Have you ever taken Ecstasy?
Euphoria, compassion, forgiveness, boundless confidence and energy, promiscuity, impulsivity, verbal diarrhoea, power, sensitivity, agitation, increased creativity, reduced sleep and appetite, irrationality, flight of ideas…
Mania is a fairly similar experience,
except for the whole choosing to take the pill part.
And what goes up must come down.
Like ecstasy, mania has its come-down: Depression. Going from feeling so powerful and capable to so powerless is hard to reconcile. Some aren't able to. The literature says that 20% of people that meet the criteria for bipolar will successfully kill themselves.
This is not a case of 'just pull your socks up'… as much as I love socks. This is a serious disability. One in five [ref] people will experience mental illness in their lifetime. If the 'one in ten' statistic about the prevelance of homosexuality is true, then there are twice as many people who have been/are/will be mad than there are queer people… and yet we feel so alone. We are all in our mad closets, yet to create a community where we can gain comparative experience, support each other and celebrate our strengths.
I make the connection between mental illness and drug induced states to highlight that mental illness is not a choice or a weakness of character. It is not something to be ashamed of. The cause may be genetic, hormonal, social or a combination of factors, but the effect is still the same. Being ill is like having someone slip a roofie into your drink…. every day… maybe for the rest of your life.
And when I say 'ill' I make a distinction between lifestyles/identities that are labelled deviant and the experience of suffering an illness. In a racist/sexist/transphobic /homophobic world the two may well be linked but that doesn't mean the lifestyle/identity is the illness. It can be hard to tease this apart when you are in a vulnerable situation and you only turn to the mental health system for help (as seeking help from your community as well means outing yourself and braving stigma). Frequently lifestyles/identities that fit outside the norm are pathologised inappropriately by well meaning health care professionals. This is none too surprising considering the history of the mental health system policing deviance from social norms, with homosexuality listed as a mental illness in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) until as recently as 1987, and Gender Identity Disorder and Transvestic Fetishism continuing to be classified. It is important for our queer/radical left community/ies to open a dialogue about madness so we can work on reducing stigma. We need to look after each other so we can be dangerous together.
