"Crazy Lady"

Guess what.

I'm exhausted. So I'm shutting down shop here at "Coming Out Crazy" for a few days. I desperately need a break, or I'll get sick. Paranoid. Delusional. Racey. Manic. Writing yesterday's post and teaching two classes at two different Seneca Campuses, and driving in treacherous road conditions -- to get from one to the other with limited time -- took its toll.

I know myself and I can medicate to prevent anything serious from happening -- that's what 49-years of psychotherapy gives you. Insight and foresight. I'm seeing Dr. Bob on Tuesday. Another layer of the onion peeled off last week and I cried my heart out. So now, we have to process what it all means in the big scheme of things. It's painful but productive work that frees up my mind until the next layer peels away. I never know quite when that will be.

This week, it's been on my mind, running and repeating in the background, like an old movie - haunting me. 

I'll answer any comments you write about yesterday's post "Stigma" sears the wrong people" -- or even this one -- but that's it until next week. 

I've already drafted the second part I promised you yesterday -- for today --  but it needs some tweaking and I need a little distance, so my vision can be clear and my writing concise. Time is a great healer in such matters for writers.

Also, I feel I'm falling a little behind in my other life as a part-time "professor" developing and teaching my Leadership in Society course at Seneca College. This term has been very stressful because my textbook order never arrived in full and so I haven't been able to use the text at all in class. I've had to design exercises to engage my 42 students and inspire them to begin thinking about Leadership versus Leaders. 

Right now, about 15 blog post journal entries of theirs are beckoning to me, demanding comments to go along with their marks -- this is like writing a book review 42 times on the same book -- a formidable task, let me tell you. 

These kids are  remarkable. Completely diverse. From every walk of life imaginable. Fascinating and bright and trying hard in my "required elective course." Several enrolled because it "fits into their timetable." Inspiring them demands phenomenal energy. I require of them honesty and integrity, both key leadership qualities.

Why else do you think I'm following Barack Obama so closely? His "catalystic" style makes him a perfect model for the social change leadership I teach. He's a changemaker and I'm training my students to be changemakers, too. They're exploring leadership so they can learn How To Make A Difference for the Greater Good. They're required to complete 20 hours of community service to pass the course. Not easy for kids who have no community in Toronto. 

Most don't. So I have to help them.

They are mostly International students, or from international backgrounds -- my personal United Nations. They teach each other about their cultures. In my class, we're all "human beings" first. I've grown quite colour blind. I love it. Many come to me with their own issues for some reason. I'm curious about them. I like to listen. Maybe I ask the right questions. They're studying in different disciplines and seem to believe that I know everything -- could it be my streaky grey hair?

I tell them I don't know everything. The more I learn, the less I know. I tell them where they can begin looking. Sometimes, I go to bat for them, or try to. They're required to attend my classes where, as Woody Allen supposedly said to a group of New York University students: "Ninety percent of success is showing up."

In 1969, I was one of them. At Seneca, fresh out of a long, torturous stay at the The Clarke Institute of Psychiatry where I had several courses of ECT for catatonic schizophrenia -- my diagnosis at that time. 

At Seneca, I was studying Applied Communications Media -- not knowing if I had any kind of future at all. The world was so different then. Seneca didn't have eight campuses and students from all over the world. It was small and easy to navigate. 

Two of my teachers are still there. Jim Streeter (profiled on page 28 of the Seneca Alumni magazine) still teaches English, as he did me, and now Art History at the King Campus. George Scott, my first journalism teacher, is now an International Student Advisor. They both mentored me -- magnificently. Listened, cared, and believed in me.  

I learned so much from them. Now it's my turn. I'm teaching my students to speak in their own voices, to develop their own opinions, to believe in their ideas. In themselves. Leadership is three-pronged -- teamwork, communication and self-awareness. It takes practice. Their first set of blogs is almost entirely devoid of the first person singular pronoun, so my work is cut out for me.

