Dear Katie,
It is plainly obvious to anyone who is unfortunate enough to come into contact with your remarks that you make such comments purely to gain attention and prompt unnecessary controversy. With this in mind, I thought hard about pandering to your needs by composing this letter knowing that it would have a slither of responsibility in inflating your already ballooning ego. The importance of the subject of mental health, however, compels me to write.
I, I’m sure you may have gathered, am one of the many who suffer from clinical depression. I have been diagnosed by a GP and take medication in order to stay well and to help me to function. I still often have suicidal thoughts and have attempted to take my own life on two occasions. So I suppose this makes me one of those “attention seeking bastards”? The lack of value you put on the life of someone who is struggling to cope is absolutely disgusting – flippantly ordering us to “top [ourselves] in private” tells me you consider suicide something which can be joked about. Am I wrong? Let me tell you, suicide (and the inner turmoil with which one suffers in order to believe their life is worthless) is not a joke. The fact that you feel it is only serves to cement your idiocy.
Now, I consider myself to be well-educated and able to work to find a plausible answer to many questions, but how on earth you can confidently claim that there is “no stigma around depression” has me stumped! Do I conclude that, firstly, you feel the sterling work those at Mind, Time to Change and SANE (to name just three) should be considered unnecessary? And, for the record, there is not just one form of stigma – internalised stigma differs from anticipated stigma in the same way that experienced stigma differs from treatment stigma. Maybe you should realise this – your sweeping statement proves your lack of knowledge on the issue. Someone who is so ignorant of the facts probably shouldn’t be commenting about the subject to which those facts relate, no? The extent of stigma levelled at those with mental health problems is undoubtedly reducing, but to fervently claim it does not exist (or EVER existed) is ridiculous. Just do a quick Google search for ‘Psycho Mental Patient Halloween costume’ and you MAY (and I’m aware to whom I am talking, hence the emphasis on ‘may’) get the idea. Oh, and by the way, your vile Tweets on the issue prove that stigma exists because YOU have provided it and perfectly demonstrated the views which ensure many are frightened to come out about their mental illness and suffer in silence. I would’ve thought you’d have realised that. Clearly not.
Now, I must at least give you a little credit. I cannot disagree when you say “not everyone is depressed.” Congratulations, you’re spot on there. In fact it’s approximately one person in four. And while I’m on the statistics, suicide is still the biggest killer of men under the age of 45 in this country. Maybe you should ask yourself why. May I ask, do you actually believe in depression? Do you believe in bipolar disorder, OCD or anorexia? Actually, do you believe in cancer, diabetes or even the common cold? These are ALL recognised, treatable illnesses, each justifiably receiving large amount of funding for research, so I’m intrigued as to how you are confidently able to deny certain ones’ existence. Could you enlighten me?
Telling employers to get their “long term sick hazard warning lights on” evidently shows you believe those of us living with mental illness should not be employed. No? This covert discrimination masked in a wannabe-witty statement is repulsive. I am 24 years old and have been employed continuously for seven years. For three of those years I continued to work whilst studying at degree level and in the summer of 2013 I graduated from the University of Winchester with a First Class degree. I am now working towards a career as a freelance journalist and my first editorial blog post last week was picked up by an online publication and published within days. Let me tell you, I AM capable, I AM trustworthy and I DO work hard to succeed. Don’t you dare encourage people to believe that those of us with a mental illness are worthless! I am a valued employee. I wonder what you feel should be the destiny of us “attention seeking bastards.” If we shouldn’t be allowed to work, should be eligible to claim benefits to survive? Or should be just crawl into a crevice and quietly die? Please, do tell me.
Let me end with this. I, of course, would never wish depression on anyone. I especially wouldn’t wish it on Maximillian, Poppy or India. If they were to battle mental health problems in the future surely their outlook would be pretty bleak for they have one of the most ignorant, unsupportive, uncompassionate mothers. Let’s just hope that if one of them does fall ill there’ll be someone out there to give them a hug and tell them it’ll all be okay.
Yours,
Nathan Chard
(1 in 4)
