Pax Nortona – A Blog by Joel Sax
From the Land of the Lost Blunderbuss
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Category: Stigma
Andreas Lubitz: Depressive or Evil Genius?
Posted on March 31, 2015 in Depression Stigma
Was Lubitz an evil genius? I take exception to the conclusion that his actions were in any way “malicious”.
Happy Birthday, Vincent! (World Bipolar Day)
Posted on March 30, 2015 in Bipolar Disorder Psycho-bunk Reflections Stigma
The fact is we are painters in real life, and the important thing is to breathe as hard as ever we can breathe. — Vincent Van Gogh
Another Hockey Mask: Andreas Lubitz
Posted on March 27, 2015 in Depression Stigma Suicide
*TRIGGER WARNING*
I must tell the truth here: I do not understand what Andreas Lubitz did. In my suicidal fugues, I thought of many ways that I might kill myself that involved others such as throwing myself in front of a truck or crashing my car into a tree or driving it off a cliff, but the idea of taking others with me — that wasn’t the self-annihilation that I planned. When I came close,I found a secluded place where someone would eventually find me. That was the maximum involvement of another that I planned. Though I thought capital punishment might work for me — and send a message to those who loved me — I did not want to assassinate others.
Rumor has it that Lubitz was going through some catastrophic issues with his girlfriend. He knew that he was ill and he was seeking treatment for it. The day of the crash, his psychiatrist issued a sick leave note. Andreas did not use it, however, and his doctor could not call the airline to tell them that he was at risk. But Lubitz did not stop at ending his own life:
Andreas Lubitz was breathing, steady and calm, in the final moments of Germanwings Flight 9525. It was the only sound from within the cockpit that the voice recorder detected as Mr. Lubitz, the co-pilot, sent the plane into its descent.
The sounds coming from outside the cockpit door on Tuesday were something else altogether: knocking and pleading from the commanding pilot that he be let in, then violent pounding on the door and finally passengers’ screams moments before the plane, carrying 150 people, slammed into a mountainside in the French Alps.
Why We Shouldn’t Let Our Loved Ones Do the Talking about Stigma
Posted on March 14, 2015 in Bipolar Disorder Courage & Activism Stigma
We can move souls to greater understanding and action by telling people what it is like to live among paranoid normal people. No family member possesses this experience.
How Positive Thinking Poisons Bipolar Disorder
Posted on February 10, 2015 in Compassion Depression Ettiquette Stigma
When you are depressed, society forces you to lie.
The Hidden Side of Gia Carangi
Posted on February 2, 2015 in Addictions Bipolar Disorder Fashion Movies Stigma
We think better of drug addicts than we do of the mentally ill.
On Self Revelation and Its Risks
Posted on March 18, 2014 in Disappointment Reflections Stigma
Self revelation is the most dicey thing that a blogger can do. You put yourself out there hoping for help and support, risking being attacked or ignored. Mental health bloggers have perceived this, I think — as well as sensed opportunities for fame — and made a transition to writing advice columns for people with their illness. (I’ve remained stubborn and keep writing about how my mind works.) There are those vagabonds who come by a page for the purpose of harassing you because you have a mental illness. These are easily dealt with. The silence is worse. Your words disappear onto a hard disk and are never removed. Worst of all are the people who read what you write and then make a comment like “Well, you told us how you feel.” Behind remarks like that I hear a resounding “shut up”.
PTSD and Bipolar: Vampires in the Warehouse
Posted on March 17, 2014 in Encounters Mania PTSD Stigma
“You’re controlling me,” he shot back. “I’m the facilitator of this group,” I replied. “I’m supposed to do that.”
Guns and Crazies
Posted on January 13, 2013 in Stigma Suicide Violence
The matter of the mentally ill is a bullet fired very close to home. The simple-minded think that marking us with our own special yellow stars solves the problem of Newtown.
Shopping at Moods-R-Us
Posted on June 11, 2012 in Insurance Stigma
This is a peeve I’ve had for a long time. I can understand the reasoning, but I don’t like the additional implications. Due to the media, folklore, and other cancers of popular culture, the phrase “mental patient” acquired some bad connotations. Some people didn’t want to be labeled with it because they had been wrongly committed back in the days when psychiatrists called anything that moved “schizophrenic”. Others didn’t want to be painted with an ax in their hands.
