Stigmatizing depression a dangerous trend

CBC News ^ | Dec. 15, 2013 | John Chipman

[rickmichaels]

Andrew Solomon is not your typical depressive, if such a thing exists. Most people struggling with clinical depression do not like to talk about it.

Depression is usually suffered in silence, because of the stigma that still clings to it. Many people still see depression as a sign of weakness, or believe that if you just cheered up or had a better attitude you'd feel so much better.

Solomon has heard the wrong-headed chatter most of his life. But rather than shy away, the journalist and best-selling author wrote a book about it, detailing his own struggles with depression. It’s called The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression.

And he has become a vocal advocate, calling for more progressive attitudes about the disease so that people suffering from it can step out of the shadows and feel comfortable getting the help they need to survive, and to thrive.

So it was with some shock and dismay that Solomon learned about Ellen Richardson, a Canadian woman turned back at the U.S. border last month because she was hospitalized last year for her depression.

Richardson was told she could only enter the U.S. if a doctor — not her own, but one from a shortlist of others whom she had never met — signed a document vouching for her. She would also have to pay a fee of $500.

Richardson turned around and went home.

[rickmichaels]

Regarding Ellen Richardson's story, there's a big investigation going on up here in Canada as to how U.S. Customs and Border Protection had (and continues to have) access to Canadians' supposedly confidential medical files and histories.

[ronnie raygun]

Cross the border to the south from Mexico as an illegal, problem solved she will get more than an Amercian citizen gets in his or her lifetime

[Flintlock]

So.
Please tell me how you pay attention to the news these days and NOT get depressed.

PLEASE.

[DainBramage]

How can she get a doctors approval when her doctor is in the US? Hmmmm?

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Churchill suffered from depression and he was one of the greatest men who ever lived.

[Gaffer]

So it was with some shock and dismay that Solomon learned about Ellen Richardson, a Canadian woman turned back at the U.S. border last month because she was hospitalized last year for her depression

Obamacare will take its toll on a whole range of people like this in many different ways. Denied entry, denied jobs, denied right to firearms, denied healthcare, etc.

[ez]

Never ever ever see a shrink. It’s time to learn to handle our problems “in house.” Reading up on human psychology can go a long way towards helping friends and family cope.

[Gaffer]

Most assuredly. However, if ObamaCare survives, I’m betting that somewhere in that mix will be a requirement to have a pre-screen visit with an approved psychiatrist to ensure you’re a “good, healthy citizen.”

[Arthur McGowan]

I don’t comprehend how a person with depression can write a book. Unless his depression is pretty mild.

[shibumi]

"Most assuredly. However, if ObamaCare survives, I’m betting that somewhere in that mix will be a requirement to have a pre-screen visit with an approved psychiatrist to ensure you’re a “good, healthy citizen.”"

That's the progressive way to transition the economy from a nation of steelworkers, carpenters, bridge builders, farmers and merchants into one of full employment for the burgeoning supply of Sociology/Psychology majors.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

We have a right to be depressed. There’s a Kenyan issuing Executive Orders.

[fatnotlazy]

Well, I’m a depressive, and I held a good job for 35 years.

[noprogs]

Note to Ms. Richardson;

Suck it up, you big wuss!

[Calvin Locke]

I’m betting that somewhere in that mix will be a requirement to have a pre-screen visit with an approved psychiatrist to ensure you’re a “good, healthy citizen.”

You give them too much credit.

You'll be screened by somebody that went to an indoctrination mill for "feel good" pop psychology, sans any ethical or diagnostic training.

[Washi]

I don’t comprehend how a person with depression can write a book.

Everybody's a victim of something these days. It's a bonus if your particular victimhood allows you to profit from it somehow.

[Excellence]

No one’s information is private anymore.

[Arthur McGowan]

Are you implying that depression is imaginary?

[JaguarXKE]

So did Abraham Lincoln.

[JaguarXKE]

There is a great deal of ignorance (by which I mean lack of knowledge and understanding) about depression and mental illness in general. You can see it reflected in some of the comments in this thread. We used to think depression, as the author points out, was just a sign of weakness or a character flaw. We now know that these conditions are real biological illnesses and deserve (by rarely get) the same compassion and understanding as any other illness. Unfortunately there is still a great deal of ignorance in the public at large about mental illness, which contributes to the crushing (unfair) stigma associated with having a mental illness.

I have a son with a diagnosed mental illness and became involved with NAMI back in 2006. Now I am now my state's program director for the NAMI Family-to-Family 12-week education program.

Having now taught this 12-week class myself no less than 14 time snow, I have interfaced with hundreds of family members with ill loved ones and I learn something new every day.

[cornelis]

There is a great deal of ignorance . . .

As in stigmatizing the stigmatizers? Or is that calculated?