Kurt Cobain remembered
Kurt Cobain, Nirvana’s lead singer, took his own life 21 years ago this week. And today sees the U.K. release of a new documentary about him, Montage of Heck, made in cooperation with his family and Courtney Love (their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was an executive producer).
Cobain is supposedly another exemplar of the “tortured artist” theory of creativity. Someone who felt too much, who burned too brightly, who flew too close to the sun. When he killed himself in his Seattle apartment with a shotgun, he joined the infamous “27 club” of tortured artists who succumbed to their demons—he, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Amy Whitehouse all died at 27. They became immortal through their untimely departure from the stage. Only the good die young, friends, family and fans might say.
But the mentally ill often die young, too. There is nothing rock and roll about chronic depression and a suicidal mindset. These mind monsters are indiscriminate in hunting their prey, and are just as dreadful and terrifying and unglamorous for musicians, artists and writers as for the rest of our species. You can be tortured and not an artist. Conversely, too, you can be an artist who is untortured, untroubled and free. Misery is not a prerequisite for masterpiece. You don’t have to be Touched with Fire to feel the electricity and wonder and mystery of our world, and harness that energy to create something beautiful. And to live it, too.
Writes novelist Matt Haig in The Telegraph:
The tortured rock star is only the most recent incarnation of the troubled artist cliché that has been around for centuries. From troubled painters like Caravaggio and Van Gogh and Rothko to poets and writers like Plath and Sexton and Hemingway. Creative talent and tormented minds, we are told, are sides of the same coin.
I hate this idea. The idea that creativity is the bedfellow of misery. I have also come to hate my own former silent glorifying of Cobain’s death. When I was 24 I nearly took my own life, not because I’d listened to too much Nirvana, but because I was ill.
From the moment depression and anxiety smashed into me, derailing me completely for a few years, I realised that there was nothing glamorous about mental illness. It was exactly as glamorous as physical illness. Not long before Cobain shot himself he had been hospitalised due to bronchitis. Cobain had suffered from bronchitis. Bronchitis, in almost all our minds, remains as unglamorous as ever, no matter how many rock stars suffer from it.
I would love it if death-by-depression was seen in exactly the same way as death-by-bronchitis. It should be. Because glamorising suicide is almost as unhealthy as demonising it. It inhibits our understanding.
So, let’s be clear. Depression is an illness. It is not a ticket to genius. It is not an interesting personality quirk. It is horrible and all-consuming and really hurts. Depression is not the person, it is something that happens to a person. And when that person feels no way out, they sometimes take their life.
From RYOT:
Fans were of course disheartened by the death of Cobain, as they were when Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison died. But there was a sentiment that at least these artists truly lived the lives they had, succeeding at doing what they loved, which is what most people want, but only the rare few get ... Cobain’s death was not the cliché of a tormented rock star; it was mental illness.
Robin Williams’ death was the most recent manifestation of the alleged creative talent-suicide archetype. Always smiling and making people laugh, Williams’ depression was a major shock to everyone. But experts believe something good came of it: Creativity was finally separated from misery, the stigma surrounding mental illness began to subside, and the floor opened up for discussion about mental health, Mashable reports.
• Kurt Cobain: One heck of a life (BBC News)
• Kurt Cobain fans pay tribute to late Nirvana star on the anniversary of his death (mirror.co.uk)
Kurt Cobain, Nirvana’s lead singer, took his own life 21 years ago this week. And today sees the U.K. release of a new documentary about him, Montage of Heck, made in cooperation with his family and Courtney Love (their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was an executive producer).
Cobain is supposedly another exemplar of the “tortured artist” theory of creativity. Someone who felt too much, who burned too brightly, who flew too close to the sun. When he killed himself in his Seattle apartment with a shotgun, he joined the infamous “27 club” of tortured artists who succumbed to their demons—he, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Amy Whitehouse all died at 27. They became immortal through their untimely departure from the stage. Only the good die young, friends, family and fans might say.
But the mentally ill often die young, too. There is nothing rock and roll about chronic depression and a suicidal mindset. These mind monsters are indiscriminate in hunting their prey, and are just as dreadful and terrifying and unglamorous for musicians, artists and writers as for the rest of our species. You can be tortured and not an artist. Conversely, too, you can be an artist who is untortured, untroubled and free. Misery is not a prerequisite for masterpiece. You don’t have to be Touched with Fire to feel the electricity and wonder and mystery of our world, and harness that energy to create something beautiful. And to live it, too.
