On Media and Madness

As labour press secretary and spin doctor extraordinaire, Alistair Campbell emerges from the benches with the admission of a mental breakdown and a spell of mental illness I ask myself, what does this do for the cause to diminish stigma of the mentally ill by today's society. In line with the Mind Out 1 in 4 campaign, a campaign aimed at spreading the message of the vast extent with which the public are affected directly by mental illness, the admissions of Campbell and several other celebrities show us that even our media idols are affected. To this extent I believe such publicity stunts to be justified in raising awareness. The fact that Alistair Campbell is brilliant and that a person such as himself can fall foul of mental illness dispels the popular myth that mental illness is a plague of the lower echelons. However, have we merely replaced one stereotype with another?. I ask myself, if the Sunday Times had run such a high profile outing with successful unknowns, would it have had the same impact? I doubt it.

Are we reaching a situation with mental health media coverage that we did with celebrities of the mid-eighties, where checking into rehab centres was part and parcel of celebrity status but where the stigma of such illness remained within society as a whole? To this I still believe that the re-education of society is implicit in the elevation of the weight of stigma. Maybe this is a start.

Another aspect of the recent publicity surrounding mental illness that hit me was the preponderance of depressives. Where are the schizophrenics, manic-depressives and hey, what about us personality disorders! Individuals are less likely to suffer from transient schizophrenic and personality disorder than they are from depression. Not detracting away from the devastation wrought by depression, I believe it is important that the other illnesses are not left behind and where possible, coverage is equal. 

Perhaps, and controversially, one of the reasons the public stigmatises mental health is because it is seen as a purely negative phenomenon. It is important to recognise that in history, several of the most famous writers, artists and leaders suffered from varying degrees of mental disturbance. I myself know mental illness to be a mixed blessing, the insight I feel when I am with people and the great creativity released by depressive states are hugely positive. Of course, personality disorder is much more than that, the self harm, the endless abandonment scenarios, but having led no other life, I'm not sure I could trade it. I think really that that is it, the disorder is me, and what people have to understand and see is that I am still a person, disorder or not. Maybe this will give us a greater understanding of humanity and mental illness.

Anonymous