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‘Mad Pride’ Fights a Stigma
nytimes.com — Elyn recounts the florid visions she has experienced during her lifelong battle with schizophrenia, dancing ashtrays, houses that spoke to her, and hospitalizations where she was strapped down with leather restraints and force-fed medications...their talk is part of a conversation about mental illness, “extreme mental states...Members of the mad
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- petsheep, on 05/11/2008, -1/+5"Members of the mad pride movement do not always agree on their aims and intentions. For some, the objective is to continue the destigmatization of mental illness. A vocal, controversial wing rejects the need to treat mental afflictions with psychotropic drugs and seeks alternatives to the shifting, often inconsistent care offered by the medical establishment. Many members of the movement say they are publicly discussing their own struggles to help those with similar conditions and to inform the general public...Many psychiatrists now recognize that patients’ candid discussions of their experiences can help their recoveries. “Problems are created when people don’t talk to each other,” (from the article)
- Stevanoski, on 05/11/2008, -0/+5In nursing homes many of the mentally ill are residents. With care and medication they respond well. We are also seeing the prisons dump the mentally ill into the nursing home systems and the aged and infirm. Meanwhile the state keeps cutting reimbursement while raising the staff requirements. If you fail at any level huge financial penalties are level led. I do not see much of a future for nursing homes as the baby boomers are already arriving in great numbers.
- MicheleFloyd, on 05/11/2008, -0/+8As someone who has suffered from depression for the past 15 years, I find it difficult to admit to anyone except my closest friends that I have a problem and am in fact on medication. The nature of the illness makes seeking treatment more of an issue. Stigmas can be dangerous to your health.
- yonoz, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2Have you read Paulo Coelho's "Veronika Decides to Die"?
- macweirdo42, on 05/11/2008, -2/+9It amazes me how mental illness is so highly stigmatized even in this day and age. There's this attitude that the people suffering from mental illness have some sort of control over it, like it's a choice to be crazy. The reality of it is, it's like telling someone with cancer to just stop having cancer.
Myself, I have a theory about it - many people simply can't accept the reality that our minds are simply the result of electrical and chemical reactions. We like to think that something makes us special. Mental illness confirms that our minds are subject to the same malfunctions as the rest of our bodies, and that's a frightening thought to many.- ElAssoWipo, on 05/11/2008, -0/+5Depends how they're dressed.
Homeless guy who talks to himself will get beaten up at night while he sleeps, spit on, denied medical care, expulsed, etc.
Rich professor guy who talks to himself will get a movie made about him and a book deal.
- ElAssoWipo, on 05/11/2008, -0/+5Depends how they're dressed.
- sonnybobiche, on 05/11/2008, -1/+6I agree that mental illness shouldn't be stigmatized to the point where people will be blamed for being crazy, but some of these folks are preaching the other extreme: where mental illness is considered an "altered reality" and should be thought of in the same way as having different color eyes or skin.
I'm sorry, but I can't agree. People who are mentally ill need medical treatment, not a pat on the back.
/full disclosure: I'm studying neuroscience/psychiatry- yonoz, on 05/11/2008, -0/+4As someone who volunteered in various health institutions, including a mental hospital, IMHO the acceptance of the "mentally ill" label by mental patients harms their chances of returning to a normal life in an open society. While you're right about the need for medical treatment, some of that treatment should include psychological care that will help the patient feel safe-assured enough, so that they can be out in public without constantly thinking of themselves as inferior to the people around them.
Keep in mind, also, that there are many borderline cases where the patient is not very different from a "normal" individual. I see many "normal" individuals performing "insane" acts, e.g. dangerous driving, obsessions with life-risking activities etc without being considered a risk to themselves or society by their peers. At the same time, a certain patient (whose personal history has more to do with their hospitalization) may be denied basic freedoms simply because they did something a "normal" individual considers trivial, such as saying god speaks to them to a medical professional.- sonnybobiche, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1Saying "God speaks to me" is very different from saying "I hear God saying things to me," and I would hope a mental professional would be able to tell the difference. But I agree with you in that some people do crazy things and are not labeled crazy. I'll revolutionize psychiatry when I figure out how to reconcile these facts.
- radiopayola, on 05/11/2008, -1/+2Where do you draw the line between an altered view on reality and a mental illness? Is it one's ability to cope and maintain 'normalcy'?
Personally, I believe these altered views on reality *are* perfectly normal... The only illness is our culture's inability to cope with them while maintaining happy, healthy, and productive lives. A lot of gifted individuals are probably duped into receiving care they don't need because the transitional period between their pre-episodic view on life and this 'altered view' can be turbulent enough to trigger an unhealthy frame of mind that's only reinforced by the idea that it is an illness that must be treated until it can be ignored.- sonnybobiche, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2Talk to someone who is acutely psychotic. Five bucks says you change your mind about that.
- radiopayola, 14 hr 3 min ago, -0/+1OK, I overstated my perspective. I will grant you that there are acutely psychotic conditions that warrant treatment. I didn't mean to suggest that the human mind was incapable of 'breaking'...just that most of the time when it's diagnosed as 'broken'...it probably isn't handled as well as it could be. The bottom line is that, in many cases, medication is not required.
- sonnybobiche, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2Talk to someone who is acutely psychotic. Five bucks says you change your mind about that.
- yonoz, on 05/11/2008, -0/+4As someone who volunteered in various health institutions, including a mental hospital, IMHO the acceptance of the "mentally ill" label by mental patients harms their chances of returning to a normal life in an open society. While you're right about the need for medical treatment, some of that treatment should include psychological care that will help the patient feel safe-assured enough, so that they can be out in public without constantly thinking of themselves as inferior to the people around them.
- chewbie, on 05/11/2008, -8/+2congratulations to everybody for digging up an affiliate site of scientology. I hope you're really proud of yourselves
- yonoz, on 05/11/2008, -0/+7The NYT is an affiliate site of Scientology?
- radiopayola, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2---Some Icarus Project members argue that their conditions are not illnesses, but rather, “dangerous gifts" that require attention, care and vigilance to contain. “I take drugs to control my superpowers,” Mr. DuBrul said.
Can't believe that made it into the article... - whyufail, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2I dance the dance of the fool
And pray you find me mad
For if you lay hands upon the root
You'll know me, without illusion
And find me guilty of the truth. - robmck, 8 hr 16 min ago, -0/+0This article has a similar theme to the article on autism in Wired a few months ago (http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-03 ... In that article, studies are showing that autistics aren't suffering from a disease, but are simply wired differently. The article goes on to highlight the stigma that grows from the conception that autistics have a problem that needs a cure.
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