Meet Issa Ibrahim

We recently connected with Issa Ibrahim and have shared our conversation below.

Issa, we are so deeply grateful to you for opening up about your journey with mental health in the hopes that it can help someone who might be going through something similar. Can you talk to us about your mental health journey and how you overcame or persisted despite any issues? For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

I developed mental illness following a severe marijuana addiction. I was smoking so much to cope with the toxic racial environment of New York City in the late 1980s. Those stressors in addition to losing my father to cancer and watching my black middle class life fall through the cracks into borderline poverty created a perfect storm for addiction and mental illness. With no support, and feeling the stigma against mental health that I too fostered, my illness went unchecked until it was too late. I suffered a paranoid schizophrenic meltdown culminating in the accidental, unintended death of my mother. I was apprehended and sent through the system, perhaps fortunate to be given the Insanity Plea and remanded to the NY State Department of Mental Health.
My family could not understand and continue to blame me, shame me, and abuse me for what happened. As a result I cut them off for my well being. I am fortunate to have acquired friends and loved ones who are now my chosen family, who understand mental illness and accept me and forgive me for my past misdeeds, understanding that it was an unintended homicide.
So I must say that it is my small circle of supporters and my own self-forgiveness that allowed me to overcome and continue on the path of wellness. I am a very blessed and fortunate case of someone whose life took a tragic and traumatic turn, was dealt with by the system, often times horribly for 20 years, but remained hopeful and optimistic. This is because of friends, loved ones, and the love of my mother, knowing that she would understand that I never intended to harm her and that she wouldn’t want me to suffer for the rest of my life on the back wards of an asylum.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I was blessed to have my 20 years of writing while in the asylum compiled in a memoir that was published in 2016 by Chicago Review Press as ‘The Hospital Always Wins’. It turns out to be the very first published writings by an African American from behind the walls of an insane asylum. I have garnered good notices for my artwork, created in and out of the hospital, as part of an HBO documentary, several indie docs, and on various news media such as NPR.
I also have a large catalog of songs and albums recorded in captivity available for all to listen to and purchase on various professional music streaming services. After 20 years I continue to make and release music, creating my own cottage industry, mainly because I love to do so and share it with those who will dig it.
As I was born into a creative bohemian household, my dad being a professional jazz musician and my mother being an artist, the arts are in my blood. I would not want to do anything else. I was born to it.
I am very happy to be a member/artist of Fountain House Gallery, the premier gallery representing artists with serious mental illness. They have given me a voice, a focus and a community which I value.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I believe the three most important things that helped me most having a creative mind, which allowed me to view the situations I found myself in different and interesting ways, not only just dire and depressing.
Also having hope. No matter how bad it appeared, and trust me it was bad at various times, I always knew that it would pass and get better, like a wound, it would heal and go away.
Most importantly was my openness and ability to make friends. I knew I could not do this alone and that friends, acquaintances and being social are the vital glue to a healthy and happy life.
So my best advice is to come out of those comfort zones if at all possible and try to make friends, try to see the best in people, and hopefully they will see the best in you.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

By just allowing me to be an artist in full, from writing on the walls of the family home on crayon as a child to letting me bloom as an artist painting murals of my favorite pop singers on my bedroom wall as a teenager, they never stopped me. They even encouraged me, commenting on how well I was coming along and how good the painting had turned out. I knew I was on my way when they allowed me to attend the High School of Art & Design in NYC. Now, almost 50 years later, I am a professional artist who has received many accolades and am confident in what I do, all thanks to the shepherding and lack of restrictions from my artist parents.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.issaibrahim.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/issaibrahim065/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/issa.ibrahim.12/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@IssaIbrahim
• Soundcloud: IssaIbrahim1