Hat tips to Monica Hamburg for providing us with a link to this excellent article. Small excerpt below.
Depression is a daily reality against which millions struggle. Many have found a variety of strategies to help them not just survive, but thrive.
Here are the volunteers we need for MentalHealthCamp on the day of
- Registration desk (1 volunteer for that)
- Set up and tear down (3 volunteers for that)
- Getting and setting up the food (2-3 people)
- Session/room marshals (4 volunteers)
- Getting little gifts for honoraria (1+ volunteers)
We could also use one or two general all-purpose volunteers from now on until the event is over.
Some of you have signed up as volunteers already at Eventbrite. Could you let us know what you would like to do? And if you haven’t signed up yet, now’s the time here’s the Eventbrite registration page.
The speaker schedule will be posted ASAP.
This is a guest post by Adrienne Lindsay. Adrienne has completed two and a half degrees, a marathon, has run her own business and is a single mother to an awesome 12-year-old daughter. She was initially diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, but is now diagnosed with bipolar II disorder. Too many things have been taken from her because of her diagnoses so she’s using her voice to try to do what she can to combat stigma against all mental illnesses because there are too many people who have mental illnesses who don’t have a voice. She also wants her kid to be proud of her, to live in a better world than she does, but mostly, she’s speaking out because discrimination of any kind, sucks.
For me, the worst thing about being diagnosed with a mental illness has to be the diagnosis itself – not the symptoms. Because of that label – and the stigma attached to it – I’ve lost my partner, friends – even my job. Don’t get me wrong, at times, the symptoms suck too, but more than the confused emotions that come from my bipolar II diagnosis, it’s the loneliness of not having any consistent support or friendship that hurts the worst. I believe this loneliness is not uncommon to those with mental illness and I believe that it has a lot to do with the stigma attached to it.
And I’m hoping that’s where social media can really make some inroads. For one thing, it’s always there – you can post to a blog or go on to Twitter at any time. And when you feel you have no one to talk to, no friend to call, it’s nice to know that you can find whole communities of people who may be dealing with some of the same things as you or even just fellow twitterers to help distract you from what you may be going through.
When I first « came out » as having a mental illness, I was really hoping – almost expecting that I would be accepted, even embraced by those around me. That it would now be easier to get the support I needed – but that wasn’t the case at all. If anything, I felt that people would use my diagnosis against me – in ways that even affected my daughter. Friends, family, colleagues, the government, it seemed like I was taken dismissed as being almost a lesser person because of my diagnosis.
When I started my first twitter account about three months ago, I was worried about what to put in my bio because having a mental illness is a big part of who I am. But I decided to be open about my struggles, and for the first time, I was embraced for it. People followed me BECAUSE of my diagnosis, not IN SPITE of it. If I tweet that I am feeling down, people respond with virtual hugs.
And I have found out about things like the Coping Digitally panel at Northern Voices, MentalHealthCamp and other events, ressources and contacts where I can be be myself, be proud of who I am and – the best thing of all – not have to feel lost, alone or helpless.
My goal for MentalHealthCamp is of course to expand my knowledge of both mental illness and social media, but most of all, I’m looking forward to meeting in person the people I have met online and coming up with new ways to fight both mental illness and the stigma that surrounds it online and off.
This is a guest post by Ian Campbell. Ian is a psychology student and blogger, diagnosed with clinical depression and generalized anxiety, who can be found at Graveyard Contemplations.
As the date for Mental Health Camp approaches, I find myself more and more excited. I’m not excited at attending; unfortunately, being a poor student doesn’t lend itself to travel so much. But what I’ve read so far, and the very prospect of discussing the stigma of mental illness and how to combat it with emerging technology, really make me hopeful, not to mention glad that someone is taking up the cause.
I’m a firm believer in developmental models; aspects of our culture don’t just appear, they develop from previous and current cultures rather organically. Views of mental health, and accompanying stigma, are no different. Current cultural perceptions of mental health are connected to those of the past, and in confronting the stigma we deal with today, it’s important to look at all three spots on the timeline: past history, present realities, and future possibilities. This is by no means a comprehensive view; more, what I consider an interesting snippet of the subject.
Mental Illness in History
Most of us are familiar with some aspects of the history of abnormal psychology. The theory of humours is well-documented, and while important, doesn’t have as much of an effect on current opinion as cultural and religious views. Humours were the topic of physicians and philosophers, the experts of their time; for present purposes, it’s more important to consult the non-experts. I want to ferret out a few cases and aspects that I think are important to note.
