‘Mad Pride’ Fights a Stigma - New York Times

This article, ‘Mad Pride’ Fights a Stigma - New York Times, from this past Sunday's paper, is getting a lot of attention among the mental health bloggers. In brief, the article describes a movement among people with mental illness - notably schizophrenia and bipolar disorder - to embrace the word 'mad' as a way doing battle with the stigma associated with their illnesses. This is done, in part, because there's a perception that people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are scary. (People with depression, by comparison, are seen as harmless and helpless, if they're seen at all.)

A by-product of the rebellion against the stigma of mental illness is that some folks are moving away from any treatment, medication or therapy, regarding those treatments as an effort by society and medical establishment to tame or tranquilize patients, rendering them, well, harmless and helpless. I've got to say that, while many people have had bad results in their dealings with mental health professionals, I've also seen the absolute disasters and even death that comes to people who can't or won't be treated.

In all, though, it's good to mix it up. Even people whose mental capacities are diminished need to have a voice in their treatment .