To think that White Dee from Benefit St isn't doing people with depression any favours

[Bearbehind]

I've just seen White Dee from Benefits St being interviewed on Sky a News about the budget.

She said she can't work due to her having depression- yet she can appear on TV and is not ruling out standing as a politician

[Fefifo]

HRH are you seriously trying to suggest that the job of an MP would be less stressful than I don't know, let's say packing boxes in a factory? You do realise they perform other small tasks such as representing the hundreds or thousands within their constituencies so they may need to top up those hours in the Commons just a tad.

If they both came with the same pay and prestige I'd probably go for the factory job myself, particularly if I was trying to avoid stress. I'd certainly consider myself fit to do the factory job if I considered myself fit to be an MP. The reality is though if I could get more money sitting on my arse all day than doing the factory job then I probably would.

[Misspixietrix]

Is there actually a reputable link to any of this BS... especially considering she categorically stated on the live channel 4 debate that she had no intention of doing so. This thread just shows up how fucked up peoples thought processes in the 'she shouldn't be allowed on the tv If she doesn't work' 'she can't possibly be ill - she's chatting away and confident and everything. I suggest people who have that mindset go away and do some proper hard research around the issues of depression. I suffered really badly with PND after Ds. On my good days I had done the Housework my studies bathed and fed the kids etc. On one of my bad days my Dh had to take a day off work to look for me after I just started walking and didn't stop. It took 18months of meds etc to get me 'right' again. Suggesting the above on a Parenting website that if someone looks as if they are coping well can't POSSIBLY have depression or most definitely can go to work 'because she looks alright'. On Mumsnet where people trust it enough to discuss their problems in which many struggle with PND depression etc is very irresponsible and is on a whole different level of twattery! I'd very much like Katie Fuckkins to not be allowed on tv and yet here we are... Also why the bloody hell do you care. So what if she gets a job in the media etc. She stops getting ESA and is one more figure off the claimant count. Surely that's a good thing.

[JakeBullet]

If she is being paid for her appearances on TV then the money she gets paid in benefits will be reduced.

So those calling her a scrounger can rest easy....at the moment she is probably be taking less from the pot.

If she HAS been selected for Big Brother then I am assuming that will come with enough of a fee that she won't be entitled to any benefits for a while. Be happy....she then won't be taking anything.

As for depression, yes it's awful, maybe this TV exposure stuff will be the springboard back to work that Dee needs.
More likely though is that this is just exploitation and once it comes crashing down around her (when the media lose interest) she will be plunged back to where she started and depression will take hold once more.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Someone having an aspiration, for something they might do in the future, doesn't mean they are lying about being depressed and unable to work now, Jolleigh!

I know what my dream job would be. Could I do it at the moment, every day, without letting my employer down? No, I couldn't. Some days I don't even manage to brush my teeth. Maybe, once I've had the therapy, I will be able to cope with the demands of a job. But having aspirations doesn't mean I am faking it now.

Ignorance about depression really fucks me off.

[FrigginRexManningDay]

I am shocked to see such ignorance about depression on this thread. I am in the middle of a 'pit of despair' at the moment. I am on auto pilot, just about managing to get out of bed. Everything is such an effort its exhausting. I will be back to my normal self soon, back to the usual clouds of gloom and having to pysch myself up to leave the house. Then I will put my happy face on so no one knows how I feel inside. No one knows that sometimes I want to die.
Many celebrities have reported suffering from depression and yet they still make movies, public appearances, interviews. I watched Benefits Street and the one thing that permeated from it was sadness in peoples eyes even when they smiled, its like even their soul was sad.

[JakeBullet]

Mental health issues are invisible and hard to quantify. I have a friend who has significant mental health issues but you would not know it if you saw her in a car every morning dropping her daughter to school. Fact is she has panic attacks leaving the house and forces herself out the door every morning because she HAS to get her daughter to school.

Sadly in a public place she really struggles.....I think she might struggle to do what Dee has done although some days she might well be able to.

That's the nature of mental health issues though, some days it is easier than others.

On a good day my friend can sit in Costa with me and drink coffee. On bad days it's all she can do to get her daughter to school.

[HRHLadyFarquhar]

fefifo I am indeed aware that, in addition to sitting in the House of Commons for 143 days a year, elected MPs are supposed to work within their constituencies.

I was actually hoping someone would ask me about that. Let me present Sir Stuart Bell. He has held no surgeries for 14 years.

Getting in touch with Sir Stuart is the hot political talking point on Teesside. Yesterday the 73-year-old accused the local Evening Gazette of conducting a politically motivated campaign to unseat him after it reported the results of an investigation in which reporter Neil MacFarlane tried to speak to him on 100 occasions earlier this year. Despite phoning daily – 50 times to his constituency number and a similar amount at his Westminster office – he never managed to get through.

The MP, who has claimed £82,896 in staffing costs, however insisted that the report was "a total mystery" and was yesterday readily fielding calls from journalists.

They're not all hardworking, you know. But I, as a factory worker (and I have packed boxes all day in a factory) would have to turn up every day, and my hourly work-rate is monitored by management. And I don't even to claim my bus fare back as an expense!

[Misspixietrix]

Me too SDT. Just think how many users of this site suffer with Depression etc MNHQ? Now you're going to have people who are spotting the symptoms looking at this thread and thinking oh well I can't possibly have it because of x y and z. Well done.

[Fefifo]

HRH True, there will be MPs that are very quite slack in their working habits but that's true of any profession. From MPs to bankers to shop workers to factory workers you'll always get a few that take the piss. If you hold up the most piss taking worker in any profession as the professional standard then things won't look good.

