Changing attitudes toward mental illness

I would like to start this post with the following disclaimer: I am not a psychologist. I am just a mere mortal with a very healthy appetite for knowledge in a wide range of topics specifically those related to the life sciences, interpersonal relationships in general and the human mind in particular. In my younger days as a College student, this thirst for knowledge lead me to take three psychology classes as unrestricted electives: PSY 101 (Fundamentals of Psychology) PSY 307 (Drugs and Behavior) and PSY 306 (Abnormal Psychology). This limits my specialized knowledge in this fascinating area to one freshman-level class and two junior-level classes. That said, because psychology is still one of the subjects I’m drawn to, I try to read up on it whenever I can. What follows, therefore, is this laywoman’s personal opinion:

I wasn’t born during Joe McCarthy’s now infamous witch-hunts, but I remember the cold war era well. I remember all that fear, paranoia and hyperbole. I also remember hearing that the National Association for Mental Health was a Communist front and that psychiatrists are Russian agents intended on demoralizing  Americans and spreading defeatism. 

In a country where mental illness still plays a major role in criminal behavior, suicide and addictions of all sorts, mental illness in general (and depression in particular) is still viewed as taboo, something that you don’t talk about and asking questions out of concern is considered an invasion of privacy. 

The reality is that everybody is prone to mental illness, that each and everyone of us has the ingredients that can push us over the brink into psychosis.  Although most of us (thankfully) can’t be classified as psychotic, many of us experience periods of psychoneurosis, when we have difficulty enjoying life, relating to others, and experience periods of sleep and/or appetite disturbances – who hasn’t experienced bouts of anxiety, the most common neurosis of all?

Mental illness should be viewed objectively, without fear, and treated like any other illness. Unfortunately the generalized attitude is to “snap out of it”, everyone has problems, deal with it, be tough! Then we have blabbermouths who get paid millions of dollars to spew hate, fear mongering, misinformation and rhetoric over the air waves; like the most successful blabbermouth of all who, when Robin Williams committed suicide, said that depression is typical of the left, that progressives are all miserable souls while conservatives are much happier, well-rounded and productive members of society. 

The good news is that attitudes and approaches to mental health have changed greatly throughout the years; the bad news is that there’s still an awful lot of ignorance, fear and misinformation. 

I once read that of all the developed countries the United States is the one that consumes the most anti-depressants. I wasn’t surprised. While those who have caring families with resources are able to get medical care, the others often end up alone, stigmatized, homeless, or incarcerated.  Mighty sad what ignorance can do! 

Bottom line: mental illness is not a myth. Psychoses, neuroses, schizophrenia, retardation (among others) are not “excuses” for abnormal behavior, they are very real mitigating factors; personality and psychosomatic disorders are not “just in someone’s head.”