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

[FrigginRexManningDay]

Thats unrealistic Fefifo because taking myself as an example, I go out and get some cleaning work. Sign off benefits. 6 weeks in the waves come and I am down in the pit barely able to get out of bed. So I will need to claim benefits. If I (or lets be honest someone else gets and fills the forms for me) manage to make a claim what do I do about my bills, my rent, my kids while I am waiting for someone to decide if I am ill enough? All the time I am stressing and having to rely on foodbanks,when I can barely function.
I don't have the answers, maybe there are no answers. Some people function well through their depression, some are in a constant gloom with dips of deep depression, some have a one off low and recover fully.

[Jolleigh]

This is turning into a semantics game now so I'll be more specific. I got the impression that she had the intent to persue that career imminently. Hopefully that means that Dee has managed to get a handle on her illness. And if she has, I'd like to think that she will be seeking any employment in the interim between now and persuing her political aspirations.

[CbeebiesIsMyLife]

I've name changed as I just wanted to say -
Wow, I have 2 dc with another on the way. I have daily suicidal thoughts, at times am scared to even drive at times or take my children out incase the black dog just takes over. Most days I struggle to get out of bed. I'm a full time SAHM and have been diagnosed with depression since I was pregnant with my eldest although have been battlin it much much longer (since I was abused as a child).

I would struggle to hold down a job and struggle as it is to do simple tasks like clean the house.

To the outside world I am a functioning adult with an immaculate house (I have a cleaner) my kids are well looked after and happy (they are, they are my world and no matter what their feelings and thoughts come first) and I'm a daily blogger who has hardly any cares in the world.

The only people that know the extent of my problems are my husband and my therapist. My dr and mum dont even know the full scale. I'm working on getting better and hope one day I can put it all behind me and lead a happy full life.

If I told the outside world, I guess I'd be accused of faking it too :(

[CbeebiesIsMyLife]

Crap name change didn't work :( if you recognise me, please don't out me in RL

[LithaR]

I have severe depression. I also have dreams and aspirations on good days. If people took my voiced dreams as intentions to work I doubt I'd be dreaming for long because it's the worry of losing everything that sets off my self harm and suicidal thoughts :(

[FrigginRexManningDay]

CBeebies and Litha very unMnetty hugs to you both.

[Katiesnotkins]

I would have thought her criminal record for theft was a minor stumbling block to full time empoyment.

[Latraviata]

Why are poeple ignoring the fact that she is a convicted criminal and that is most likely the main impediment to her employment rather than her depression.

Many people in my family with "depression"-who have never worked since they left school. Does'nt seem to stop them from going out robbing,getting pissed and having numerous kids though. Funny ain't it?

[manicinsomniac]

The thing is, Dee was set up from the start by the programme to look like a faker. They filmed it all before the first episode aired and (I assume) decided on the showing order to suit themselves, regardless of the chronological order of events.

I do not believe it was an accident that Dee cam across in the first episode as the caring, sensible matriarch of the street who everybody turned to when there was trouble, was later shown as a stressed out and screaming mother, treating her 5 year old rather cruelly and by the end was lying on a sofa while her children saw to themselves. You could predict the 'I have depression' revelation long before it came out of her mouth. And I think we were supposed to predict it. We were supposed to predict it so we would think 'oh yes, here we go, lazy fucking scrounger is going to say she's 'too depressed' to work now. Yeah right.'

Which is exactly what has happened in the heads of many. I don't really think it's their fault, it's a media set up. And it may be true. Dee may be exactly like that. But I think it's more likely that she's a struggling single mother without a lot in her life who has depression and has her ups and downs like anybody else.

I don't know enough about depression to say if it's a purely chemical thing that affects people at random or if it can be situational. But, if it can be situational, then I would imagine most of the street are depressed! I would be if I had to cope with their lives.

I can't say I warmed to Dee much (apart from in the first episode) but then I don't think we were meant to. Good on her for finding a way to improve life for herself and her children, I think.

[Misspixietrix]

Seriously. Spare the patrosing Crap. We're all grown ups here well most. So are you saying he shouldn't have been in work then. My DS has had depression for many years. Still got the same job she was in when she started suffering. I always find it funny when people moan about people like white Dee. She's climbed the same stupid reality tv ladder of the other idiots yet no one whinges about how they got there. As for the comment of Convicted Criminals. So is Cheryl Cole. Next?

[Misspixietrix]

manic the producers filmed for 18months. They filmed pensioners workers and the likes of white Dee etc. They obviously thought the likes of white Dee had more entertainment and 'shock' value. After all. I guess filming people going to work all hours God sends just to put food on the table didn't seem that 'interesting'. .

[Fefifo]

misspixie was your 'patronising crap' comment aimed at me?