Writes novelist Matt Haig in The Telegraph:
The tortured rock star is only the most recent incarnation of the troubled artist cliché that has been around for centuries. From troubled painters like Caravaggio and Van Gogh and Rothko to poets and writers like Plath and Sexton and Hemingway. Creative talent and tormented minds, we are told, are sides of the same coin.
I hate this idea. The idea that creativity is the bedfellow of misery. I have also come to hate my own former silent glorifying of Cobain’s death. When I was 24 I nearly took my own life, not because I’d listened to too much Nirvana, but because I was ill.
From the moment depression and anxiety smashed into me, derailing me completely for a few years, I realised that there was nothing glamorous about mental illness. It was exactly as glamorous as physical illness. Not long before Cobain shot himself he had been hospitalised due to bronchitis. Cobain had suffered from bronchitis. Bronchitis, in almost all our minds, remains as unglamorous as ever, no matter how many rock stars suffer from it.
I would love it if death-by-depression was seen in exactly the same way as death-by-bronchitis. It should be. Because glamorising suicide is almost as unhealthy as demonising it. It inhibits our understanding.
So, let’s be clear. Depression is an illness. It is not a ticket to genius. It is not an interesting personality quirk. It is horrible and all-consuming and really hurts. Depression is not the person, it is something that happens to a person. And when that person feels no way out, they sometimes take their life.
From RYOT:
Fans were of course disheartened by the death of Cobain, as they were when Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison died. But there was a sentiment that at least these artists truly lived the lives they had, succeeding at doing what they loved, which is what most people want, but only the rare few get ... Cobain’s death was not the cliché of a tormented rock star; it was mental illness.
Robin Williams’ death was the most recent manifestation of the alleged creative talent-suicide archetype. Always smiling and making people laugh, Williams’ depression was a major shock to everyone. But experts believe something good came of it: Creativity was finally separated from misery, the stigma surrounding mental illness began to subside, and the floor opened up for discussion about mental health, Mashable reports.
• Kurt Cobain: One heck of a life (BBC News)
• Kurt Cobain fans pay tribute to late Nirvana star on the anniversary of his death (mirror.co.uk)
 The fact that Cobain and Williams were artists is irrelevant; they were no different from the millions of Americans whose mental health issues prevent them from living a normal life. |
U.K. news
Myths and realities of mental health
From The Guardian:
A friend tells me that well-meaning people often ask her what the special talent of her son with autism is. She tends to answers: “Gabriel’s special talent is having a meltdown in the supermarket because the flicker of the fluorescent lights bothers him so much.” The question my friend is asked is born of the Rain Man effect; fiction and the media are full of cases of art/maths/music savants with autism. But such coverage of autism doesn’t help my friend much. In the supermarket she’s still the recipient of disapproving looks when Gabriel, now 11, is screaming on the floor.
The Germanwings tragedy has brought mental health on to the front pages. More attention on the impact of mental illnesses is warranted; far less is spent on care of these than of physical conditions. However, it also highlights the tendency for myths and rare but salient incidents to colour public perception in unhelpful ways.
People with developmental disabilities and their families are disadvantaged socially (divorce rates and isolation are high) and economically (family income is significantly lower). Society’s attitudes to disability and to mental illness are critical to their quality of life and we have a long way to go.
Jump in counselling for UK transgender children wins LGBT praise
From Reuters UK:
A growing number of children in Britain are being referred to the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) for counselling for transgender feelings, a development activists hailed on Wednesday as a sign of greater awareness of transgender issues.
The number of children - under 11 and some as young as three - being treated at the country's only specialist centre for children with gender issues has quadrupled in the past six years, rising to 77 this year from 19 in 2009, NHS figures show.
Experts say up to 1 percent of the world's population are transgender - a term used to describe people who feel they have been born with the wrong gender.
The rise in child referrals shows a greater understanding of transgender issues, said Richard Köhler, senior policy officer at human rights organisation Transgender Europe (TGEU).
