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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 966
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, December 02, 2005 - 04:22 pm: | 
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Ending mental illness stigma.
By Linell Smith
Sun Reporter
Originally published December 2, 2005
Long before she wrote 72 Hour Hold, a searing account of a mother struggling with her child's bipolar disorder, novelist Bebe Moore Campbell fought her own suspicions that a close relative had a mental illness. At many points, she says, she would have felt devastated, but relieved, to discover a drug addiction was behind the erratic behavior she encountered.
Mental illness suggested a grim, out-of-control future she couldn't imagine.
"My loved one was manifesting mania and recklessness," she said by phone, requesting anonymity for her relative. "I remember sitting in the car with it zooming up to 100 miles an hour, while my loved one was laughing and zooming in and out of traffic. I thought we were going to die."
There was impulsive behavior as well: "This person would say, 'Oh, I'm going to need a new car,' then pull off the road and buy it right then." She was also frightened when her loved one "said bizarre things and talked a mile a minute."
But whenever life seemed normal - "even a broken clock is right twice a day" - Campbell would deny her fears, never sharing them.
One day her relative's behavior became so physically dangerous that it led to a 911 call and the first of a series of psychiatric hospitalizations for what was revealed as bipolar disorder. (The title of her new book, 72 Hour Hold, refers to the amount of time patients can be held in a mental hospital without their consent.)
Eventually, as her relative began to receive therapy and medication, Campbell discovered the healing world of the National Alliance On Mental Illness, a nonprofit organization that helps educate the public about mental illness and helps families cope.
Campbell will speak at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at a NAMI-sponsored event at the Church of the Redeemer on North Charles Street. (Admission is $10. For details, call 410-435-2600.)
"NAMI has given me a really good education about what's going on in your loved one's brain," the novelist says. "It's a wonderful network of people who are going through what you've gone through."
Determined to increase awareness of the struggles of those with mental illness (one in five families is directly affected by mental illness, according to NAMI), Campbell has used her book tour to rally support for patients and their families. Often speaking to congregations at such churches as Baltimore's Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, she has targeted African-Americans, who, she says, are still struggling to receive equal social treatment - much less equal treatment for a condition considered taboo.
"Crazy is the new 'N' word," she says. "Nobody wants to be crazy. I think mental illness is far more stigmatizing than HIV. Many people think mental illness is a matter of character."
Curtis N. Adams Jr., assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, says African-Americans often think mental illness implies losing control - and that's particularly unacceptable for black women.
"Our culture says, 'You have to go on no matter what' - if you're limping, if you're physically ill, if you're psychologically ill. As a consequence, getting help for yourself competes with meeting your other obligations."
Despite sensitivity toward patients from different ethnic backgrounds, there are still cultural hurdles, says Majose Carrasco, director of NAMI's national multicultural action center.
"An African-American or Latino talking to God could be perceived as a sign of mental illness in the wider culture whereas talking to a Supreme Being might be the norm in their cultures," she says.
Research suggests doctors may misinterpret behavior that is culturally acceptable in African-American, Hispanic and Asian communities for symptoms of a psychiatric disorder. A recent study of roughly 135,000 patients with mental illness in a Veterans Affairs registry showed that blacks were four times more likely to receive a diagnosis of schizophrenia than whites. Hispanics were three times more likely.
In addition, many blacks are fearful of being mistreated. For decades, the U.S. Public Health Service abused nearly 400 black men in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study by allowing them to believe they were getting free medical care.
Nearly 60 percent of older African-Americans do not use the services they need for their mental health, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Surgeon General.
"By the time somebody comes to see me, they have tried practically everything else," says Adams. "The drugs didn't work, the alcohol didn't work and now they're finally getting around to the idea that what I have to offer may help."
Campbell often preaches the benefits of mental health education and medical treatment at church, the place where many blacks seek their mental health "prescriptions."
Maxine Cunningham of Baltimore turned to NAMI after her talented teenage daughter fell into the abyss of depression. NAMI has provided her with information about mental health and coping strategies.
