My life is, by every objective measurement, very very good.
And in spite of all of that, I struggle every day with my self esteem, my self worth, and my value not only as an actor and writer, but as a human being.
That’s because I live with Depression and Anxiety, the tag team champions of the World Wrestling With Mental Illness Federation.
I caught the first episode of Table Top when it launched. It was so amazing that I went out and bought my first board game. And started a weekly game night that I’ve kept going ever since. I now have somewhere around 200 board games.
I used that game night to work on cooking challenges. Feed the people and they show.
Because of that show and it’s impact on my life I am now the Executive Chef at my hospital. I still run games every weekend. There was a butterfly effect started by that show that impacted my life and now the lives of everyone I feed. And everyone I introduce to board games.
You might struggle with self worth. But to me, a guy in Montana that you’ve never met, you’re the most influential and inspiring person I know of. Fyi.
To all the people listing their diagnosis by their abbrevations, do you want people to understand what you’re talking about? Do you expect people to google your shit to understand your point? Or is this just a dear diary moment?
Thank you for sharing. Anyone who says “you cannot feel” however is patently wrong. We all feel how we feel, and don’t need to justify those feeling to anyone. I grew up watching TNG, and Wesley has always been an inspiration to me. Especially seen in retrospect, that show, and it lessons, were very formative for who I am now. No matter how many blessings one has in this life, the world as it is can grind you down. You aren’t alone in your struggle.
He’s very privileged to have access to the care he has access to. My experience has been more like hearing the stuff his parents said to him, but from doctors. You’re so dramatic. You can’t possibly feel that bad, you look fine. You’re just lazy.
I’m very fortunate in that my parents mostly took my mental health issues seriously. We should all be so lucky. Where I was told I was exaggerating was pain from the dentist.
As an adult, my dentist told me that people with reddish hair (in my beard, not my mop) are less susceptible to Novocaine. She jacks me up with more than the standard dose and I’m fine. Teenaged me suffered badly at the hands of dentists.
But, getting back to the original topic, a specific mental illness seems to run in my family. I’m not the only one, so getting recognition has been more of a “I have the same experience.” I can’t imagine if I was the first and had parents who considered it alien.
We need to treat mental illness with compassion. Thank goodness I didn’t live during the era where it was expected that someone just toughen up and suppress their feelings or “be a man” about it.
Huh. I have (or had, it’s mostly grey now) red hair in my beard despite having so dark brown that it’s almost black hair on my head. I wonder if that’s why novocaine never seemed to work on me. I got two wisdom teeth taken out under gas and novocaine and I felt it. I don’t know why the dentist didn’t stop because I know I was struggling and not keeping my mouth open.
Wil, your candid and earnest discussion of mental health has been refreshing, uplifting, and honestly incredibly helpful while dealing with my own mental health
I don't have neither anxiety nor depression as own disorders. But I have ADHD, and it can bring home and rise anxiety and depression as honorary subdisorders. I have ASD too. And I know what anxiety is, because I had it while I wasn't diagnosed.
I speak from my own point of view, from an European country, so don't take this advice blindly. Wil is right, there is no need to be ashamed about telling what you suffer. People can be mean to you, but that's not your problem. That's theirs. Fortunately, society in my country is removing its blindfold regarding mental illnesses, thanks to other celebrities with mental illnesses, some politicians, and some media outlets.
Given the horror stories that come from even some of the best child actors, I’m wondering when the tech will reach the point that child figures in shows/movies can be played through filters/fx on an older actor.
I’m a huge star trek fan and had a major crush on Wesley Crusher when I was a kid in the 90s. I honestly had no idea his character was universally hated. Wesley is wonderful. Reading his blog made me so sad, he hated acting so much… wilwheaton.net/…/yes-i-was-forced-to-be-a-child-s…
I didn’t feel much about his character when I watched the show during the original run. I have read why people didn’t like Wesley and I sorta see it. He did basically take over every episode he was in. Somehow boy genius is there to save the day each and every time literally hundreds of experienced professionals failed.
In any case I think he did add to the show and Wil himself is a pretty cool guy.
I can’t prove it but I think that the plan for him was to connect Picard with Hornblower and all the writer changes of the first two seasons botched it up. Picard was supposed to be modeled after Hornblower (Patrick Stewart has confirmed this), problem is Hornblower was young in the novels. I think their solution was to pair him with a kid.
I’m a HUGE trekkie, and I loved the character. Maybe it makes a difference that we didn’t watch the show until it had been out for like 20 years, so we didn’t take it so seriously. We’d pause it and make fun of how Troy would inexplicably get blocked when it was convenient to the plot, how everyone said “SensORS,” Riker’s affable intergalactic ladies man persona, and yes, even the peppy Wesley Crusher with his runaway science experiments and ability to disappear for months at a time without anyone questioning it.
