Review of Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So

Well folks I'm going to try something new, and do a book review. Specifically, I'm going to review Mark Vonnegut's Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So.

I have to say I loved this book. It is a memoir about his life with mental illness, and how he has overcome his illness and go on to become a medical doctor.

Two things drew me to this book. The first was the title. Lets face it, it is a cool name. Not to mention the fact that, in sort of a backhanded way, says “hey I'm just like everyone else, even if my brain does play tricks on me once in awhile.” The second thing that drew me to the book was the authors name. Kurt Vonnegut, Mark's father is one of my favourite authors. So I had to read the book to see if he was as entertaining a writer as his father. I have to say I was not disappointed.

It is far to easy in a book on the subject of mental illness, especially when writing about yourself, to fall into describing episodes in your life that become very depressing for the reader, not to mention for the person writing it. This book never falls into that trap. Even when discussing issues that are can easily bring a person to tears, he writes in a way that can make you laugh out loud.

The first chapter goes into his ancestry, and shows the progression of mental illness, on both sides of his family. From his great grandfather, to his father and mother, then himself. It would seem that at least from his great grandfather on his fathers side, pretty much everybody suffered at least from depression, although there seemed to be other things going on as well for some of them.

The next two chapters are basically what it is like to be brought up in a household with a mother who suffers from depression, and a father with PTSD. If you want to find out where his fathers PTSD came from I suggest reading slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

After that the book goes into his time in a hippy commune and his descent into mental illness, when he was first diagnosed with schizophrenia. After recovery from his first episode he decided that he wanted to be a doctor. He applied to most of the medical schools in the US and was only accepted by Harvard. He obviously graduated, and became a paediatrician.

Much of the rest of the rest of the book discusses his career in medicine. He talks quite a bit about how screwed up the American health care system is. However, he also discusses in detail about how he had a relapse and how he became an alcoholic while trying to self medicate. Not to mention how his first marriage broke up as a result, not of his illness, but his drinking. He did recover from both eventually.

All of this was done with great humour and insight. I think that this is a book that most people who read this blog will enjoy. The only issue's I have with the book is that he tends to use the word “crazy” a little too much. Although he does say that this is only in reference to himself, and not about people with mental illness in general. The second issue I have with the book is the last chapter. Its a chapter on picking mushrooms, and I really do not see what it has to do with the rest of the book, but it is kind of interesting anyway.

Arazona shooting

Ok I will admit that this particular posting is really badly written. However, this is my fifth attempt at writing it, and I said that this will be my last attempt. That whatever came out of it will be what I publish. Having said that I hope that it expresses something. Feel free to ask questions and I will try to clarify what it was I was trying to say. Will try to do better next time, but this was a really hard one to write.

Lets be honest, Jared Laughner is a very, very bad man. For anyone who has been living under a rock for the last week, he is the man who shot and killed six people and wounded 14 others in an attempt to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords a US Democratic Congresswoman. Those killed were mostly innocent bystanders, who were there to meet the Congresswoman, including a nine year old girl.
There is absolutely no reasonable excuse for his actions. This is particularly so since, although it seems that his target was Giffords, it is obvious that he meant to kill as many people as possible. This is based on the fact that he had purchased 90 rounds of ammunition and was changing clips to keep shooting when he was tackled by a couple of people.
Now even a quick look at this guys past will show that he is not what you would call the most stable person in the world. The fact is that he probably does have some form of mental illness, and that this did play a role in his actions. However, the problem that I have is that many, especially on the far right are blaming what happened on his mental illness.
Although, there is little doubt that when all is said and done, we will find that mental illness did play a role in this tragedy, that fact must not be allowed to go unchallenged that this act happened in a vacuum. In other words, I will absolutely agree that mental illness played a part in what happened. However, even the most psychotic person will have a reason for their actions. Even if those reasons do not seem rational to an outside observer. Therefore to deny that the political climate in the USA had nothing to do with it does not stand up to logic.
For a person who is having delusional (or even not so delusional) thoughts about what the government is doing to add blatantly inflammatory language to the mix, is a recipe for something like this to happen. The only real surprise I had when I heard about this is that it took so long to happen. The sad part is that it will, probably, happen again. So are the Republicans, Tea party and the extreme right to blame for what happened? Well the answer is yes, they played a role. But so did the moderate right of the Democratic party. Although they used some of the same tactics of the far right, their primary sin in creating this mess is cowardliness. Backing down at every opportunity to the Republicans.
They are not the only ones to blame of course. There are school officials at various levels who knew something was wrong, and had a responsibility to report it, but chose to do nothing except remove him from the school. His parents must have know that there were problems but again did nothing to help him. He had had run-ins with the police in the past, which in a truly just society would have lead him to mental health services, but didn't. Then of course there is the completely ridiculous gun laws in the US that will basically allow anyone to get a gun, and all the ammunition they need to kill as many people as possible.
Because of all these factors, I was saddened, although far from shocked when I heard that this had happened. When it happens again I will be saddened but unfortunately not shocked.
I may try to rewrite this again, or at least write more on specific areas in order to clarify some of the things I said in here.