"Transgender people now tend to be much younger when they come out, which is positive because they don't have to go through years of denial, and it means they have a supportive family," Köhler told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. A growing number of children in Britain are being referred to the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) for counselling for transgender feelings, a development activists hailed on Wednesday as a sign of greater awareness of transgender issues.
The number of children - under 11 and some as young as three - being treated at the country's only specialist centre for children with gender issues has quadrupled in the past six years, rising to 77 this year from 19 in 2009, NHS figures show.
Experts say up to 1 percent of the world's population are transgender - a term used to describe people who feel they have been born with the wrong gender.
The rise in child referrals shows a greater understanding of transgender issues, said Richard Köhler, senior policy officer at human rights organisation Transgender Europe (TGEU).
"Transgender people now tend to be much younger when they come out, which is positive because they don't have to go through years of denial, and it means they have a supportive family," Köhler told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
Protecting mental health must begin in Britain's schools
From The Times:
Matthew Elvidge was a bright pupil, a scholarship student at Lord Wandsworth College in Hampshire. Good A-level results, via a gap year in Africa, took him to Newcastle University, which he left with a 2:1 in politics and economics.
That was in 2008, straight out into the straitened jobs market of a post-Lehman Brothers economic downturn. A year later, he landed a position in insurance.
Yet in the weeks running up to the start of the job, he began showing signs of anxiety and depression. He found it difficult to make decisions, he couldn’t sleep, he lost energy, his mood was low.
Neither he nor his family could understand why. Referred by his GP to the local mental health crisis team, he was assessed as anxious, low-risk but in need of counselling — and was discharged. That Sunday, the day before he was due to start his job, he took his own life. It was September 20, 2009. He was 23.
To this day no one knows why. Like many teenagers, he had experienced times of stress, but he had no visible signs of mental illness.
Education doesn't guarantee happiness
More research to “prove” what is surely blindingly obvious. From HealthDay:
Being well-educated doesn't necessarily mean you'll be happy with your life, a new British study suggests.
Previous research has found a strong link between low levels of education and mental illness, the authors of the new study said. So, they wanted to find out if levels of education were associated with mental well-being, defined as "feeling good and functioning well."
People with high levels of mental well-being are more likely to feel happy and contented with their lives because of the way they deal with problems and challenges, particularly relationship issues, the University of Warwick researchers explained.
The researchers analyzed the responses of more than 17,000 people in England. They were surveyed in 2010 and 2011.
People with varying levels of education had similar odds of having high levels of mental well-being.
U.S.A. news
Will the Germanwings crash affect how employers approach mental health?
From Forbes:
When news broke March 24 that a young co-pilot for Lufthansa’s low cost-airline Germanwings had intentionally crashed a passenger jet into the French Alps, killing himself and 149 others, people struggled for answers. What would make someone take his own life along with those of so many innocent people?
One possible answer came this past week when the airline revealed that the pilot, Andreas Lubitz, had previously suffered from deep depression. Debates began about how Lubitz’s mental health played into the tragedy, what treatment he might have received, and whether Lufthansa should have let him fly at all.
That discussion is a rare surfacing of an issue too often ignored—the problem of mental health in the workplace.
“To date, companies have focused on physical health much more than they have on mental health,” says Professor John A. Quelch, Charles Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. In collaboration with Carin-Isabel Knoop, executive director of the HBS Case Research & Writing Group, he recently wrote the note, Mental Health and the American Workplace, exploring the extent of the phenomenon, its cost to organizations and employees, and some managerial responses.
In some ways, it makes sense that mental health issues get buried. “Most physical conditions are visible, either to the naked eye or on an X-ray,” says Quelch, who holds a joint appointment as Professor in Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Mental health conditions aren’t so readily identifiable.”
It’s clear from Quelch and Knoop’s research that most companies treat mental health as an afterthought.
9% of Americans are angry, impulsive...and have a gun
The right to bear arms and kill people with them in a moment of madness is apparently enshrined in the Consitution. Click here for a previous rant about guns. From Medical Daily:
Gun violence remains a prevailing and controversial issue in the United States, especially when coupled with mental health. Although criminal and mental health-related gun ownership restrictions do exist, withholding access to guns from people with anger issues would be a dubious proposition, at best. A team of researchers from Duke, Harvard, and Columbia universities have found that one out of every 10 Americans has a history of impulsive and angry behavior, as well as access to a gun.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 59,000 people were injured by the intentional use of a firearm in 2012, along with 11,622 people who died as the result of a violent gun incident.
