The Written Word
for April 1, 2001

No one would mock someone in a wheel chair … or on crutches … or allude to a disfiguring scar or birthmark. Yet there are two areas where the personal insult seems to be quite in order. If one is overweight, people of the scantiest acquaintance will think it quite acceptable to pat you on the tummy and ask if you are pregnant. Or make some other derogatory remark assuming, apparently, that you think it all very amusing indeed. As one who has for years fought the battle of the bulge I have a reply which I’ve mentioned before but which might help those of you with a weight problem. I say "when you get a bit older, one of two things happens … you either put on a bit of weight or you lose your bluddy manners." It’s amazing and quite a comment on human nature to see that this one-liner, to a person who has just been highly offensive, is taken very badly indeed.

But there is another area of insult which I think is much more objectionable. It was exemplified by Chuck Strahl, MP, who last week, in a verbal exchange, advised his opponent to "take his medication." Now Mr Strahl is an estimable chap in most respects and I have no doubt that he hadn’t any idea how offensive he was.

Last week, one of the national newspapers reported that there had been a 36% increase in depression in this country. What we do know is that reported and treated or not, somewhere between 1/5 and ¼ of all Canadians suffer from depression or will before they die. We who suffer this ailment also know that the biggest barrier to getting treatment is the social stigma still attached to mental illness.

This stigma even has an official aspect to it. Why are there "mental" health statutes, "mental health" organizations and "mental health" institutions? Why is there this division?

But the main battle by us mental health "consumers" (we’ve been upgraded – we used to be patients, then we became clients, now we’re consumers!) is against the subtle stigma. Schizophrenia, a hugely disabling and distressing illness has nothing to do with "split" personalities, yet the word is used to mean just that.

Prozak has been, for many, a marvelous medicine (I refuse to use the term drug because it isn’t one) for many people yet it used as an epithet. "Why don’t you take your Prozak" is used by the ignorant to suggest that some behaviour by the object of their disaffection would be changed for the better by his taking this medicine.

It is thoughtlessness. The desire to wound with words is part of some professions - politics and law amongst them. But the object is, surely, to wound your opponent, not innocent bystanders.

Depression is not only widely prevalent amongst Canadians – it is also eminently treatable. The problem is getting sufferers into a doctor and onto proper medications. The stigma I can assure you from personal experience, is very real. Men especially find it hard to admit that they are depressed – it doesn’t accord with the image they think society has of them.

Chuck Strahl meant no harm but he did harm nevertheless. As long as the image of the mental patient is that implied by remarks like Mr Strahl, depressed people will not seek help. And that’s a tragedy.