Frank Wolfe Shines a Light into May as Mental Health Awareness Month

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Frank Wolfe of Royersford is someone who strives not once per year but every day in working to break the stigmas people carry in their minds about brains that operate differently than their own.

After graduating from high school in 1987, Wolfe enrolled at the main campus of Pennsylvania State University several hours northwest of his hometown in Montgomery County, through an academic scholarship.

“While there, my illness manifested itself slowly,” Wolfe explained. “My sleep routine was off, I gained a large amount of weight and I isolated. I plan to write more about this time of my life, as it’s relevant to many people.”

By the time he was 19 and no longer in college, doctors told Wolfe that he had bipolar disorder.

“Hearing bipolar was a thrill,” Wolfe said. “At the time, I had seen a newspaper article calling it the ‘Genius Disease.’ Since then, his condition has changed to schizo-affective disorder, and then most recently chronic paranoid schizophrenia.

Symptoms of CPS can be delusions, anxiety, paranoia and visual or audio hallucinations. But Wolfe said he’s never heard voices or seen anything that wasn’t real.

“I often catastrophize about minor particulars,” Wolfe said. “I stress out, worry and have severe anxiety about things I regret doing.”

And something he calls ‘fritzing’ used to happen more often, but thankfully, not as much recently.

“Occasionally, my mind goes blank, and social situations get incredibly awkward. It has to do with thinking deeply about important subjects. It sometimes happens onstage or at a family dinner,” Wolfe said in describing fritzing. “My mind spirals down into a black hole, and everything is in high relief. Fortunately, I am getting better at avoiding these episodes.”

Something Wolfe has dived into as a creative expression, a test of his talents and a way to better cope with the difficulties of his life through a positive recreational outlet—is standup comedy.

He’s talked a lot on stage about fighting with overeating and weight issues, as he once weighed close to 400 pounds but lost 160 of those in a two-year period, with the help of a support group.

His famed talk, “Love and Bagels,” matches the title of his latest book of self-published poetry. It’s something some locals know and identify with well in how he stitches metaphors into his stage-speak.

But Wolfe is using his time performing onstage to begin coming out about his mental illness, too.

And he notices that the very act of this and how he ends up connecting with others is therapeutic and balancing, bringing him considerable emotional fulfillment.

“I see ways to make people feel good, even if I am not in a good spot myself. I see the fragility of life and people. I imagine the bones beneath the skin. We are just crunchy bags of mush. Life is so tenuous,” he said. “I see connections that many people don’t see—the beauty in everyday. I realize people are rooting for me. They want to feel good and laugh. It’s a lot of hard work, but there is nothing like wowing an audience.”

Throughout his endeavors, Wolfe is blessed with an incredible support system, including Dr. Richard Liston, the founder and president of the Sphere College Project in Phoenixville.

The project is a financially accessible institution of higher learning for adults, with a focus on communication and community.

"I rank Wolfe among the most courageous and inspirational people I know," Liston said. "I look forward to the day when many, many others are able to benefit from his insights into the human condition."

And although it’s never been easy, Wolfe is growing more comfortable with telling people about the unique way of how his brain functions.

“Some think it’s cool. Some are curious,” he said about people’s responses when he tells them about how he’s different—something everyone really is, in their own way. “Some can’t believe it. Many people tell of their own illness or that of a friend or family member.”

He knows the stigma is still there, but Wolfe is all about flipping that on its lid with each new person he meets and through the funny and poignant way he tells uncommon jokes.

Wolfe will be doing standup comedy at in Phoenixville on Sunday, May 6 from 2 to 4 p.m. as part of an open mic fundraiser for the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Pennsylvania, in a performance called ‘Touched—by Mental Illness.’