"As we try to balance constitutional rights and public safety regarding people with mental illness, the traditional legal approach has been to prohibit firearms from involuntarily-committed psychiatric patients," Dr. Jeffrey Swanson, professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke Medicine, said in a statement. "But now we have more evidence that current laws don't necessarily keep firearms out of the hands of a lot of potentially dangerous individuals."
California to provide counseling to mentally ill inmates
From Correctional News:
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials announced recently that mentally ill inmates in the state’s prison system will now receive more humane treatment. The state filed a new policy earlier this month to allow mentally ill inmates to participate in counseling after an incident as opposed to receiving extended sentences or being sent directly to isolation cells.
"This is a very significant reform of the disciplinary process for prisoners with mental illness," Michael Bien, an attorney representing the state’s mentally ill inmates, told the Associated Press on April 3. "What's the point of punishing someone who's psychotic? When you bang on your cell or mouth off at your custody officer, let's talk about that. ... Don't punish [the inmate] and send him somewhere else.”
Children of undocumented immigrants face crisis
From DiversityInc:
In the midst of continual debate between political parties on establishing effective immigration reform, little attention is given to the fact the mental health of thousands of Latino youth, born in the United States and whose parents are undocumented immigrants, is being compromised.
“Anxiety and PTSD in Latino Children of Immigrants: The INS Raid Connection to the Development of These Disorders,” is a report by María Elisa Cuadra, a licensed social worker and Executive Director/CEO, COPAY Inc., a bilingual professional out-patient treatment and prevention care facility located in Great Neck, N.Y.
She discusses the plight of Latino children and adolescents, born in the U.S., whose parents are foreign born, living in constant fear and terror of INS raids. And this fear is expressed verbally and behaviorally potentially leading to disorders.
Michelle Obama, Kerry Washington and Sarah Jessica Parker talk mental health
From the Huffington Post:
First Lady Michelle Obama and actresses Kerry Washington and Sarah Jessica Parker are here to drop some knowledge on Hollywood and the rest of the world: It's time to start prioritizing mental health.
The women discussed de-stigmatizing mental illness -- particularly for veterans struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder -- in Glamour magazine's May issue. While many service members return home completely healthy, Obama noted, for the 11 to 20 percent of recent veterans who suffer from PTSD, it can be challenging to seek treatment due to fear of judgment.
"[W[hen we do come across someone who is struggling ... we have to develop a culture of open arms and acceptance so that they feel comfortable saying, 'I'm a veteran. And by the way, I need little help,'" she said. "This is something we need to do in this country around mental health as a whole -- de-stigmatizing mental health."
Washington also opened up about seeing a therapist in the magazine, citing that keeping tabs on mental illness is just as important as monitoring physical illness.
"I say that publicly because I think it's really important to take the stigma away from mental health," she said. "My brain and my heart are really important to me. I don't know why I wouldn't seek help to have those things be as healthy as my teeth. I go to the dentist. So why wouldn't I go to a shrink?"
World news
Saudi Arabia: Treating jihadists with art therapy
From NPR:
There are golf carts and palm trees and an Olympic-sized pool at the Mohammed Bin Naif Counseling and Care Center, a sprawling complex on the outskirts of Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh.
Once a holiday resort, the walled compound still looks like one — and not a rehabilitation center for convicted terrorists.
In the past year, the country has expanded counter-terrorism laws that make it illegal for Saudis to fight in Syria and Iraq. The kingdom has also expanded the terrorism rehab centers.
More than 3,000 young Saudi men graduated from the program since it began in 2008, including 120 former prisoners from a U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay.
The centers only work with inmates not convicted for violent crimes. The Saudis claim a success rate of more than 80 percent of the detainees returning to their families as well-adjusted members of Saudi society.
