The founder of “Stand Up for Mental Health” was in Fort Frances over the weekend for the second-annual comedy night staged by the local branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
David Granirer developed the company in order to use comedy as a means of empowering people with mental illness.
“In the mental health system, we lack creative ways of reaching out to people,” Granirer noted.
Granirer, who was candid about having his own mental illness, has a deeper understanding of some of the issues regarding mental health because he, himself, has had to deal with a lot of the problems his clients have expressed to him.
“I also have a mental illness, I suffer from depression so I am one of them. . . .
“People tell me afterwards, ‘Wow, those people seem really cool, I really like those people,’ which is a completely different reaction when you tell someone you have a mental illness,” Granirer added.
He believes his company helps people come to terms with their mental illness. “When you have a mental illness, you often carry around a lot of shame,” he explained.
“Not just about having the mental illness, but also about things that have happened to you . . . things that you’ve done over the years.”
Granirer has seen the therapeutic effects of his work in people that have participated in workshops and the show itself.
“When you’re able to talk about things that have happened to you through stand-up comedy, and have people laugh and applaud, it diffuses that shame and you start to think, ‘I’m not such a bad person after all,’” he said.
Presentations on mental illness and depression are, in his opinion, “so depressing” and he sees his way of bringing awareness to the problem as something that’s much more hopeful.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
