This past week Columbia Psychiatry hosted its annual Gray Matters Luncheon. With the Plaza ballroom filled to capacity, Patrick Roche silenced the clanking of silverware and even halted the checking of cell phone texts and emails with his vivid and visceral poetry about mental illness.
Click the links below to hear from this extraordinary artist and advocate for mental health how staggering beauty and ravaging pain live side-by-side.
1. Couples Therapy: “Every Thursday I go to couples therapy with my depression …”
2. Every 40 Seconds: “In 2014 the WHO released a report stating that at least 800,000 people commit suicide every year ….”
3. 21: “My father is run over by a car. He’s passed out in the road with a blood alcohol 4x over the legal limit. I do not cry…”
4. Hocus Pocus: “I love Hocus Pocus. I always have ….”
5. The Perfect Panic Attack: “Instructions on having the perfect panic attack: Find a trigger ….”