"I wanted my family to love my daughter, not to reject her as strange," Cunningham says. "Their attitude used to be, 'There's nothing wrong with her that a good switch couldn't correct.' Or they would say, 'You spoil her.'
"It's amazing how many people don't talk about mental illness in their families. There's so much unnecessary suffering. You do have to cope. You do have to manage."
linell.smith@baltsun.com
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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 373
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 03, 2005 - 06:45 am: |
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It's an even bigger stigma for blacks in mental health institutions, since they are already attached to the stigma of communal and family dysfunction and being the scapegoat for social collaspe.
Also, many non-black psychologists and phychiatrist are very biased( and some racist) when it comes to treating the black mentally ill. either no effort is put into helping the paitient,or the psych or therapist is very psychoogically abusive themselves, treating the patients no better than a warden would treat an inmate.
Also, there are cultural factors that play into the psychological dysfunctions of AAs, many of which non-black doctors are unaware, cannot relate, or their own cultural bias or prejudice downplays or discredits whatever issues would otherwise be taken very seriously.
We need more blacks in the mental health field! We could apply the field to our cultural interpretation. Today, mental health is still a white person's field. |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 374
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 03, 2005 - 06:51 am: |
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Okay, tht was my rant, now I'm on topic:
My mother took my illness seriously (she's a doctor) but to this day still tells me to keep my illess a secret from people who don't need to know. I always tell people at school that I'm taking "Thyroid" medication. 
But they're right, it's cultural. Of all the people I knew that were more open with their illness and hospital stays, the majority were white. The blacks I knew were the ones I roomed with. I knew no one else on the outside, but I guess they were told the same thing I was, so we're not aware of each other's common past.
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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 970
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 03, 2005 - 10:03 am: |
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Wow, Roxie! That was very brave of you, and insightful! I bet you you could do a lot by speaking out about this subject and bringing awareness to others; the AA community sorely needs it....
Do you, or have you ever thought of doing that?
Also:
***We need more blacks in the mental health field! We could apply the field to our cultural interpretation. Today, mental health is still a white person's field.***
That is so true, Roxie.... 'cause the conditions you spoke of regarding the treatement of AAs, by mental health care professionals & their staff, is prevalent, the norm.. not just isolated issues... and it's such a shame.. heartbreaking, really.
Anyway, that was interesting, Roxie. I'd like to hear more if you have it.
Tonya |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 375
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 03, 2005 - 06:24 pm: |
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--Do you, or have you ever thought of doing that?--
Yeah. I've started developing a book about it since last year. It's my major life project. |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 376
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 03, 2005 - 06:31 pm: |
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I'm collecting all of my accounts and the accounts of others in the book. That includes the "psycopathies" who have damaged their skin from severe bleaching. Problems like these Dr. Goldberg and Dr. Patel will never understand. So watch for my book in 10 years! |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 378
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 03, 2005 - 07:26 pm: |
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Seriously, that's about as much as I can casually say without resurfacing unpleasant memories and I just don't feel like pulling myself from the impending emotional rollercoaster right now. But I'm recording everything I know. |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 379
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 03, 2005 - 07:32 pm: |
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Oh, I'm also a member of NAMI. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 919
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 03, 2005 - 09:06 pm: |
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Well, Roxie. You know I've spent years in Psychiatric care as well, and that was difficult to write about in my memoir. But I'm no longer ashamed.
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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 380
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 04, 2005 - 05:11 am: |
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I'm taking my own book step by step. Just replaying the memories and hearing the similar memories of others is hard so I make sure I'm emotionally stabilized and unstressed before interviews. It's been only 6 years since I left that world and I still feel like an ex-con just released.
In my home state, the situation has gotten so bad, all they could do was close down the institutions. So now many of the most troubled kids are being held in detention centers wihout even the basic treatment they recieved before.
And the majority of that population of troubled kids are black.
