I think there are mutliple reasons why there is such bad PR.
Mentally ill people can actually be scary sometimes. Their disorders or conditions can make them unpleasant, hard-to-get-along-with people. I don’t enjoy riding the bus next to someone who is raving out of their mind, shouting profanity at the voices in the head. The negative associations people have about the mentally ill aren’t totally unfounded.
People assume “crazy” people aren’t in their circle of friends and family. They are “other”, not “us”. And I don’t blame people for being hush-hush about their diagnoses, because as much as folks talk a good game about being non-judgmental and open-minded, they still frequently suck. Every day I hear people using words like “bipolar” and “OCD” as insults. If your friends are fond of saying “don’t stick your dick in the crazy”, why would you ever disclose to them that you’re “crazy”?
People have limited empathy. Just about everyone has been physically ill before, so it isn’t too hard to imagine one’s self laid out with cancer or diabetes, and in doing so understand how serious these things are. But not everyone has been clinically depressed or experienced a panic attack or had voices screaming at them in their head. I think when people imagine how they would handle these experiences, they tend to see themselves successfully overcoming them. We have this idea that we can’t help if our cells mutate and turn into cancer, but we can help our thoughts and emotions. It’s hard for people who have never lost control to understand how it’s like. So they invent self-righteous rationalizations–“Maybe if those people were strong like me, they wouldn’t be depressed/anxious/crazy”–and then their sympathy goes towards some other issue.
People assume that if there’s a drug out there on the market for you, then you’re as good as cured so shut the hell up. And if you decide not to take that drug for whatever reason, then you’re making a choice to be sick. Which means you probably aren’t even that sick in the first place. I used to believe this. I thought that if a person refused their meds, they weren’t deserving of any sympathy or understanding. They were making a “choice”. But that’s crap. Drugs really can be quite awful. An individual has the responsibility to make sure they’ve exhausted their options. But they also have the right to decide which trade-offs they’d rather deal with.
Stigmas break down when good people “come out”. It is easy to be homophobic when you don’t know any gay people, or your only exposure to gay people has been negative. The same with mental illness. If your only exposure to a person with schizophrenia is the crazy homeless guy who flings feces at everyone, then of course you’re not going to be sympathetic. But maybe if you knew that your Good Guy neighbor has it too, then you’d feel different.
The problem is that it puts a huge onus on the Good Guy neighbor to be an ambassador, when that’s probably the last thing he wants to be.
This assessment appears to be borne out by their subsequent study, in the abstract of which they acknowledge that the schizophrenics not on meds for long periods are a “self-selected group with better internal resources associated with greater resiliency. They have better prognostic factors, better pre-morbid developmental achievements, less vulnerability to anxiety, better neurocognitive skills, less vulnerability to psychosis and experience more periods of recovery.” Implying that these factors are what allow them to function well without the medication, rather than the absence of medication being the key to their higher functioning.
Famous people usually use mental illness as an excuse (or explanation) when their bad behavior thrusts them into the limelight. Which really doesn’t do much on the “winning hearts and minds” front.
Celebrities like Catherine Zeta Jones and Stephen Frye have been outspoken about their personal experiences, though.
I think the first step should be, instead of improving treatment, to stop giving so-called “mentally ill” people a free pass and hold them accountable for their actions, irregardless of whatever syndrome or disability they hide behind. I have a younger brother who is ADD and dyslexic, yet he’s managed to manipulate his entire family into excusing his self-entitled behavior, including flunking out of state university (after ten years of study, mind you!) supposedly due to his disabilities, when in fact he was too busy dealing drugs and cheating on his girlfriend(s) to bother attending class. (Not that anyone listens to ME when presented with the cold, hard facts – but I guess I see their point of view, after all, eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable.)
This isn’t to say that mentally ill people should be expected to perform the same everyday tasks that “normies” take for granted. Just like you can’t expect a double amputee to run a marathon (although, in fact, some do) you shouldn’t expect someone with Asperger’s to become a skilled public speaker, nor should someone with Down’s Syndrome be expected to win at Jeopardy.
But frankly, I’m appalled that the phrases “mental illness” and “Santa Barbara shooter” are even uttered in the same sentence. It’s a travesty and a total failure on society’s part that we soft-pedal such events as if we’re trying to force empathy on the perpetrator – some selfish, stuck-up rich kid who became downright EVIL, and performed EVIL deeds. Are we really so afraid so speak the truth, that he was a bad, bad person and leave it at that? To merely label him “crazy” disrespects the victims and the grieving families that were left behind.
:: Deep breath.:: I have major depression. I was in Mclean a few months ago; I had been lying in bed for weeks, unable to do very much, and I decided that going inpatient was the fastest way to get better. While I was there, I met a charming young woman–manic out of her gourd, because she refused her meds–but she was also an expert pianist and ballerina. (The unit had a piano; I heard her play.) I also met a schizophrenic man. He looked like a bum and kept up a steady stream of conversation, whether anyone was listening or not, but if you listened to what he was saying, with a charitable ear, he made sense. He found out about my physics degree and said to me, “F=ma.” I was touched. He was fond of reading science fiction and the Bible. We talked about the E.E. Smith’s Lensman novels. A Catholic, he averred that he loved Jesus and would never go along with the Devil, because the Devil was bad. He said once that the Devil is confusion, which, for him, is very true. I never heard him say anything I would consider nonsense, unlike some sane people who believe vaccines cause autism, or that you can make a profit on the state lottery.
BTW, I don’t believe that, if you leave out substance abusers, there is clear-cut evidence that the mentally ill are like young men, that they are more violent than the rest of society. Maybe we should take guns away from young men and give them to women.
