(1750 words ; 7 mins )

 

Aaron Hernandez was an American Football player in the NFL. He played for the Patriots. Signed on for millions of dollars, he was a rising star. Sadly, his career was brought to an abrupt halt when he was convicted of the murder of an acquaintance in 2013. He was sent to jail where, earlier this year, he committed suicide. He was 27. Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at Boston University, requested to study his brain, which was consented by his family. Her team discovered, in their estimation, “the most damage they had ever seen in an athlete so young”. His brain slices showed signs of stage 3 of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy), a degenerative disease brought upon by repeated injuries to the brain. Aaron’s brain damage brings to mind, the gruesome double homicide and suicide case of WWE wrestler, Chris Benoit. Benoit’s brain, too, showed a severe case of CTE and resembled that of an old patient suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

 

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Shirley Ballas is a world-renowned Latin Dancing champion. Nicknamed the ‘Queen of Latin’, she is currently judging the celebrity competition, Strictly Come Dancing. In an interview concerning the same, Shirley brought to light, a tragic personal news. Back in 2003, Shirley’s brother committed suicide after undergoing a bout of depression, which his family failed to comprehend. On the fateful evening when Shirley and her mother were out attending Shirley’s son’s recital during Christmas season, her brother chose to end his life, unable to find a reason to live. He left no note or statement behind. Shirley’s family hasn’t celebrated Christmas ever since. Till date, they have no idea what exactly went wrong and how they could have intervened.

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Elyn Saks is a MacArthur Genius Grant fellow and a professor of Law, Psychology and Psychiatry at Gould Law School. She is the recipient of the Phi Kappa Phi faculty recognition award and one of the most prominent TED speakers. She suffers from Schizophrenia, about which she wrote extensively in her memoir, The Centre Cannot Hold. In one of the chapters, she describes her mental state during one of her psychotic episodes as :

 

“…Consider this: The regulator that funnels certain information to you and filters out other information suddenly shuts off. Immediately, every sight, every sound, every smell coming at you carries equal weight; every thought, feeling, memory, and idea presents itself to you with an equally strong and demanding intensity. You’re receiving a dozen different messages in a dozen different media-phone, e-mail, TV, CD player, friend knocking at the door, ideas inside your head-and you’re unable to choose which ones come to the front and which are relegated to “later”. It’s the crowd at the Super Bowl, and they’re all yelling directly at you.

Or try this: Place yourself in the middle of the room. Turn on the stereo, the television, and a beeping video game, and then invite into the room several small children with ice cream cones. Crank up the volume on each piece of electrical equipment, then take away the children’s ice cream. Imagine these circumstances existing every day and night of your life. What would you do?”

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My friends shared a Reddit thread with me recently. It was about a young man, who had chosen the nickname SpontaneousH to share his experience of trying Heroin for the first time, upon being tempted by the idea of it. He started off extremely confident in his ability to experiment without being addicted. He was categorically warned by people in the thread to avoid from even experimenting, but in arrogance/confidence that would have resembled anyone of us in his position, he wrote, “…Please no more comments telling me I’m going to be a homeless addict dying of an overdose now, don’t lecture me with all of your misconceptions and lack of any real knowledge or experience about the drug. I understand if you know someone who has been hurt by it, we all do. Any drug can ruin lives, please ask me questions instead of trying to lecture me…”. Unfortunately, his Reddit timeline revealed an almost ironic prophecy coming to life as he invariably succumbed to addiction and everything he was confident about avoiding. His subsequent posts were :

• “I tried heroin a month ago, made an AMA, got addicted & started injecting, & just started Suboxone treatment, AMA.”
• “IAmA patient in a psychiatric hospital. I was also technically dead last week, AMA.”
  
• “IAmA heroin/opioid/multi-substance addict w/ bi-polar disorder headed to rehab tomorrow because I didn’t listen to reddit. I ODed one week ago and am in a psych hospital, AMA.”

