'A female with a record like this ...represents all that is rotten in society nowadays'

[JaneS]

That's the comment from the judge who sentenced the girl in this article.

It's appalling, isn't it? I can't be the only one of us to think he should never have said that?

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/22/poster-girl-booze-britain-interview

environmental factors in contributing to mental illness

I have suffered from mental health problems, and it became rather frustrating to be constantly asked if I was sure I had never been abused, was I sure I had never taken drugs, but surely I must have a deep seated resntment of something, I couldn't have just started hearing voices for NO reason!

Sometimes people do just, for want of a better expression, go mad.

I resent being told that everything in my life must boil down to either my hormones or a self esteem issue, probably linked to abuse. I know that's not what you are saying, but it is what I hear a lot of the time.

I believe you when you say you can't place your finger on why you're suffering from mental health issues. It doesn't necessarily have to be abuse, or a deep-seated resentment of something.

Living as a woman in a patriarchal society, where women are disenfranchised in all areas of life (political, social, economic- women are poor) and where men make powerful decisions that affect womens' lives is incredibly stressful for women; and this is not addressed properly.

FOr example in the case of PND, it's passed of as being hormonal, or something that naturally happens to women. Nobody questions whether or not the woman suffered birth trauma in hospital, whether she got the support she needed post-partum, whether she has enough help around the house, enough money, a respite etc etc. She's just pumped with drugs. And even if somebody did bother to find out if there was an environmental reason, there aren't the resources to help her in the first place, so again, she'll be offered drugs.

Modern living, in itself, is incredibly stressful. SOme cope, some don't, but I don't think the default line of thinking should be that the person is inherently wired wrong IYSWIM

sorry, that "I believe you" sounded incredibly patronising, reading it back
I meant that, I do know that some people just "go mad" , as you put it, without any obvious reason, but society is never called into question.
I read a book called "INjustice" and in it the author talks about how widespread medication such as prosac is becoming. There is a trend showing that in the near future populations will be mass medicated !! This means that life is so stressful, because society has been structured in such a faulty way, that your average person is having trouble coping with the demands put upon them

But people had mental illness before modern life. William Blake had "visions"- ie psychosis.

I understand what you are saying re PND etc, but I think there is far too much emphasis on looking for a reason for mental illness.

In fact, I personally think it harms people who suffer from serious mental health issues to have that approach. It creates a stigma for the entire family to bear.

Plus, if someone has no legs, it doesn't matter whether they were born without them or had them chopped off, they still will struggle to walk. Even if a person is drinking because they were abused, the priority is to get them help for the drinking (as part of which they might get help dealing with the abuse) as, even though we would love to, we can't change the fact that they have been abused.

It is the difference between being depressed and having depression - if you are having a bad day, you might get depressed, it doesn't mean you have depression.

You don't slice your arms to ribbons because you are having a bad day.

modern life is one cause, in the past there were many other causes. TBH, every single brilliant artist and author bar non were classed as absolutely insane. IN fact, they were the sanest people around in their time, it was the world around them that was mad.
Most of these problems can easily be traced to their environment: off the top of my head: virginia woolf, sylvia plath, van gogh

I agree with you that drugs help! yes, the symptoms have to be addressed, absolutely. As long as we are living in the world we are, the only way out for some is through medication.

But she might have sliced her arms to ribbons because she was a raging alcoholic who found herself unable to stop even though she could see how damaging it was, that she was getting in fights, losing friends, losing boyfriends, getting arrested and losing all self respect. She might have sliced her arms when she was in the depths of inebriated self-pity.

We don't know, do we.

I think sakura has a generally good point re modern life is rubbish.

And I think butterpiefy (TBE?) has a great point that it is not right to assume that people behaving in ways which are outside the norm must mean there is something dark that is happening/has happened to set it all off.

Bottom line is I don't think that just because this woman behaved like this it must follow that she has been damaged in some way (or more than anyone else in our society - as Sakura points out).

Of course loads of people have had terrible things happen and it comes out in all sorts of ways. But sometimes, people are just built a certain way.

The great thing is that she has stopped drinking.

Insanity has been recognized all the way back to Jesus casting out demons, so it's hard to blame it on "modern life".

But speaking of creative people who were insane, how about that brilliant musician, Nero? Just couldn't cope with the pace of life, could he.