And I'm learning from them. Teaching is learning. That's why I love it so much.

Now, finally, take a close look at the picture illustrating this post. She's beautiful, in her own way, isn't she? So alive. So full of colour. So provocative. She makes an indelible impression. You don't easily forget her. She's larger than life.

Now, look into her eyes. 

She could be me!

A nocturnal visit to Obama's White House

I visited The White House the other night.

Just before turning out the lights and going to bed. It was about 11:30 p.m.

I'm sure it won't surprise you to discover that the Obama White House is very easy to get around. A very friendly place. The Obama Oval Office has been repainted a glorious butterfly-bright and sunny yellow. (The same shade as almost every room in my house, so I felt very comfy there.)

Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and President Obama in the Oval Office Wednesday. 

(Photo: Pete Souza/White House)

Obama, I'm told by an Abraham Lincoln authority I know, bears a striking emotional resemblance to the The Great Emancipator who was a "real people person," much like his current successor. The house they shared reflects it.

During the evening of the Inauguration, when The President and First Lady were out "balling" around town, their daughters, Malia,10, and Sasha, 7, were "home alone" more or less. It was their first night in their new home and their parents were out having fun. But they weren't really alone. They hosted a pajama party and frolicked around their new house with several school friends. They poked and snooped into new – to them – rooms and nooks and crannies on a scavenger hunt The White House staff had planned. A great way to get acquainted with a completely new environment. You can sense their parent's care and just imagine the planning that Michelle Obama had to do in advance. As a piece de resistance, the "first girls'" favourite band, The Jonas Brothers, dropped by as a special surprise.

Yes. A friendly new White House.

Although the Presidential Pooch has not yet been chosen, there are lots of pictures of many previous Presidential Pets including the Kennedy pony, Macaroni, Amy Carter's Siamese cat, Misty Malarky Ying Yang, and Gerald Ford's golden retriever, Liberty. Those pet names will pose a tough act to follow when the impending mystery Obama pooch requires naming.

But by far, what stood out for me – and many things did – was the Agenda. It's right there. Easy to find and see. I read through some of it quite carefully, especially sections on Disabilities, Health Care, Poverty, Service and Veterans. I even checked out Women and Child Advocacy.

I was looking for something specific. Combing through the text of policies and plans in search for one word. Only one word. A word I abhor. You know what it is. The dreaded "S" word. The word the world hides behind and blames us for. The word people refuse to understand. The word that's most confusing and foul.

STIGMA

And I couldn't find it. 

Mind you, the mention of "mental health" wasn't easy to find either, but in the Disabilities section, in a speech that Obama gave on April 11, 2008, he said, "We must build a world free of unnecessary barriers, stereotypes, and discrimination.... policies must be developed..."

We forget that Barack Obama is not only a lawyer, community organizer and politician – HE IS A WRITER. With two best selling books, including a very candid autobiography that was published in 1995, long before he entered politics.

He knows the power of language. He uses other phrases like people "who have fallen into homelessness."

His words speak volumes about his empathy and ethics. He knows the impact of being the object of prejudice and discrimination. Apply it to women. Apply it to the victims of rape. Apply it to those of us who are dealing with issues around our mental health.

Those five words – unnecessary barriers, stereotypes, and discrimination – can be addressed. We can do something about them. 

Through education and action.

It doesn't scan when you use the "S" word. It becomes negative. "Anti-stigma" and nobody has to take personal responsibility for doing anything. 

What do you do to "fight stigma"? What a violent phrase. I mean you, personally.

Now, we have such a linguistically sensitive man (besides all his other gifts and strengths) running the most powerful country in the world. Everything he is doing is different and refreshing and laced with wisdom and humanity. It isn't "business as usual" in The Obama White House. Not remotely, in any way.

Doesn't that brighten your day. I think he's the strongest and safest antidepressant on the planet.

Finally, a White House where words matter. Where the power of language has finally been acknowledged and perhaps, where change is really going to happen. Heading a delightful and seemingly functional family with wonderful values.

