{"id":1405,"date":"2008-10-10T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-10T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2008\/10\/larry-parker-a-few-thoughts-on.html"},"modified":"2008-10-10T09:30:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-10T09:30:00","slug":"larry-parker-a-few-thoughts-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2008\/10\/larry-parker-a-few-thoughts-on.html","title":{"rendered":"Larry Parker: A Few Thoughts on Stigma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Beyond Blue reader Larry Parker<\/a> for writing the following post as part of “The Doxieman Blog” which you can get to by clicking here:<\/a><\/p>\n

I fight the good fight against stigma against mental illness. But I was taken aback by the truth of something I read recently in Pete Earley’s seminal book “Crazy.” (As he notes, the description is of the system, not the people in the system.)<\/p>\n

The federal government (i.e., the NIH) says mental illness is a chemical imbalance, and because of that it’s a sickness and not something … that anyone seeks or wants or deserves to get any more than he seeks, wants, or deserves to get a cold.\u00a0\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

But deep down, we really don’t want to believe that’s true. Because if we did, we would have to admit: It could happen to us. It could happen to me. And that is such a frightening thought that we quietly search for explanations to prove that the mentally ill aren’t really like us and they somehow deserve the torment they suffer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Why is it, for example, that a no-brainer, common-sense reform like community mental health care — closing down the horrible Gothic mental hospitals and bringing people who could largely if not entirely live on their own into small group homes — was given up on immediately? Even as more dubious social reforms of the 1960s, such as Aid for Families with Dependent Children (an oxymoron if ever there was one — welfare broke up families BY DESIGN), persisted for three decades?<\/p>\n

Because it meant that mental health consumers would be among us — not “safely” in Bedlam in London or Bellevue in New York. (Of course mental health consumers are always among us, but “don’t ask don’t tell” allows plausible deniability.)<\/p>\n

I will fight the stigma against mental illness until the day I die. But I think my fellow Beyond Blue member Melzoom is more on track as to how this will finally start to end.
\nIn America, 1 in 11 people have mental illness. And that means a lot more people are touched by mental illness in some way or other — to see a friend or family member as human instead of a monster.<\/p>\n

I’d make an analogy to the racist patriarch whose son or daughter marries someone of a different ethnic background and has a family. Suddenly he must accept his multiethnic grandchildren or destroy his family.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the families and close friends of those with mental illness must accept us or lose us. I think more of them are making the right choice.<\/p>\n

But it’s still heartbreaking — to us personally, and to our society — that some don’t.<\/p>\n

To read more Beyond Blue, go to www.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue<\/a>, and to get to Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Beyond Blue reader Larry Parker for writing the following post as part of “The Doxieman Blog” which you can get to by clicking here: I fight the good fight against stigma against mental illness. But I was taken aback by the truth of something I read recently in Pete Earley’s seminal book “Crazy.”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental-health"],"yoast_head":"\nLarry Parker: A Few Thoughts on Stigma - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2008\/10\/larry-parker-a-few-thoughts-on.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Larry Parker: A Few Thoughts on Stigma - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thanks to Beyond Blue reader Larry Parker for writing the following post as part of “The Doxieman Blog” which you can get to by clicking here: I fight the good fight against stigma against mental illness. 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