Talking on Reddit

2/7/2013

I did a Reddit AMA interview last night after pulling out most of my hair because I couldn’t figure out how to get onto it. Anything I can’t put in my mouth frightens me. Even sending a tweet I panic because I have something in me, maybe a virus that breaks any machinery I put my hands on. My computer once blitzed out on me completely broken with no explanation; there were flames on the screen like the scene in “Gone With the Wind” where they burn down the South. Maybe it’s my hormones that have killed all my phones.

Anyway connecting to reddit worked out yesterday (no fires) and I want to thank everyone who wrote in especially those who were brave enough to tell their stories ( one guy wrote that his mother killed herself and that he wished she had told him why she was depressed but in those days you covered it up and never spoke of it ). Really thank you for being so brave and inspiring other people to speak out. The comments were fantastic; some poignant and other just asking about my cats (what a variety we humans come in) so I’ll be posting naked shots of them in the next few days in various positions. I loved the experience and want to do it again, earlier I hope you’ll all come on again and we can talk about life, mental problems and cats.

Read it here

2 Comments

Bored of celebrity mentals

2/7/2013 05:10:31 am

I found a piece on the subject of celebrities and their "work" to "help challenge stigma" I was reminded of it when I read your AMA, thought you might be interested.

Following mental health organisation Rethink falling over themselves to congratulate yet another celebrity (in this case Sinead O'Conner) for being 'brave' and speaking out about mental illness, I was inspired to write this.

To quote, from the Rethink article

“We wish her all the best in getting through this difficult time and commend her for her continued honesty when it comes to talking about mental health.

When celebrities speak frankly about mental illness they go a long way in helping to break down the stigma that still surrounds it.”

It’s a commonly held misconception with MH organisations that celebrity mentalism does anything at all to break down stigma. I’ve had this conversation calmly with Rethink and others in the past; I’ve also tried to get Rethink to make reference to dissociative disorders and DID on their website, they gave me some lame excuse about not having information available, I told them where they could get information, I offered to write information they still haven’t done anything about it.

That is stigma

Being afflicted by the MH equivalent of leprosy I am all too familiar with stigma, most of it comes from the NHS but the fact that MH organisations such as Rethink and SAMH refuse to make any reference to dissociative disorders or DID does nothing but compound the idea that it is the illness that must not be spoken of.

I am eternally grateful to Mind for their leaflet on dissociative disorders, it’s a great place to start for information, my only complaint is that they even address the ‘does DID exist’ issue (see ‘other theories’), to be fair they handle it very well but until mainstream literature stops even considering whether DID ‘exists’ or not, people will continue to question it.

So my rant at Rethink today has a bit of a history but my original point and one I have made many times is that celebrities ‘confessing’ to having mental illness does nothing other than provide a bit of a news flurry, an opportunity for the media to tie themselves up in knots about semantics and a few interviews, maybe a book deal for the celebrity in question.

Celebrity experience of mental illness never reflects the day-to-day reality for those of us living with a mental illness. I accept that the way celebrity and the media work are probably to blame for this but we cannot challenge stigma with

Has breakdown- goes to Thailand- is all better now.

Or

Has breakdown- keeps job- writes books- gets more jobs- is all better now.

Or

‘Catches’ bipolar- goes to clinic for 4 days- drinks smoothies- makes film- is all better now.

Or

Has breakdown- goes to Priory- enhances career with a touch of mentalism- gets more jobs- is all better now.

Etc.

My frustration is both personal and on the behalf of the many people I have come to know and love who are struggling with mental illness. All of these people have ‘bravery’ and ‘honesty’ in bucketloads- and the MH organisations follow most of them on twitter so see their stories unfolding every day. Day-to-day existence with a mental illness is grim, protracted and painful. Mental illness is pervasive; it destroys lives and steals futures. For most of us getting any care and treatment is a fight, getting the correct care and treatment is a fight, for most of us neither Thailand or the Priory is an option- if we can make it through the humiliating, degrading DLA and ESA application processes without attempting to end our own lives, we may have enough money to scrape by on.

Celebrity mentalism and the discussion of it could be a great platform for more useful discussion- discussion that perhaps does something to effect change, something tangible, but it rarely is.

Every day I have to watch people I care about going without care and treatment, being refused help, being mistreated, struggling, fighting, being brave. I’ve yet to meet anyone who has got what they need, when they needed it. I’m currently watching someone I love very much suffer through months and months of having no hot water due to massive incompetence on the part of her housing association, she’s got sicker as a result- I don’t see Rethink jumping in with a statement of support.

Mainstream media does and will always use celebrity mentalism as a platform for nothing more than gawking but I think we should expect more of MH organisations.

There is an army of honest, brave, frank bloggers within the Madosphere (most comprehensive blogroll here at TWIM)- all of them challenge stigma far more than any 15 minute interview with a celebrity (and you’ll note that those interviews are all ‘when I was mental’).

All of these bloggers provide education and informati

Still bored of celebrity mentals

2/7/2013 05:14:53 am

Continued...

All of these bloggers provide education and information about mental illness- and any of them could be your next door neighbour, your daughter, your son, your boss, your postman, your GP, your child’s teacher, the checkout operator at Tesco, your friend. They just might not be famous enough to make the difference they deserve to make, they just might not be famous enough to really challenge the way you think about mental illness.

Talking on Reddit

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