http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/13/mental-illness-physical-i_n_6145156.html
I have a problem in that I hate shoddy journalism, so that will detract from what is probably a more reasonable comment on the topic of mental health awareness. Forgive me.
HuffPo posted an article that caught my eye. And by article, I mean ~150 word comment on a webcomic the author found.
“It’s no secret there’s a serious stigma attached to mental illness. According to the CDC, only 25 percent of people with mental health issues feel that other people are compassionate and sympathetic toward them.”
The link is busted, but it’s not hard to find a source with quick googling.
http://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/data_stats/mental-illness.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5920a3.htm
I’ll quote the content in the first link:
In 2007, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) surveyed adults in 37 states and territories about their attitudes toward mental illness, using the 2007 BRFSS Mental Illness and Stigma module. Based on 2007 BRFSS data,
- Most adults with mental health symptoms (78%) and without mental health symptoms (89%) agreed that treatment can help persons with mental illness lead normal lives.
- 57% of all adults believed that people are caring and sympathetic to persons with mental illness.
- Only 25% of adults with mental health symptoms believed that people are caring and sympathetic to persons with mental illness.
These findings highlight both the need to educate the public about how to support persons with mental illness and the need to reduce barriers for those seeking or receiving treatment for mental illness. (end quote)
HuffPo continues: “It’s a shameful statistic when one in four people have been touched by some form of mental illness.” The WHO source link reads in its opening “One in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives.” Considering that even people without the mental health disorders themselves can quite reasonably said to be “touched” by mental illness, the HuffPo author could have bumped the number higher, if she felt so inclined…. But the WHO numbers are facile at best, probably accurately described as farcical. They stretch the definition of “mental illness” so thin as to make the term useless. As if diagnostic mental health is achievable the world over. Hell, that’s the intent of the report, to address how drastically underappreciated mental health is in much of the world. They want to shock their western audience into action, because lying to people is totally okay if it’s for a good cause. “Boy cries wolf, has a few laughs… I forget how it ends.” So everyone who lives in the developing world has probably been anxious or depressed, because, I mean, I would be too… and BAM! 1/4 of the world is affected by mental illness.
“Experts say that part of the problem when it comes to criticizing someone’s mental health is a lack of empathy and knowledge about the ailments.” The article links to a listicle, also on HuffPo, by the same author, who, according to her LinkedIn profile, has a bachelor’s in journalism. But I guess that makes you an expert now. I have a BS in neuroscience, but if I sold myself as an expert, anyone with a STEM background would not only be allowed to, but obligated to have me shot, or at least have my vocal cords eviscerated….
“Yet, despite the staggering evidence and rhetoric aimed at helping people understand, many people still don’t get that being diagnosed with a mental illness isn’t something that’s in their control — just like having the flu, or food poisoning, or cancer isn’t in their control. In an effort to reframe the conversation, artist Robot Hugs created a comic that displays what it would be like if we discussed physical illnesses in the same way we do mental illnesses. Take a look at the graphic below.”
Staggering evidence and rhetoric aimed at helping people understand? Where is this? I went to school in the 90’s and aughts, and we never even mentioned mental health to the best of my recollection. I get that things may have changed in the last decade, but even still that leads the vast majority of society still in the dark.
“Makes you think, doesn’t it?”
This is just the most infuriating, condescending, infantilizing thing to say. I am quite serious when I say that no credible institution of higher learning should confer on anyone who would write that a journalism degree. This is a failure of the discipline to provide guidance to the next generation. Also, my generation is the worst offender of this profligacy, and we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. Res ipse loquitur.
Anyway, the actual thesis of this article is not the author’s work at all, but the artist’s, who’s work should speak for itself–and it does, to its credit. And the bulk of my comments are really towards the message in the comic. I realise that I find the artist somewhat insufferable in general (I’ve seen other work by them), so part of my annoyance my stem from that, but the argument the artist is making is something I’ve heard other places. The problem with the work is that it lacks nuance and subtlety. It’s a limitation of the medium, and frankly all artistic media. Art shouldn’t be used to send a message. And I am quite adamant about that. Use your words. Use data. Not art. Art is for expression. Any other purpose is misuse.
