Mental Health Awareness Week, Oct 2-8

[Dotard]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGdlJWfx1...89F7A0BD73

[Royston]

I have always been an advocate for de-stigmatising mental health issues. Back in the 1950s, my Dad lost two brothers in quick succession (one to illness, the other death was 'spun' as a traffic accident but was probably suicide). My Dad ended up quite badly depressed, quite understandably being the only survivor, and so he was given ECT and cold baths to cure his depression. Guess what? It didn't work. It seems hard to understand now, but even in my memory going back to the 1970s, mental health was something you did not talk about, you did not admit to having problems with in your family.

Nowadays, we are all so much more enlightened and have a far more compassionate attitude towards mental health issues, don't we? So when I discovered that I was depressed (not in response to a death, or a car crash, or discovering that I am really the lovechild of Jeffrey Archer, no trauma involved), I expected that my health-related employer would rally round, help me get myself back together, give me the time, space and support I needed to deal with the acute problem before it became a chronic one. Boy, was I ever wrong. So now I am unemployed, as well as having a slightly fried brain (medium-rare, hold the seasoning).

Still, I am enjoying the Prozac, the extra time walking the dog, and with all the extra trips to the gym and giving up drinking, I lost two stones (30 pounds)! Now all I need to do is find a new employer that has moved on from the Bethlem Royal Hospital model of mental health management. After all, I'm not stupid or lazy, I'm only mad.

[frankiej]

Hmm, damn you... You made it all serious, making it difficult for me to bring myself to crack a joke... You are cramping my style

Good post though.

My little cousin completely lost her memory when she was 2 as a result of her epilepsy, she was brain damaged and has suffered from mental health issues for over 10 years now... She is prone to lashing out with violence because she doesn't know it is wrong. Her mother, who is of course my aunt, is very religious (all happy clappy)... She seems to care more for Christ than her own daughters needs. Sickening.

[Jackalope]

Nowadays, we are all so much more enlightened and have a far more compassionate attitude towards mental health issues, don't we? So when I discovered that I was depressed (not in response to a death, or a car crash, or discovering that I am really the lovechild of Jeffrey Archer, no trauma involved), I expected that my health-related employer would rally round, help me get myself back together, give me the time, space and support I needed to deal with the acute problem before it became a chronic one. Boy, was I ever wrong. So now I am unemployed, as well as having a slightly fried brain (medium-rare, hold the seasoning).

I consider myself lucky. It became obvious to me almost 3 years ago that I couldn't keep my illness a secret at work - and as I result, I informed management of my condition. I figured that my days of employment were numbered.

To my surprise, my employer has been very supportive and has stuck with me through two unexpected leaves of absence. They're also understanding the few times a year I have a change in meds and am not quite my normal self for a few weeks.

I strongly suspect that I'm in the minority when it comes to having understanding employers - and that needs to change.

[Autumnlicious]

I strongly suspect that I'm in the minority when it comes to having understanding employers - and that needs to change.

Yep. Come work for the trolls like the rest of us.

[Cinjin]

I just kinda thought everybody was a little fucked up in some way or another.

[Faith No More]

I consider myself lucky. It became obvious to me almost 3 years ago that I couldn't keep my illness a secret at work - and as I result, I informed management of my condition. I figured that my days of employment were numbered.

To my surprise, my employer has been very supportive and has stuck with me through two unexpected leaves of absence. They're also understanding the few times a year I have a change in meds and am not quite my normal self for a few weeks.

I strongly suspect that I'm in the minority when it comes to having understanding employers - and that needs to change.

I was even luckier as my illness was nearly impossible to hide, but my employer was not only compassionate and understanding, he was my father-in-law. At that point he had no experience whatsoever with people with mental illness, and I'm sure he had all kinds of negative preconceived notions about it. With me, however, he saw a person that he cared about and finally said to me one day, "I see now that this truly is a health issue and that you need to take care of yourself just as anyone else who is sick would."

He was great at giving me leeway when I wasn't feeling well, and I actually got to know him on a much deeper level while dealing with these issues with him as employer and employee.

I have had one other employer who was understanding, and another one who was not. Unfortunately it's like you said, the understanding ones are the minority.

---

I just kinda thought everybody was a little fucked up in some way or another.

Some of us much more than others.

[Jackalope]

I just kinda thought everybody was a little fucked up in some way or another.

I can say this - after spending countless hours with mental health professionals, I've become pretty good at spotting dysfunction in "normal" people. They oughtta give me a degree or something.

But - speaking from experience, there's a big difference between ordinary dysfunction and the pathological.

If I go off my meds for more than a couple of days... It isn't pretty, and it sure as hell ain't much fun. If I go a couple of weeks, it can take months to get back to something approaching baseline. I know better than to go off them, but it happens.

Manic depression is a fucking bitch with a bad attitude.

I will share a quote from Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison's "An Unquiet Mind" (which I highly recommend). Dr. Jamison is an author and professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins and like myself, suffers from Type 1 bipolar disorder.

Manic depression distorts moods and thoughts, incites dreadful behaviors, destroys the basis of rational thought, and too often erodes the desire and will to live. It is an illness that is biological in its origins, yet one that feels psychological in the experience of it; an illness that is unique in conferring advantage and pleasure, yet one that brings in its wake almost unendurable suffering and, not infrequently, suicide.

That in a nutshell represents my personal experience with this illness that went undiagnosed for decades. As near as I can tell, I may have started to become symptomatic in 1977 at the age of 10, and the illness was certainly well-advanced by 1985.

I don't recall the source, but it has been estimated that 1 in 3 people with bipolar disorder die from suicide.