New Years Resolutions

Well its the new year and so I suppose that it may be a good time to start writing some posts for this blog again, since I've been slacking off on that front for awhile. So this post is just to let you know about a few New years resolutions that I have made for myself.

1. I am going to be more consistent in writing this blog. Lets say once a month, that may be more doable than every couple of weeks, but if I have something before that I'll publish when It's ready.
2. I'm going to quit smoking. This should be easy as I don't smoke now and haven't had a cigarette in more than 20 years. But just a reminder not to start again:)
3. Going to finish writing the book I'm writing and hopefully get it published. Also start some other writing projects I have ideas for.
4. Get in shape. I don't actually have to loose any weight, but am in awful shape so need to work on that.
5. Going to do my best to stay reasonable sane. Don't want to be too sane, thats just boring.
6. Somewhat in contradiction to the wording of the last resolution, want to work to reduce the sigma of mental illness. After all most of us are realy cool people once you get to know us.

Well, I think if I can manage to do those things, I will have done well for this year. Maybe next year I will be able to come up with something truly interesting. Talk to you later.

Happy New Year

Hi folks, just wanted to say Happy New Year. Have a good one, and will be back soon. Working on some new stuff.

Drugs and mental health

Before I go any further, let me just say that I in no way promote the use of recreational drugs. At the same time I have to state that I am totally opposed the drug laws as they exist now, an how those laws criminalize those with mental health issues. Not to mention those who live in poverty, and youth.

Gotten that out of the way, it should come as not shock that I am opposed to the current drug laws in Canada, and most of the world, since I just said that in the previous sentence. Like all prohibition laws they work, not to prevent the sale or use of these drugs, but to create a culture of violence around there sale and use.

However, it is the affect of the criminalization of drugs and their use on those with mental health issues.

The criminalization of recreational drugs has the effect of bringing many, law abiding, people with mental illness into conflict with the law. Not that all people with mental health issues use drugs. I don't, although I did smoke pot a couple of times in university. For those who do, however, many will end up in jail, where even those responsible for the jails admit they will not get the help they need.

Many people with mental illness, to a large extent due to the silliness around getting into the mental health system, self medicate with recreational drugs. Although many of these do not realize that that is what they are doing, as they do not realize they are sick.

Some people believe that most if not all mental illness is actually caused by recreational drug use. Although there is some evidence that long term use can cause some symptoms of mental illness, and that some drugs like LSD actually cause a temporary form of psychosis, the diagnostic criteria for most mental illnesses actually precludes the use of recreational drugs as a cause. Having said that there use in self-medicating is not a long term solution and will, in most cases, make the situation worse in the long term.

So does it really make sense to throw people in jail and criminalize them because they are simply trying to find ways to survive. Because that is exactly what our drug laws do to people with mental illness.

This in no way should be construed as my advocating the use of recreational drugs to treat mental illness. Rather, it is a recognition that the mental health system has failed many people, and that they should not be the ones to be punished for the failings of the system.

Having said all that, there are three things that I would recommend being done that would help rectify this situation:

1.Legalize and regulate recreational drugs, as is currently done with alcohol and tobacco. This would have the effect of reducing most of the violence and criminality that currently revolves around these drugs. It would also stop the criminalization of those people with a mental illness who use them for self medication.

2.Provide mental health services to those who need them, when they need them. The fact is that many people know they are becoming ill in the beginning, and ask for help, but loose that insight as they spiral into mental illness. If they were given the help when they ask for it, it could reduce the amount of self-medicating. Not to mention the fact that it would result in fewer people with mental illness being forced into the “criminal justice” system.

