During this time, Anna has seen mental health services improve dramatically. Yet, public attitudes to mental illness have still to catch up…
This is Anna’s story.
“It’s not easy to explain what it feels like to have this illness. When I’m on a high, I have delusions. I start to think I’m a very important person, with special powers. On one occasion, I stood on a cliff edge and leant forward, catching the strong wind in my coat to support my body weight, and keep me there, suspended. It was an amazing, exhilarating experience – I was immortal. I couldn’t see how dangerous it was, or how close to death I could have been. I was living life in the fast lane until I crashed in both the physical and emotional sense.
When I’m on a low, my mind shuts down, and I just feel terrible emotional pain. I lose all hope and I’m terrified of life and the future. When these times come, I’ll take extra medication and hide under my duvet, unable to sleep or move. At its worse, my illness has taken the form of terrifying hallucinations. Dead, decomposing bodies appear. I can see and smell them all around me, and I start to think I smell too, and that I too should be dead.
Getting good support early on is crucial. My community mental health nurse is very supportive. She helps me get through it, when I have lost all hope. She understands and accepts me as I am. She sees me as a person who just happens to have mental distress. I trust this woman and I feel able to talk about my illness with her and discuss the things I can do to help myself through it. I am very grateful for the excellent care I receive from mental health services.
I know when I’m going to have a bout of illness – I start to feel quite distant from the world, as if I’m not part of it all. Normally I’m quite outgoing. Many of the people that know me, including some close friends, have no idea that I suffer from a mental illness. I haven’t told them. They see me in the long periods when I’m absolutely fine. When I’m ill, they think that I’ve either got the flu or a bad back. I’ve learnt the hard way that people react badly.
It’s not so much the illness that causes isolation, but it’s the stigma society holds against it. There was even stigma in my family, and as a result both my mother and sister suffered from mental illness in silence, which tragically led to their suicides.
I myself have attempted suicide several times. It's thanks to the mental health services that I am still alive. Not enough people acknowledge the good, positive care by the nurses on the front line. It’s only when things go wrong that people take notice.
I used to work full-time until I was sectioned. When my work colleagues found out I had a mental illness they shunned me, even though I had never been a danger to anyone else. Until I was ill they had no complaints about my work. The staff took away my responsibilities, and avoided me in the corridors. There were hushed voices when I entered a room. Finally I could not cope with the stigma, which was contributing to my paranoia, so I left.
I felt terribly lonely and isolated – worthless even. Yet, it wasn’t the illness that caused those feelings. It was the ignorant behaviour of the people around me. Why is there still such a stigma attached to mental illness? It’s just an illness – like any other. No one wants it; no one chooses to have it.
Headlines that sum up the latest ‘nutter’, ‘psycho’ or ‘looney’ don’t help. The vast majority of people that are mentally ill are far more likely to harm themselves, than they would someone else. That’s why we’ve got to talk about the problem.
Living with a mental illness is not easy. But with good support you can learn to manage your condition, and many people make a full recovery. After all, one in every four of us will need help with our mental health at some point during our life.
I also visit Activ8 in Hastings – a local centre for people experiencing mental distress. It is like a caring family. You are accepted for who you are. No one is seen as a label. You get a warm, friendly welcome. When you’re there you can take part in a variety of activities like art, pottery, photography, self-help, massage and aromatherapy.
It’s time for people to take a calmer, more compassionate view of those coping with mental illness. Why shouldn’t we offer support, just as we would to someone suffering from any other serious health problem? There is hope at the end of the tunnel.”
In response to Anna’s story, Councillor Bill Bentley, Lead Member for Adult Social Care said,
“We don’t tolerate racism, sexism or ageism. When will people wake up and see that the stigma around mental illness is a similar issue that needs to be tackled head on? I hope that Anna’s story will get people thinking more compassionately about mental illness.”
Nick Yeo, Chief Executive of East Sussex Downs & Weald and Hastings & Rother Primary Care Trusts, said,
“I’d like to pay tribute to Anna’s strength of character for coping as she does with this disabilitating illness. Her story gives a real insight into Schizo-Affective Disorder, and I’d like to thank her for sharing it with us.”
Lisa Rodrigues, Chief Executive of Sussex Partnership NHS Trust, added,
“Anna’s candid account of her illness, and the reactions people have towards it, should make us all stop and think. We must change prevailing attitudes to mental illness. No one should have to feel stigmatised in this way.”
Notes to editors
Anna’s name has been changed to protect her and her family’s identity.
Estimates for the prevalence of Bipolar Affective Disorder (Manic Depression) are varied with a range of estimates emerging from different studies in different countries. The figure for East Sussex lies somewhere between 6,500 and 7,500.
Bipolar Disorder is characterised by manic or hypomanic states: the patient is either depressed, euthymic (normal in mood), or hypomanic/manic. Bipolar Disorder differs from Unipolar Disorder by including manic states. No matter how many times a patient is depressed, only one manic/hypomanic episode is required to make the diagnosis Bipolar rather than Unipolar Disorder.
Sussex Partnership NHS Trust runs educational relapse-prevention groups for people affected by Bipolar Affective Disorder. The 14-week course looks at relapse signs and ways of clients avoiding becoming unwell again. The next course will begin in April 2008. The Trust provides mental health, specialist learning disability and substance misuse services for Brighton & Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex, and is applying to become a Foundation Trust. For information on ways to look after your mental health, coping with mental health issues, and to learn more about the work of the trust please visit the Sussex Partnership NHS Trust website.
Rethink, the largest voluntary sector provider of mental health services, offer practical support to people with mental health needs and their carers.
You can contact Activ8 at 5–6 Trinity Street, Hastings, TN34 1HG – tel: 01424 442435 or email: activ8network@hotmail.co.uk.
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