Let's wait to see what Obama puts on his agenda specifically about mental health. But for now, less than three days into his administration, he's taken a giant step forward for progress by not using the dreaded "S" word.

I say, knowing Obama is now in charge is the best antidepressant in the world, he's potentially contagious. Perhaps the Canadians in charge here will catch on. Perhaps, at last, Obama's administration will be The "Political" Tipping Point our whole world desperately needs, borrowing from Malcolm Gladwell. An epidemic of change.

Let's hope. And act. Do something. Something for someone else. Something small. Think "Community Service" and it can be as simple as phoning a friend who's depressed and spending some time listening, when you know it will cheers them up.

If Obama can paint the walls of a Youth Shelter in Washington the day before his inauguration, surely, each of us can do a little something of service, too.

Think The Power of One.

Believe me, just like laughing, it's contagious.

Try it. You'll feel good.

Obamamania

No. That's not my diagnosis. It's not even an illness. 

But today, it perfectly describes the collective American psyche, the Canadian psyche and the psyche of many other countries around the world.

Despite all the problems he's facing – and they are daunting – today, when Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th and first African American president of the United States, it feels like the whole world is madly celebrating this pivotal moment in history.

And wishing him, his wife, Michelle, and their two darling daughters, Malia and Sasha, well!

This is a perfectly appropriate madness. Far-reaching. Hopeful. Fine. 

About 4 million people have descended upon Washington to watch, to be there, to feel it. They'll wave their flags as tears trickle down their cheeks because this is no ordinary inauguration.

It's a first.

Nothing's insane or demented about this particular brand of "mania." 

Here, in Canada, we sensed a touch of it back in 1968 when a hip and sexy bachelor named Pierre Eliot Trudeau entered the public arena as leader of the Liberal party. Remember Trudeaumania? But it didn't carry the historical magnitude of what's happening in Washington right now. Nor should it. These are different times. 

These were different men. 

Trudeau was a refreshing change for us. 

Obama is dramatic change for the world in his style of leadership grounded in the values of community building.

There's no comparison.

The tidal wave of elation that's sweeping the nation, the continent, even the world, is nothing short of miraculous. It's global. Trudeau, I'm afraid, didn't have that reach, although he was spectacular in his day.

Just so you'll know... this all-out exuberance, joy, emotional buoyancy, euphoria, jubilation, sheer happiness, gaiety, wonder, awe, spirit of hope and promise, passion, intensity, and the feverish excitement that television newscasts have showcased since Sunday afternoon at the beginning of the star-studded concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington certainly looks like a form of mania.

If you were to ratchet it up a shade higher, you would sense the way some people "diagnosed with bipolar disorder" could feel when they're high, or manic. 

More accurately, it seems more hypomanic than manic. 

I suspect many Americans would qualify for that "diagnosis" right now. It's an exuberance that bubbles with creativity. You don't need or want much sleep. You have endless stores of energy. You're the Energizer Bunny. 

Hypomania feels glorious. As long as it lasts and it rarely lasts forever. Political commentators are predicting that this "honeymoon" as they call it with the new American President Barack Obama is going to last longer that usual.

Let's hope so. Hope being the operative word.

For a minute, let's not discuss his political campaign, his brilliance, his vision, his extraordinary oratory or the racial symbolism of his inauguration. 

Let's talk about the man. At heart, Obama has always rooted himself in community. For him, community in the monastic sense as well as the urban and political sense. He emanates community as brotherhood and sisterhood – family. It's in his blood and bones. Obama is all about community – caring for people. He feels for people. Perhaps that's one reason why so many feel so connected to him and are flocking to Washington today, as they never have for any other inauguration. 

He began his career as a community organizer in Chicago's inner city, even though, as a brilliant Harvard Law School graduate, he could have written his own ticket. He didn't. 

You know what Barack Obama did yesterday? On Martin Luther King Jr. Day? The day before his inauguration? 