Jamaica: Signs you need to get divorced now
Kimberley Hibbert of the Jamaica Observer lists 4 no-return circumstances that in her opinion should have you marching straight toward the exit sign that hangs in the background of all marriages, no discussion, no negotiation:
Both of you stood before the pastor at the altar and recited your marriage vows; you made a pact to remain through the worst conditions and stay together until death. But when the rubber hits the road, it's usually a different ball game, which more often ends in divorce.
From a biblical perspective you are allowed two exception clauses -- sexual immorality and abandonment by an unbeliever -- but forgiveness and counselling is also encouraged. But when not in the church, other factors also play a part in divorce.
Whichever side you're on, when faced with a difficult situation in a marriage, oftentimes couples end up playing the guessing game as to whether they should try to mend the broken pieces of their relationship or just call it quits.
Below are the signs you definitely need to call it quits.
She then outlines the 4 signs. They are:
1. Your partner is abusive
2. Infidelity
3. Homosexuality
4. No more love
I certainly agree with no. 1. But as for the others, her argument is perhaps a little too stridently hard core. People get or stay married for any number of reasons, which change and evolve over time. There are all kinds of nontraditional arrangements. Who is to say that whatever works between two consenting adults is right or wrong?
From the Huffington Post:
First Lady Michelle Obama and actresses Kerry Washington and Sarah Jessica Parker are here to drop some knowledge on Hollywood and the rest of the world: It's time to start prioritizing mental health.
The women discussed de-stigmatizing mental illness -- particularly for veterans struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder -- in Glamour magazine's May issue. While many service members return home completely healthy, Obama noted, for the 11 to 20 percent of recent veterans who suffer from PTSD, it can be challenging to seek treatment due to fear of judgment.
"[W[hen we do come across someone who is struggling ... we have to develop a culture of open arms and acceptance so that they feel comfortable saying, 'I'm a veteran. And by the way, I need little help,'" she said. "This is something we need to do in this country around mental health as a whole -- de-stigmatizing mental health."
Washington also opened up about seeing a therapist in the magazine, citing that keeping tabs on mental illness is just as important as monitoring physical illness.
"I say that publicly because I think it's really important to take the stigma away from mental health," she said. "My brain and my heart are really important to me. I don't know why I wouldn't seek help to have those things be as healthy as my teeth. I go to the dentist. So why wouldn't I go to a shrink?"
World news
Saudi Arabia: Treating jihadists with art therapy
From NPR:
There are golf carts and palm trees and an Olympic-sized pool at the Mohammed Bin Naif Counseling and Care Center, a sprawling complex on the outskirts of Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh.
Once a holiday resort, the walled compound still looks like one — and not a rehabilitation center for convicted terrorists.
In the past year, the country has expanded counter-terrorism laws that make it illegal for Saudis to fight in Syria and Iraq. The kingdom has also expanded the terrorism rehab centers.
More than 3,000 young Saudi men graduated from the program since it began in 2008, including 120 former prisoners from a U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay.
The centers only work with inmates not convicted for violent crimes. The Saudis claim a success rate of more than 80 percent of the detainees returning to their families as well-adjusted members of Saudi society.
Jamaica: Signs you need to get divorced now
Kimberley Hibbert of the Jamaica Observer lists 4 no-return circumstances that in her opinion should have you marching straight toward the exit sign that hangs in the background of all marriages, no discussion, no negotiation:
Both of you stood before the pastor at the altar and recited your marriage vows; you made a pact to remain through the worst conditions and stay together until death. But when the rubber hits the road, it's usually a different ball game, which more often ends in divorce.
From a biblical perspective you are allowed two exception clauses -- sexual immorality and abandonment by an unbeliever -- but forgiveness and counselling is also encouraged. But when not in the church, other factors also play a part in divorce.
Whichever side you're on, when faced with a difficult situation in a marriage, oftentimes couples end up playing the guessing game as to whether they should try to mend the broken pieces of their relationship or just call it quits.
Below are the signs you definitely need to call it quits.
She then outlines the 4 signs. They are:
1. Your partner is abusive
2. Infidelity
3. Homosexuality
4. No more love
I certainly agree with no. 1. But as for the others, her argument is perhaps a little too stridently hard core. People get or stay married for any number of reasons, which change and evolve over time. There are all kinds of nontraditional arrangements. Who is to say that whatever works between two consenting adults is right or wrong?
