For a more fair and balanced look at one of the subjects of my last post, please read the New York Times article from May 11, 2008, 'Mad Pride' Fights a Stigma.
It can only help for people to have an honest dialogue about this issue. I just worry that seeking more positive names for a mental illness is little more than window dressing. Insurance companies continue to cut coverage for "mood disorder" medications and there's a new push for limiting the rights of bipolars every time someone goes nuts and shoots people.
Would insurance companies limit medication for diabetics? Mental illness is still often perceived as personal weakness, lack of willpower. It needs a new name, alright, but a name like cancer, so it's taken seriously but not blamed on the victim.
Side Note: Only morons like Louise Hay still blame the victim for disease. Her book You Can Heal Your Life would make a great gift for an epileptic, who might not know he has mentally caused his illness through his "Sense of persecution. Rejection of life. A feeling of great struggle. Self-violence." Luckily, he can cure himself by meditating on a simple phrase. But I'm not going to tell you what it is- you'll have to buy the book! And then I can label you as mentally ill.
But seriously, folks.... Recognition, respect and proper care for the mentally ill is a human rights issue. Worrying about semantics is a little like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
It can only help for people to have an honest dialogue about this issue. I just worry that seeking more positive names for a mental illness is little more than window dressing. Insurance companies continue to cut coverage for "mood disorder" medications and there's a new push for limiting the rights of bipolars every time someone goes nuts and shoots people.
Would insurance companies limit medication for diabetics? Mental illness is still often perceived as personal weakness, lack of willpower. It needs a new name, alright, but a name like cancer, so it's taken seriously but not blamed on the victim.
Side Note: Only morons like Louise Hay still blame the victim for disease. Her book You Can Heal Your Life would make a great gift for an epileptic, who might not know he has mentally caused his illness through his "Sense of persecution. Rejection of life. A feeling of great struggle. Self-violence." Luckily, he can cure himself by meditating on a simple phrase. But I'm not going to tell you what it is- you'll have to buy the book! And then I can label you as mentally ill.
But seriously, folks.... Recognition, respect and proper care for the mentally ill is a human rights issue. Worrying about semantics is a little like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
Related post:
By Any Other Name....
2 COMMENTS-POST YOURS HERE:
Nice post and an attempt at some human sympathy for the plight of some of the less fortunate in our society. Im coming to the conclusion however that so called "mental illness" is 100% the result of our environment, education, diet and people we mix with. Except for the few very obvious differences, most babies are born healthy, its the misfortunes of life, inappropriate treatment at school, by parents, siblings and the lack of knowledge on how to react to these things that cause some of the more so called "mental disorders" that hang around. Nagging is a classic example of how easy it is to drive some one crazy, Remove the nagging suddenly you have a cured individual! Another example, In some countries gun ownership to the general citizenry is prohibited, no big surprise that the population rate of gun crazed killers is so much lower there is it? I beleive it is the opportunity to be crazy that causes the problems we are so quick to diagnose. Comments welcomed especially by early child care nurses and midwives. Keep smiling guys! You do a wonderful job!
Thank you for your comments. I think it is a mistake to subtract genetics from this equation. Though I wish it were so, I don't believe that children are born with a blank slate. We know too much about DNA and heritability to accept such a simple explanation.
Unfortunately, mental illness is much more complex and therefore deserving of informed study.
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