3.Recognize that many addiction issues are related to mental health issues. In other words, it is time to stop treating addiction as some sort of moral failing, even if mental illness is not involved. Then start make sure that the underlying issues, whatever they may be, involved in a persons addiction are dealt with. I have known a number of people who have gone through rehab, but have gone back to using drugs because they were not given help in dealing with the issues that brought them to drugs in the first place.

Well, there's my two cents worth. Would love to know what everybody else thinks, so feel free to comment, I won't be offended if you disagree with me. OK I might be, but I won't take it personally.

Stigma Part 1

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There is no doubt that having a mental illness sucks. As someone who has lived with mental illness for almost 30 years, I can tell you that first hand. For those of you who did not read my first post, I've been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, clinical depression and generalized anxiety disorder (there are links to more information on these in the previous post). Not to mention dyslexia (I know not a mental illness, but a sign of a messed up brain non the less). Also, my psychologist wants to have me tested for ADHD, but probably won't be, like I really need something else to add to the list.

However, mental illness is also something that does not have to control a persons life. I like to think that I am one of those people who have become much more than my illness. After all I am working part-time, although working 30 plus hours a week, just not enough to get benefits of course. Aint that always the way though. I have friends, food on the table, and a roof over my head. Which, unfortunately, is more than I can say for all too many people with a mental illness.

Having said all that, its time to stop rambling and get to the point of this post. That would be how stigma affects people with a mental illness. Stigma is basically the way that people perceive those with a mental illness, as well as how those with a mental illness look at themselves. The truth is that there are a lot of myths out there about mental illness and most of them place those of us with them into a less than shinning light. The problem is that for the most part they are actually not true. Now for the sake of brevity (you could write a whole book on this subject), I'll only discuss the big three.

1. Those with a mental illness tend to be more violent than the general public. Although we do occasionally hear of people with a mental illness committing violent acts, they are actually a rarer occurrence than violent crimes committed by the general public. As a matter of fact, due to the high level of homelessness among mental health “consumers,” we are more likely to be victims of violent crime than the perpetrators of it. Speaking for myself, when I'm psychotic, I'd rather curl up in the fetal position and forget the world even exists than go out and engage in murder and mayhem.

2. People with a mental illness are less intelligent than most people. For those of you who might be inclined to believe this, check out this list of some of the people who are probably much more intelligent than you who have had a mental illnesses. Although the reality is that the range of intelligence among the mentally ill, tends to be the same as among the population in general.

2. That mental illness is some sort of personal failing on the part of the individual. The fact is that mental illnesses are exactly that, illnesses. They tend to be chronic like asthma or diabetes, although symptoms may be better or worse over time and even fluctuate. The fact, however, is that those with a mental illness are not week or just using their illness as a reason for not doing things. In fact they tend to be some of the strongest people I know. In truth, if most healthy people had to live with the turmoil that we do, they would not make it. Although many of us do not make it, many of us go on to live reasonably normal lives.

Well, there is my first blog on the stigma of mental illness. Trust me this will not be the last time you read about this on this blog. Hope you enjoyed, and have a nice day.

A Brief Introduction

Well, I've been thinking about starting a blog on mental health issues for quite awhile now. So I figured that now was as good a time as any to start writing. Now this post is basically just to let you know that I will be writing the blog, and to give you some information about myself, for those of you who don't know me.

The plan right now is to write a new post every week to ten days, don't be surprised if that turns into two weeks some times. Don't expect all posts to be the same old boring stuff. Some posts will be on specific forms of mental illness or on treatment, both conventional and alternative. Some will be on issues surrounding mental illness, such as policing or homelessness. And some will just be personal observations or rants, I like to rant sometimes.

So for those that are reading this who don't know me, my name is Chris Rogers, 42 years old and have been waging my own personal battle with mental illness since I was in my teens. I've been diagnosed with schizo affective disorder, depression, and generalized anxiety disorder. And yet somehow managed to survive.

As well as this blog I'm also willing, to the best of my ability, to talk about mental health issues. So if you want to talk, have ideas as to what I should talk about in the blog, or just want to rant yourself, email me at chrisrogers1@rogers.com.

Well hopefully that wasn't too painful for you, it wasn't for me. And now that I've committed myself to writing this thing, you should be reading some more interesting stuff from me soon.