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But why am I writing about their stories? I’m writing because we are all intricately linked to these struggles and to the idea of mental health in general. I’m certain most of us would know someone around us who is currently battling depression, anxiety, stress, addiction, has had suicidal thoughts or maybe even a combination of any of them. An article recently shared on social media, ‘The Mental Health Crisis in Indian Campuses’ seems to corroborate this viewpoint. Talking extensively about students suffering from academic pressure, plagued by loneliness, in a setting which is unequipped to provide structural support to the idea of mental health and is unable to encourage the creation of a support system to unburden people, only exacerbates the problem. In an incident emblematic of this crisis, one of my professors once brought up the movie, A Beautiful Mind, during a lecture.

Talking about John Nash’s mathematical prowess (John suffered from schizophrenia), he went on to declare that his delusions and psychosis were brought upon by his supreme sense of arrogance over his talent. And he wasn’t even joking! I was waiting for him to offer a clarification but it never came. He stood there, confident of his analysis. He reduced Schizophrenia to madness brought upon by overconfidence. I confess to laughing at this incredulous statement then but later on, I realized how unfortunate this incident was. I experienced another such incident that involved a locality resident. When one of his children was diagnosed with depression, he refused to accept medical intervention as he declared that depression was a disease of the elderly and that his child must get out of this mental rut by his own willpower. When so many people refuse to acknowledge the existence of the problem, how do we expect them to construct the dialogue to tackle it? No wonder suicide rates are skyrocketing.

I often repeat these lines whenever the topic of mental health comes up – Whenever we see someone with a fractured bone, not only do we enquire about his/her health, but we also write messages of consolation on the plaster in bold colours. We want to make them feel upbeat and supported during the process of recovery. Yet, the same principle and attitude fail when applied to mental health. Suddenly, everyone talks in murmurs and hushed tones. People nod gravely when informed about a colleague who suffers from Bipolar disorder. They can’t seem to disclose to their relatives that their child recently had a depressive episode. They have no troubles telling strangers that they are hypertensive or diabetic though. For them, that’s an acceptable disease to share with others.

 

We need to understand that the mental in mental health stands for ‘associated with the mind’ and not ‘crazy and/or lunatic’. Please do away with the stigma. Please stop trivializing the tribulations of those who suffer from mental health disorders. OCD is not a cute desire to play music at a certain volume. It is the incessant cleaning of hands until you feel your skin peeling off. Depression is not your response to scoring a 4/10 on your test. It is laying in your bed at noon, having slept for over 10 hours or not having slept at all. It is a dense smog of thoughts that kill your joy, motivation and willingness to achieve. A little empathy and support from all of us can go a long way.

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Coming back to the stories, athletes like Aaron are used to receiving concussions on the field. They accrue irreparable damage to their brain throughout their careers, without being aware of it. While the discovery of Aaron’s disease is in no way a justification for his actions, it does go on to describe the horrible mental state he may have been in. While WWE cut off all ties from Benoit and he has been removed from all of WWE’s record books, Aaron’s case is yet to be decided.

Shirley and her family have revisited that unfortunate day regularly with a bunch of ‘what ifs?’. Shirley has since set up a charity and works consistently to raise awareness regarding mental health, depression and issues that surround it.

From the genius grant that Elyn was awarded, she used the money to establish the Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics, which highlights one important mental health issue per academic year and is a collaborative effort between seven USC departments. Elyn has had a hospital ward named after her at Pelham Woods Hospital in Dorking, England.

SpontaneousH shared an update 7 years after his first post. He highlighted his sobriety and how he is now clean from using drugs and alcohol. He mentions it is too hard for him to go back and read his previous posts and with hindsight, he could see warning signs of addiction, even when he wasn’t doing drugs at all. But he has recovered well and no longer plans to go down that path again.

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If you see someone around you who has been withdrawn as of late, who doesn’t seem to take an interest in talking, whose academic performance has gone down or someone who simply doesn’t look or feel himself/herself, please do take out a moment to ask them if they are OK. If needed, be insistent. Most people who are suffering need help but don’t wish to ask for it. Your brain is just like any other organ in your body. It needs nurturing and rehabilitation from time to time. It is tough to battle demons in your head that you can’t see. It would undoubtedly be tougher to battle them without any support. If you feel you are unable to offer or receive concrete help, involve a professional. The embarrassment of a false alarm would be infinitely lesser than the guilt of inaction over a tragic incident. Nobody is alone in the fight for mental health. Nor should they feel that way. In the words of Elyn herself, “The humanity we share is more important than the mental illness we may not.”