This is the national U.S. holiday commemorating another remarkable leader and chief spokesman of the non-violent Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. A winner of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, who dared to "have a dream" – a dream that's coming true this week in Washington. Another brilliant orator. Another visionary, who was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee where he was to lead a protest march.

In his memory, yesterday, what did Obama do? He celebrated by calling for a national day of community service. In a release issued yesterday morning, Obama, on the eve of his inauguration, said, "Dr. Martin Luther King's was a life lived in loving service to others." 

So Obama spent the day doing just that – community service because he believes in his heart that when people come together to work for a cause they believe in, "amazing things can happen." 

Yesterday, after a surprise visit to Walter Reed Military Hospital to meet with as many veterans as time would allow, he and his wife Michelle spent the rest of the day working on the renovation of Sasha Bruce House, a 30-year-old Washington homeless shelter for youth. Obama picked up a paintbrush and started painting the walls of one of the rooms where the residents live – a glorious shade of blue.

If that isn't cause for celebration, what is?

And last night? Obama celebrated his own imminent inauguration by dining with Colin Powell, his vice-president Joe Biden, and his political rival, John McCain.

Think about the mentality of this young man who's taking on the leadership of the world's most powerful nation in one of its most dire moments since WWII. Maybe I'm naive, but I think his spirit is worthy of comment.

If you've been reading this blog for any time at all, you know I'm a cockeyed optimist. I believe in positive energy. I try not to dwell on negativity. I don't hold grudges. I try to resolve issues head on.

Many mental health issues are worsened by anger and rage. Deep-seated, unconscious, seething beneath the surface. That's why talk therapy is so powerful, so necessary, as well as or even instead of medication.

Here's "No Drama" Obama. Cool. Calm. Thoughtful. Pensive. Known as an active listener. A conciliator. Doing what he prescribes, talking the talk and then walking the walk. And honouring his political adversary. Uniting people, building bridges, strengthening bonds. Politically savvy and public-spirited, but also breathtakingly humanitarian. Generous. Unselfish. Magnanimous. Kind. 

This is a great day for humanity. Not only because the first African-American is being inaugurated and little children – children of all ages – who've been psychically or physically scarred by racial inequality can now quite rightfully dream of being "the President of the United States," but because a man who has all his roots in community is entering The White House and turning it into The White Home.

Community. Bringing people together.

At last night's "Kid's Inaugural: We Are The Future" concert attended by Michelle Obama and her two daughters, Malia and Sasha, actress and singer Queen Latifah said just that: "Any one of you can grow up to be the president."

Community is the key word here. Michelle urged the audience to pitch in to help people who are needy, homeless and elderly, adding, "We can all work to make this great nation one filled with faith, hope and prosperity for us all."

We're all part of this community. No matter where we live. No matter what colour our skin. No matter what physical or mental illness or disorder or disability we may have. 

Obama is inclusive, ethical and empowering. He relates to people – heart to heart and head to head. We're all invited to sit at his table. We can all listen and learn from him.

That's why the world is celebrating his inauguration. He's the right man for this moment. The only man. He embodies hope and change, the essence of leadership.

Yet he needs us as much as we need him. We all need to stand with him, follow his lead, and say, "Yes we can!"

Change.

Obama manifests community spirit for the world. 

Don't you agree?

Stressful times and a cool new blog...

This has been a very stressful week for me. My Seneca classes began on Monday for the Winter 2009 term and for the first time, I'm teaching in two campuses. At the new one, everything that could possibly go wrong did. 

I was greeted in the office where my mailbox is by a woman who began our "relationship" by telling me that I would have to get all my supplies at the other campus, Needham, and that I shouldn't use the photocopy machine. 

My office has no drawer for supplies or, indeed, any space for me at all. Other teachers have snapped them up.

In my classroom, I couldn't manage to get the computer working, so I couldn't teach the way I wanted to and by far the worst calamity, my textbooks never arrived in the bookstore.