There are people who suffer from debilitating depression and manage to hold down jobs and others who can't. There are also people that don't seem to realise that what they're suffering from is a normal feeling of despondency about having to slog away at a shit job they don't enjoy is something most people feel but they have to push through it so they decide to stay home and milk the system instead. If anyone truly believes that everyone receiving benefits for depression are doing so down to genuine need they're deluded.

[Misspixietrix]

By the same analysis should Stephen Fry not be on TV?...

[HRHLadyFarquhar]

If I held up the most pisstaking worker in any warehouse I've ever been in, they'd probably look like the ideal employee compared to slacking MPs. Because in a factory, you are watched and observed by management. It doesn't matter whether you are having a good day or a bad day, you have to meet minimum standards, or you lose the job. You clock in at your start time and you clock off at end of shift.

People who don't do that get official warnings (if contracted) or just disappear half-way through the week (agency temps).

MPs are in control of their own work, and can fit it around their personal health to a much greater extent than a factory worker, without oversight from a manager. Unable to make it out of bed for a few weeks? Well, your job will still be there, and you won't even have to do a back to work interview.

[Elfhame]

I would say YABU as you can't tell from the good days how someone is on the bad days. And you can't tell from a snapshot how someones illness affects them in the long run. That's the nature of an invisible illness.

[Fefifo]

If I recall when Stephen Fry had a bad period of depression a few years ago he wasn't on TV was he? Now he's managing it he is back on TV, as he should be back in any job he would otherwise be doing if he was able at the time to be so.

[FrigginRexManningDay]

Fefifo Stephen Fry works for himself so of course he is able to take time off. If I worked in a factory or a cafe or sainsburys do you think I could take weeks off at a time? Or at my worst 10 months? What employer would employ me?

[Kudzugirl]

You cannot diagnose something like Depression from a TV appearance but a MH professional can spot the signs and symptoms of a depressive disorder.

Symptoms like psychomotor agitation or retardation are easily discernible to a trained eye.

[capsium]

So people have to uphold the reputation of other people with the same illness now do they?

They only are allowed to parade 'approved' symptoms about.

Imagine the implications....

[capsium]

No, sorry, rule book says that symptom does not exist....

[Kudzugirl]

Sadly Capsicum ATOS is kind of working to that dictat already

[Fefifo]

Well, will bow to your superior knowledge about factory workers HRH as I've never worked in one but in most of the places I've worked it generally tends to be the case that the piss takers at the top take the piss in terms of time off and some of the piss takers at the bottom do too if they can get away with it. Then piss takers from across the spectrum will also take the piss by spending the majority of their working day nattering or cruising the web etc.

There's also the point that were you to way up the hardest working MPs' working days and stresses incurred against the hardest working factory workers' the former's job would arguably be a lot tougher due to the fact they have the direction of the entire population on their shoulders. Then again I guess if you're working in a factory packaging say medicines that could be incredibly stressful because of the potential for something going very wrong if by your human error there was a mistake. Then again if you were the MP sitting on the committee that decided on issues around life or death things such as medicines that would probably be quite stressful and time consuming. Then again, no I'm just kidding but you get my point. There are just far too many variables to make blanket statements about the industriousness of people across an entire profession.

[capsium]

Kudzugirl Figures..So much for dealing with individuals.

[Jolleigh]

I have personal experience of depression Needsasock hence I'm not judging whether or not she's depressed. Please don't assume that all responses you don't agree with stem from ignorance.

What I am saying is an MP, though extremely flexible in terms of hours can't go so far as to completely pick and choose their hours. They have certain obligations. And a person cannot choose when they're having a bad day due to a mental illness. On days where the job and her mental state clash, it's either completely debilitating (in which case she can't really work at all) or she has ways of coping and can still perform her duties as an MP (in which case other jobs would also be suitable).

[Fefifo]

Actually frigg I know someone who suffers from depression whose company (big global one) has been very good about the odd day off here and there and even a two month stay in a psychiatric hospital. This person isn't working at a senior level either. I completely accept this is probably far from the norm though, so perhaps the government should do something to encourage employers to be more sympathetic to the needs of employees with long or short term mental health issues.

As it stands there are also many things people could easily do on a short term basis, depending on your skills such as cleaning or supply teaching or secretarial work amongst hundreds of others. There are lots of jobs that can be done on a very temporary basis and on the days that someone with an illness that otherwise makes them unable to work is actually well enough to work in my opinion they should be doing one of them unless they are funding themselves to sit at home.

[HRHLadyFarquhar]

I would agree that the hardest working MPs, even backbenchers without cabinet positions, could well work harder than a factory worker who gives 100% every shift. An MP who treats it as a vocation (which some do), and has a marginal seat, for example.

But I find easy to imagine someone with depression managing to be a backbench MP in a safe seat, and even managing to do the job to an average or reasonable level. Especially when their performance is considered as a whole, over the entire four or five years' term of a parliament. When as a factory worker, or a waitress, suffering depression to the same degree, they would either be on sick pay, or sacked.

[Jolleigh]

SDTGris - again, don't assume responses you don't agree with stem from ignorance about mental illness. People who have suffered from depression are allowed to have differing opinions. My opinion is that when she stated a desire to become an MP, she stated it with a certain amount of intent.

Can people stop making snap judgements about whether or not people posting are ignorant about mental illness?

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

But still - why does having the intent to do something in the future, mean she should be able to work now? I have the intention to lose weight. I can't do it at the moment - depression means I don't like myself enough to care about my weight or my health. It doesn't mean I will never be able to lose weight.