to be utterly fed up with kneejerk prejudice against those with depression and mental illness?

[allegrageller]

This follows on from another thread where it's been (outrageously) suggested that someone who has 'had a breakdown and suffers from a mental illness' should not have care of their children.

I am so sick of the ignorance and prejudice that surrounds any form of mental illness. In fact I'm starting to hate the term 'mentally ill' as it immediately conjures images of malfunctioning human beings who need to be hospitalised and kept away from others.

yes some of us with depression or other mental health problems will need the odd period of hospitalisation or time off work and even possibly childcare. So do people with liver disease, ME or cancer. This does not make them unsuitable parents. They may need support to do the best they can. This does not make them bad parents.

So may i say to those who think people with mental health problems are 'unfit' in any way a big s*d off please? (possibly that IS unreasonable...lmao. but I'm so very about this).

Lets not forget the provision of mental health support in this country as it stands is shocking- even when you GO for help it can be months until you are seen- stuck on anti depressants in the mean time which may even be making the problem worse...its about time MH issues were seen on a par with things like heart disease/cancer as the outcome in many cases can be just as tragic.

it depends totally on the individual situation, people are horrible to judge, they have no idea of what its like.
if a person is actively causing harm to their child, they should be treated the same as anyone else would who is harming their child.
it annoys me when in court people cite mental illness as their reason for harming another person.
thats the sort of thing that encourages these awful public prejudices, using mental illness as an excuse.
before i get flamed, of course im not referring to those who actually suffer from severe illness and hurt their children under severe psychological distress.
it took years for my dear sweet dad to go to the doctors and be diagnosed for depression, just because he was scared of the connotations of thaat condition and what effect it would have on us.

Are you seriously suggesting that a woman who kills her children after suffering major depression after the death of a child is using mental illness as a get out of jail free card?

I'm appalled to be honest.

People with various mental problem are on the whole and for the most part just the same as anyone else. But people who commit suicide or infanticide or bizarre and out of character crimes are in fact more likely to have mental health issues. Thats not prejudice, thats fact. Nobody is saying that because someone with depression committed a crime that anyone with depression will commit crimes. Or that becuase a depressed woman kills her child then all depressed women are a danger to their children.

But try not to throw the baby out with the bath water on this one. Sometimes a symptom of mental illness is being a danger to oneself or others. Thats not prejudice, thats fact.

I wholeheartedly agree that we (as a society) should be far more open about mental illness, to try and reduce stigma, promote understanding and make it less scary and less shameful.
But lets do it with facts and realities and a proper discussion of the issues at hand.

allegrager - I think these statistics are interesting:

1 in 4 British adults experience at least one diagnosable mental health problem in any one year, and one in six experiences this at any given time.

• The Office for National Statistics Psychiatric Morbidity report (2001)

Although mental disorders are widespread, serious cases are concentrated among a relatively small proportion of people who experience more than one mental health problem (this is known as ?co-morbidity?).

• The British Journal of Psychiatry (2005)

It is estimated that approximately 450 million people worldwide have a mental health problem.

• World Health Organisation (2001)

You say that you are fed up with ignorance and prejudice and mental illness being judged based on erroneous assumptions. I am lucky in that I've never come across any negative attitudes to my mild depression. All I can say if you get it consistently, there must be a hell of a lot of hypocrites out there, because just look how common it is!

True but the very very few cases of people who harm others due to being mentally ill is far outweighed by those who are/have been mentally ill and NOT harmed- thats why it still IS a predjudice because the statistics do not reflect the assumption.

I have to say, I'm not

"What worries me is as someone described earlier - the stigma is so great that it stops people getting the help they need."

That's my concern, too. I've never had PND (yet - touch wood!!) but know that I would never admit to it if I did because I know that my past record of mental illness would cause the HV to freak out in panic. And yet I'm sure that, if I did have PND, talking about it would be helpful.