When looking at the history of medical science, few cultures were more important than the ancient Greeks. They provided, arguably, most of the underpinnings that allowed step-by-step progression from religion and superstition to empiricism. However, it needs to be acknowledged that what have come to be seen as game-changing philosophies weren’t representative of the culture at large, only a select few (harkening back to the “experts versus non-experts” theme). To get a better cultural cross-section of the Greeks, an example from their literature and mythology is warranted. Aeschylus’ Eumenides, part of his Oresteia, presents us with the story of Orestes being pursued by the three Erinyes (Furies), goddesses intent on driving him mad in revenge for killing his mother. Another story has one Erinye, Tisiphonie, drive mad King Athamas for a wrong committed against the goddess Hera. Further mythology about the three dreaded goddesses follow suit. The Erinyes are seen in Greek mythology as beings of balance who act out of revenge for universal wrongs. The implication is clear: madness was inflicted upon mortals for transgressing against universal norms as well as deities.
The Greeks’ was not the only religious viewpoint that spoke along those lines. Saint Augustine, arguably one of the most important figures in western Christianity, considered depression to be a sign of disfavor from God. To that can be added the Job reference about being tested by God; given that context, depression becomes something to endure but not complain about. The Quran of Islam carries a similar philosophy of purification through trial, as well as punishment for misdoings, that have been applied to depression and similar topics.
However, there are some cases that throw any absolutist statement about any religion or culture in history out the window, as regards treatment of mentally ill. Often, society’s reaction to an individual’s mental illness depended on that individual’s position and finances. But there were rare cases where social status had nothing to do with the acceptance or at least tolerance found. Socrates himself spoke of the benefits of mental illness, believing it was a divine gift. But up until the 18th century, the general view was both theological and stigmatic.
Consider Christina the Astonishing (1150-1224). Christina was a Belgian who (likely) suffered from epileptic seizures. Just as much or moreso than purely mental illnesses, seizures were often viewed through a demonistic lens, and epileptics were treated accordingly, often shut away or thrust out of communities. However, Christina was venerated by many, and her condition explained in a uniquely theological fashion: during her seizures, she descended to purgatory to provide some respite for sufferers there. Such an explanation set her apart from the normal “lunatics,” as did her periods of calm and rationality between seizures and her embarrassment and shame. While one could say that she internalized the stigma of the time, she also represents a valid exception to it.
There are a number of cases like Christina the Astonishing; sadly, there are many more that conform to the general principle of mental illness especially being demonistic. Such views contribute to the stances we take today, which may be more secular than those of twelfth century Belgians, but that doesn’t mean they’re better.
Views and Stigma in Current Culture
Obviously, stigma’s still a problem. Otherwise we wouldn’t need things like Mental Health Camp (as awesome as it is). People with a range of different diagnoses are described as lazy, spoiled, entitled, frail, weak, or otherwise negatively. We still deal with shock jocks and conservative pundits that describe depressives as “lazy” and tell us to “get over it.” Perhaps this is one of the reasons that, according to a NIMH/Harvard Medical School study, non-Latino white males were the most likely to perceive mental illness stigmatically. It’s hard not to notice a correlation when looking at the racial makeup of conservative talk show listeners like Rush Limbagh and Michael Savage.
Stigma isn’t just media-based, either. It’s sometimes hard to focus on the interpersonal level when everything screams global in this day and age, but it’s necessary. Research done by a nationwide stigma campaign in the UK found that your partner is four times more likely to leave you if you have a mental illness rather than a physical disability. Four times!
We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but all is not lost. Campaigns are increasingly springing up all over the place, Mental Health Camp being one of them. Others are nationwide like UK’s Time for Change. Still others are vocation-based, targeting stigma between police officers or in the military and utilizing technologies like YouTube to spread the message that getting help is okay.
The Future of Stigma….
…is up to you. If you’re reading this, you’re involved. You don’t have to hold a degree or attend a conference. If you’re reading this, you’re involved in the current and future directions that our cultures may adopt regarding mental illness.
Technology can assist us on all sorts of levels. The first is awareness, and relates directly to Mental Health Camp’s goal of integrating destigmatization with social media. Using the web, and specifically facilities like Facebook and Twitter to network and inform, we’re seeing facts and stories being distributed and discussions springing up all over the place. This helps interpersonally as well, as long as we encourage it. The availability of information to a partner, as well as an active support system to be there in the bad times made up of people that have been there, may help save some otherwise untenable relationships.
