b'Brandon LeeNews Anchor andMascara Boy Author Addresses Professionalson Overcoming Traumaand ConfrontingMental Health StigmasYou dont normally expectthe broadcaster reporting the news to also be making news. But thats exactly what Arizonas Family News Anchor Brandon Lee has done with his personal story about overcoming sexual abuse, opioid addiction, and brain injury, which is detailed in his recent memoir Mascara Boy.Brandon was recently a guest speaker at the Brain Injury Alliance of Arizonas Brain Health Symposium, a signature annual event that brings together allied health professionals, including social workers, physical therapists, nurses, and vocational rehabilitation counselors. Lee was as forthcoming as he was blunt. To show yousay anything to cover the truth that was destroying his life.how messed up I was, at a certain point, I wanted to getThen suddenly, Brandons carefully crafted lives and lies AIDS so Id be able to do anything, he admitted. Now, Istarted to fall apart.want to be an example to others who have suffered traumaOne night while partying in Los Angeles, he overdosed and addiction. on crystal meth and heroin, and passed out, slamming his Growing up in a wealthy area of southern California,head against the floor, which put him in a coma. He woke Brandon attended a Catholic school and was part of theup several days later in the ER, complaining of a headache. Olympic Soccer Development program. At age 15, he wasThe chief surgeon explained his brain was bleeding and he engaging in cocaine use and anonymous sex with men inneeded surgery immediately. Brandon refused the life-sav-their 40s. In the decades that followed, he continued living aing procedure, and raced out of the hospital. double lifeone as a successful news anchor in Boston, LosHe was later found passed out in his car on Wilshire Angeles and Phoenix, and the other as a sex and drug addict. Boulevard, a crack pipe beside him, and was rushed back Amazingly, somehow through all the upheaval, he stillto the hospital. managed to work as an on-air reporter. When asked byFortunately, the same medical team that had seen him colleagues about his deteriorating physical state, he wouldthe first time around was with him when he regained con-4 The Noggin | 2020vol 5issue 1'