All the people who i have looked after who have been psychotic have been much more of a risk to themselves than others , the same can't be said working on a general ward ,where i have been spat at ,kicked ,scratched etc by a number of 'sane' people, infact i would go as far to say that its the people who havent been diagnosed who you really have to watch your back with ,although im not entirely sure of the correct medical term for being a complete bastard ,im sure it is latin

deliakate I teach on mental health issues so I hear a lot of kneejerk stuff from students and tend to pick up on it in the press as it's a personal interest.

Also my ex husband has been trying to use my depression as a reason to prevent me from taking fulltime care of my children.

As to 'using mental illness as an excuse', i suspect this is a myth. If someone is given a sentence in hospital or convicted of manslaughter rather than murder etc, they will have been assessed by a psychiatrist and it will hve been determined that they were in fact ill at the time of the offence. they dont' just get to go in, say 'ooh I was unwell' and abdicate responsbility because of overly liberal judges or whatever- sounds like a Daily Mail porkie to me.

yeah bumpsoon- violent and alcoholic males are the biggest risk to everyone I think.

i read some statistics recently comparing deaths caused by mentally ill people to other causes and I think you are 125 times more likely to die from an infection caught in an NHS hospital than to be killed by a mentally ill person!

Heh, every journo I've ever met has been mad as a box of frogs!

YANBU.

A woman I worked with once had severe depression, but was too scared to tell her parents because of the reaction she anticipated. She was unable to eat in public and her doctors were nervous about giving her too much medication as they were worried about her ODing, but at the same time she was training to be a teacher - and in the short time I knew her before she moved away and I lost contact - I could she she would be an excellent one, too.

Yet my DP has worried in the past about our DS being taken away because of his depression and the fact that while being depressed he is also officially my carer, because I can't look after him unsupervised (uncontrolled epilepsy despite meds). My FIL doesn't help with his 'pull yourself together' remarks either. There's a shocking amount of prejudice and false assumption out there. I would also include in that the people who assume there is no prejudice because they haven't experienced it personally.

I can see why, temporarily, someone who had had a breakdown would need assistance in looking after their children.

I think people underestimate the impact either untreated or badly controlled depression or other mental health disorders have on children tbh. But that's just my opinion .

As with physical illness, there are extremes.

But yes, there is still a lot of prejudice. People are frightened of mental health issues, they don't understand them either. Sadly, I think the health system has a lot to answer for too in respect to this subject.

runnybottom
er, are you referring to me here?
if you read my post properly i think youll find this:
"before i get flamed, of course im not referring to those who actually suffer from severe illness and hurt their children under severe psychological distress."
sadly, i have to put 'disclaimers' on my posts because of posters like you who dont pick up on the obviously implied 'this does not apply to everyone'

and some people who commit crimes dont have mental illnesses, id like to add!

Whilst I do agree that ignorant comments towards parents dealing with mental illness can be hurtful and extremely unhelpful (YABU to that)... I can't really decide whether to put YABU or YANBU on the subject of people struggling with mental health issues being capable parents as it's such a moot point - there are so many variables:

-The specific mental issue and it's severity

-If treatment/medication is kept up responsibly

-The family itself:
How many children to cope with?
Do the children have any issues or challenging behaviour themselves?
Is there's another parent at home to assume the main role when things are difficult or there's an episode?

-The amount of outside support from family/friends/GP/CPN

These things can be a fine balance especially with certain types of mental health problems, and if not right, can lead to some of the awful, tragic happenings the papers seem to favour at the moment. And which probably drive the negative comments that parents like you and me find hurtful when we're doing a good job.

Having said all that, plenty of people without mental issues make shoddy and incapable parents...

I was actually responding to wannabes post above yours, so no need for the rant about "posters like me". I read posts thoroughly before responding, yours was not there when I started writing that post.

I agree with alle, you don't just stand up in court and say "I was crazy, innit"? You need to be formally assessed and diagnosed and have experts agree that you were suffering from an illness.

"..(YABU to that).."

oops meant YANBU of course!