Sean Astin from ‘Stranger Things’ talks about mental health issues at Penn State event: ‘I’m here because of my mother’

Hollywood star Sean Astin spent about 10 minutes breaking the ice with an audience of more than 350 people at Penn State Harrisburg on Thursday before he got serious about growing up the son of acclaimed actress Patty Duke, who lived her life with bipolar disorder.

He met with media before the one-hour event, “An Evening with Sean Astin.” After he spoke, he fielded questions for about 20 minutes and then ended the night by taking photos and signing autographs. Astin, 48, said he wants to continue advocating for mental health in honor of his mom, who passed away in 2016.

His talent has spanned generations. He has been in hits like “The Goonies,” “Rudy,” “50 First Dates,” “The Lord of the Rings” and “Stranger Things.”

The big screen, and a series, has not only given him advantages in life but has also given him a wider reach when talking about a sensitive subject such as mental health. He said he sees value in following the path his mom pioneered.

"I’m here because of my mother,” Astin said in an interview. "My mother suffered half of her life from bipolar disorder.”

During his presentation, he spoke from the heart, instead of reading a 5,000-word document he said he spent time preparing. He referred to it a handful of times, but chose to share personal stories of what it was like to be on the other end, tearful and confused, when his mom’s personality would instantly change.

"I can’t remember a time when she didn’t have a mental health condition,” he said in an interview.

Nearly 40 years ago, Astin’s mom was diagnosed with manic depression before the term bipolar disorder was coined by doctors. When presented a check list of the illness’s symptoms, Astin said he could mark each one of them off, from being bad with money, to being promiscuous, to attempting to commit suicide for attention.

The disease’s duality had a complex effect on his family mostly because of Duke’s fame. Publicly, people who related to Duke thanked her for speaking out about mental health. Privately, Astin said it was emotional to be on the lookout for her next mood swing.

"Her reputation and her advocacy were ahead of her experience,” Astin said.

Love was never absent, though, he noted.

Advances in the mental health community, he said, have pushed the subject matter to a new plateau. Exceptional research has surfaced that wasn’t around in the 1980s, as well as how psychiatrists and counselors broach mental health.

The days of using “padded rooms and shock therapy” are nearly obsolete, he said. The new way of embracing patients seems to implement "humility,” he added.

"Nowadays, people go to CVS to pick up their meds for their mom and get their own,” he continued. “The stigma is vastly less than what it used to be.”

But, it isn’t over. He shared the following comparison.

Astin said a man who falls off a ladder and breaks his arm in two places has a story to tell. A person who is told he or she has a mental health illness doesn’t have a story. The story ends with sharing the news of the diagnosis.

Despite progress, there is still a difference between people wanting to know details about the pain a person endured when they fell off a ladder, and what an everyday pain — depression for example — is doing to someone, although it might not be visible.

"The key is for people to feel comfortable enough that they are able to go to seek the treatment they need so arriving at a diagnosis is a partnership between the medical field and the person who is in need,” Astin said.

When questions began, several audience members asked what they can do to help someone else who may be struggling. Counselors were made available for students at the end.

While the actor was able to insert moments of levity, mentioning films he’s been in or that he worked on a set with Steven Spielberg, he listened intently to each question asked of him.

He pressed upon three things that anyone can focus on to improve his or her wellness journey: good nutrition, exercise regularly, and sleep. When helping someone who is linked to a mental health illness, he encouraged people to not give up but to proceed with caution.

"You can only do so much,” he said. “There are three big words that I use: compassion, which is a given; liability...the force of liability in our medical culture is a very suppressive force on peoples’ ability to think through some of these issues; and uncertainty.”

He continued: "We’re in an uncertain space, and that can be paralyzing. If people are given a get-out-of-jail-free card, you can develop a certain conversation with people and with each other from a position of safety. People have to feel OK, they need to be able to feel OK to say those words depression or mental health challenge. We are on that level, but now we need to go one step further.”

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