The thesis is that if we were to treat people with physical illnesses the way we treat people with mental illnesses, we would be conspicuously unempathetic, and that’s obviously bad. And in many ways, this is a valid point. There are many people who very poorly empathize (or rather, don’t at all) with people with mental health issues. Presumably though they would be reasonably sympathetic to the same person should they have non-mental ailments. I will not dispute this. But my problem is that there is more to it than this. There ARE people who are empathetic to those with mental illness. Moreover, having a mental illness does not give someone a blank check for empathy. To some extent, empathy has to be earned. Human interactions are a two-way street. The other glaring issue is that the mental illnesses do not present in a completely comparable way to non-mental illnesses. They are analogous in many ways, sure, but hardly identical. People with mental health issues, and those who are advocating empathy for those with them need to keep this in mind. The analogies are imperfect. The signs of illness are not as conspicuous. To some extent, we all agree that the mind is changeable. Few people would suggest that someone have the power to change their cellular biology, but it’s not completely unreasonable that people think that someone can adjust their mental thought-processes. And to a large extent, a major component of helping people with mental illness is to assist them through that very ordeal. The last frame in the comic is absolutely what someone with depression needs to internalize to get better, for example. That can be said with compassion and it can be said with contempt, and certainly I see advocating against contempt, but what solution is the artist tendering? Will the depressed person get better by doing nothing different?! Would a sick person get better by doing nothing differently? No, they take medicine, or surgery, or something that effects a change. Okay, practically, the immune system does a lot of work with no input, but that is obviously not how it works with mental health.
“You have to at least make an effort.” Again, this can be said with compassion or malice, but it is actually necessary advice. If one of your parents were diagnosed with bad cholesterol levels/ratio or high blood pressure, for example, and were given instructions to change their diet and exercise, and they were not making what appeared to be a serious effort to do so, would not this be absolutely the appropriate injunction to give them? How much empathy should your parent be given? Surely it is good to understand that they are tasked with a difficult endeavor, but if they do not work towards it, to what extent is empathy continually owed? People with untreated mental illness suffer not only themselves, but often inflict difficulties on others around them, particularly loved ones. Yes, they are owed empathy, but they still bear the onus we all have to at least try not to hurt others, and to try to better ourselves.
“I don’t think… medication…” This is where the analogy breaks down. Comparing insulin to antidepressants is asinine. Insulin works far more directly and effectively. Many drugs that treat mental health issues have only partial efficacy, if any, and a lot of them have nasty side effects to the point where it’s completely rational for someone with something like anxiety or depression not to try a medicine. Someone with diabetes who doesn’t take insulin when prescribed is utterly daft. Someone with anxiety who doesn’t take Xanax every day isn’t necessarily making a bad choice. I get that there are people who would make this facile comment about medication being frivolous, for sure. And it’s fair to call that out. But it’s not an accurate depiction of any number of scenarios vis a vis medicine and mental illness.
“It’s like you’re not even trying!” Again, compassion and contempt. It is completely, 100% fair for someone who has been dealing with someone with mental illness to cry out in frustration if they feel their life is being made difficult by someone with mental illness not doing anything/enough to change and make their life and the lives of those they affect more bearable. If your friend with depression is crashing on your couch, eating your food, relying on you to run their errands, and they haven’t even bothered seeing a doctor or therapist without you twisting their arm and begging, then do you not have the right to be exasperated? Would this change if this were a physical ailment? Replace “depression” with “bad back”. No, we would still be rightly upset.
Let’s revisit that CDC data. What caught my eye is the number of people who ” agreed that treatment can help persons with mental illness lead normal lives”. People without mental health symptoms were more likely than people with to think that treatment can help. The vast majority of people in this country seem to think that getting help is effective. Obviously that doesn’t always translate to positive encouragement when someone they know is afflicted by mental health issues, but it suggests society is not completely lost.
Mental illness is a hell of a cross to bear. And people with mental health issues deserve empathy. But like all of us with a burden, there is no exemption from the expectation of dealing with the problem to the best of one’s abilities, and making sure others are not unduly injured by your load. Both sides have room for improvement, and suggesting that it’s a one-sided issue is a disservice to all.