TAMPA, Fla. — Haley and Austin Spicer have both written and directed a feature film titled “I Feel Fine.”
The film follows Ozzie Taylor, a sweet, energetic teenager enjoying high school, summer vacation, and life with his best friends. But suddenly, his mental health takes a dramatic turn.
“We wanted to make a film that would raise awareness of mental health and normalize talking about it,” Haley explained.
In the film, Ozzy deals with a mental illness diagnosis called suicidal obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is when a person has obsessive thoughts about suicide that they cannot control.
“You’re looking under a bridge and you think, ‘Oh my gosh, what would happen if I jumped?’ and then your suicidal OCD picks up that thought and is like, ‘I need to jump, I have that in my brain, I need to get it done and do it,'” Haley says.
“When he rewrote his thesis he became very dark. Did you ever talk to him about suicide?” said Wayman, who plays a teacher in the film.
Mr. Wayman is based on one of Austin’s real teachers, and he wanted to emphasize how important it is for students to have someone they can trust.
“He was one of the first teachers that I really felt like I could talk to about anything and he really created a comfortable atmosphere for us to be very open,” Austin explained.
The film also depicts the heartache of those around someone with OCD who has suicidal thoughts.
“I Feel Fine” recently premiered at the Sunscreen Film Festival in St. Petersburg, where Haley and Austin got to see live how audiences reacted to the movie.
“After the premiere, audiences really related to the ending. They were like, ‘It made me want to go hug someone I love,'” Austin said.
Haley and Austin are currently trying to sell the movie to studios and streaming services.
On the other hand, there are treatments for suicidal OCD, often involving a combination of medication and therapy.
If you or someone you know is thinking about harming themselves, please call the suicide hotline at 988. The hotline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
