Scott Eisen/Bloomberg News
Singer-songwriter Meg Hutchinson struggled for years with
mental illness; now she is open about her experience to remove the
stigma.
Months before mental illness took over and steered her toward suicide, American folk singer and songwriter Meg Hutchinson was in line at her favourite coffee shop to order a latte. A man approached. He was serious and official-looking in a suit.
"I'm a fan," he said.
The stranger had seen her in concert. He loved her music and he said he worked for the FBI.
She was flattered. Her songs are emotional, personal. They draw a loyal audience. But an FBI agent? That was surprising.
There was something else. Hutchinson had been reading a biography of Ernest Hemingway that outlined his paranoia with law enforcement, the FBI included.
The coffee-shop encounter in Somerville, Massachusetts, lasted minutes; her anxiety about whether the moment was real or imagined would linger for years. She'd soon leave to tour Europe and her illness would worsen. She had shifted through big highs and lows before, never really acknowledging what was going on in her head. This was a whole new level.
Making a living as a folk singer is difficult enough. Mental illness makes everything that much harder.
People with bipolar disorder can control their condition with medication and often work at very high levels, said D.J. Jaffe, who runs the website mentalillnesspolicy.org... Continue reading...
Months before mental illness took over and steered her toward suicide, American folk singer and songwriter Meg Hutchinson was in line at her favourite coffee shop to order a latte. A man approached. He was serious and official-looking in a suit.
"I'm a fan," he said.
The stranger had seen her in concert. He loved her music and he said he worked for the FBI.
She was flattered. Her songs are emotional, personal. They draw a loyal audience. But an FBI agent? That was surprising.
There was something else. Hutchinson had been reading a biography of Ernest Hemingway that outlined his paranoia with law enforcement, the FBI included.
The coffee-shop encounter in Somerville, Massachusetts, lasted minutes; her anxiety about whether the moment was real or imagined would linger for years. She'd soon leave to tour Europe and her illness would worsen. She had shifted through big highs and lows before, never really acknowledging what was going on in her head. This was a whole new level.
Making a living as a folk singer is difficult enough. Mental illness makes everything that much harder.
People with bipolar disorder can control their condition with medication and often work at very high levels, said D.J. Jaffe, who runs the website mentalillnesspolicy.org... Continue reading...
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