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San Jose City College Times

October 29, 2009

Mentally ill have to deal with stigma

By Lisa duTrieuille

Unlike diabetes, cancer and all other illnesses, mental illness is often seen as the fault of the individual, not as a medical condition.

Mental illness is a chronic medical illness caused by an imbalance of the neurochemistry of the brain. People tend to think that those with an emotional disability are psychotic or violent.
Hollywood often portrays characters that are emotionally disturbed as angry, psychotic, out of control, criminal and violent. This is not a fair assessment of mentally ill persons in regard to how society and Hollywood see this population.

The public has very little knowledge of the different types of mental illnesses and tends to be afraid of people with an emotional illness. The public needs to be more educated about what mental illness is, and how they can help.

Some of the first programs to get cut to in the budget of California are the mental health programs, which are badly needed by this particular population. Rehabilitation, counseling services, in-patient and out-patient programs and psychiatric services are some of the first to get cut. This leaves the mentally ill without the support and tools they need to manage their illness.

Places to go to counseling usually offer short-term help, which doesn’t stabilize the patient. There are a few places that offer low-fee counseling, but many emotionally disabled people are barely getting by on the tiny amount of money they get for their disability. People often think that the emotionally disabled who get financial help from the government are just lazy and if they could just “pull up themselves by their boot strings” they would not have to rely on what they see as a government handout.

It’s very hard to manage an illness, which takes a lot of therapy and the right combination of medications, without guidance and support.

I have manic-depression and it took me 22 years to get to a point where I wanted to go back to school and/or work. I am still in therapy and continue to be monitored by a psychiatrist for my medication.

Also, many people who are mentally ill have a dual-diagnosis. For example I have manic- depression but also anorexia.

Some policemen don’t know how to handle a person with an emotional illness. When a mentally ill person refuses to be hospitalized or is in crisis, they attack the person.

I had felt like hurting myself, and I was on the phone talking to a woman from suicide and crisis, a hotline for people in crisis. I made the mistake of hanging up on her while she had me on hold. But I didn’t want to hurt myself any longer.

Soon I heard sirens, so I hid in the pantry.

Two policemen and a firefighter busted into my home. I gave myself away when something moved in the pantry. I came out and told them that I wasn’t going to the hospital and didn’t need to be hospitalized.

As I stood there, this 6-foot-2 policeman sprayed me with pepper spray. Then, both policemen threw me down on the floor and busted my lip. I am only 98 pounds and 5-foot- 2 . They lifted me up, and I struggled to get loose.

When they came to their police car, they threw me against the car doors twice.

I was taken to an outpatient hospital to be assessed, and after the social worker talked with me she let me go home. But, she told me never to hang up on a person at suicide and crisis because he or she will send out someone to hospitalize you.

What an over reaction on the policemen’s part, and to this day, I hate policemen. Some people I know with mental illnesses hate, don’t trust and are very uncomfortable when policemen are around because they’ve had similar and/or worse attacks on them by the policemen when it wasn’t warranted.

I use to think that I was just a diagnosis and disabled. But with the help of my therapist I learned the only thing that is a disability is the one I had put into my mind. I’ve had 22 years of terrible battles and hell, but I am on my way to becoming a successful news broadcaster.

It may take some time, but I want to walk across San Jose State University’s stage and get my degree. I want my mother to see this with her eyes.

So many people fall through the cracks and spend their lives in lockdown facilities and never get the support and help they need. Some are even homeless. That’s the harsh reality for many people who are mentally challenged. Until society and the state changes their attitude toward mental health and stops taking money from mental health services the system will always be broken, so will those who don’t have a voice, support or stabilization through medication.