Which is what a lot of people want to do. They don’t want more gun control. They don’t want to spend any more for mental health services. They just want to further divide us into black and white categories–good guys and bad guys. Like we’re in a damn comic book or something.
Yesterday I went to my yoga class. The instructor usually starts off by asking everyone how they’re doing, and at least one person will make a comment about a sore knee or stiff shoulder. Because the instructor specifically asked how I was doing since she hadn’t seen me in the past two weeks, I told her that my thoughts have been on the loud and repetitive side, which means that my ability to suppress my tics hasn’t been that great lately. I could have kept this information to myself (TMI! as the youngsters say). I could have talked to her in private instead of sharing my bidness in front of everyone. But why should mental challenges be treated any differently from physical ones? Why should the lady with the arthritic hip be given permission to talk about it freely, while the lady with the brain fog sits in ashamed silence? Yoga is about unifying the mind and body. Yet for the past three years that I’ve been taking classes, never once has anyone disclosed their mental issues in front of the entire class.
I wish I could say I feel better about having been so honest. But I can’t. I don’t know how I feel about it.
I met a pychiatrist who told me story which I think was pretty revealing.
He had a tough job, many of his clients were homeless and quite isolated by their conditions. He told me about a patient of his he happened to run into earlier in the day. The patient was originally from Nigeria and suffered from frequent delusions and he saw visions and heard voices. He was on anti-hallucinogenic drugs to try to control his condition, but didn’t take them regularly and he lived on the streets. He could often be seen shouting and and preaching about God and the Devil.
The doctor had lost touch with his patient a couple of years previously, then suddenly he heard his name being called out in the street. It was his patient, wishing him well and giving he a warm embrace. But what a change in the man! Well dressed in a suit and tie, driving a large car. He looked prosperous and smart and had a personal assistant. Obviously the pyschiatrist was astonished by this amazing transformation and asked what had happened.
Apparently, he managed to scrape enough money to get back to Nigeria and return to his home town where he had lots of relatives. There is life turned around. He joined in the vivid religious life and began preaching based on his visions. He was a popular preacher and discovered people would pay him for his advice in casting our evil spirits. He developed a reputation, he opened up a spiritual healing practice in the capital and he became a wealthy and successful man.
In one society he was a disconnected street person beset by hallucinations, hardly able to function. In another he was an inspired visionary thought to have a special gift who became a respected professional.
When you take a step back and look at the world we have created for ourselves, with its many competitive pressures and the way in which we judge each other. It does make you wonder whether the people who don’t fit in and seem unable to cope with society are simply in the wrong place surrounded by people who do not understand them.
All these mental conditions are there for a reason. Sometimes society needs them. Maybe they seem out of place but the world is apt to change suddenly and a different ‘normal’ is required.
Please, don’t lose heart, because this is indeed my answer. Shortly after my first nervous breakdown, I decided what needed to happen was de-stigmatization. I talk about my mental illness struggles exactly like what you mention… what I go through is no different than anything else (like physical issues) out of someone’s control. But until we put a personal face on these problems, it will remain something to be feared and ostracized.
Other than that, I think education is key. We start children young explaining all sorts of things, so why not why not anything mental? And if it begins in the schools, we’d have half the battle won. Because if kids don’t see it as something worse than anything else, than actual help might be right around the corner.
In both societies he was beset by hallucinations, but he was able to thrive in the one that was already infected by religion and other superstitions, where gullibility and ignorance ruled. Mental conditions are not needed, and they are not evidence that anyone with them have a “special gift”.
And the word is “psychiatrist”.
Are we any better at dealing with psychological problems in a developed country? We are not that far advanced and have an unsympathetic attitude and a good deal of prejudice.
We treat it with medication, talking cures and behavioural therapy and measure it by our standards of normality that are informed by the ability to deal with the demands of urban life and the ability to prosper in a materialist culture. We rely on institutions to provide support for those who are ill, but they often seem inadequate and poorly funded. Failure to be a fit rat in this rat race leads to becoming marginalised and isolated.
Compare that with cultures that have extended family and community networks and a vivid spiritual life where visions and trances are thought to inform religious life. This story is about the influence of cultural context on attitudes towards mental health. They are quite relevant.
However if you think all the answers to the worlds ills come from the application of reason I guess a condescending attitude to other cultures is to be expected. At least they are remote and less subject to the consequences. Sadly, that cannot be said of those who seem to have lost their reason who have to suffer the rigid prescriptions of a medical profession that has a very limited range of responses when it comes to mental conditions. Most often it is a case of ‘keep taking the tablets’.
How are mental conditions needed? Well if you look at many of our great contributors to the advancement of knowledge you will find many strange minds amongst them. Amongst the madness is genius and prodigious leaps of conciousness that benefit everyone with their insight. Where would be without the Newtons and Teslas of this world?
High functioning autism, bipolar disorders, pychotic episodes and hallucinations have afflicted some of the brightest and most inspired people. Humans have huge brains and the higher conciousness that allows us to organise and thrive. But it often comes at huge personal cost when it conflicts with the pervasive conformity demanded by modern life.
Sometimes we go to war and we find uses for those with psychopathic tendencies…why sometimes we are even led by them. Pretty often, apparently in the big business.
We need a broader perspective on mental conditions and some education.
It’s difficult because there are so many different sorts of mental illness and we don’t understand any of them very well, so they all get lumped together.
And there’s no one answer to this problem. Access to a safety net was not a factor in the Newtown and Santa Barbara shootings.
I think it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the problem.
