Mental Illness. How we know what
we know about ourselves and our neighbors
Notes for a
sermon delivered Sept. 12, 2010 by Lisa Bonnett
At the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, New Bern, NC
·
When I was
in Raleigh Wednesday I watched droves of people cross the street to avoid
a man who was alone but talking out loud as if to someone.
·
We/these are
modern people right? Most of us know it’s no longer your grandmother’s
mental health- we shudder at the thought of a frontal lobotomy or blood
letting- so why did that
happen- in Raleigh!?
·
Explain Mrs.
Thomas method of testing (lining kids up at the blackboard in front of
math problems and proclaiming the smart ones as the ones finished first…
and my parent’s response to it ( to say girls don’t need math anyway).
·
So how did I
know I was bad at math?
·
What would
make my sister in law respond to news about my son’s TS diagnosis
“Well that’s a death sentence?” She added have you seen the movie
Dirty Filthy Love? You’ve got to watch it.
·
The next day
when I called his school to schedule a 504 meeting his teacher said, oh
no, that’s not Tourette, I’ve seen that in a movie and that’s not
it.
·
When I told
my mother I would be interning at a psychiatric hospital she was certain I
would get hurt or killed by some “maniac”, now where would she get an
idea like that…TV maybe? She said “don’t you know those people drown
their children”- where are the news stories about people who live
successfully every day with mental health struggles?
·
Mental
illness is sometimes still perceived as an indulgence, a sign of weakness,
sometimes someone with a diagnosis is often seen as helpless and hopeless.
·
People with
psychiatric diagnosis are nearly always perceived as violent and the data
just does not support that. My experience has been the opposite- that
people with mental health struggles show great restraint at times when a
non-diagnosed might not.
·
Not just by
neighbors, and relatives, but by people in the helping profession.
·
Some of the
least compassionate people I have met have been people in the helping
profession.
·
Incurable,
non-restorative is a word they use at state hospitals, is any person
really non-restorative? Don’t all people have value?
·
What I am
talking about here does not have a name.
·
Racism,
ageism, sexism, and homophobia all descriptions for prejudiced beliefs,
but what is the word for prejudice against mental illness. A new one I
have heard being shopped around “psychophobic”.
·
So where
does psychophobia come from?
·
Give list of
Hollywood Films…
·
The media
constructs these stereotypes but how do we deconstruct images of
“madness”.
·
We have done
it or at least made a huge dent in it with race and gender but why not
with mental health.
·
Stereotypes
of “madness” are powerful and deeply rooted within Western culture.
(Gilman 1985). Visual media, especially film (Hollander 1991) are powerful
purveyors of social attitudes and stereotypes (Hyler et al. 1991.
·
The first
thing we can do is ask ourselves how we know what we know- really track
back where you got the idea that you should cross the street if a person
is alone yet talking out loud.
·
Perhaps you
are worried about stigma through association.
·
Then explore
with your neighbors where some of their fear comes from- together get to
know someone who has a psychiatric struggle.
·
One of my
favorite quotes is “When you are mentally ill no one brings you a
casserole”.
·
People with
psychiatric struggles want what everyone else wants, to be valued where
they are and accepted where you are.
·
Recently
someone said wouldn’t it be funny if I wore a pink t-shirt that said I
survived my last manic episode. People don’t believe in mental health
recovery and it isn’t celebrated like surviving breast cancer might be.
·
It’s
because of the stigma- Stigma sets a person apart from others and makes it
ok for social exclusion, isolation and discrimination to occur.
As with racial prejudice stereotypes make people easier to dismiss.
·
This is
unfortunate because people do their best learning in social groups- and
this is not to say the only learning occurs when folks with psychiatric
struggles learn from us- it is to say we learn from each other.
·
So we ask
ourselves how we know what we know, we ask our neighbors and then we ask
the people who may be acting as if they are the label, how did they come
to know what they know- how did I come to believe I was a failure at math?
·
I met a boy
once who introduced himself like this, “hi, I’m ODD”. When people
have become their label they often introduce themselves as their
diagnosis. A person’s diagnosis is only one small part of who they are-
we can help change a person’s perspective by seeing the person first,
apart from his or her diagnosis.
·
By doing so
we may help someone change the way they tell their story. Maybe transform
the person from patient to advocate.
·
Any
discussion of stigma calls for a discussion of language.
·
Give hand
out about hopeful language.
·
Language
creates reality for people.
·
So did the
media create the language or did the language create the stigma and the
media perpetuates the stereotypes?
·
Until
recently our society ONLY had an Illness world view verses a wellness
world view.
·
Stereotypes-
Give the difference between you and me handout.
·
So the next
time you find yourself or your neighbor behaving as though they believe
people with psychiatric struggles are not equals and can’t be part of
the mainstream- ask yourself how you know what you know.
·
You can take
a stand in the way that these folks have:
·
Refer to
testimonials from architect, nurse and teacher.
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