In retrospect, this is small potatoes that will be cleared up in due course. I have never adjusted to change very well. The one very positive part of moving to this new campus for half my classes is that the faculty members I share my office with are wonderful and wise and I know I'll learn a great deal from them.

And one other thing. I decided to rejoin Weight Watchers. For the umpteenth time. I am a lapsed Lifetime Member who has regained almost all the weight it took me four years to lose. When one of my dear friends, a neighbour and a Seneca colleague told me that she had rejoined once again, too, I thought, why not.

I have high blood pressure and high cholesterol – both a result of my kidney transplant, but the excess weight certainly doesn't help. So, on top of the stresses of school and teaching 50 new and fabulous students, I might add, I'm eating differently. Luckily, WW gives you lots of choices and lots of food, so I'm not hungry. It's just another change to cope with.

Change is often difficult. Stressful. 

And it's so cold outside. I trudge a good 10 minutes from where I park my car to the college, lugging a book bag on wheels that weighs about 30 pounds. Good exercise. Plus all the stairs I'm climbing. More good exercise.

Strangely, though, when I'm not eating badly, but well, I feel better. I feel like I'm taking good care of myself. This puts me into a positive frame of mind.

Food for thought.

Today, I had planned to post about several interesting blogs.

Here's one:

It's called Knowledge is Necessity. I adore the way it's introduced – "Knowledge is Necessity. Recovery starts with knowledge. I can't emphasize this enough."

Definitely worth checking out. John McManamy, the blogger, is an award winning and prolific writer, a mental health journalist who was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder in 1999. On his website – McMan's Depression and Bipolar Web – you'll find out all about him and his newest blog. He has blogged for HealthCentral and produces his own YouTube videos that explore many facets of life living with challenging mood swings. These videos are funny and instructive. John says that all his writing has been healing, 

You will also see a link to his book – Living Well with Depression and Bipolar: What Your Doctor Doesn't Tell You... That You Need to Know (HarperCollins, 2006).

I confess, I have not read it. Not because it hasn't received excellent reviews and comes highly recommended, but I have never experienced clinical depression or major depressive disorder. Just mania. Psychosis linked to mania. Really serious psychosis. John writes very insightfully and knowledgeably about this kind of mania. 

To be honest, I've spent my entire life, exploring, reading, writing, researching, and in therapy – living with my mental health issue. Recovering. Depression, thankfully, doesn't apply to me. Sorry, John, but I've not yet gotten around to reading your book. 

However, I have read many of his posts and I'm a fan, most of the time. On a few occasions, I haven't agreed. Violently disagreed, in fact. But a good blogger wouldn't be good, if you agreed all the time. 

One more thing. He uses visuals masterfully. One art that I am anxious to learn. 

Anyway, have a look at John McManamy's newest blog – Knowledge is Necessity – which launched on Wednesday, December 24, 2008. 

You won't regret it.

Hope for a recovery-based Canadian Mental Health Strategy – at last!

On Sunday evening, while I was working on the lesson plans for my first Seneca classes which began this week, I was listening to CBC:Radio One and Cross Country Checkup.

Rex Murphy had as his guest cohost former senator and now Chair of the Canadian Mental Health Commission, Michael Kirby.

Kirby, as you probably know, has championed a more enlightened perspective mental health issues and mental illnesses in Canada for many years. As a senator, in May 2006, he published the first-ever national report on mental health, mental illnesses and addictions called Out of the Shadows at Last. He traveled all over the country talking to people about their mental health and addiction problems. His report is mammoth, comprehensive and has strong recommendations to fight "Stigma and Discrimination."

You know how much I despise the word, "stigma" and never use it if I possibly can. I prefer "ignorance, fear, prejudice and discrimination." At least, in this landmark report, Kirby also used the word, "discrimination," which can be addressed. People discriminate. Based on fear and ignorance, plus prejudice. So, at least, Kirby was in part, correct.

