Funny Story Reflection

As explored in my previous reflection, I will continue to follow Craig Gilner’s journey in It’s Kind of a Funny Story as it relates to adolescence and resilience. With adolescence being a time of transition and adjustment, resilience is very important for one’s mental health and wellbeing. The term resilience refers to one’s ability to healthily cope with challenges. One’s gender identity may influence the strategies one ultimately adopts, or is expected to adopt, through externalization or internalization. Despite it being easy to assume that one is better than the other, both have the potential of promoting and denying growth.

To externalize or internalize a problem means to direct the problem inward or outward, respectively. For instance, in It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Noelle, Bobby and Aaron all choose to

I had not seen it as much of an issue until first year when it was impacting my relationships, work and school. I began taking medication, went to counselling and began making self-care a priority. For so long, I was letting the thoughts and emotions within myself control my life and despite my way of coping being in line with my gender expectation, I certainly struggled with the general stigma associated with mental illness. The fact the stress and sadness are common experiences for all humans made it difficult for me to understand that I indeed had a disorder and that what I was experiencing was not normal. It was also very hard for me to reach out because everyone thought I was okay. People did not always believe me nor did they think that what I was feeling was an actual problem. I cannot imagine what it would have been like had I challenged the gender norms and let’s say, for example, acted more impulsively or engaged in risk taking behaviors. I would not be surprised if I were to encounter comparable unpleasant