When "mentally ill" means dirt

‘You know you will get treated like dirt’  Sinéad O’Connor. Photograph: Christie Goodwin/Redferns via Getty Images

El presente artículo de Tim Jonze para "The Guardian", entrevista a Sinéad O´Connor, la cantante pop rock irlandesa que no se caracteriza por su corrección política, ni por tener pelos ni en el bonito cráneo, ni en la afilada lengua. Con frecuencia, las personas que padecen enfermedades del cerebro, las mal llamadas mentales, se convierten en apestados sociales. Sus familias, o los someten a una compasión perniciosa o abjuran de ellos/as. En los años más oscuros de la ciencia, quienes padecían enfermedades mentales eran confinados de por vida a sitios de exclusión con frecuencia terroríficos. El advenimiento de psico fármacos de nueva generación  o el uso ampliado de anti convulsivos, que ya se habían experimentado en la epilepsia, ha cambiado el panorama de forma racional y esperanzadora. Trastornos como la depresión, la bipolaridad (antes trastorno maniaco depresivo), la esquizofrenia y toda una serie de variantes graves de dichas patologías, no tienen cura conocida. Pero en occidente se implementan tratamientos que permiten a los pacientes/as llevar una vida normal, trabajar, progresar profesionalmente.
El conocimiento completo del genoma humano y las técnicas de exploración fina de los genes ha destapado la base genética, multi génica y compleja, de la esquizofrenia y el trastorno bipolar (posible cromosoma 11).  Los resultados han aparecido en Nature. Todavía no he escuchado comentarios arteros contra ningún/a diabético. Pero si alguien es ingresado por una patología psiquiátrica, depresión por ejemplo, corre el riesgo de convertirse en, como dice O´Connor "basura" social.
Referencias de codondesastre.blogspot.com

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th ed. Arlington, Va: American Psychiatric Publishing. 2013.

Freudenreich O, Weiss AP, Goff DC. Psychosis and schizophrenia. In: Stern TA, Rosenbaum JF, Fava M, et al., eds. Massachusetts General Hospital Comprehensive Clinical Psychiatry. 1st ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Elsevier Mosby; 2008:chap 28.

Lyness JM. Psychiatric disorders in medical practice. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Goldman's Cecil Medicine. 24th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Elsevier Saunders; 2011:chap 404.

"Sinead O’Connor has attacked the way the media portrays women with mental health problems. The Irish singer was speaking in the wake of actor Robin Williams’s death, in which she praised the compassion shown towards the star – who took his own life after suffering from depression – and hoped the same treatment could be afforded to young female sufferers in future.

“When you admit that you are anything that could be mistakenly, or otherwise, perceived as ‘mentally ill’ you know that you are going to get treated like dirt so you don’t go tell anybody and that’s why people die,” O’Connor told Sky’s Entertainment Week.

The 47-year-old singer went on to talk about the way stars such asBritney Spears and Amanda Bynes were “lynched” by the “notoriously abusive” press, simply for suffering from mental health problems. She also asked for news outlets to resist labelling young women as “crazy” and said it was important “not to buffoon delicate young ladies in the street”. 

O’Connor has talked about her own battles with depression in the past, and believes women are often stigmatised for doing so. In July, she told the Observer how frank comments she had made online about sex were instantly interpreted as a sign she was ill. “It’s very interesting that people would assume that just because a woman is being open about sex it’s a symptom of her being unwell. It’s all bullshit about how females are supposed to behave in a particular manner.”

During her show at the Roundhouse in London on 13 August last week, O’Connor dedicated two songs to Williams, an a cappella version of I Am Stretched Upon Your Grave and new song Eight Good Reasons.

“It’s a very bad idea, the choice that Robin made,” she told the crowd, “and I want to dedicate this song to anyone today who may be contemplating that choice and ask anyone not to.”

Williams, who suffered from depression, killed himself at his California home. His wife Susan Schneider has since revealed he had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. 

O’Connor is currently promoting her 10th album, I’m Not Bossy, I’m The Boss.