Kirby's heart is also in the right place, and for this, I admire him. This Commission which was started in 2007 is most important to all Canadians because, among other things, part of its mandate is to draft and write, enshrine, a national mental health strategy for Canada.

Canada is the only country in the G8 not to have a national mental health strategy. It's a travesty. An embarrassment.

I won't even touch upon the language that Murphy and Kirby and many of their call-in guests used. It rankled me no end. But I want to let you know there were a number of very hopeful exchanges between people who are in recovery. People with psychiatric diagnoses who are living active, productive and meaningful lives. Many of them talked comfortably about their mental health histories, about how they take medication and usually see a psychiatrist on a regular basis – for more than 15 minutes!

Kirby acknowledged the recovery movement and how invaluable and incredibly effective peer support groups are in helping people to find meaning in their lives, to get back on their feet, to find work. He spoke about mental illnesses with a sense of hope. 

This was very exciting for me to hear. For once, the discussion did not only focus on the medical model, on psychiatry, on medication, on traditional routes that often reinforce illness with no hope for recovery, mental health and wellness. No hope, period.

In the Winter Newsletter of the Canadian Mental Health Commission, here is the statement that's driving the development of this long overdue strategy: "Toward Recovery and Well-Being: A Framework for a Mental Health Strategy for Canada: will be released for public review and input" perhaps as early as this year.

There will be public consultations and a series of regional meetings. That means the you and I can have a say in this strategy – if we choose to – that "will set out broad goals for what a transformed Canadian mental health system will look like. It will include a clear focus on recovery and wellness."

Well, if that's not hopeful, I do not know what is and I congratulate the MHCC. There is an "anti-stigma campaign," too. How I wish they would call it a Mental Health Education Campaign, but my voice is not one the Commission will listen to, I guess. Nevertheless, Dr. Heather Stuart, who is heading this campaign, is wonderfully well qualified. So big changes are about to happen in Canada.

One last little note. About people who are living on the street. Homeless. Tonight, in Toronto, we're having our first cold weather alert. Temperatures are expected to plummet to -20 degrees Celsius and with the wind chill, it will feel like -29 degrees Celsius. That's -20.2 degrees in the Fahrenheit scale. 

One of the Murphy's most insightful discussions was about homelessness. It is an urban myth that all people on the street, homeless or using shelters, have some form of mental illness. In fact, according to one of his guests who works exclusively with people who are homeless in Vancouver, that figure is hard to pin down, but is probably no more than 50 percent, tops. Other studies peg it even lower than that. 

This is a very complex issue. Many people who are homeless, have little or no health care. No health card. No address. No proof of identification at all. Living on the street can certainly cause mental and emotional trauma. It is a life lived in constant danger, demoralization, isolation. And sadly, people in these circumstances rarely receive the most basic human care, consideration or kindness. 

What can you do? Be empathetic. Smile when someone approaches you. Make eye contact. Say, "Hi." Try to make them feel that they belong to the human race. Give them a couple of dollars for a hot cup of coffee. In this economy, who knows who may end up on the street. 

Stay warm.

Keep your comments coming...

I'm sure you've noticed that this blog gets quite a few comments. Often, these comments are essays. Beautifully thought-out, carefully written, wrenchingly honest.

They deserve to be read as much as the main posts that I write because in the comments, the dialogue takes place. The action, if you will. And this is what makes a blog, a blog. It's live. Open to you. Dynamic.

Yesterday was a perfect example. A woman named Tara, who has often commented before, took issue with my mention of psychoanalyst Thomas Szasz in my Wednesday post, titled An Unorthodox Proposition. Tara was disappointed that I had "buried" Szasz in this post without giving more information about him. In fairness, I not only provided links to several different sites that gave lots of information, I also linked to an essay he had written, which was the wellspring of his controversial point of view about mental illness. I'll be posting more about him at a later date.

Her comment was easily as long or longer than my original post. My response to her comment, was even longer than that. 

