WEBVTT

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- I had pretty much spent
a lot of time studying

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and hadn't really
spent a lot of time

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exploring other
interests of mine.

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Prior to starting med school,

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one of my mentors told me

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they thought I needed
a different outlet

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besides just medicine.

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(upbeat electronic music)

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My name's Carmen Aguirre.
I go by VJ Neurite.

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I'm creating a show file.

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I'm going through
a list of the songs

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that are gonna be played

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and coming up with
what visual look

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we're going to have on stage.

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I got into doing visuals

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the year before I
started med school.

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Found it really fun and started
doing it as just a hobby,

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slowly developed into something
I kind of had not predicted.

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- Let's go.

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(upbeat music)

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- The uniqueness of
being a med student,

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VJ has really taught
me the importance

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of having balance in life.

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Understanding that
balance is so important

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for helping your patients
find that balance.

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(upbeat music)

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When I first started med school,

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was the first time I
experienced a lot of anxiety

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and things like that.

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I had never really
experienced that before,

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like severe anxiety, and
VJing gave me an outlet

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to treat that anxiety.

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And so I think one does not
exist without the other, for me.

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This is a creative monster.
This is a sleepy monster.

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For me, I really define or
think, in terms of disability,

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I think a lot about
mental health.

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This is a happy monster.

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(chuckles)

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In COVID, I got into
the NFT community

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and was making digital art

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and I came up with a concept

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for really wanting to address
mental health in children.

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Sad monster.

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When COVID hit, we saw
a five times increase

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in the amount of kids

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that were coming into
the emergency room

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with mental health complaints.

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Sometimes it's
hard to communicate

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the types of emotions
you're having,

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so my idea was coming up
with these little monsters

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that each represented
a different emotion.

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The goal around the project

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was really to bring attention

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to talking about
emotions and feelings.

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What I found was it was
not just a valuable tool

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with kids and mental health,

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but also people that had
difficulties communicating.

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So this could be people
with language barriers,

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people with, who may be
neurodiverse.

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Confused monster,
I like this one.

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I did a rotation at a hospital,

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and this is something
I don't like to admit,

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but like the staff was arguing

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about who was going to
have to take the patient

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with a mental health disorder.

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It didn't come from
a place of hatred,

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it just came from a place
of not understanding.

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I created a whole like
emotional support pet,

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so all of the
monsters have pets.

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My own experiences
with mental health

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as well as like my
experiences in rotations,

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really changed my course
in what I wanted to study.

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Because initially I was
planning to do neurosurgery

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and neurology, and it guided me

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into wanting to do mental
health and psychiatry.

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Medicine, it's very set up
to cater towards an average

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rather than an
individualized care plan.

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I don't think it's always
very successful as a result,

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because we're all so
unique and diverse.

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And I think it also alienates
the most diverse people

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from getting the type
of care that they need.

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This is a shy monster.

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If we can break
down the barriers

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of seeing things
in a certain box,

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then we can kind of progress

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towards a better
future in medicine.

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(calm music)

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- [Announcer] This program
was produced in collaboration

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with the Center for
the Art of Medicine

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at the University of
Minnesota Medical School.

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And funded by the Minnesota
Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund

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and the citizens of Minnesota.

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(calm music)