Depression Disability & Mental Illness stigma

Depression, Disability & mental Illness stigma- Disability is often thought of as being physical you see people in a wheel chair and you immediately think of incapacity. Think again A wheel chair does not mean the person is incapacitated so that for instance he cannot be a university Professor. Take out Law School here at QUT there is a Professor of long standing that is an exceptional academic and has produced and continues to produce several books and papers on the law. He has been commended both at University State Federal and international as having exceptional teaching skills.

Often though it is the invisible things the intangible things that for some unknown reason affect us the most. And so it is with mental illness we can see the symptoms but not the cause. For instance with a broken leg we can say that it was injured in an accident or something similar. Whereas with Mental Illness the cause is far more cryptic. Schizophrenia or manic depression is often genetic related in that it is passed on by one parents but not always so well that is the knowledge we know so far. We also know that a lot more research needs to be done in this area. finding a cure too for both these debilitating mental states should be a high priority as it affects the person and his family and other relationships profoundly.

This disorder can be very anti-social and is second only to schizophrenia in the order of magnitude of mental illness. I guess I might as well come out and say ive been diagnosed with that most unsocial of conditions bipolar disorder. Fortunately in recent years the severity and length of my episodes has been less severe than in my thirties when the consequences were quite severe. As well now I know the tell tale signs when an onset of an attack is about to erupt.

Often people with bipolar are intelligent and for the most part artistic and friendly people who have an acute probably over sensitive and moody nature. With proper supervision a productive life can be had.

It is known that Winston Churchill suffered from Bipolar. This was in a times when Lithium was not discovered.