Eating Disorders
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September 30, 2003
After working in the "System" as a Forensic Psychiatric Social Worker, I feel that I have touched these people's lives in a way that I never dreamed possible.
Only those who work with these very special people can truly understand their needs.
There needs to be more education on the elementary thru high school level for all children in the country to give them a greater sense of responsibility for the mentally ill.
--Judith (CSW)
--New York
August 25, 2003
I am a 43 year old woman with 8 different diagnoses ranging from panic attacks to phobias to anxiety disorders. The worst is the combination diagnosis of bipolar and anorexia...when I take the meds I gain weight and when I gain weight I freak out and stop the meds and plummet into a deep depression or agitated mania. I really still don't believe I have bipolar sometimes, I mean I think I can control it and it's just me being me. My husband and doctor do not agree. Just stopped taking my zyprexa 4 days ago, thrilled I dropped 2 1/2 pounds already. This really makes me look screwed up, maybe I am but lots of the time I feel in control. I just don't know.
August 22, 2003
I see people everyday with all types of mental illnesses- from chronic schizophrenia to bi-polar, major depression to borderline personality disorder. But like I said, I see people- each with their individual strengths, abilities and personalities. I work at a Fountain House Model clubhouse- Bridge House in Bridgeport Connecticut. I get angry when I see the stigma my members have to deal with daily. The way people assume they're ignorant or dangerous. The way
the government cuts the most needy first. I wish more people understood that having a mental illness is like having diabetes. They didn't ask for it or get it by being bad people. It's a disease that with the right treatment and/or medicine, most people can live a "normal" productive life. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.
--LG
--Connecticut
August 20, 2003
For many of us with psychiatric histories, the concept of "mental illness" just doesn't fit our experience. "Illness" implies a pathogen, which is not the case for people who experience extreme mental or emotional states. The literature shows that the overwhelming majority of people who end up in the mental health system are survivors of childhood sexual or physical abuse; again, that is not an "illness." And those of us with psychiatric histories can be subjected against our will to things like electroshock, powerful mind-altering drugs with devastating side-effects, physical restraint, and a host of other so-called "treatments."
This issue is not about "illness," it's about how society deals with people who are different, living on the margins, or experiencing difficulties in living. We don't have "diseases,"
therefore the diagnoses you list here are not relevant to the real problem, which is a human rights problem.
--Darby
--New York
August 19, 2003
Each time I encounter the metaphor, "mental illness," I wonder how many people who employ it would also employ "physical illness" in the same manner: "People with physical illness", and I know the answer: None. The public prejudice of the "singular" illness is one of the worst of the sources of prejudices we face. I am also bothered by the prejudice of "the." I believed we had learned from WWII the heinous results of categorizing people by a "the," but we have not. The first of the "the's" to be medically murdered were "the" mentally ill, in a gas chamber invented by doctors, Brandenburg 1939. There is no "the" mentally ill, it IS a Nazi metaphor, and it survives. Why?
There is no "the" homeless, it is the same metaphor. Why must we endure it.
--Harold A. Maio
--Florida
August 18, 2003
I am 22 years old. I have a B.A. in Classical Studies and am pursuing my J.D. I weigh 103 lbs. I am bulimic with anorexic tendencies and have suffered from an eating disorder for my entire life. The stigma against mental illness and eating disorders forces silent suffering. Food culture in American society is torturous. People use 'anorexic' and 'bulimic' as insults. EDs are very misunderstood; I do not enjoy this disorder and my daily life is a constant battle with the voice. It compels and controls me; it is not a choice. Yet, I must conceal my suffering and hide my battle.
August 7, 2003
I was molested by a family member starting when I was very small until I reached puberty. As a result of that and of the social climate where that was allowed to happen, I struggle with depression, suicidal feelings, and a sometimes irresistible desire to hurt myself. Over the years, I have heard a mental health professional say that sexual abuse isn't damaging to the child. I've been told by a psychiatrist that "there was no excuse" for me to still be experiencing difficulties and in therapy. Too many times, staff in psych wards are verbally abusive and blaming. I'm not telling you this because I want pity. I'm saying these things because I hope you can make people feel on an emotional level and in their gut, what it's like to live like this.