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Insanity Comes to Mind: How Justin Briggs Turned Mental Health Struggles into Art and Advocacy
- Dawson Wagner
- 28 minutes ago
- 6 min read
When Justin Briggs started writing his memoir on mental health, Insanity Comes to Mind, he wasn’t seeking to inspire or instruct-he was trying to survive.
"I didn’t plan on selling a book. I didn’t plan on writing a book, it literally felt like the last option I had at one point," Briggs said in an interview on Wildcat 91.9.
"It really was like write a book or give up on life. I would hate for anyone to have to make that decision, and I would not wish what happened to me on my worst enemies."
Briggs’ journey from the margins of his own mind to the shelves of the Little Apple's Dusty Bookshelf is not just a story of personal endurance. It’s a testament to the power of art as both therapy and advocacy-a theme that resonates deeply during this month of Mental Health Awareness.
Finding Belonging in the “Weird”
A Manhattan native, Briggs describes his early years as a search for belonging among the "Weird people." saying that "The oddballs are my crew." Talking about how he has found comfort in Manhattan’s diversity, calling it "the most diverse place I’ve ever lived per capita." The sense of community, he's found here is what he said has shaped his art and worldview.
Despite working at "20 different businesses in Aggieville" during high school and college, Briggs said he never imagined his book would end up on the shelves of the Dusty Bookshelf.
"I always thought it would be cool to work there. They never hired me. So now that my books are on the shelf, it’s a roundabout way of still being here." - Justin Briggs
Writing as Survival, Not Self-Help
Briggs is clear that Insanity Comes to Mind is not a self-help book."It is a memoir on mental health. It’s not a memoir on life or how to fix your mental health," he explains. "I wrote it for three reasons: self-therapy, therapy for anyone who may read it, and to become a published author."
The process of writing became a form of self-extraction. "By writing something down, it’s almost like a way of taking it out of the space that is conscious or subconscious and putting it into frame of reference. Like, this [book] is no longer in my head. It’s now something that happened, and I can move past it or I can evaluate it or I can ignore it or I can light it on fire and throw it away. You know? But that’s not what I chose to do with the memoir."
Briggs first released the memoir as free audio on Patreon, and within six months, it had over a thousand listens-even before publication. "I figured I had something," he said. "It’s just, you know, it’s a story of survival, and I have been asked if I will write the recovery story or a second memoir on mental health, and I would prefer to never have to do that again."
Confronting Crisis and Systemic Failures
Briggs does not shy away from the darker realities of mental illness, including his diagnosis of schizoaffective bipolar disorder.
"My diagnosis… allows me to connect too many dots. I make too much meaning of the menial as I wrote in the book. But you can read the book yourself and connect whatever dots you want."
One of the tipping points in his memoir’ that Briggs discussed was a chapter called "Tweet Storm," that captures how online outrage can spiral into personal crisis. "I literally went insane," Briggs recalls of seeing a traumatic video involving a police officer online. "All that ends up doing is drawing attention to you as a problem from what I have experienced." His actions-tweeting the video to everyone from the UN to major corporations-eventually led to a suspension from Twitter and a visit from law enforcement.
(If you wish to know what happens next you'll have to read the book for yourself.)
Briggs uses his story to highlight systemic issues in mental health care."The way mental health is handled in this country, we put police officers in the way of people who are otherwise in a crisis… Their job shouldn’t be to address a mental health concern." He sees this as a recurring theme "We’ve put the responsibility of mental health crises on a part of the government that really isn’t designed to deescalate situations. They’re designed to resolve situations, and that creates a conflict that you’ll see time and time again in the book."
The Cost of Survival
Briggs is open about the consequences of untreated mental illness and the limitations of the mental health system.
"The consequences of not handling my mental health are dire, is really what the point of the book is," he says. "Whether you’re a 12-year-old kid… or a 60-year-old grandmother… you can read the book, and you can get a little insight. I’m not trying to answer any questions for anybody, really. I’m just trying to give people like me someone else they can look at and say, I’m not alone.
Medication, he notes, is both a necessity and a challenge. "I need medication that is so powerful, it affects the way my body functions. I have side effects that other people see a doctor for simply to take medication that I have to take to be able to hold this conversation with you."
He describes periods of being "literally zombified" by medication, and the ongoing need for vigilance "Medication requires twenty-four-seven consciousness of what your body is doing."
Art as Advocacy and Connection
Briggs’ creative output didn’t stop with his memoir. His latest book, Burnout, is a collection of haiku-a form he describes as "literally like a mental health exercise." The short format, he says, "helps me stay within a structure that would otherwise be chaos in my brain or expression." Writing, for Briggs, is not just survival-it’s a way to connect with others and advocate for change.
"There’s something very human about expressing yourself in the written word, whether that’s pen to paper, on a computer, on your cell phone, to no one, or to yourself,” he said.
Toward a Future of Advocacy
Briggs is now channeling his experiences into broader advocacy, contributing to platforms like Brainz Magazine and yuvoice.org, where he writes about mental health from the perspective of lived experience. "I’m already writing articles for them so that they can roll out media, from around the world," he said. The goal is to empower people-especially those burnt out on traditional social media-to make tangible change and share what's happening in their communities.
Despite the hardships of the beginning stages of becoming an author, Briggs emphasized that "failing early" and "failing often" has been his "guideline for writing" as he has started to write more for platforms like yuvoice and Brainz Magazine. Listen to the full interview for more details on when Justin plans to publish his next line of books.
“I Survived. That’s the Point.”
As Mental Health Awareness Month invites reflection, Justin Briggs’ journey stands as a powerful example of how art can transform suffering into solidarity and advocacy. "I survived. That’s the point," he said simply. "Without writing that book, I wouldn’t have real confidence at this point in my life. I would be living in a house in someone’s basement dead at my own hands potentially, or at least not in this interview, you know, supporting a business that I own."
For those seeking understanding or simply a story of survival, Insanity Comes to Mind is an invitation to look closer-at ourselves, at each other, and at the systems that shape our lives.
As Briggs puts it "Mental health is something everyone has. If you can hear me right now, you have mental health. If it’s bad to a disabling point, you have mental illness."
His story, and his art, remind us that the act of telling the truth-even when it’s uncomfortable-can be the first step toward healing, for ourselves and for our communities.
For more information about Justin and his story visit https://www.justinhenrybriggs.com/
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