Bipolar disorder and the stigma of mental illness


It's in the news and it even managed to upstage Cameron's speech on immigration  - that will be another post, by the way. I am talking about Catherine Zeta -Jones' admission of suffering from bipolar disorder and now receiving treatment for it.
It will make people more accepting of mental illness say various commentators and spokespeople for mental health organisations, the point being that when a celebrity endorses a cause  or speaks out the general public listens. When the late Princess of Wales owned up to having been bulimic people began to recognise bulimia as a serious eating disorder, an illness that could be cured.
Mental illness is stigmatised. Mentally ill people are shunned and misunderstood. Depression is still seen by some as an aberration. On one hand there's the throng of people who will say "Pull yourself together, there is nothing wrong with you, you are a weakling/a spoilt person unable to get on with life's challenges" and deem you to be an attention seeker. Then there are those who conclude that if you suffer from depression you are completely incompetent and unworthy of any  respect. That you should be pumped up with medication and kept away from 'normal' people - another post of mine will be on the abuse of psychotropic drugs such as antidepressants, we are making pharmaceutical companies' profits soar by being persuaded that there is the magic pill that can cure a 'chemical imbalance' and worse, that everything is due to a chemical imbalance in our brain. Buy Prozac and everything will be well !


Depression (bipolar disorder being a type of depression)  is just an illness. If you have bronchitis no one will treat you badly because you have bronchitis, no one will stigmatise you, no one will actually go round saying that  you are at fault for having bronchitis. If you suffer from bipolar disorder you should not be stigmatised either. Unfortunately it does not work like that.
I too have suffered from severe depression,  triggered off by some traumatic events in my life - trauma should not be understood to be something of epic proportion, it is basically a deeply disturbing and distressing experience, our threshold for enduring distress varies. A number of setbacks caused me to plunge into a debilitating depression, which came and never fully went away because I suppressed it and then came back until I finally realised it was an illness and could do something about it. I was pretty much alone at the time, my friends were uncomfortable around me and oddly, even withdrew their support, as if my nervous breakdown and resulting depression were a permanent character fault of mine.


Some treated me so unkindly, I was vulnerable at the time and it had a devastating effect. It was my depression which ultimately led me to retrain as a psychotherapist, so in hindsight I regard it as a blessing in disguise.  It made me stronger, it made me feel more attuned to people's vulnerability and able to confront my own. It made me discover the prejudices people hold about mental illness in general -  bigoted, even cruel,  opinions voiced by otherwise intelligent and educated men and women. It made me aware of the lack of good treatment available to those who cannot afford it, a situation that will be worsened by the changes to the NHS planned by the current government, which will place the have-nots in a dire position, unable to make informed choices.


So rather than ranting, as some have, that Catherine Zeta-Jones' illness should not be talked about, what is this obsession with celebrities, I too join the ranks of those who believe it is good she made a public statement - she did not have to say anything, but she did, knowing it might make a difference to others. It might just help some people to admit they are suffering from depression and seek help, because anyone can have it at some point in their life and no one is a lesser human being because of it.

(All photos modelled by Alex B. and taken by Steven Beard)

Comments

  1. Hello Alex,
    In my other job (besides our web sites), I direct an employment program for disabled adults. The vast majority of clients we deal with have mental health issues. It spares no population. I work with everyone from attorneys, to those never employed, to everyone in between. I believe that mental illness is mis-understood because the brain in so misunderstood. Compared to what we know about other organs of the body, we’re probably 50-75 years away from really knowing brain functioning. At that time, people will probably look back at our primitive understanding (especially the “deal with it” attitudes) and just shake their heads.
    Love your photos, as usual. Your hair looks great that way!

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  2. Thanks Marty. I am intrigued to hear about your involvement with the mentally ill. I volunteer at a day centre for people with acute mental illness and found the experience very humbling. At present I am very concerned that the main 'cure' is deemed to be pharmaceutical, whereas there are lots of other therapies that could be used effectively.

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  3. I’ve been in the field for close to 30 years, all of it from an employment perspective. I agree with your concern about the pharmaceutical cure-all. From my very simple perspective, it should be similar to how we would treat someone with a heart ailment. A doctor would never just send someone home with a bottle of pills. They would look at diet, exercise, lifestyle, and work. The same thing should be applied when it comes to mental health. Counseling/therapies is probably to the brain what diet and exercise is to the heart, although diet and exercise is also an important part of mental health. Of course I have a strong bias towards “work-as-therapy”, especially in terms of the social nourishment and self-esteem it can provide.

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  4. Excellent entry, Alex. Kudos to Ms. Zeta-Jones!

    Like you, I believe that psychological disease or injury should be seen with no more blame than physical injury or disease. I suffer from non-clinical depression, much of it stemming from the loss of my father at age four--definitely post-traumatic stress!--and have had counseling for it and for my messy divorce. It is not a lack in my character, although I have often thought it was; it's an injury, as if I were to have suffered an accident to my soul--as indeed I have.

    But I hesitate to recommend a government-level ministry or department to assure care availability. Such an organization could easily devolve into an administrative nightmare characterized more by red tape than by "ever-present help." And like you, I am dead against the pharmaceutical-cure model as the end-all. I favor a much more holistic approach.

    Ideally, perhaps, such a government agency, if it is formed, would give money and support to programs that actually worked, without strings, regardless of whether the programs fit conventional models.

    I do love these pics! You look dignified, gracious and strong, whatever you wear or don't wear, and your silver mane is a thing of great beauty. You are a Lady, in every sense.

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  5. Thank you for commenting here and also on my dA teaser. I was not advocating a ministry for mental health, I was only bemoaning the loss of the NHS in Britain. With the new reforms proposed by the government GPs will be the budget holders and they will send patients for treatment making decisions on the basis of costs. Increasingly, hospitals will be privatised and those who can afford private health care will get the best deals, those who cannot will get the cheapest options. One of the settings where I am doing my observation as a therapist is a private hospital which charges a huge amount of money - patients get the very best treatment. That is not available to those who cannot afford it. So the saying that money does not bring you health needs to be modified slightly, methinks.

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  6. Oh and thanks for the appreciation, Jochanaan!

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