Article on stigma & mental illness in Feb. '06 journal

Tree Fitzpatrick therese.fitzpatrick at gmail.com
Tue Mar 7 08:15:47 PST 2006


Here are a few paragraphs from a an article in The Lancet, a UK-based
medical journal, published the week of Feb. 11 - 17, 2006, written by Dr.
Kay Redfield Jamison, a medical professional who has openly revealed her
history with bipolar illness.

Dr. Jamison writes about "The many stigmas of mental illness". . .

"Much of the stigma of mental illness is ingrained in deep and ancient
attitudes held by virtually every society on earth.  These attitudes govern
decisions societies make and the behaviors they tolerate.  Newspapers or
television and print or broadcast statements about those with mental illness
that simply would not be tolerated if they were said about any other
minority group.  Stigma also insinuates itself into policy decisions, access
to care, health insurance, employment discrimination, and in research
allocations and priorities. Unfortunately, people who have mental illnesses
often stigmatize themselves.  They make few demands and their are
frighteningly low -- with grave consequences.  Stigma can kill.

The inability to discuss mental illnesses in an informed and straightforward
way, to deal with it as the major public health crisis that it is, is
unjustifiable.  There is a very large group that I think of as the 'silent
successful people' who get well from psychiatric illnesses but are afraid to
speak out.  This reluctance is very understandable, very human, but it is
unfortunate because it perpetuates the (pervasive) misperception that mental
illness can not be treated.  What remains visible in the public eye are the
newspaper accounts of violence, the homeless mentally ill, the untreated
illness in friends, family and coworkers. What is not seen is all the truck
drivers, secretaries, teachers, lawyers, physicians and government officials
who have been successfully treated, who work, compete and succeed.

My own perspective on stigma is shaped not only by being a professional who
studies mental illnesses but as someone who has suffered from manic
depression since I was 16.  I strongly believe we need to better understand
why stigma exists,  and not just from a sociological or anthropological
point of view.  Studies of animal behavior make it very clear that animals
discriminate not only against those who are markedly odd, but also against
those who are different in more subtle ways.  I believe the expression of
stigma or discrimination is deep-wired into the brain.  There are good
reasons to fear, which have to do with the unknown, the unpredictable, and
the potentially violent.  We have to acknowledge upfront that UNTREATED
mental illness can be frightening and that it can be associated with violent
acts.  . . . . We also know that moods are contagious.  Hypomania and
depression can spread like wildfire across members of a group like a
wildfire.  That is in part what moods are for, to affect others in a group.
So we have to acknowledge can have a powerful effect on those CLOSE to it.

. . . . she goes on. . . .

Some of the stigma associates with mental illness stems from bad teaching
and inadequate treatment.

. . . . .

We need to recognize that those of us who have mental illnesses represent a
very large block of voters.  Public perception about mental illness lag
decades behind the science


. . . .

We. . . as a society need to reach out and say that we do not as a society
tolerate the kind of pain and discrimination that has gone on for far too
long.


Now, to any OSlister still reading. . . . this is Tree writing again. . .
every circle you ever hold has people with mental health disabilities within
it.  Every single one.  I recommend that the next time you hear anyone
openly declare that they have a mental health disability that you thank them
for having the courage to help society change.

All of those people who attended Birgitt's event, the one in which she said
'they all had bipolar or schizophrenia' are dishonored if someone read
Birgitt's words and jumped to uninformed conclusoins about what that might
have meant.  It probably meant that all of the participants had experience
with these mental health disabilities but that they had received treatment
and were no more and no less stable than any other group of people.  People
who are truly 'mentally unstable' do not show up at open space events. Sure,
some might be thinking as they read this, nobody is hurt if a bunch of human
beings on the oslist inadvertently perpetuate the stigma associated with
mental health disabilities.  Well, folks, that is how stigma is perpetuated,
by thinking it is ok now and then.

I have avoided being even more directly blunt but labeling and dismissing
someone as 'clearly mentally unstable' is not really any different than
saying "we don't have to listen to him because he is not white" or "I think
she is a lesbian."  For some reason most people think it is perfectly OK to
steadily diss mental health disabilities and yet who would remark in
civilized circles "let's not invite the cripple" or "we don't want any of
their kind in our town".



--
Warmly,
Tree Fitzpatrick
Hearthkeeper

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