I wonder if Wil would consider a cameo on one of the new series? I know he says he hated it, but wouldn’t it be cathartic to kind of poke fun at that?
There’s like 5 new series that I’ve heard of, and I seem to hear a lot about how they’re revisiting old characters (although I haven’t seen any. I’m old and have no idea where to find them or what order to watch them in.) But Wil is just as much a part of the nostalgia as the rest of them, and his behind the scenes story makes me so sad. That was a Grade-A show, the only character I didn’t like was Q.
I get VERY overwhelmed with too many options, and avoid spoilers like the plague. We had a busy few years and when I started getting more and more Star Trek stuff in my news feeds (let them track me, I live for Sci fi,) I realized I was behind by FIVE new series! Now I don’t know where to start. Also hubs and I try to stick to 2 streaming services at a time (which right now is Netflix and Hulu but we can easily change that…) and had some trouble figuring out where to watch one of the new shows. Then I forgot about it, until yesterday!
If you have suggestions for what order and where to watch, I am VERY receptive. We need help!
I just thought it was funny that, of all the silly things you could’ve mentioned, you happened to pick one that was so explicitly lampshaded.
Anyway, I’d say that since you haven’t seen Enterprise you should watch that first before continuing on to the new series.
Honestly, I haven’t seen a lot of the new Trek yet myself: I’ve only watched Lower Decks and the first two seasons of Discovery so far (along with about a season and a half of The Orville, which counts just as much as Galaxy Quest does).
Of those three, I think Lower Decks is just flat-out great, The Orville is the most similar to TNG (aside from the occasional deliberately-awkward Seth MacFarlane humor, which thankfully diminishes after the first few episodes), and Discovery is begrudgingly okay, but is both superficially annoying in terms of aesthetic continuity with older series (e.g. the weird Klingons) and trying way too hard to be “epic.”
As for the rest, I’ve heard good things about Strange New Worlds, bad things about Picard, and Prodigy is kinda off by itself in a separate category because it’s targeted at kids.
As for where to watch, I think everything’s on Paramount+ now, but I just got a hard drive full of “historical documents” from an acquaintance.
Thank you! I get kind of overwhelmed with too many options. I love TNG and voyager, DS9 was okay, we never watched Enterprise and just cherry picked episodes from the original. I love the lore. I really want to get into it again but at last count there were FIVE new shows (including at least one animated one, I think?) and that was too many options for my brain to handle. I really will take any and all advice, thank you!
Yeah. It's a bit overwhelming. For a long time there was nothing, now there's so many.
There are actually two animated shows. Both are good, but Lower Decks is the one you want to watch first. Short funny episodes, for adults with fond memories of classic Trek. Ideal for casual viewing. Inside jokes, etc. ST Prodigy is the other show. That's aimed more at young adults with a hint of a Star Wars Clone Wars / Rebels vibe.
Strange New Worlds is more serious, with more arcs, but also really great. Probably the best in a long while. TV that'll give you a warm glow. Great stand-alone episodes too. Like a TOS combined with TNG at its best. They also recently did a cross-over episode with Lower Decks, to give you an idea.
Both made by true Trekkies, who loved the series. Jonathon Frakes/Riker has directed plenty of episodes, IRC.
There's also Picard. The first two seasons were a bit rough, and quite dark. The third season is much better, like a TNG movie combined with Voyager, but still more adult and also with a season long arc. That does have a lot of cameos from old regulars though. Riker, Beverly, Warf, Deanna, Data, Seven, etc.
I hated Wesley as a kid, for most of the reasons Wil has detailed in various places over the years, and also did not like Wil because of the association.
That changed after reading some of his posts from the early 00s. I’d gone specifically to laugh at him for being a failure and came away a big fan of his.
I credit Wil’s blog for helping me grow as a human. I got his books as well. Very good reads all of them.
Yeah, it’s a strange feeling having a dislike for someone then realising how absurd it is and that they’re actually a pretty cool person, He was a pretty good actor too by TNG standards, I think that his character was more believable was part of what made the bad writing stand out so much.
I started reading but couldn’t get past “I want to warn you that this talk touches on many triggering subjects” because I got triggered. I really hope that more sites implement pre-triggering trigger warning. :(
I guess so. There really should be more safe spaces for people who trigger easily. Life’s hard as it is. A lot of us just see a word “trigger” and get triggered. I got twice just writing this.
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