People with mental illness

[BainsBane]

Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens, Eugene O'Neill, Leo Tolstoy, Beethoven, Vasilov Nijinsky, Tennessee Williams, Issac Newton, Michelangelo, Patty Duke, Jimmy Piersoll, Ernest Hemingway, Vincent Van Gogh, George III, Camille Claudel, William Styron, John Nash, Judy Collins, Lionel Aldridge, Tom Harrell, Kay Redfield Jamison, Mike Wallace, Margot Kidder, Billy Joel, Jane Pauley, Adam Ant, Shawn Colvin, Linda Hamilton, Thomas Eagleton, Carrie Fisher, Dorothy Hamil, Brooke Shields, Catherine Zeta Jones, Vivien Leigh, Gaetano Donizetti, Victor Hugo, Rosemary Clooney, Richard Dreyfus, Steven Fry, Connie Francis, Macy Gray, Jack Irons, Florence Nightingale, Phil Ochs, Jim Carrey, Brian Wilson, Robin Williams, Sting . . .

Still scared?

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Helpline1&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=4858

http://gsappweb.rutgers.edu/centers/stigma/people.php

http://schoolgirlforreal.hubpages.com/hub/A-List-of-Famous-People-Today-With-Mental-Illnesses

[Drale]

1. ^^ This Guy /nt

[Downwinder]

7. And another here.

[libdem4life]

2. Are those people we should recognize? Just kidding. Great list. Thanks

Some of us here on DU are in good company!!!!

[sheshe2]

3. Thank you BainsBane for bringing this to the forefront!

Last edited Fri Dec 21, 2012, 12:39 AM - Edit history (1)

It is important for many to see. To many Judge without knowledge.

Throughout history and contemporary times, people with mental illnesses have contributed immensely to society and human culture. Despite their accomplishments, though, many faced stigma within their lives. These articles and short biographies provide information about how many accomplished individuals have contended with stigma in their lives.

[uppityperson]

4. Thank you for this list. And my post in Meta...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1240192070

[BainsBane]

5. I highly recommend uppity's post

for anyone who wants to learn something about mental illness.

[Odin2005]

6. Churchill called his Depression "The Black Dog".

[Berserker]

8. Still scared? as a matter of fact

Yes. No person on this earth is completely sane that would kill a classroom full of babies. Therefore you have to be mentally ill or completely out of your fucking mind to do this sort of thing no matter how anyone spins it.

[Maraya1969]

10. I'd venture to guess that 99.99% of people with a mental illness are not violent. Or

at least some statistic very very high. Most violence committed by the mentally ill is toward themselves. The people that have done these shootings are in some sort of special division of mental illness that most people do not fall into. And in that division is where all the gun nuts play. I'm not saying that all gun nuts are mentally ill but I think there is something wrong with people who love items that are used to kill and destroy. Even if these people do not have an actual diagnosis I think there is something wrong with them.

I heard a psychiatrist speak once who said he would feel safer in a community of schizophrenics than in the regular world. The vast majority of people with this disorder would not harm a fly.

[BainsBane]

13. Where did you get your medical degree

And where did you do your residency in psychiatry? When did you perform an examination on the shooter? Must have been tough, considering he's dead. Just wondering where "out of your mind" fits in the DSM IV or V?

All he had to have to kill those children was be a male with a semi-automatic assault weapon with extended magazines. You can be certain if he had lived, a diminished capacity for mental illness defense would have never prevailed.

I wonder what kind of mental illness prompts gun zealots to feel they have to be armed at all time? They must suffer from paranoid delusions, "no matter how anyone spins it." A person must have to be deranged to look at a massacre like Sandy Hook and think nothing should be done about guns. I wonder how many such people should be diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder, Narcissistic personality disorder, schizo-affective, or profound paranoia? Those guns totters must be fucking crazy. Look at all the people they kill.

Sound prejudicial? It is, just like your post.

But what's really scary are bigots who can't be bothered to inform themselves to figure out what they are talking about. Reading is so hard. It's so much easier just to jump to conclusions and scapegoat a group of people. Too bad you can't pin this one on the Arabs or African-Americans. You need to come up with a new excuse to justify the self-entitlement that makes some think theirs are the only constitutional rights that matter.

FYI. some mental illness diagnoses: substance abuse including alcholism, premature ejaculation and male erectile disorder (I wonder how many gun owners experience these?), male orgasmic disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia, kleptomania, female arousal disorder, fetishism, narcolepsy,nightmare disorder, insomnia, and until recently, homosexuality. Yes, homosexuality was considered a mental illness. (If you've ever read Foucault you'll know how problematic such categories are, but if you had read Foucault you wouldn't write the kind of post you did). know anyone with any of those problems? How many children have they killed? Does the fact a man may have erectile problems mean he is going to kill a bunch of kids? If a woman only eats lettuce, does that make her a mass murder?

[cliffordu]

16. Nice talk from a zero with your username.

I'm insane, too. Watch out!!! I might swallow all your goldfish. Gulp your guppies....

[Lady Freedom Returns]

17. I think your missing the point.

No one should be put in the same basket. Every case is different. Don't make people Mental Illness feel worse. Look at each one for WHO they ARE not what they suffer from.

[Maraya1969]

9. And me.

[graywarrior]

11. All people I admire and respect.

[Maraya1969]

12. Also Mozart. Don't forget Mozart. From historical books they have diagnoses him bipolar.

[BainsBane]

14. Good one

I hadn't realized.

[Fire Walk With Me]

15. Here. And thank you. Many of them are among my favorite people.

[JoeyT]

18. Kick and rec. n/t

[fizzgig]

19. thank you

[cthulu2016]

20. Vincent Van Gogh is a bad example

He did shoot himself to death, after all.

The vast majority of mental illness poses no threat of violence to the general public.

Many people suffer from some diagnosable and treatable psychiatric condition.

Stigmatizing mental illness in the wake of a mass shooting is worse than stupid.

But armed stalker Vincent Van Gogh is not a good poster boy for non-violent high-function mental illness.

[BainsBane]

22. actually he was murdered

that is what recent evidence shows. But they also think he probably had a neurological disorder. I forget what they call it. I did think twice about it because of the common perception that he committed suicide. But with his brilliance as an artist of incomparable talent, he made incredible contributions to this world, regardless of how people think he died.


I left off some of the suicides like Sylvia Plath and Kurt Cobain.

[tallahasseedem]

21. +1

Thank you for this post!