There is an interesting and important follow up related to a TED Talk that a lot of readers of this blog found interesting (Sherwin Nuland: A history of electroshock therapy) at The Corpus Callosum:
Grappling With Stigma: Influence of Social Media
A while back, Gred Laden and Dr. Shock independently linked to a remarkable video. In it, a famous author-surgeon-professor reveals that he had had an episode of severe depression. Moreover, he underwent treatment with electroconvulsive therapy. It worked, he got back to work, and went on to have a distinguished career. The video can be seen here -- Sherwin Nuland: My history of electroshock therapy.His point, I suspect, was really to help destigmatize mental illness. ...
Brain & Behavior
Medicine & Health
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I believe the "stigma" is lessening (albeit slowly) in the US. I am Bi-polar. When I was diagnosed 10 years ago there seemed to be more "stigma" associated with mental illness than there is now. Within the last five years the intensity seems to have fallen significantly, at least from what I've expeienced. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. First, the current generation of medications are allowing many mentally ill people to function in society. Second, more people like Dr. Nuland are telling their stories. The general public is slowly realizing that not all mentally ill people, actually, the majority of people afflictied with mental disorders, are not scarey, raving lunatics. People seem surprised when I tell them about having Bi-polar disorder. "But you seem so 'normal'" is what they are thinking. I doubt if the "stigma" ever completely disappears but hopefully, like racism, will mostly be a thing of the past.
Now if we can get the insurance companies to put mental health on an equal footing as "physical" health...
Posted by: Freakin'n'Nerd | May 13, 2008 8:37 PM
A fellow "beeper" says: Hear, hear!
One of the very few good things about living on welfare (SSI still pending after 4 fapping years of hearings and reapplications!) is that I get all my physical and mental health care paid for.
Sometimes I wonder if I could go out and work......... but without the 100% coverage I have, especially the $600+ per month in free headmeds, I'd crash and burn within a week and be right back in the pits where I started.
(And I do mean the pits. I generally run depressed, with occasional hypomania and a lot of the mixed stuff. Sometimes I almost think I'd like to try one of those straight-ahead manic phases for a change.)
And I know from horrible experience that I can't take the stress of a job level that would either [1] get me 100% paid-for coverage or [2] enable me to pay for it myself.
Stinkin' double-bind $#!+. Ironically appropriate for a beeper, but it way beyond sucks. GAAAAAAAK.
Posted by: themadlolscientist | May 14, 2008 3:18 AM
I lived in Japan for a number of years growing up and as an adult. They have a form of national health care, ie. everyone is covered in some form. I could find nothing wrong with their system and really wonder why it wouldn't work over here. I am convinced it's about money. Too many people make far too much money to give it up and others suffer. I'm fortunate to be on disability and like you said, have my meds covered (through part D). But what about those who are not ill enough to qualify for disability yet their symptoms will not allow them to maintain a job where they can get coverage for the medications that would allow them to work a job that had decent coverage for those medications. Like you said, "double bind"!
Hope your SSI comes through soon. I've heard they are WAAAAY behind, no man power. And yes, I miss a good manic cycle every so often... got my house cleaned pretty good sometimes. But I'd rather be alive and functioning.
Posted by: Freak'n'Nerd | May 14, 2008 7:39 PM
My husband is bipolar and I struggle with wondering what is worse--having the neighbors think he is too lazy to work, or telling them that he has a mental illness and is unable to work right now. I am afraid, that if I tell them the truth, and then he gets "better", that they will think less of him because of the bipolar. I hope someday it will have no more stigma to talk about a family member's mental illness than to talk about a family member who has cancer or Alzheimer's. I don't think it will happen in my lifetime, though, unfortunately.
Posted by: Carol | May 15, 2008 2:22 AM
I wasn't officially diagnosed until I was 42 (although I'd known something was out of whack since I was 8, back in the days when they used to think little kids couldn't get depressed because they weren't mature enough to have been affected by bad life experience) and my best friend was 50 when he got his diagnosis. He and I both had exactly the same reaction:
Stigma be damned. We have a serious, potentially life-threatening biochemical physical medical condition on a par with diabetes or thyroid imbalance. All the ignorant @$$#0!3$ out there can just STFU, get out of our faces, get a clue, and deal with it.
Posted by: themadlolscientist | May 16, 2008 1:15 PM