FINE
When Madison and Blake meet in the waiting room of their therapist Alyssa’s office, they embark on a friendship that leads to much more than either of them could ever imagine. Throughout the play, Alyssa also contemplates her personal and professional successes and shortcomings, while grappling with her own crucial life choices. FINE is a drama about mental health challenges, and the individuals living with these common human issues.
Honors - 2017 Recipient, Marilyn Swartz Seven Playwriting Award
Performance History –
2021 - Unstaged Podcast Recording – listen to Part 1 and Part 2 + a talkback!
2018 - Workshop, International Human Rights Art Festival, The Wild Project
2017 - Staged Reading, Martel Theater, Vassar College
2017 - Award Presentation, Streep Studio, Vassar College
Playwright’s Note from 2018 Workshop -
If you google “Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder”, the third most asked question is “Is ednos a real eating disorder?”
Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder (previously known as Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) is one of the least known eating diagnoses, but accounts for up to 75% of individuals with eating disorders. Insurance coverage used to commonly be denied, when individuals with this very real, very dangerous disorder sought treatment.1
Individuals with Other Specified, or Not Otherwise Specified Disorders, do not meet the strict diagnostic criteria for disorders like anorexia nervosa, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive order, etc. Yet they still have very real mental health issues that are often not taken very seriously at all. All because of their diagnosis.
To me, that simple three letter “all encompassing” abbreviation, “NOS”, is so utterly dismissive. We may have evolved past a time when this diagnosis could lead to a denial in insurance coverage, but this diagnosis still denies individuals of a basic, essential right: validation. In my experience, it’s very difficult to take active steps towards recovery when society has convinced you that there is nothing wrong with you. Because you’re not thin enough. Or big enough. Or sick enough. Or sad enough. Or anxious enough. You don’t fit into the strict diagnostic criteria in a book.
When kids are sneezing and coughing, we don’t dismiss their very real physical symptoms because they don’t meet the strict criteria of the common cold or the flu. We do everything we can to help them feel better. We immediately acknowledge their discomfort and pain. We don’t say things like “Just try to change your frame of mind.”
I don’t know how to fix this problem, or shatter the stigma. I don’t know how to unweave the complexities of Not Otherwise Specified disorders, and the truth is that no one really can. Because everyone experiences mental illness and mental health issues differently. But amidst all of this ‘other-ness’ and our differences, one thing remains the same:
We all experience these common, human issues. Diagnosis or not.
“Specified” or not.
1 https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/learn/by-eating-disorder/osfed
2 https://eatingdisorder.org/eating-disorder-information/osfed/
Photos by Steve Pisano