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Sep

10

Thoughts on Mental Health

In response to a recent post on mental health at Phil’s Little Blog on the Prairie:

I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually more people than not were diagnosed with a mental “illness” of some type - whether it’s depression, OCD, ADD, an eating disorder, anxiety, addiction, or whatever. There’s a lot of work being done on getting people to either talk (therapy and talk shows) or pop pills in order to solve their mental health “problems.” I wish there was more emphasis on helping people to evaluate their lives and decide what they want to BE (and “normal” doesn’t count).

Then again, are there enough people to guide them through that process?

You don’t have to be free of psychological “problems” to be fulfilled. But it is important not to feel desperate, panicked and alone all the time. It is important to be emotionally available to others, to feel connected, to participate in your own life.

The way we address mental health in our society is like replacing a broken part in a machine. Oh, let’s just replace this or tape that back together so the person can get back to work (or school, in the case of a child), wave a flag, and buy more stuff. We’re all walking around expecting to interact with a certain kind of person, and even those of us who know we are so, so screwed up, expect everyone else to have it together.

I’m starting to wonder: what do we really expect? Can we analyze and medicate our way to contentment? I’m not anti-therapy or anti-psychiatry, but when I read from NIMH that every year, one out of every four adult US Americans has a mental illness, I have to wonder: who is this perfect human specimen we’re all supposed to be?

In Phil’s comments, the issue of low income folks and mental illness comes up. I think the reason they are not paid as much attention to is because it’s assumed that if you’re poor your life IS depressing or chaotic, so it surprises no one if you are, too.

Comments

3 Responses to “Thoughts on Mental Health”

Kendall on September 10th, 2007 5:11 pm

It’s a complex issue, certainly. There are people who have chemical imbalances in their brains. They need chemicals to “fix” the problem enough that they can find other ways to address and handle what isn’t working right. It may be that food additives and legal drugs are adding to the problem of imbalances. It may be that as people become more aware of treatment and less ashamed of mental health “issues,” more people are reporting what has always existed. My mother, one of my daughters, and two of my exes have severe mental health issues (in no particular order, I’m talking about bipolar disorder, multiple personality disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome, paranoid schizophrenia, and clinical depression). My life has been shaped and shaken by what people in the 19th century called madness and were ashamed to admit to. The solution for my daughter was to return to live in southern Africa, where the community views her illness as demon possession and is respectful and caring of her when it happens, as they believe that if you hurt a person with a demon, that demon jump into you. I see that as a helpful metaphor. Something takes over her mind and body for a time; she is not “herself” when this happens. What the people in southern Africa do is protect the people around the one who is “possessed”; make space for the “possessed” person to be safe and protected till the “demon” goes away or becomes inactive; and be very careful and caring of the whole environment, as “demons” are volatile entities that can enter anyone at any time. What this means is that Palesa doesn’t have to be hospitalized, incarcerated, or medicated. She still suffers terribly and feels out of control. She is not happy when this thing takes over her life. However she is happier than she would be if she had to take Risperdol or any other drug every day for the rest of her life; happier than she would be if she were hospitalized long-term or jailed. The hardest thing I have ever done was to let her go back; but it was her choice, and it was a better choice than the options available to her in the USA. There is no one answer that fits all, no easy answer, to the problems of wildness in the brain. Read Jackie Leyden’s wonderful book, DAUGHTER OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA. It’s a brilliant, loving, and respectful book about growing up with a mother who had bipolar disorder. DO NOT read Augusten Burrough’s hateful, vicious, and distorted so-called memoir, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS. I love his mother, and he savaged her in that book. His brother has a book coming out that I fear does the same thing. It breaks my heart to read stories by people who hate their mothers and cannot forgive them for doing the best they could with a life–and a brain–that they were not in charge of. Not that any of us is ever in charge. That illusion. Sigh.
Comrade Kevin on September 11th, 2007 1:31 pm

I consider myself to be a special case. My bipolar disorder has to be treated judiciously through medication and therapy.

But at no point am I ever seeking, nor have I ever reached any state of perfection. Instead, I’ve reached a point at which I can effectively cope with the world. I never asked for my problems to disappear, I instead asked for them to be muted to the point that I could effectively deal with them and not let them overwhelm me.

I think there is a temptation to strive for perfection and perhaps we are a bit over-medicated these days. Or perhaps mental illness is a growing epidemic that science has yet to explain.

I find myself caught in between both viewpoints.
hafidha sofia on September 12th, 2007 11:25 am

Thanks for the book recommendation, Kendall. I will definitely check it out. It is interesting, how people come up with methods of supporting folks with mental illness. Right now I just feel so disillusioned about the concept of “fixing” people. Maybe pedophiles and serial killers need to be fixed, but not people with depression or so-called ADD, or bi-polar.

Admittedly, I know relatively little on the subject, but would like to understand it better. Coincidentally, an old acquaintance invited me to a pair of free interactive theater and participatory workshops that address mental health and community. I’m hoping to learn a lot at these events.