I am publishing two personal stories this week by readers who describe their encounters with our failing mental health system from much different perspectives.

My Husband Joe 

By Kathleen Maloney

My husband Joe and I enjoyed 18 wonderful years together. We had a beautiful daughter and our lives were filled with love, laughter, joy, hard work and exciting plans for the future.

That was before he got sick, before he was diagnosed with a mental illness.

The first sign came in December 2003 two weeks after Joe got laid off  from a company where he had worked for 20 years. On Christmas Day, he became so distraught he collapsed on the floor. At the emergency room, a doctor suggested that it was stress that caused him to become depressed. Joe calmed down and we made a follow up appointment with our doctor. Click to continue…

By my count, the Santa Barbara killings are the sixth mass murders committed by someone with a mental disorder in recent memory. I found myself making the media rounds this week saying much the same thing that I have said after all of these shootings.

I did notice two articles that I felt provided fresh views.

In Why Can’t Doctors Identify Killers? published in the New York Times,  Richard A. Friedman argues that the notion we can stop mass murders by improving our mental health system is a misconception.

“It is a comforting notion, but nothing could be further from the truth,” writes Friedman, who is a professor of clinical psychiatry and the director of psychopharmacology clinic at the Weill Cornell Medical College.

Friedman also cautions against lowering the dangerous criteria for involuntary commitment and argues that drug and alcohol abuse are far better indicators of potential violence than mental illnesses. I disagree with some of his points, but found his article thought-provoking.

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I don’t know how the editors of the Brainy Quote website choose the statements they put on line or how they select who they will quote, but a reader noticed my name attached to seven statements and sent me the link. Yes, I said them, although one is a misprint. It has me saying as “long as you play your cards” rather than “put your cards on the table.”

It is great to be quoted. Now is anyone listening?

Mental illnesses are so frightening and there’s so much ignorance about them that I think it comforts people to think, ‘Oh, well, it happens to these people because they deserve it.’

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/pete_earley.html#PpbyTdYBed5cijqu.99

I received a slew of emails about the guest blog that I published last Friday written by D.J. Jaffe, whose name has been popping up regularly in the media, most often in support of Rep. Tim Murphy’s Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act.   Gabe Howard, a mental illness advocate, speaker and blogger, who has been diagnosed with bipolar and anxiety disorders, asked  if I would print a rebuttal by him. Of all the comments, both in support and opposed to Mr. Jaffe’s guest blog, I felt Mr. Howard’s were the most worth sharing.

Arguments about such important issues as involuntary commitment, dangerousness, and recovery can go-on-on. I will let Mr. Jaffe and Mr. Howard continue future debates between them on their own websites. I wish to thank them both for sharing their different points of view here and their efforts to improve our mental health system.

 8 Myths –A Different View

By Gabe Howard

I read with interest the recent blog from D. J. Jaffe, “8 Myths About Serious Mental Illness.” I was, however, disappointed to see that, throughout his article, Mr. Jaffe made assertions that are untrue and relied on data taken out of context to make his points. In some cases, the “myth” he debunks is a belief held only by a fringe minority, not really needing any sort of debunking. There are, indeed, many misconceptions about mental illness, but in his recent blog, Mr. Jaffe failed to adequately debunk these particular “myths.”

Mr. Jaffe disagrees with the following eight statements:

1. All mental illness is serious.

However…

Mental illness exists on a spectrum, making it difficult to decide who counts as “seriously mentally ill.”  The problem here is language. Consider dysthymia. It is not categorically a “Serious Mental Illness.” But when someone with dysthymia is contemplating suicide, it’s deadly serious. Should we deny that person services because they don’t have a “serious” mental illness? Mr. Jaffe removes people from “seriously mentally ill” status to achieve the statistics he quoted throughout his blog, going so far as to split bipolar disorder into “severe” and, seemingly, “not severe.”

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Exciting news for those of us who live in Fairfax County, Virginia.  After years with little interest, our jurisdiction may be getting a specialty docket to help veterans and persons with mental illnesses who get arrested. Penney S. Azcarate, the chief judge of the general district court here, will hold a steering committee and community awareness meeting on May 22 at 2 p.m. in the fourth floor jury room of the Fairfax County Courthouse to discuss creating a specialty docket. The public is invited and I hope the Northern Virginia Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, as well as, other mental health advocates, veterans organizations and community faith groups attend.

Please help spread the word.

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