I am going to digress away from the norm in today’s Hydrapinion to touch on a subject that is rather close to my heart. I hope you dear reader, are not too disappointed and will bear with me.

The business of film-making and its component tasks can at times be a little lonely. Writers hide themselves away awaiting the inspirational spark, editors tuck themselves into their dimly lit editing suites and beaver away for untold hours cutting and dicing, special effects bods play around with After Effects and other compositing products and 3D artists push and pull polygons.

You might sneak out once in a while to top up the coffee mug or brew another pot of tea, all too often we ingest Red Bull-like drinks in far too much quantity and more often than not, we work until all hours of the night on these labours of love.

So while we have people around us, as we live in this fantasy like world of film creation, we are very much alone in many cases, with our ideas, thoughts, and problems.

Some time ago, there was a campaign put in place by Beyond Blue suggesting that once in a while, we check our mates and ask the question “Are you OK?” I absolutely endorse this. I recall a few years ago on previously broaching this subject having a faint acquaintance contacting me via email and thanking me as they had seriously been considering taking their own life. They had gone past the point of coping and apparently I had jolted them to seek professional help. I understand they are now well on the way to recovery. (I know “they” is not grammatically correct here BTW. I am using it to hide the gender to stop any speculation of “who”).

But I’d like to flip the question a bit; instead of asking “Are you OK”, why not once in a while ask “Am I OK?” And be brutally honest. Evaluate your life, what you are doing, ascertain whether some things have got out of hand or even out of control and do a mental check list.

There is a technique called mind mapping that can assist here.

It may just stop you going down a road inadvertently that can be a little hard to reverse out of without some serious guidance.

And that can happen to all of us.