A battle worth fighting!

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When Rose Alberghini, the executive director of NAMI PA York, invited me to speak about barriers to good mental health care, the first obstacle that entered my mind was stigma. The way that the media, especially Hollywood, portrays persons with mental disorders is so crass, cruel and destructive that people are often afraid to acknowledge that they might need help.  

We should not separate the mind from the rest of the body when it comes to illnesses. The heart can get sick and so can the brain. Yet, we insist on viewing mental disorders separate from other physical aliments. Part of the problem, of course, is that we don’t  know the biological underpinnings that cause bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Until we do, there are bound to be arguments. But what we do know is that persons who suffer from mental disorders are rarely portrayed sympathetically.

We would never make a person with Downs Symdrome the butt of a joke. Yet, persons with mental problems continue to be easy targets.

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The Cuckoo’s Nest Dr. Continues Speaking Out!

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Dr. Dean Brooks has spent his adult life advocating for persons with mental illnesses. And he has not slowed down even though he now is 94 years-old and is living in an assistant living facility not far from the Oregon State Hospital in Salem that he used to oversee.  

He first burst on the national stage when he appeared in the 1975  movie,  One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, as the hospital’s  chief psychiatrist, Dr. John Spivey, M.D.  It was a clever irony because Dr. Brooks was actually in charge of the hospital at the time of filming. In the movie, he can be seen interviewing Jack Nicholson to determine if he has an actual mental disorder or is faking it.

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Charlie Sheen and Bad Memories

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It’s foolhardy to decide that someone has a mental illness based on how they act on television. Diagnosing a major illness, such as bipolar disorder, is tricky at best and requires a thorough evaluation by a psychiatrist. I don’t know Charlie Sheen, although I am a fan of his television show, so I have no idea if he might be manic or ill.
Having acknowledged that, I must admit that what I saw on ABC Good Morning America and NBC’s Today Show stirred painful memories. When my son was in the initial stages of his first breakdown, his mind was racing with thoughts and grandiosity. He couldn’t spit his words out quick enough. He  believed everyone else had a problem, not him. I saw that same behavior on my television.

Emails From Readers

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Since the publication of my book, CRAZY: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness, I have received hundreds of emails from readers. Sadly, many are from parents desperately seeking advice about how they can get their son or daughter help. Others are from readers whose adult children are in jails and prisons because of untreated mental illnesses. A few are from parents whose children committed suicide. But there are others that make me hopeful — encouraging notes from dedicated mental health workers and success stories written by readers who have found a variety of methods to control their symptoms and enjoy life at its fullest.

Here is an email that I recently received that I want to share with you because it provides a viewpoint by a consumer that often is not heard.

“I am in my late 30s and officially diagnosed as mentally ill at age 13 after my first suicide attempt. I had long periods of depression and had my first manic episode at age 16. I was paranoid, hearing voices, unable to sleep or read. All I knew was that I was going crazy, but there were no words for it then or any real help.

I was kicked out of high school after missing 15 days of school while I was too manic or depressed to attend classes. No treatment or help from the school system were offered (despite being a straight A honors student with advanced placement classes and not a single discipline issue) and I was told by my single parent to “get a job.” I did just that and was quickly fired for crying all day at work.

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Why is “Dangerous” the Criteria?

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      I receive emails and letters from parents and family members who have tried to get their loved ones help by having them involuntary committed into a hospital only to be stopped by our legal system. One of the sadder notes came this week from a father whose daughter was so sick that the psychiatrist who first examined her and the independent examiner appointed by the court to review her case quickly agreed that she needed to be hospitalized.

     But when the young woman appeared before a special justice here in Fairfax County, Virginia,  he ignored the two professionals’ recommendations and released the woman because, in his opinion, she did not pose a danger either to herself or to others.

    “Where did this dangerousness criteria come from?” the frantic father asked me in an email.

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A Teenager With Mental Illness Responds to Cheerleaders’ Stunt

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I’m not the only parent who was outraged by the insensitivity of the Waunakee Wisconsin High School dance team. ( See:  Stupidity Award for Promoting Prejudice blog.) Mom and fellow NAMI member Chrisa Hickey writes a blog entitled: The Mindstorm – Raising a Mentally Ill Child  and Chrisa posted an Open Letter on it that was written by a teenager with mental illness.  Chrisa knows Erika but is holding back her last name to protect her privacy.  The letter is addressed to Head Coach Erin Cotter. In it, Erika poignantly explains why mental disorders are no laughing matter.

Dear Head Coach Erin Cotter;

I would like to tell you a story, and I would like you to read. Truly read it. As, though it is a story of my life, it is also a story of thousands. Many of whom are even at your school.

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