I went to high school with a boy I'll call Duke. Most days Duke shuffled down the hall with his head down, making eye contact with no one and ignoring people who spoke to him. But occasionally Duke would talk to everyone he saw in a loud, animated voice that raced on and on. He would talk about the grandiose plans he had for himself; he was going to get the fastest race car in the world and win the Indy 500, he would marry a beautiful heiress and live in a beachfront mansion in California. Those dreams seemed as real to him as they seemed ridiculous to everyone else.
I can only imagine the emotional pain caused by the callous insensitivity of Duke's classmates. People called him all those standby epithets that get flung at people who are different: weird, loony tunes, nuts, crazy, wacko. "Wonder which Duke will show up today?" we would ask each other. I now believe that Duke had a mental illness called bipolar disorder, sometimes referred to as "manic depression." If Duke had had some chronic physical problem, surely someone would have recognized his need for healthcare and would have probably made sure he obtained it. I don't know what became of him, but I do know that the cruelty Duke endured is common to people with mental illness and often serves as a barricade of shame between themselves and treatment.
May 1999 is the 50th anniversary celebration of National Mental Health Month. I can think of no better time to be mindful of those myths about mental illness that have become part of societal thinking and have contributed to the stigma that affects anyone who has a psychiatric history:
- People with mental illness are violent.
Studies show that people with mental illness are far more likely
to be victims of violence than to victimize others, and, in fact,
have the same incidence of violent behavior as the general public.
- People are to blame for their own mental
illness. A mental illness is not caused by personal
weakness nor can it be cured by willpower. Many mental illnesses
are believed to have biological causes and some are believed
to be caused by a person's environment and experiences. People
with mental illness cannot just "shape up" or "pull
themselves up by the bootstraps."
- People with mental illness do not recover.
Most people do recover and go
on to lead productive lives. Newsman Mike Wallace, President Abraham Lincoln, former First Lady Barbara Bush, musician Gordon Sumner (Sting), and British statesman Winston Churchill all experienced mental illness and still contributed significantly to society. The success rate for the treatment of major depression and anxiety disorder is 80 - 85%.
- Young people and children do not suffer
from mental illnesses. It is
stimated that one of every five children and adolescents in the United States has a diagnosable, treatable mental illness, but only one-third receive treatment. Completed suicide is the third leading cause of deathfor persons aged 15 - 24 in this country.
With what we now know about the cost-effectiveness and success of treatment, the bias against mental illness in our society is unfounded and just bad policy. Publicly, we must begin to deal with mental health in a more open, shame-free way. And personally, we must remember that beneath all the symptoms and behaviors someone with mental illness may exhibit is a person who has many of the same needs, dreams, and desires as anyone else and who is worthy of our kindness and respect.