[JoeS21]

Since I was suffering from test anxiety around Halloween 2014, I missed out on some excellent spook alleys. So finally, I was googling and youtubing them to see what I missed. Then, I realized that these spook alleys are nowhere near as scary or unique as they could be. If done well, a spook alley where visitors walk into a mind struggling with severe mental illness could both raise awareness to the trouble that some people face, and provide a very uniquely scary spook alley. (Examples skipped to avoid creating potentially triggering material.)

What do you think of this?

(Proceeds could go to a good cause related to mental health.)

I think it would be awesome if someone could walk through my brain. They might learn something.

[LindaLu]

Personally I think it's distasteful insofar as it could serve to further stigmatize the mentally ill, and portray them as "other." Just think of the average person who is inclined to discriminate and dismiss others to begin with.

[lizardlady]

Sounds like it would feed into the stereotype that the mentally ill are "scary." I like the idea of making it possible for others to experience what mental illness is like, but not in a scary way, maybe an interactive museum display?

[IchbinkeinTeufel]

I think it could be seen as both... personally, I see it as both ways at the same time. I would both be offended and thankful for such a thing. 'o.O That's a weird one. Perhaps it depends on the people involved... like I could imagine some people going there to take the piss out of us.

[Ruftin]

Originally Posted by Zwangsstörung

I think it could be seen as both... personally, I see it as both ways at the same time. I would both be offended and thankful for such a thing. 'o.O That's a weird one. Perhaps it depends on the people involved... like I could imagine some people going there to take the piss out of us.

I agree!!

[krisakira]

I was thinking more about a haunted house being a learning tool for what it is like to be schizophrenic or something. With the hallucinations of monsters and voices. That sounds kinda neat and terrifying.

[Webgoji]

A haunted house about mental illness ... seems like it's drawing a parallel. Intentional or not. It could be great, but I think it would have to be very, very carefully built in my opinion to just not reinforce the stereotypes and misinformation.

[splitimage]

I think it's not the best idea, although well intentioned. I think it would simply reinforce stereotypes of the mentally ill as scary, dangerous, and the other.

splitimage

[LindaLu]

Originally Posted by krisakira

I was thinking more about a haunted house being a learning tool for what it is like to be schizophrenic or something. With the hallucinations of monsters and voices. That sounds kinda neat and terrifying.

That is interesting. A neighbor used to work for the VA and as part of sensitivity training, staff were asked to put on glasses smudged with gasoline, stop up,their ears with cotton, tie shoelaces together, wear heavy gloves and then navigate a room as an older adult with disability might do. She did this decades ago and she remembers it vividly and with empathy.

[einsam]

I think you could avoid being distasteful if you were a good combination of general and creative. Simply making rooms to show states or symptoms of mental illness as a "scare" could stigmatize it, but simulating something like a panic attack with creative room and environment design doesn't really point to the struggling themselves as carriers of something terrifying and other.

Doesn't sound very Halloween-y, though.

[Beowulf]

I agree in that it is how one creates the spooky house and would have to be done carefully. Just in the way that a play or novel could be taken in different ways depending on how it is presented...but I do think it could be brilliant and could allow others to understand. Not in a way that says "oh the mentally ill are scary" because that is not true, but that says "wow I did not know that the world could be seen like that by others, now I get it". I dont know.