Recommended doc for autistic family and friends: "Dad's in Heaven with Nixon"

The title's as odd and perplexing as the complex family portrait that plays out from simple summers in South Hampton to the eventual diagnosis of autism in one of its youngest.

When I recorded the documentary (airing on Showtime) it was described as "A woman ensures that her autistic young son will become an independent adult."  Well, only someone with a particular interest in the subject is likely to respond to this.  Let's just say I do a lot of reading on the subject because of some of my own relationships.

But the fact is, and I don't mean this as an insult, the film's main subject (Christopher Murray) is the closest thing to Forrest Gump as I've ever seen; hell, the entire film is a love letter from his brother Tom. 

Sure there's early misunderstanding of Chris' condition --- autism is relatively new to the medical vernacular, after all --- but his seeming limitations end up translating the world into an artful, beautiful place of blue skies, puffy clouds and sturdy buildings.

And some freakin' impressive celebrity fans!

Seriously, you can't believe who pops up in there. There's a better description of the documentary written by a random IMDB contributor. It still doesn't quite capture all that happens in the brief hour and twenty-five minutes, but it ain't bad.

Read IMDB's more robust plot summary.

There's also a fan page on Facebook if you want to "like" the movie. While the caliber of the actual film may not be on par with a true Hanks/Zemeckis team-up, it'll definitely lift your spirits and remind you to appreciate the simplicity of life and family.

And to be frank, it almost makes you wish you could borrow that autistic lens to look at the world every now and then.

Kay Redfield Jamison risked everything to talk about her mental illness

I discovered Kay Redfield Jamison during a voracious consumption of memoirs in 2009.  I undertook most of the memoir readings as both examples and support once I made the decision to write my own medical narrative.

Although I myself do not suffer from any discrete mental illness, due to circumstance I've always taken a strong interest in issues of the mind.

And so, the title of her first memoir grabbed me and I plunked down my credit card eagerly, only to return a week later and purchase her follow-up that chronicles the grief of losing a spouse.  It's certainly on par with Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking," with an acknowledged dash of crazy mixed in.

As it turns out, "An Unquiet Mind" was Kay's own poetic speak for bi-polar disorder. But the soul-baring confessions of her manic depression nearly overshadowed the most shocking part --- her professional credentials:

Kay Redfield Jamison
Professor of Psychiatry
Co-Director Mood Disorders Center
The Johns Hopkins Hospital
John Hopkins School of Medicine

There are some truly awe-inspiring interviews with Dr. Jamison available throughout the online universe (video and audio). I would like to recommend this one as an introduction because I think it covers some pretty major territories in 25 minutes or less.
Listen for free.

I'd also like to take a moment to commend her for her courage in speaking so frankly about her extremely private life as a way of helping other people. Personally, I plan to focus many of my own confessions on medicine's other dirty little secret --- pain. 

But believe me, there are infractions aplenty on my own medical rap sheet (thereby germinating a book).  And it's thanks to people like Montel, Michael J. and Kay that it's a lot less scary to tell it.