#AMiNORMAL

  • Launching: january 2022
  • Format: 8 ⅹ 12 min comedy digital series
  • Created and directed by Mika Orr
  • Co-produced by UpianMikooka –  ARTE FranceKan

You are NOT normal. Your lover is not normal. Your mother is definitely insane. Your friends, your colleagues, your neighbors – they are often peculiar. Even your pet is not “himself” sometimes… What is normal anyway?

Apparently that’s what everybody wants to know. Google is full of questions about it: Is it normal to have sex everyday? Is it normal to dream about food? Is it normal to spend all day and all night on the Internet ? When did we get so obsessed with this (Google) search for #Normality?

#AMiNORMAL is a 8-episode documentary with heavy use of GIF animation.

Each episode, 10 minutes long, focuses on a different disorder from the DSM (the psychiatric “bible”). The DSM’s fifth edition was released on May 13, 2013, and introduced new disorders like internet addiction, Female Sexual Arousal Disorder, Nightmare Disorder
#AMiNORMAL focuses on new diagnoses that deal with fundamental issues related to survival: food, sleep, sex, social behaviour and fears.

#AMiNORMAL is about international issues. Culture and geography affects what’s considered normal, but at the same time there are common behaviors, addictions and emotions to all of us. Thus, the webseries is meant for international audiences, and includes diverse stories from all over the world.

EP 01 – She’s not (always) into it or Female Sexual Arousal Disorder

Is it normal to have sex everyday? Once a week, a month, a year? To answer that question, Google shows more than 60 million results, which says a lot about what we worry about… However, a brand new syndrome that has appeared in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or DSM) says that some women have “too little” interest in sex.

Do men crave more than women? What influences our sexual fantasies or our craving for sex? Culture, religion, daily life, children, age are all subjects mentioned by women who talk about their sexual desire.
Whether you are divorced, a feminist, in a relationship, a comedian or a lesbian, whether you come from Paris, New York, Tel Aviv or Toulouse: all the libidos are different!

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#sex #desire #CouplesTherapy #eroticism

 

EP 02 – Long Distance Relationships or Internet Addiction Disorder

Did you know that the Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) owes its birth to a hoax by the American psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg during a congress in New York in 1995?

What’s funny is that 20 years later, everybody is talking so much about IAD that the idea of including it in the next edition of the DSM is debated by many experts. Are we addicted to the Internet, or to what we do online, like playing, chatting, buying?

So how do you know if a person is addicted to the internet today? Should we count how many Instagram posts one publishes per day? Or how many hours do we spend on the internet for work? And what about those people who meet and chat online?

In this episode, Mika Orr has chosen to interview couples from all over the world who are living this kind of relationship, constrained by distance – and recently, the Covid pandemic. If for them love has no more virtual borders, are they still « normal »?

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#Gen-Z’s #Couples #SplitScreen #LoveSick #Covid

 

EP 03 – #ADHD for Grandpa & Grandma or Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder


Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is not a new disorder, but it’s not just for kids anymore!

In this episode, we find out how it could affect our grandparents too. Those who forget their keys and sometimes have trouble concentrating, those who launch into endless diatribes, those who have lived their careers at their fullest…

But how to define the line between natural cognitive decline due to age and attention deficit when getting old?

Here, seniors willingly lend themselves to the interview game by sharing their story, while experts debate this disorder that some consider « genetic » – questioning at the same time our endless quest to be normal.

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#Seniors #Workaholic #CognitiveDecline

 

Ep4 – Going through a rough period or Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

Every woman has already heard, « What’s wrong? Are you getting your period!?! »

For a large majority of women, the premenstrual period is not a fun time. After the recent appearance of « premenstrual syndrome », the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (which lists all psychiatric disorders) goes further by establishing a new, more severe disorder that would affect 3 to 5% of women, premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD).

The problem is that the borderline between the two disorders is not always clear.

On the other hand, what is certain is that when women speak out, when they share their experience unfiltered, it is possible to laugh about it and we realize to what extent religion, history and social status influence the perception or shame that menstruation still provokes.

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​​#OutofControl #FemaleHysteria

 

Ep5 – I got a lot on my plate! or Binge Eating Disorder

Do you ever sneak so much food that you hurt your stomach? Or that you feel ashamed? If so, you may be suffering from binge eating. This is the most common eating disorder in the United States, where an estimated 3.5% of women, 2% of men and 30% to 40% of dieters are affected.

In this episode, our interviewees explain their relationship with food. They all have in common that they are able to eat large quantities of food impulsively , but do they all experience it in the same way? When and why is food comforting for them? What type of food do they turn to when they « cheat »?

At the same time, experts give their analysis of this compulsive eating, which varies depending on whether they are nutritionists, medical doctors or psychiatrists…

In short, it is not easy to find what is normal !

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​#Food #Anxiety #Sugar #Diabetes #Addiction #Loss

 

Ep6 – My partner hates my collection or Hoarding Disorder

Do you know what Hoarding Disorder is? Hoarding disorder (or Syllogomania) is being obsessed with accumulating objects in an excessive way. On the one hand, it is characterized by an important need to keep these objects, and on the other hand, Hoarding Disorder is characterized by a suffering at the idea of separating from them.

This derivative of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is now listed as a disorder in its own right in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which lists all psychiatric syndromes). But how do you tell the difference between a passionate collector and a compulsive hoarder? And how does it work to live with a compulsive collector?

Experts enlighten us while the interviewed hoarders present to Mika their extraordinary collections of dolls, stones, Star Wars items, axes and even bones… in the middle of which their partners also live!

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​#Couples #OCD #Materializm #Can”tLetGo

 

EP 07 – Shy people date too or Social Anxiety Disorder

It’s not easy to flirt when you’re shy. The throat tightens, you blush, stutter, interact with difficulty for fear of rejection… All these « symptoms » fit the description of social phobia in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (which lists all psychiatric disorders).

But how do you tell the difference between a « marked or intense » fear and shyness?

In this episode, Mika Orr interviews young people from all over the world who are definitively shy, who tell her their doubts and their more or less successful strategies to get rid of them. She also discusses with experts who explain the origins of shyness and question the limits of a diagnosis that could label a person too quickly.

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​#Gen-Z’s #Loneliness #BoyMeestGirl #Tinder #Dating

 

Ep8 – Mommy… I can’t sleep or Nightmare Disorder

Nightmares are a phenomenon as old as the world, to which the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (which lists all psychiatric disorders) devotes an entire chapter. Mika Orr was astonished by the big number of criterias listed in. Knowing that 80% to 90% of the population declare having had nightmares at some point in their lives, and that approximately 50% of children have nightmares (20% of which are frequent), are we facing a disorder of pandemic proportions?

We know that nightmares generally appear during childhood from the age of 3. The children interviewed by the director are between 5 and 7 years old. They tell us why they are afraid to go to sleep: a monster that smells like socks, an old witch, missing parents, violent images seen on television…. They also introduce us to their parents who reassure them as best as they can during the night. The director herself lends herself to the game of remembering her nightmares with her mother.

This is a good opportunity to question the differences between practitioners who prescribe medication and those who recommend a cuddly toy and a big hug in the evening.

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​#Sleep #Children #Monsters