Houston-based streaming show strives to break mental health stigmas
HOUSTON - One in five people suffers from a mental illness, which equals about 50 million people in the U.S.
A group of Houston-area actors and production crew is producing a show called Breaking Strongholds to try to break the silence and offer help to lower those painful numbers. It's a streaming mystery-based drama addressing serious cultural issues.
"Suicide, depression, abandonment, and spiritual darkness. There's some deception that it addresses also, but very serious topics. We address those in an entertaining way that engages the audience and really, really keeps their attention," explains lead actor, Terry Weaver, about the faith-based show.
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"For me, this is the purpose project. There are a lot of people who believe that there's no hope. There's a lot of hopelessness today for a lot of different reasons, but we want to combat that, and we want to share a message, and we're going to do that through Breaking Strongholds," exclaims Terry.
The entire team is from the Houston area and the entire show is produced in the Bayou City area.
"I think that Houston is really an untapped area for media production for high-quality movies and shows. I mean, Houston is beautiful! There are some really cool iconic things that are Houston. So, the setting's great, the talent's here, and there's just a lot of opportunity. I think that this show is going to get people excited, and they're going to be surprised by watching and see what was done here. We want to encourage people; we want to minister to the brokenhearted. We want to shine light on very dark issues. One of our anchor verses is John 1:5 that says light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot comprehend it or cannot overcome it, is what some translations say. We think that this show is really going to shine light on some very dark issues and it's going to encourage a lot of people," says Terry.
Terry says it's not only interesting to watch, but the hope is, it will lead to important conversations; that families will watch it together, and talk about it, and help stop any stigmas involved with mental health issues.
"We've created a study guide that goes along with this. You can find that by going to www.breakingstrongholds.com and clicking on the study guide, and we want to walk you through the show and explain why there is hope and why there is hope for the brokenhearted," says Terry.
Breaking Strongholds streams on YouTube and Reflective Media's website and has already been watched in 32 countries.
They're also connecting many people to SafeTalk, which is a training session to teach you how to help others who are feeling hopeless.