Music for Mental Illness

Miller - 2019

For junior-senior seminar, we were asked to make extensive research over topics and activities that inspire us. Through my research, I discovered that several types of research have demonstrated that emotional instabilities are more common than what it seems around young adults and adults in our surroundings. Almost 10% of the population in the United States has suffered from deep depression and other types of emotional disorders. Most of the people that commit suicide or harm themselves are most likely suffering from stigmatization, therefore, they prefer not to reach out for professional help.

I tried to find a way to mix these two passions of mine for my project. With the help of my good friend Josue Gonzales, we realized that we wanted to make two short films and an EP. The story we wanted to portray in our media projects was the story of a young man that falls into depression and instead of reaching out for help, he falls into vices, denying his depressive state, thinking he will feel better that way. At the end of the story, he realizes that despite stigmas and potential micro discrimination from the people that know him, his best solution is to reach out for professional help. Due to lack of time and unforeseen circumstances, we decided to just focus on working on our album instead of the album and the short films at the same time.

I have always been interested in understanding how the human brain works and why some people end up feeling emotionally unstable after traumatic experiences. Additionally, I love producing music and singing, since I have been surrounded by it since I was a little kid. Being the grandson of the vice president of the Iglesia Pentecostal Unida de Colombia, opened my eyes to these two passions. I experienced cases when my grandfather helped hundreds of emotionally unstable people through his counseling, and I was also involved in the churches worshiping band.

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