The issue came up in a class of mine this week, when my professor contended that people with mental illness are considered unreliable sources. In fairness, I did not quiz him on his views after class, but I think it's worth discussing the misconceptions about mental illness that have led to discrimination based on it to become a well accepted practice.
Mental illness is an umbrella term - it includes everything from schizophrenia to anorexia to depression to Alzheimer's. Simply describing somebody as mentally ill is just as useful as saying someone suffers from a physical ailment - are we talking paraplegia or influenza? The extent to which a mental illness can/should be considered a disability is highly contingent on its specific type.
Mental illness is by no means rare - it affects 1 in 4 adults, which is roughly 57 million Americans - but its prevalence and nature are not immediately apparent from its frame of reference in mainstream news. 25 percent of the adult population are neither inept nor dangerous, but more often than not you will find the term 'mentally ill' in the company of criminals, the homeless and drug addicts.
Sensational stories that characterize the mentally ill as violent misfits scare not only the general public, but also the mentally ill themselves. Given its low standing in the public imagination, it's no wonder that people who experience a mental illness are reluctant to associate themselves with the term. The poor reputation of mental illness may prompt a person to hide his or her condition instead of deal with it openly, and those who do not seek help are more likely to suffer explosive breakdowns, which in turn supplements the poor reputation. The fear of being classified as mentally ill can manifest itself into the denial that creates this vicious, self-perpetuating cycle.
Thankfully, there are organization working to demystify mental illness. In its mission statement, The Icarus Project maintains that "we have mad gifts to be cultivated and taken care of, rather than diseases or disorders to be suppressed or eliminated." Mental illness should not be a source of shame and viewing it as condition to prosper from and not merely cope with is a powerful shift in emphasis that I strongly support.
I implore you to seek help if you think you may be experiencing a mental illness. If you are in college, counseling is usually free and confidential. I also hope reading this post has forced you to reconsider dismissing a person's worth based solely on his or her history of mental health. There are darker sides to the diseases, but it's unfair and unnecessary to relegate people to the shadows for having the courage to manage their mental illnesses in the public light.
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| From Black Sand Journal |
6 comments:
good post. It is indeed sad how the mentally ill can be labeled as incompetent and ostracized. In college I was friends with this senior who was bit of an oddball and was often at the recieving end of rather cruel jokes. He was being called names like "freak" and "Psycho". But he was also one of the most academically brilliant people i had ever met. While all my friends jeered at him and me, I was the only who ever talked to him like he was a real person. And as i got to know him i found that he was funny, caring and really a beautiful person. We used to spend hours talking or studying together. Later on he himself confessed to me that he was possibly schizophrenic. Because he seemed to have all the identified symptoms. I encouraged him to seek treatment but i dont know if he ever did. After we graduated, i eventually lost touch. But I will always remember him as one of those special people to touch my life. After him, I know will always believe in people regardless of their mental health. After all who's to say that we are perfectly sane?
I think the fact that 'mental illness' is an umbrella term (as you rightly said) is one of the main problems...because people generally assume that it's not an umbrella term. This means that anything but the most severe cases of mental illness are dismissed as being too 'trivial' to be considered illnesses. The result is that people with mild depression don't get help, and by the time people realise that it has progressed to severe depression, it's too late.
Thanks for such a good post. As someone with depression, the dark vaguity of the term mentally ill can cause adverse reactions. That's why my approach has always been to be up front about it. There is nothing inherently wrong and embarassing about the people who suffer under this wide range of terms. There is just the suffocating misconception and stereotypes that prevent people from getting help for the disease they suffer. It is this kind of post that help abolish the ideas that hold back healthy discusion of these issues. After all, I am not the only one who has commented.
liked the icarus site. thanks for the post.
"less inclined to date me" do you have the answer to that? (other than "depends") it's a good question, iv had to think about, alas. and i chose not to.
@someone important
"Less inclined to date...?" My answer is no. I would having no problem dating or falling in love with someone with a mental illness, especially if he/she were bold enough to be upfront about it from the beginning. Fears that sometime in the future the mental illness may become an issue wouldn't hold me back - relationships drive people crazy anyway.
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