Can no good come from these things?

[Aidensmom]

Today in the Ask Marilyn column in Parade magazine in our newspaper, the following question was asked:

Mental illness can influence people to behave in ways that are destructive to society. Does it ever encourage them to take positive actions? You never hear anyone attribute a notable good deed to an unsound mind.

The answer was:

No, mental illness has something in common with an unhappy childhood. On rare occasions you can blame it, the vast majority of the time you should not, and it never deserves credit for the things you stand up and do right.

What do you think?

I think this was very harsh, and I completely disagree. In fact, that answer kind of angered me, as if she was blaming people with mental illness or who had a bad childhood for these problems. I am the belief that something good can come from any circumstance. I think that, for example, experiencing a mental illness such as depression can help you to understand better a loved one that suffers from the same thing, and therefore can help to improve your relationship. Or a child whose childhood was unhappy because they were neglected could have as a result learned to be a very independent person.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I guess my IQ isn't high enough to understand the question...but my take on it--does it seem that they are asking if you can credit something good as a direct result of bad.

She's not blaming them--it seems she is saying--most of the times what you do should not be blamed on the disorder as if to excuse you from it...and on the flip side--if you win the Miss America Pageant or find the cure for cancer....you wouldn't go on and say I credit my manic depressive state for this honor.

Same deal for the bad childhood (be it actually bad or perceived bad)--you cannot go out and use your bad childhood as an excuse for all that is wrong in your life or why you do bad things....nor can you credit the bad childhood and say thank goodness I was traumatized as a child so that I would be motivated to accomplish XYZ.

In other words--while it is great that one can understand a partner who has depression if they suffer as well or that the child became very independent...it would have been a whole lot better for them to not have the mental illness or trauma in the first place.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Trying to figure them out. Really I don't agree with either.

I have some experince in the area. In addtion to having a master in social work and 6 years experince working in a mental health clinic, depression and bipolar run on both my side of my family and my husbands. In addtion my best friend suffers from it.

Mental illness has always gotten a bad rap. Bad stigma and the wrost cases always get the media light. It often is blamed for things that it really shouldn't. For instance many people (most) who have mental illness are not volient people, however the ones that are always get the media light. Then the prisons are full of people who are not reciving proper treatment.

There are many isntances of people with mental illness who atritube good things from their battle with it. Most commonly is MANY artists and other widly succseful and other very taleneted people are bipolar.

Treatment for mental illness is greatly improved. Our undestanding of how the mind works is improving. However because of the sigtma atachted to mental illness, treatment can be difficult to get sometimes. Many times health insurance doesn't cover it, or puts limits on how much a person can recive.

It is an ungoing battle that effects everyone.

Good comes from everything if we let it and if we learn and grow from our challenges in life. Too much is blamed on things like mental illness and bad childhoods. We need to get past that and live in the present, learn and grown from it.

 

[eeyore kelly]

Ok, let's see if I can give a personal experience answer. I suffered from Accute Chemical Depression for many years. I love creative writing. Do they have something in common? Probably. Do I credit my depression for my writing? No. Why? Because I'll never know if I was a writer without my depression. Therefore, I choose to think that writing is a part of me, depression is not. it is an illness like cancer and I was treated for it.

 

[bicker]

That's really the point: These things, an unhappy childhood and mental illness, do no good. People would be better off without having them. That's all she's saying.