Is depression still a taboo?

It seems that many people think that people suffering/ talking about depression has lost all it’s taboo. (See India Knight in the Times http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/comment/columns/indiaknight/article1141748.ece ) and to be honest her evidence of ‘Misery lit,’ and oh yes I hate that description, is actually quite a good one. I know it’s being condemned and I do agree it should be but I am left wondering if she’d put it a little more diplomatically more people wouldn’t have been in more agreement with her than they seem to be.

Many months ago I looked at the attitudes to mental health household survey, (found here http://www.ic.nhs.uk/webfiles/publications/mental%20health/mental%20health%20act/Mental_illness_report.pdf ) and in this to shows a non significant but declining percentage in peoples sympathy for those with mental health problems, decrease in the number feeling we should be more tolerant of those with mental problems and a fall in the number of people agreeing that people with mental health problems have for too long been a subject of ridicule.

So is she that far out from public opinion?

I wouldn’t like to say. It has certainly been my experience that it is far more acceptable to talk about depression in all it’s forms than ever before, and certainly positive media attention and sympathy for those that have done so is large and growing. The problem I have is that although it is encouraging that people are talking that doesn’t necessarily mean that stigma has decreased, if anything it may point to people becoming more intolerant of those who do not talk about it.

 It for me is not a better attitude, but a different one and although it undoubtedly helps those who take comfort from them not being alone in their suffering is it helping. There are still many, many others who do not and don’t feel able to talk and I wonder if they will be stigmatised even worse than they are because they still cannot talk? This slew of:

·         what’s there to be afraid of?

·         Well if they can do it?

Comments may in fact cause more problems and drive many people further away from getting the help that they need, since they are indeed still very scared. I find the slew of autobiographies quite alarming particularly as these are people who have overcome their problems, where things are past it is far easier to talk particularly if you believe that it will stay that way. They seem to have little in common with the people who have suffered the most. Money, power, friends, family, supporting entourage, no waiting lists for treatment and no need to work anymore than they wish.

 In point of fact                               

The Office for National Statistics Psychiatric Morbidity report found that in any one year 1 in 4 British adults experience at least one mental disorder1, and 1 in 6 experiences this at any given time. http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/content/assets/PDF/publications/fundamental_facts_2007.pdf?view=Standard

And

About half of people with common mental health problems are no longer affected after 18 months, but poorer people, the long-term sick and unemployed people are more likely to be still affected than the general population. (Better Or Worse: A Longitudinal Study Of The Mental Health Of Adults In Great Britain, National Statistics, 2003) –quoted from http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-statistics/common-mental-health-problems/

This could mean that these people have had a few years of illness that they have now recovered and have gotten on with their lives and it implies that actually that’s normal for people with mental health problems.

I don’t doubt that they suffered but then it seems most of them had the best medical care they could afford, they didn’t sit on waiting lists nor want for anything except their good mental health to return this cannot be said for most people.

The other side here is that although depression is the most common mental health problems it is not the only one and I for one would really like there to be more press on some of the others. For instance I am only aware of three people who have admitted to the press that they have bi polar disorder, (Stephen Fry, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sinéad O'Connor) yet I know of many others that have admitted to depression, who have written biographies and have talked about it openly on TV.

Interesting then that when I asked google about celebrities who have bi polar disorder that a long list appeared many whom I recognised but had no idea, maybe I just don’t pay enough attention to celebrity news or maybe it is just gossip? I also noted that most of the admitted list were American, non British or historic.

The point I’m trying to make is that actual admissions of the disorder are not well recorded and it’s not just Bi polar disorder.

Really if you want to say stigma doesn’t exist then where are all the others disorders? Things have changed for depression suffers but not as much as you might think. These are people who have recovered, there are many more who are suffering in silence, who do not openly say, my mental health is suffering and I need a time out unless they absolutely have to, which of course begs the question

Is it any of our business?

Maybe not, but you would think it might come up in conversation occasionally and yet it just doesn’t.

So is Stigma still alive and well for all disorders?

Well feeling that everyone is talking openly/ freely about depression is not quite the same as there being no stigma attached to it. And it does not follow that just because more celebrities and public figures are talking about it that those in the rest of the world feel able to do that or would not suffer for doing so. It just shows that people with money and power are willing to risk the consequences of which there are likely to be very few, since they are celebrities; however it is still a risk and that means it's still a taboo, just one that they are willing to do anyway!

I think maybe India was making a point in the way she introduced the piece about how people were making money out of this that I am very unhappy about. She may be fed up hearing about it but then maybe that has more to do with her not understanding the big picture of mental health stigma and sadly I don’t think she is alone in feeling that way. I think many people are fed up hearing about it but then I feel that is what stigma is about, shutting people up and that seems to be all they really want, to shut people up, to take it off the agenda. I think we all know what happens when that happens.