So, what I'm stressing is that I spend a great deal of time trying as best as I can to initiate a dialogue. In some blogs, the threads can go on forever, it seems, with people commenting on the blogger and on each other. Sometimes it can get quite heated. That's the kind of dialogue or conversation I would love to see happen here. That's the essence of blogging and The New Media. In fact, that's the key. You are as important as I am. Your points of view, your opinions, your experiences, your ideas, your criticisms, your concerns, your anger – they're all as important as mine. Often you stimulate me and educate me. Inspire me.

You keep me going.

Here, at "Coming Out Crazy" you have a voice and it's vital. There are times when I will post entirely based on something someone has written to me in a comment. I know it can seem daunting to comment and bare your soul in public. (Remember, this isn't a newspaper, it's a blog. It's not on a news stand with a glaring headline.) 

I remember when I first commented on another person's blog. It took me forever to write a few lines. Again, I must stress, this is not all that public. People have to find this blog and then they have to read the comments and I have no idea how many do. Although, my editor informed me recently that we get quite a bit of traffic, but because of the subject, I suspect a lot of people don't comment or are nervous. I can easily understand why. Remember, you don't have to use your real name.

At the same time, this is a relatively safe haven for commenting. I sense that you're a very thoughtful, intelligent, sensitive and considerate bunch. In a few cases, a couple of people have really slammed me unfairly, but there are rules about that. Those comments never see the light of day. Any criticism should be directed at what I say and not at me personally. Or anyone else for that matter. 

That said, here's something you can do for fun, if you're into quizzes. Have you ever wondered if you're going crazy? How sane you are? I suspect we all have the odd "mad moment." Well, here's a test to tell you. You may learn a few things you didn't know about yourself. 

Psychologist John M. Grohol, the founder of PsychCentral has a whole bevy of intriguing quizzes and among them is The Sanity Score, designed to help you understand what's happening in your life with your mental health and wellness.

You have to register. It's easy, free and very benign. You really don't have to do anything. Just complete the quiz. Ninety questions. It takes about five minutes, if that. 

According to my score, I appear to be in general good mental health, but I have a few issues. Nothing was terribly surprising, but it was an interesting exercise and the test has some valid psychological foundations in research. 

You might discover some interesting, perhaps even surprising things about yourself. Don't take it too seriously. But, if you choose, try it and let me know what you think. There are all kinds of tests available online and they're often good fun. This is just one of many. I'll suggest others in the weeks to come.

Nice activities for a wintry day!

Cheers, keep warm, have a great weekend and keep your comments coming!

An Unorthodox Proposition

With the New Year barely one week old and the snowflakes flying outside, I bet you can barely remember the gaiety and the relaxation of the holidays. Distant memories. Now, we face the long, hard winter with but one short holiday in Ontario to break the monotony and cold. Family Day on February 16.

I want to ask to you to consider a rather unorthodox proposition. Chances are you read "Coming Out Crazy" because you have personal experience with mental and emotional issues. Chances are, this is a place where, I hope, you feel comfortable and welcomed.

Perhaps this is the only place where you feel that. Perhaps your mental health issue is your secret.

What I propose – and I do not want you to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or threatened – is simply to tell someone about it. Confide. Share. Open up. Speak out.

Here's why. Mental illnesses, disorders, problems, concerns, whatever euphemism you wish to use, would be far less problematic if more people simply accepted them as part of life. Like any other physical illness. The only difference is that with mental health issues, we may behave a little or sometimes a lot differently.

What if they were demythologized?

What if we could prick the bubble of secrecy that surrounds mental health issues and that creates such enormous problems? Mainly, people are so frightened they won't even seek help. And help doesn't necessarily mean taking medication or seeing a psychiatrist. Help can mean many things. But that help demands talking about how you're feeling.