I suggested that when he is able to work he is and he should and when he isn't he doesn't and shouldn't. Pray tell what is patronising or confusing about that.

friggin that's one of the major problems, but wouldn't it be better to address changing the system so that during those six weeks where you are able to work that's what you're doing rather than relegating everyone with a long term health problem that goes up and down to a life on benefits?

[daisychain01]

Going back to the statement in the OP

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

Who in their right mind will take anything "White Dee" say with anything more than a pinch of salt? She's just somebody who they've temporarily stuck the camera in front of, when will people be realistic?? Standing as a politician? Yup, she is all mouth and no trousers.

It's like the bollocks about people loading expectations on footballers to be "role models". Utter rubbish.

A prime example is Jade Goody, that poor woman who behaved appallingly and then sadly lost her life so young. But who ever talks about her now? Nobody, probably people have forgotten where she ever came from.

Well, White Dee is no different, if people have a good or a bad opinion of people with depression, they may temporarily see her as either confirming or countering their existing opinion. Soon she will be yesterday's news. If her face is on the front of the Sun, by tomorrow it will be fish and chip wrappers. Hardly going to end up in the history books, is she!

People give her too much importance if they think she has such a strong influence on public opinion, credit us with some intelligence, are people really that gullible??

[Misspixietrix]

Not that part. The bit where you stated "he wasn't on TV was he?". Yes that's patronising. As an Employer would you be happy to have someone that can need lengthy times off at any point? Most don't. Which is what scares most people from bothering. What I can't fathom for the life of me is that there are sooo many 'social commentators and political fuckwits' in positions they clearly can't do yet no one complains against them. For all we know she probably isn't even getting paid. On the very offchance that she is getting paid then she's exceeding her allowance clearly fit and able for work and is another one knocked off the claimant count. So again, why do you care OP?...

[Fefifo]

misspixie yes but that reasoning could and also has been given to suggest that all women of child bearing age should be signed off work given they could at any time go off on a period of mat leave but systems to compensate employers in the event of that happening and penalise them for discriminating on that basis have been put in place. Of course I realise that it would be a lot more difficult to put this in place for people suffering from depression etc. but it would be in the economy interests and the interests of those people themselves to at least have a bash rather than accepting that it's ok for people who can work to be supported by the state instead during this period because there's a higher likelihood they may need some time off in the future.

People complain about social commentators and political fuckwits all of the time and with more vigour than they do about White Dee. We complain about and slag off most people in the public eye, it most certainly isn't a phenomenon that began with White Dee.

[Bearbehind]

For all we know she probably isn't even getting paid. On the very offchance that she is getting paid then she's exceeding her allowance clearly fit and able for work and is another one knocked off the claimant count.

misspixie you appear to be saying here that what matters is whether she is being paid or not, rather than if she is unfit to work or not . That seems a very strange viewpoint given your stance on this argument.

White Dee's 'fame' will only be short lived if she doesn't exploit it now so to be considering becoming and MP has to be a pretty imminent decision, not one she aspires to be able to achieve if she can overcome her depression, as the opportunity simply won't exist then.

[SugarMouse1]

WestieMama-

In crap jobs they often don't check references or do a CRB clearance. She could get work as a cleaner or in McDonalds.

[ImaLooney]

Why is she called white dee?

[Bearbehind]

Because she's white and the other Dee on the programme was called Black Dee. RTFT

[SugarMouse1]

I agree she probably isn't that depressed and is on medication to manage it, anyway.

If she is well enough to keep her kids with her (and supposedly mother all the waifs and strays of the street) then she could do some sort of work. We need workfare for fat, lazy, self entitled cunts like her.

[FudgefaceMcZ]

"I'm giving an opinion, not making a diagnosis."

You don't get to have "an opinion" on whether someone else has an illness unless you are a qualified medical professional. Much as whether someone else has cancer/diabetes is not a matter of opinion but a medical fact.

[ImaLooney]

Oops sorry
Thank you, I never watched the show but I heard lots about this lady

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

How the hell can you know she's 'not that depressed', sugarmouse? You do know that most depressed people get to be pretty good at putting on a mask of 'coping' when people are watching?

Even a psychiatrist has to do more than watch someone on a highly edited tv programme before they will make a definite diagnosis, you know!

[Misspixietrix]

Bearbehind actually I wasn't. I was replying to a PP's comment. Also leave the passive aggressive smileys to the new Mumsnetters. It doesn't wash with me. I will ask you again though, do you have a reputable non daily mail link to prove any of this MP aspirations. Otherwise I'm calling bullshit.

[Misspixietrix]

SDT it's because she 'looks okay'. If she's talking coherently and not running about the streets in her nightshirt and bare feet she can't possibly be ill.