Gulman ends his special by speaking directly to those still suffering. 

    “If you are suffering from a mental illness, I promise you are not alone. You are not alone,” he says, then adds, “I’m sorry, you are alone, but only because you can’t leave the house today. But you should.”

    View the original article at thefix.com