Mental Health

[DanaC]

Thought we could do with a thread about mental health issues. So here it is...

Interesting little interview with Stephen Fry:




I had a conversation with a couple of locals whilst our dogs were playing together and the conversation turned round to the subject of depression. They were talking about a woman who used to live in the village (before my time here) and some of her family who apparently still live here. She'd had problems with her sons, and she'd had problems with debts and alcohol and one of the locals said she'd had depression.

I won't go through the whole conversation - but one of the things that slightly shocked me was a comment about how, as a primary school teacher - the parents of the children she taught should have been informed of her depression - so they had a choice whether to entrust their children to someone suffering depression - like that made her dangerous or inherently untrustworthy.

I was really surprised by this - shocked really. They linked it to the co-pilot of the German airline who recently committed suicide and mass murder by flying a plane full of people into a mountainside.

The level of ignorance about depression from two people who seem reasonably well-educated and clued up about the world shocked me.

[Clodfobble]

When you have kids, the hormones flip a little fear switch in your brain, and all SORTS of things the old you would have found ridiculous become fine in the context of it being YOUR kid. Nothing matters more than your kid, not the teacher, and certainly not her right to privacy or reliable employment. Most parents are eventually able to overpower this base instinct with the rational part of their brain, but some never do. It's an inevitable side effect of industrialization, lowered birth rate, and decreased childhood mortality, I think.

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by DanaC

... one of the things that slightly shocked me was a comment about how, as a primary school teacher - the parents of the children she taught should have been informed of her depression - so they had a choice whether to entrust their children to someone suffering depression ...

... I was really surprised by this - shocked really. They linked it to the co-pilot of the German airline who recently committed suicide and mass murder by flying a plane full of people into a mountainside. ...

THAT'S RIDICULOUS!

(Of course, we wouldn't want her driving the school bus.)