Also, blackpeople,even if they're not doctors ,need to be educated about the unproffesionalism and neglegence of Therapists and Psychiatrists. They are no different than other physicians when it comes to malpractice exept that when their patient goes berserk due to a misdiagnosis and mispresription, the patient is held accountable for his actions, not the doctor, even is the patient was not in the right state of mind. Remeber the kid from colombine, Erric harris? There is speculation that his Luvox medication had increased his rage and homocidal tendencies and that's when the shooting ensued. And that's not far from truth.
You see, I take Luvox too. But I'm "diagniosed" with Schizoeffective disorder (look it up, even I'm not sure). This med is a mood stabilizer and it helps normalized the otherwise "jekyl and Hyde" levels of emotion. Bt Erric had OCD, and this is not a mood disorder, so why was he given a mood stabilizer? Let's remember, he saw the psychologist as much as I did. Every time I had an outburst I was being sent back to impaitent and even had security called on me at the hospital if I verbally resisted, and this was as far back as 1995. Eric had guns and made videos simulating killing his enemies at school and neither doctors nor parents lift a finger.
I'm sure you guys can sense a "Rodney King" feeling here. Case in point , I've been on medications that have not only disrupted certain biological functions, but caused me to topple trees and go after people with letter openers, something I was never known to do prior to the prescripions. But of course *I* was held accountable for those actions and not the prescribed meds, even If I don't even remember such actions.(My mother had since reported that doctor to the board). I've had times when I've had meds that have put me in a completely different state of mind, kinda like alchohol or LSD would do. But some doctors are so convinced of their own infallibility they are willing to harm a paitient just to avoid taking responsibility for an error. And I'm sure this is what happened in Eric Harris' case. But if there is one person who should have been held accountable with both neglegence AND the murders, It's not only Eric, but it should also be his psychiatrist. But I bet in the times to come they WOULD come around to accept the insanity plea for him, but still hold a black person in the same state of mind accountable. |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 383
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 04, 2005 - 05:46 am: |
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---"Our culture says, 'You have to go on no matter what' - if you're limping, if you're physically ill, if you're psychologically ill. As a consequence, getting help for yourself competes with meeting your other obligations." ----
This paragraph reminded me of something.Last summer, in one of my classes , we had to do a group report on mental illness. One of my classmates working on the project was a nigerian woman.She had a hard time grasping the concept of Mental illness and I had to explain a lot of it to her. Then she explained to me that back in Nigeria, they did not have depression or the idea that one could have medical source for bad emotions. She then added that the general feeling was that one had to just push such feelings to the side in order to get work done. There was no room or time for depression in Nigeria. And I guess that idea crossed over and survived in America. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 920
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 04, 2005 - 02:15 pm: |
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Hi Roxie,
My heart goes out to you.
I can totally relate.
And...I love you, sis. You're brave and you're a lot smarter and more together than many women out here.
KOLA
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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 988
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 05, 2005 - 12:56 am: |
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***But if there is one person who should have been held accountable with both neglegence AND the murders, It's not only Eric, but it should also be his psychiatrist.***
What about the media? Was this part of the story ever widely reported?
Also, patients speaking out about their meds is not new. You may be too young to remember this.. but for as long as I can remember, psychiatric patients have always complained about the medication that they were being given.. and many of them flat out refused to take them. It's been said that one of the hardest things to do was to get some of them to take their meds. They were accused of being stubborn and that the side effects they'd complain about were imaginatve, a part of their mental illnesses. Now, it's becoming clear that they knew what they were talking about all along. I'm glad this is the case.. but I wonder what took so long.
Tonya |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 385
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 05, 2005 - 05:15 am: |
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--but I wonder what took so long.--
Tankfully, A few psychs were willing to put their "God-complexes" to the side to do some REAL research. ;)
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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 386
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 05, 2005 - 05:16 am: |
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Scuse me, "Thankfully". |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 387
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 05, 2005 - 05:48 am: |
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--What about the media? Was this part of the story ever widely reported?--
No. It was mentoned once......as a footnote on an A&E SPECIAL!
I doubt any COMMON PEOPLE took note.
And the News DEFINITELY ignored this. Those trend seekers were busy scapegoating marilyn manson and making life more miserable for already-miserable teens.
