All About Bipolar

Posted By atorturedsoul on October 7, 2009

This is Mental Illness Awareness Week, and I have found there are those who do not support it and they have very valid reasons. I must say that I agree with them.

Some of you may remember that I was dismayed when I found that Bipolar Disorder Awareness Day, typically the Thursday of Mental Illness Awareness Week, has not been mentioned by the National Alliance on Mental Illlness (NAMI). I’m sure you have noticed that I have not mentioned that this is Mental Illness Awareness Week until today. Certainly, my readers know that I am an advocate for mental health and work to promote awareness but there were a few things that just didn’t sit well with me. While surfing the internet this morning, I found a piece that somewhat sums it up and has changed my thinking.

DJ Jaffe is a columnist for the Huffington Post. He is also an advocate for the mentally ill. I will refrain from posting the entire article, but you can read it in its entirety at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dj-jaffe/mental-illness-awareness_b_309422.html

I would like to discuss some of the key points that made me rethink some of my own ideas and echoed some of my own sentiments.

This first full week in October is being celebrated as Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW). The holiday doesn’t even exist. (Read more about this later.)

But in celebration of this mythical event, well meaning mental health advocates are busy hosting events to reduce the “stigma” of mental illness.

Stop. Stop right now. Hold it. Here’s another reality check: There is no ’stigma’ to having a mental illness. There is ‘discrimination’, but that’s another story.

Jaffe makes a very good point here. Stigma is defined as shame, disgrace and dishonor. Discrimination is defined as prejudice, unfairness, inequity and intolerance. I’ve had it all wrong. Discrimination is what causes stigma. We cannot reduce the stigma we feel unless we work to reduce discrimination by others; therefore discrimination is my target from hence forth.

Serious mental illnesses are real biologically based disorders that are no ones fault. Serious mental illness is not, “a mark of shame or discredit”, or “a mark or token of infamy or disgrace”.  There’s no stigma to being mentally ill the same way there is no stigma to being “black”, “gay”, “short”, “tall”, “lefty”, “righty”, inny, or outy.  There is discrimination. As J. Rock Johnson, a former board member of a major mental health organization once said, “the most stigmatizing thing we do is talk about stigma.”

The efforts to reduce this non-existent stigma are harmful because they are designed to work by diverting attention away from those who need our help the most: the most seriously mentally ill.

I do agree with what Jaffe is saying about stigma, but what about the part that states that they are diverting attention from those who need help the most? Read on.

The anti-stigma campaigns are premised on the belief that the key to reducing ’stigma’ is to convince the public that “the mentally ill are just like you and me” and “with proper supports can become productive members of society“.

Those two facts are true, if you’re talking about the high functioning “worried-well”–the 25% of Americans who have a “diagnosable mental disorder”.

That was my belief but my thinking has now changed. Jaffe continues:

But what about the others? The effect of Mental Illness Awareness Week is to divert attention away from the 3%-5% of Americans who are the most seriously mentally ill–like those suffering from schizophrenia or treatment-resistant bipolar disorder, the very mentally ill people who are not “like you and me” and need our help the most.

The advocates attack the media for reporting on violence, and go through mathematical contortions to “prove” “the mentally ill are just like you and me”.

Trying to gain sympathy for mental illness, by only displaying the highest functioning individuals, is like trying to end hunger by showing the well-fed.

This effort to divert attention away from the seriously ill and towards the worried-well may be well intentioned, but it is definitely harmful. It leads to the term “mental illness’ losing all its meaning.

This is a very valid point. What about those of us who are disabled by our mental illness and cannot work outside our homes? We’re not accomplishing anything by showcasing the mentally ill who function well. We’re only increasing the discrimination against those of us who can’t.

Rather than provide services that would make people with mental illness more welcome in the community, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA) funds ‘anti-stigma’ efforts to change the people in the community.

Diverting attention from the severely mentally ill also diverts the public from addressing the policy initiatives that can help the seriously ill: like ending health care discrimination and government discrimination against the seriously mentally ill, saving state hospitals, and finding a cure.

My own solution is a federal definition of “serious mental illness” that would force federal programs purporting to serve the seriously mentally ill population to serve that population instead of serving people “just like you and me”.

Here! Here! Now you’re talking!

How bad is it? Mental Illness Awareness Week does not even officially exist anymore. Congress first declared it in 1989 at the strong urging of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which still celebrates it.  (Who needs Congress anyway?) It was re-enacted in 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993. But since then, no one in Congress has had enough interest in the seriously mentally ill to keep it going.

So here’s an idea. This week, while everyone else is celebrating the non-existent MIAW by working to divert your attention to the “worried-well”, let’s think what we can do for those so seriously ill, so imprisoned, impoverished and punished by their psychosis, they are not at all “like you and me“-the150,000 mentally ill who are homeless, the 231,000 who are incarcerated due to acting out when untreated, the 5,000 who took their lives this past year, the70,000 in state psychiatric hospitals, and the 28% who get food from garbage cans. They don’t deserve to be ignored. Least of all by those who say they want to help.

You have my attention and I will take action. Our second annual Bipolar Disorder Awareness Month will still take place in February 2010. Just as last year, I will continue to relay the stories of those suffering from this mental illness. I will continue to promote the idea that people should not be ashamed, but I will also promote ways to help reduce discrimination and how we can help change policies that hinder many from receiving proper treatment and ways to help those of us who are seriously mentally ill and ignored.

Thank you, Mr. Jaffe, for opening my eyes to where my efforts should truly be focused.

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Categories: About Bipolar Disorder, Agoraphobia, Bipolar 1, Bipolar 2, Bipolar Awareness Month, Cyclothymia, My Personal Experiences, NOS, Panic Disorder, Psychosis
Tags: about, all, assistance, bipolar, Bipolar Disorder Awareness Month, discrimination, February 2010, health, help, homeless, illness, incarcerated, mental, Mental Illness Awareness Week, mentally ill, MIAW, NAMI, National Alliance on Mental Illness, policies, stigma, suicide