So, back to my unorthodox proposition. Let's say you are getting help. Perhaps you have a diagnosis. Maybe you don't. You're getting help with some of your problems of living anyway. You may talk to your family doctor. You may see a psychiatrist. You may take medication. You may belong to a peer support group. You may be attending a WRAP group or a Pathways to Recovery group. You may be involved in art therapy or music therapy or any kind of endeavour that you find healing.

Tell someone about it. Someone who doesn't know. Someone who appears to be ignorant about these issues or problems. 

I'm not, for an instant, suggesting you tell your boss at work, unless you have a very solid and secure working relationship. But I am suggesting that perhaps you know someone who makes demeaning or offensive remarks about people perceived to have mental or emotional health issues, clearly out of ignorance. Instead of swallowing this codswallop, stand up and say something. 

This person may be a member of your family. Or a friend. Or the spouse of a friend. And every time he or she says something, you cringe or break into a sweat. You want to disappear. Why not say to this person, "You know, every time you make a comment like that, it upsets me because it's not really accurate. It's not the truth. And I know, because you're talking about me."

Or, in the course of conversation, you could mention that you're dealing with depression or anxiety or whatever issue you have. 

This is why I'm asking you to make this rather unorthodox admission. It will help to educate people. It will make mental and emotional health issues more familiar and commonplace. If everyone told one person, soon, it would appear that these issues are as ordinary as any physical health issue – which they are. But no one talks about it.

Perhaps people wouldn't hesitate it seek some sort of help, without fear or hesitation. 

This is something everyone can do. Soon, words like "crazy" and "nuts" and "mental" won't have the bite they now do. Soon, perhaps, people will demand that an emotional or mental health issue be rightly considered part of our everyday life experience instead of exotic, odd and even, in some cases, scary.

It's one small, but unorthodox thing you can do to begin an open dialogue about mental health and wellness that is long overdue in our society, where too many people suffer in silence.

Here's another perspective. Just something to think about, while considering my unorthodox proposition.  

An unorthodox point of view.

Not all psychiatrists agree that mental illnesses have a basis in medicine. The most notorious, Thomas Szasz, in an article The Myth of Mental Illness, published in the journal American Psychologist in 1959, followed the following year by the publication of his book of the same name, argues that "psychiatry is conventionally defined as a medical speciality concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. I submit that this definition, which is still widely accepted, places psychiatry in the company with alchemy and astrology and commits it to the category of pseudoscience. Why so? The reason is plain. There is no such thing as 'mental illness.'"

In a short online biography of Szasz, I should add, who is a medical doctor and a psychoanalyst with a long and remarkable career of practice in many aspects of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, he is credited with starting the "anti-psychiatry" movement. He believes that "both our uses of the term 'mental illness' and the activities of the psychiatric profession are often scientifically untenable and morally and socially indefensible." He considers mental illnesses as opposed to organic illnesses to be "problems of living."

Roy Porter, in his book Madness, A Brief History, writes that for Szasz, a Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the Statue University of New York in Syracuse, "mental illness is not a disease, whose nature is being elucidated by science; it is rather a myth, fabricated by psychiatrists for reasons of professional advancement and endorsed by society because it sanctions easy solutions for problem people."

Mental Illness is a social construction created by doctors, a metaphor, Szasz has said. "Mental illness is a myth whose function is to disguise and thus render more palatable the bitter ill of moral conflicts in human relations. In asserting that there is no such thing as mental illness, I do not deny that people have problems coping with life and each other... Classifying thoughts, feelings, and behaviours as diseases is a logical and semantic error like classifying the whale as a fish." 

So for 2009, I throw out these ideas to you. I am not suggesting that if you are under a doctor's care and on medication, you flush those pills down the toilet and stop seeing your therapist. Just that you begin to believe that whatever your "problems of living," you're also OK! You have every reason to feel a sense of dignity and pride in the human being that you are.

How do you react to this perspective? Do you agree? Disagree? What do you think? Let me know with your comments.

And in the meantime, feel free to question your doctors. Feel free to be skeptical. Feel free to trust in yourself.

After all, you are all you've got. You! 

And speak out!