--Now, it's becoming clear that they knew what they were talking about all along.--
Yeah, they're taking the ADULTS more seriously now, but minors (even those with depression) are still regarded as no more than lab rats with no mind or will of their own. THAT'S for DAMN sure.
Children, especially black children, are not regarded as kids with impaired mental growth or dysfunctional upbringings, but inncorrigables or biologically maladaptive individuals unfit for society or any basic human treatment. Emotional security is more crucial to the growth and development of a child than it is an adult.
When thse kids are taken from an "unfit enviroment" where they grew up being hurt or betrayed by everyone,and then sent to an institution and are still hrt and betrayed by those who are obligated to protect them, then Psychologists are just ensuring that these kids to become what they were supposed to avoid them from becoming: social retreatists.
If you can no longer trust a psychiatrist, who the hell can you trust?
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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 388
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 05, 2005 - 06:02 am: |
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Those psychs LOVE the fact that the parents are ignorant, because they will eat everything the doctor says up. They got PISSED when my PHYSICIAN mother didn't buy into their game. Jewish and Indian men just HATE being challenged by a black woman. But they took their anger at my mother out on me. Unprofessional, huh? 
With an enviroment like that we'd might as well be in a workhouse with Oliver Twist!
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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 989
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 05, 2005 - 09:25 am: |
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***If you can no longer trust a psychiatrist, who the hell can you trust?***
I never thought of it that way.. but I guess that's the truth.
Tonya |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 1677
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 05, 2005 - 11:47 am: |
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I find a lot of black people just cannot deal with the idea that a person, especially a relative, might have a mental illness (and that it is a treatable condition and not a curse from God or something)
Neighbor of mine was talking crazy, hallucinating. Sitting with a towell wrapped around his head and quoting from the Bible and writing pages and pages of crazy, scripture inspired text.
I called his people and told them he was having trouble--afraid that he would get real bizarre with another neighbor, they'd call the cops, and the cops, not knowing he had a mental problem, would hurt him.
"Oh, he's allright. He's just going through a thang" was the ignorant reply.
We retain too many swampland superstitions and beliefs about these things-- |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3100
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 05, 2005 - 12:53 pm: |
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So when are you going to make an appointment with a psychiatrist, chrishayden? Maybe there's a chance you can be cured of all the complexes that have forced you to assume a facade that poorly conceals your insecurities. |
Brother_rustam
Newbie Poster
Username: Brother_rustam
Post Number: 14
Registered: 12-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 07, 2005 - 12:18 am: |
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I bet if everyone in America was properly diagnosed....
Well over 40% of the population would be diagnosed with some degree of mental illness.
INCLUDING SUBSTANCE ABUSE!
Alcoholic and drug addicts are also mentally ill and if they don't get thier "medication" they will lose thier minds and react as violent as the most troubled schizoprenic or manic-depressive.
But since so many people in the West are addicted to substances and those substances are so available...they are written off as separate problems other than psychiatric.
Although I believe mental illnesses are aggrevated by stress and negative experiences in life, I believe they are actually caused by chemical imbalances.
With all the chemicals being pumped into our food and water, it's a wonder all of us aren't sick.
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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 391
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 07, 2005 - 05:42 am: |
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--Although I believe mental illnesses are aggrevated by stress and negative experiences in life, I believe they are actually caused by chemical imbalances.---
When it comes to the source of illness, Psychs either believe all diagnoses to be one or the other, or they just don't bother to learn the difference. IMO, For the majority of black children in institutions, the source of their illness is a traumatic or dysfunctional life experience, yet they are written off as chemically imbalanced and treated as such.Illness or blacks has many dimensions and too often the diagnosis is too simplified for them, which is tragic.
