Talking the Mental Health Stigma Away: John Mayer & Glenn Close

John Mayer's new album cover : LOVE the funky hair.

I watched The View today, which I pretty much NEVER do. But holy bananas am I glad I had tuned into the show. They had Glenn Close and Jessie Close on the show, who are promoting Bring Change 2 Mind. They showed a clip of the PSA Glenn and Jessie did. It is SO moving to watch. The song featured in the PSA is “Say”- John Mayer. A perfect song. It was shot in Grand Central Station, shot by Ron Howard and everyone you see in the video struggles with mental illness or is affected by it in some way (which is more people in your daily life than you might think).

Jessie Close wears a T-shirt that says “bi-polar,” Glenn Close one that says “sister.” Their children also appear in the ad.

“It was intimidating, but I was proud to do it,” Jessie Close said. “There has been too much silence about this.”

“We wanted to be totally authentic. We wanted people in it who are supporting those who have mental illness, or who have mental illness,” the actress said. “In that ad, everybody you’ll see is actually a family with mental illness, whether it’s depression or PTSD or schizophrenia.”

You can watch the Glenn Close PSA at ABC.com.

“We’re getting more and more sophisticated medication,” Glenn Close said. “We need to keep people with mental illness living full and productive and creative lives.”

Her sister’s message to others is to “be patient with yourself, love yourself” and to rely on the support of family and friends.

I think the biggest thing to realize about mental illness is that it is a lifelong struggle for many. You don’t just pop some pills and get better. Often you’ll be taking those pills all of your life, and they don’t automatically work. It’s a process where patience is key. And while many people can be helped within months of starting their journey into mental health wellness, you should not feel defeated if you don’t have it happen for you like that.

I wanted to talk about the song, also! While the song Say by John Mayer was written for the movie The Bucket List, it works so well for the Bring Change to Mind campaign. He called the movie an “emotional powerhouse” and has also said “I only want to take the big challenges on”. Again, that’s why this fits so well. The song is about opening up and talking about what you need to, which is exactly what you need to do with mental health. While I almost revised my title for this post to say ‘Talking and Singing the Mental Heath Stigma Away’ I realized Mayer’s song really is about talking – so there you go.

John Mayer Say Lyrics:

Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems,
Better put ’em in quotations

Say what you need to say [x8]

Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you’d be better off instead,
If you could only . . .

Say what you need to say [x8]

Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You’d better know that in the end
Its better to say too much
Then never say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open

Say what you need to say [x24]