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Sage Words On Stigma from the President of the American Psychiatric Association
Dr. Renee Binder, current president of the American Psychiatric Association, zeroed in on stigma in her column in Psychiatric News recently (1). She started with Dr. Nora Volkow’s powerful Convocation Address at the May 2015 meeting of APA in Toronto. Dr. Volkow is the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. I was in the audience and, like Dr. Binder, I was deeply moved by Dr. Volkow’s heartfelt and sad story. She had grown up believing that her grandfather died of a coronary. It was many years later that she learned from her dying mother that he was severely alcoholic and died by suicide. The truth had been shrouded in stigma for decades. Dr. Volkow’s decision to share this family secret with all of us in such a prestigious forum was magnanimous. It meant a lot to me personally because the very next day I chaired a workshop called “Psychiatrists Who Have Survived the Suicide Death of a Loved One: Their Insights” which I summarized in an earlier blog (2).
Dr. Binder is appealing to all mental health professionals to do our part in addressing stigma. She made several suggestions, including speaking out. She lauded the courageous work of former Representative Patrick Kennedy talking about his own personal struggles with substance abuse and mental illness – and his political activism. She also noted how the coming out of prominent LGBT individuals helps to change stereotypic and outlandish thinking. She is encouraging all of us to write articles and letters to the editor when faced with stigmatizing language and portrayals in the media. There is much that we can do in our home communities to educate and provide advocacy.
One reader, Dr. Karen Miller, took Dr. Binder up on her appeal and wrote the following in a recent issue of Psych News (3): “What if we as psychiatrists were to acknowledge when we have suffered from mental illness ourselves?” Dr. Miller went on to describe struggling with a prolonged major depressive illness in her 30s and 40s: “It was not trivial. I recovered”. Dr. Miller has gone on to talk openly about her depression and to take part in a video in which she and others described their experiences with mental illness and the stigma attached to such diagnoses. Dr. Miller concludes with a big challenge – and a fitting way to end this blog: “Are Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison and a few others going to stand in for all of us? Or are we going to have the courage to stand with the people we are trying to help?”
References
- Binder R. Stigma: “I Need to Tell You Something I’ve Never Spoken to You About”. Psychiatric News. Vol 50. No 13. June 30, 2015
- Myers MF. Psychiatrists, Self-Disclosure and Suicide. https://www.psychcongress.com/blogs/michael-myers-md/psychiatrists-self-disclosure-and-suicide
- Miller KL. Fighting stigma begins at home. Letter-to-the-editor. Psychiatric News. Vol 50. No 16. August 21, 2015
Dr. Myers is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and immediate past Vice-Chair of Education and Director of Training in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of seven books the most recent of which are “Touched by Suicide: Hope and Healing After Loss” (with Carla Fine) and “The Physician as Patient: A Clinical Handbook for Mental Health Professionals” (with Glen Gabbard, MD). He is a specialist in physician health and has written extensively on that subject. Currently, Dr Myers serves on the Advisory Board to the Committee for Physician Health of the Medical Society of the State of New York. He is a recent past president (and emeritus board member) of the New York City Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the blog post author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Psych Congress Network or other Psych Congress Network authors. Blog entries are not medical advice.