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Brother_rustam
Newbie Poster
Username: Brother_rustam
Post Number: 18
Registered: 12-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 07, 2005 - 10:04 pm: |
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Roxie
_____________________________
When it comes to the source of illness, Psychs either believe all diagnoses to be one or the other, or they just don't bother to learn the difference. IMO, For the majority of black children in institutions, the source of their illness is a traumatic or dysfunctional life experience, yet they are written off as chemically imbalanced and treated as such.Illness or blacks has many dimensions and too often the diagnosis is too simplified for them, which is tragic
_____________________________
True mental illness is an actual chemical imbalance whether it's caused by trauma, substance abuse, food allergies, or just a birth defect.
What alot of Black people in America go through pales in comparison to what many Black people in other countries go through.
Yet when they LEAVE that environment and come to a more peaceful one most are able to put that past behind them and live a relatively normal life...no mental illness what so ever.
I know boys who used to be soldiers, there are boys who participated in mass slaughters and saw thier own family members die who although hurt like hell...they are mentally stable and know how to behave.
Meanwhile a lot of Americans raised with plenty of food and support in a relatively stable environment still don't know how to act and can't control themselves.
They are mentally ill and have incorporated it into their culture.
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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 394
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 08, 2005 - 04:58 am: |
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Rustam,
--True mental illness is an actual chemical imbalance whether it's caused by trauma, substance abuse, food allergies, or just a birth defect. --
Unfortunately, these doctors can't tell the difference between a chemical imbalance and psyche shaped by trauma, they just lump everything together into one neat little category, thus simplifying patients' problems and misdiagnosing everything. Even I question as to whether I really have schizoeffecive (a VAGUE disorder) or if all my old problems were the result of the hell I experienced from my childhood. Many doctors I've had NEVER checked my personal and family history. MANY never do. They diagnosed based on what they see in front of them instead of trying to research events and traumas led to a very troubled mind. If they give serial killers that mercy, why not the average mentally ill citizen?
In the US, instead of getting some actual counseling or finding constructive ways to handle our traumas, these non-black doctrs just either yell at us like drill sargients and pop pills in our mouths that add more imbalance to our neural structure.
--I know boys who used to be soldiers, there are boys who participated in mass slaughters and saw thier own family members die who although hurt like hell...they are mentally stable and know how to behave.--
It's clear Africans have a better coping mechanism, As I mentioned about my nigerian classmate, yet half of us in the US are denying our illness while the other half is being forced to use the white man's way emotional reconstruction and it's just killing us more.
--They are mentally ill and have incorporated it into their culture.--
Your right, we are a mentally ill culture. We are just too arrogant to admit it. And if any of the African boys ever went to a US psychiatrust they'd be given a simplistic diagnosis and have their mouths shoved with pills, twitching and puking like the rest of us good ol' americans, I bet you that.;) |
Brother_rustam
Regular Poster
Username: Brother_rustam
Post Number: 36
Registered: 12-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 08, 2005 - 01:30 pm: |
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I really feel sorry for people suffering from mental illnesses.
For over a year, I had most of the symtoms of depression as well as anxiety attacks. The shit came out of nowhere and was the worst feelings I ever felt in my life.
I didn't want to die, but I just didn't want to exist.
I knew I was losing it but I was too afraid to go to a psychiatrist because I knew they'd put me on some punk ass medication that would really fuck me up.
I can see my name in some newpaper going off on a mutha.....lol.
Can't have that.
I like women too much to end up dead or in jail.
I prayed, and did some research on depression and found out that most of it came from chemical imbalances.
Then I did research on what causes chemical imbalances and it seem that the mercury in my dental fillings were causing my problems.
Mercury is a poison that changes the chemistry of the brain.
I got them shits taken out, started an omega 3 diet...and within a year I had no more depression.
All praise is do to the one God AlMighty.
That's why I know in some cases mental illnesses are actually physical problem.
But you're right, often times these doctors can't tell the difference between problems caused by a chemical imbalance or one caused by a traumatic experience.
I know my mother died a suffering death and I've experienced some traumatic shit in my life, but even my worst life experiences didn't make me feel as shitty as that depression and anxiety attacks.
I felt like I wanted to jump out of a window with that mess working on me.
Perhaps both are contributing factors for most mentally ill people.
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