The second level technology can help us is experiential. Stigma takes a toll, causes isolation. By progressively working from virtual social interactions to real ones, I think virtual reality type technologies can help beat back that five-hundred pound gorilla that perches on your shoulders and constantly shouts “you’ll just embarrass yourself, things will go wrong, just stay home!”
As for me, I’m looking forward to the future. There are a lot of motivated, empowered people out there working for a better one. It’ll be interesting not only to see what the future brings, but how our current attitudes look in hindsight.
We are getting some interesting speaker proposals and are looking forward to pouring over them and seeing which ones we can fit in.
However, we would like to have more still, perhaps on these topics:
- Depression
- Addiction
- Family members with mental illness
- Medications
Here are examples of types of proposals we will give preference to:
- Speakers who discuss their direct experience with mental illness
- Proposals that give examples of how social media can be useful for people experiencing or recovering from mental illness
- Proposals that promise to tell a good story
- Proposals that ask deep/interesting/useful questions
- Proposals with high audience involvement
- Proposals that suggest novel solutions
- Proposals that are a direct reply to the topics posted on Isabella’s blog when this all started
Proposals that are primarily self-help “how to’s” (e.g. how to use yoga to help with depression) or are mostly aimed at showcasing someone’s expertise will have a smaller chance of being selected.
Deadline for proposals is 12 pm Pacific Daylight Time, April 8.
For more info on session proposals, see here.
Dr. Beth Snow writes about the Mental Health Commission of Canada and its public consultation. I remember having read about the fact that Canada is the only G8 country without a national mental health strategy. Please go over to her post and check it out. Thanks Beth for highlighting these important issues!
This post by Karen Quinn Fung (@counti8 on Twitter) offers some ideas on potential topics for the upcoming Mental Health Camp. Thanks Karen!
This site is way too serious. Fortunately Rick London is helping us out here:
This is a call for presenters at MentalHealthCamp.
We don’t have our schedule completely worked out yet but the idea is to have sessions anywhere between 40 and 85 minutes. We will have between 6 and 10 sessions.
If you would like to present, please contact us and send us a short proposal, containing your name(s) and email, an overview over what you would like to discuss (no more than 200 words), a bio (no more than 100 words), and indicating your social media presence (e.g. your blog, twitter address, etc.)
The general questions we’d like to address, according to our soon-to-be finalized press release (thanks, Cathy!) are
- How can blogging help decrease the stigma of mental health?
- How does someone with a mental illness navigate the waters of anonymity in the transparent world of social media?
- How is the journaling that happens in blogging similar to or different from journaling for healing?
- How can social media participants with mental health issues help each other?
Here are some specific topics we thought might be of interest. As of today, March 10, some of these already have “dibs” – we’ve indicated where that is the case. However, if there is a topic to which you would like to contribute, please let us know, and maybe there is still room.
- Depression
- Anonymity (Lorraine, @unsuicide) – maybe also talk about the vulnerability that comes with putting your story “out there” even when the blogger is anonymous.
- Stigma, myth and activism
- Writing (update – Isabella would like to do something about that)
- Addiction
- ADD (Pete Quily)
- Information production and information consumption – on the consumption side, credibility and reliability issues (@unsuicide?)
- Family members with mental illness
- Medications
- Online commiseration and community building
Want to get even more specific? Here is part of the summary of suggested topics from Isabella’s blog.
- Blogging and language; i.e. the language of “mental illness” vs. “mental health” or “personal growth”; how does language stigmatize?
- What problems has “being out” caused in personal and professional life?
- How to deal with commenters/bloggers making “antipsychiatry” suggestions (”don’t take medication” or “you don’t need to see a professional”)
- How can the blogging culture subvert the dominant therapeutic paradigm?
- How to deal with trolls on mental health blogs
- How long to blog about mental health? When you reach the point of truly getting over your problems, what happens next?
- What happens when a person’s distress increases due to blogging (as in peer-reinforced delusions, one-upmanship in “I’m more depressed than you are” virtual community interactions, internet addiction etc)
- Does a feeling of exposure sometimes arise which can go beyond discomfort and become crippling?
- Many famous people have been bipolar or unipolarly depressives. I would like blogs to mention more about the amazing visions of people like Edgar Allen Poe and the long list of others who have given without focusing on their disorder.
AN UPDATE on speaker proposals is here.