But the phrase we replaced it with was “mental health consumers”. I am all for mental health — isn’t that the reason why I am on so many medications? — but the notion of me being a “consumer” irritates me. It suggests that I am in Psychiatry Land because I am looking for a high or because I am looking for the latest brain fashion accessory. Out there, there must be a mental health superstore — a “Moods-R-Us” where I can pick and choose from the latest manias, depressions and mixed states, each colored to match my attire ((I have a friend who showed up to her psychiatrist wearing ultra-bright clothing. The shrink said “Are we feeling a bit manic today?” “No,” my friend said. “We are feeling depressed and the only clothes we have to wear are the ones we bought when we were manic.”)) .
There’s a worse implication here: consumer suggests whim. It suggests that our syndromes are less devastating than other physical conditions. Do we hear talk of diabetes consumers or cancer consumers? “Oh, yes, I would like some Taxol to go with my new uterine tumor.” People would rise in anger and cry out in rebellion.
If we are just consumers, then our illnesses aren’t serious and don’t deserve insurance coverage. That’s the bottom line here. It’s a door to disenfranchise us from decent health care. And no one who suffers from genuine psychiatric conditions should just stand by and allow that to happen.
The First Refuge of Scoundrels
Posted on July 23, 2011 in Stigma Terrorism Violence
“Madman” is right-wing political correctness for white male terrorist.
I’m Picking on Batman, Again
Posted on July 21, 2011 in Stigma
I’ve gotten in trouble for this before — taken to task not only in the comments section of this blog, but also on Twitter. But what needs to be said needs to be said. Batman is teaching people awful things about mental illness, things that are not true. Take The Joker for instance. How many times have Gotham City authorities thrown him into the Arkham Asylum? Does he really belong there? Psychiatrist H. Eric Bender M.D. thinks not:
“Someone who is ‘psychotic’ is experiencing symptoms of psychosis, a mental disorder, which can include auditory hallucinations, such as hearing voices; visual hallucinations, where they see objects that are not truly there; or have delusional thoughts, despite evidence to show that such beliefs are incorrect — such as believing that one’s movements are being tracked by deep space satellites — or disorganized behavior,” Bender said. “In the vast majority of depictions, the Joker is not experiencing such symptoms; rather, the Joker has shown symptoms of psychopathy.”
Bender says psychopathy is a personality construct and not a diagnosis of a mental disorder.
“Psychopathy reflects interpersonal characteristics and behavior that are often rooted in a lack of empathy,” Bender said. “In the comics, television shows, and films, the Joker is much more akin to a psychopath and is not psychotic ((More here)) .”
What our comics and what our cinema say about mental illness transfers to the minds of people who are too lazy to pick up a genuine work about abnormal psychiatry. These same people vote and the representatives they choose make decisions that affect my life. So it behooves me to be aware of what comic books promulgate and to challenge their errors wherever possible.
Art is not above criticism for its values. It is not to be ignored when it suggests bad policy. To go by Batman, you would think that most criminals of the like of The Joker trick the system into putting them into mental institutions. Nothing is farther from the truth. As the same article notes, only 1% of all criminal cases center around legal insanity pleas and, of those, only 20% actually succeed. So we’re not in danger of giving the criminal masterminds of this world an easy ride.
What is actually happening is that many of our mentally ill end up in prisons where they are victimized by the real sociopaths. We have closed down our asylums ((Remember that word means “place of refuge” — except as run in the past, it often was not.)) and thrown the psychotic out onto the streets. To get treatment where community mental health centers have not appeared as promised, some of these have resorted to petty crimes. In jails, they get the meds they need to function, but they also get beat up and raped.
When this happens on the outside, people who might otherwise have helped turn their back because they have learned to equate the mentally ill with serial killers or other violent denizens of the demimonde. Some go past indifference to outright hostility: they beat those who are sick. And when it comes to the community, there are those psychopaths who have risen to places of power. Their lack of empathy results in policies that prevent the mentally ill from getting the treatment they should have for their sake and the sake of the economy.
I hope that when the new series starts coming out in September, Batman will become a new kind of Caped Crusader, one who knows the difference between the psychopath and the psychotic. As one of the latter, I am tired of getting the blame for crimes I don’t commit, much less imagine.
