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Mental Ilness View
shanyin
Novice YoginSault Ontario Veteran
How do people (generalizing) in western society see mental illness? People who are mentally ill. Have been labelled (bipolar, schtizophrenic/psychotic, depressed, etc.)
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HI shanyin this has some information:
http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/john-oliver-mental-illness-treatment-last-week-tonight/?fb=dd
That was great Jeffrey!
Someone actually said this on a mental health forum:
"Yes, it is ok to discriminate and hate people with mental illness. And it is ok to lie about them, too. And assign false motives to their actions. Friends, family, co-workers and strangers can say the most hurtful things to you and it is ok because you are mentally ill. If you are homeless, you are on the bottom of the pecking order and the last to get benefits (if anything is left). It is my opinion that people who are mentally ill are mostly calm and don't want to hurt anyone. People who are mentally ill are so stupid, they'll instantly forgive the person who just hit them or verbally abused them just because they are so desperate for friendship. Here in America, the land of the free, they put us in jail and then never forgive thus because we are criminals, as well as being mentally ill. Yes, it is ok. "
I've really never thought about how people view mental health personal issues.
I think it really varies based on the experience people have had with it. Many suffer with it, but refuse to label their depression or anxiety as mental illness. 20% of Americans taken medication for psychological issues. Many would not say they are mentally ill. So a lot depends not just on your experience with it, but how you define it. Many reserve the definition for people who are disabled in a more severe fashion-they can't work, can't maintain relationship, maybe can't even live on their own. It's so common that even people being treated for mental illness, don't think they have it. So it's a hard topic to answer that question about!
Honestly, I think most Americans are mentally ill in some way. I mean that seriously, too. I don't think there is even a normal we can use to establish a bell curve because we have so many issues as individuals and as a society.
But on specific medical and legal terms, I think we need other categories. Take our yearly mass murder count. We have a lot of peopel arguing that mentally ill people don't commit these acts. I understand their point. But normal people don't take guns and shoot people down, either. So if they aren't mentally ill, and they aren't normal, then what are they? I think we're missing a broad category.
you might want to join a support group on facebook. I think you could receive supportive information and sympathetic people who have also had experiences that are of interest to you. Are you interested in? I can link you with the groups I am part of.
And I would say don't dwell on negativity. There are cruel uncaring people. At the same time there are kind or even just fair people.
Than you for that video, @Jeffrey.
In California, a certain governor, later president, shut down or essentially gutted every State Mental Care Hospital. The problem was (and is), that no funding or programs were set up to help the former patients or the communities they got dumped into. (Any programs that were eventually setup are constantly underfunded and overwhelmed) There are some programs, usually aimed at the children, which are successful to a sometimes astounding degree. Naturally, since they work, they are always 1/2 step away from the budget ax.
Individually, there are many people who selflessly work to aid and improve the lot of the mentally ill and mentally challenged. Some are paid; some are not. They almost never get recognized for what they do., but they do it anyway, often happily.
Peace to all.
The mentally ill in addition to facing the elements of their disorder must also deal with the labels of the cruel and the ignorant. Please be as kind as you can be to the cast offs of society.
The fact that many health insurance plans (even those of health care workers and government employees) do not cover seeing a therapist/counsellor (only a psychologist/psychiatrist, and sometimes only with a prescription from a GP) tells you a lot about how much mental wellness is valued.
Mental health is just like anything else: you are supposed to have regular checkups with your GP, and if you feel something off, you go see them to find out if anything is wrong; why not the same with our psychological and emotional well-being?
It's hard to place the blame on anyone or any group in particular, because it's so hard to define, and the so-called experts themselves know (like lots of laypeople know) that the whole ball of wax is a huge shot in the dark. Like science of any type, one decade or one century, things are like X - and the next it's Y. There don't seem to be any set answers but for the purposes of insurance, entitlements and all that sort of legal stuff, they have to label it as if it were a disease. It's hard to pin down. I know I shouldn't, but every time I hear someone say they're 'bipolar' I roll my eyes. It leaves everyone at a loss as to how to deal with 'mental' issues.
I think everybody has mental health issues, just like we all have physical health issues. Some physical health issues are very painful and cause a lot of suffering that isn't seen easily by others. I think the same is true with mental health. The social stigma attached to it has made people very wary of asking for help.
My insurance, thankfully, does not require you see a family doctor before you go see a therapist. Sometimes the doctors/therapists require it because there are so few of them they want a screening process to make sure that those who see them truly need to see them rather than relying on patients to make that determination. It's inconvenient but if they didn't do that, then the wait to see them would be even longer because they would be seeing many more people who perhaps didn't need that kind of care but something else. I just made a counseling appointment for one of my kids, and it was no trouble at all. But, the wait for the first appointment is 14 weeks. Because we did not use a doctor reference, they did a screening over the phone.
Several months ago I had an experience which I shared on this board. Many unfortunate circumstances aligned themselves in my life. I then mishandled the situation and it spiraled out of control. The stress was so intense that I dissociated. I stopped being able to sleep for months. These things compounded each other. Sleep deprivation can lead to making terrible decisions. I became suicidal and I checked myself into the hospital.
In the state that I was in, I told people things that I should not have told them. I self diagnosed myself as Borderline. I told some people that I think I'm Borderline. I shouldn't have done this. It only made them afraid of me and treat me terribly, which further reinforced the negative feelings and isolation and abandonment fears, I told people that I was at the hospital (or that I had gone to the hospital). I shouldn't have told them this.
I am a social worker with mentally ill people. I have dedicated the last few years of my life to helping mentally ill people. I thought that other people might be gentle with me when I spiraled down. Some were (my boss, thank goodness). Most weren't. My family and friends wanted to help but didn't know how. I went desperately looking for love and support and mostly all I got was scorn and abandonment, which reinforces the dis-ease.
More than I previously knew, I've learned the hard way that there is a horrible stigma about mental illness in this world. Even among mental health professionals. The suffering that is possible within such realms is beyond being able to put into words. If this Buddhist stuff is true and there is a way out of suffering, then the mentally ill desperately need to find this way out.
What is Right View about mental illness as an outsider? What is Right View about mental illness as someone who is suffering from it? It is said that all is impermanent, but a lot of mental illness lasts a lifetime; until death.
I "burned" out as a social worker years ago, suffering from clinical depression, I had much the same kind of experience.
I think I would have got a lot more sympathy and understanding if I'd been suffering from a physical illness. It's almost like people think mental illness is infectious, they want to keep their distance.
On reflection, it can be infectious if you have to work with it day in, day out. In the sense that to really help somebody you have to enter into their world. If you have to spend long periods of time in dark places, finding the light again may not be easy.
Everything that is "mental" is infectious, because we are not really individuals.
Have you had any significant experience of mental illness? If not then you might be better listening instead of rolling out trite spiritual cliches.