University Challenge: Part Three

Suggestion To My Uni: Make sure all lecturers know the correct way to talk about mental illness. 

Since being at university I have been shocked by the amount of times I have heard uninformed and sometimes even offensive attitudes towards mental illness from members of staff. Although it is discouraging when I hear a group of students my age speaking this way, I can usually forgive them for it and put forward my own opinions so that theirs might be changed. After all, we’re all still young. But professional academics put in place by a university so that their job is to teach? In the last year and a half I have heard dismissive and frivolous comments about bipolarity (quite often manic depression is talked about as if it is funny), blasé attitudes towards depression in young people (‘they’re making it all up for attention’ being a typical standpoint) and, worst of all, a complete misunderstanding of what it is to be a creative person who lives with a mental illness.

           

I am on a creative writing course. I am completely aware that a lot of the great writers and poets that we read today suffered and sometimes died because of their misery and how a lot of depression has inspired some beautiful pieces of writing. Do I respect this? Completely. I can absolutely see how living with an illness of the mind can make you introspective and thus have a better capacity for writing deep and meaningful pieces. I know the merit of being able to create something out of your depression: a lot of my writing is very personal, and often the most personal writing can turn out to be the best. Occupational Therapy works in this way. I completely support it as an idea. However, do I think that the best or even only way to write something meaningful is to be depressed? No. Do I believe that my depression is nothing more than a tool for my writing? Definitely not. Am I happy to live with an illness that robs me of my livelihood and energy just so that I can apparently write better? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

 

I honestly couldn’t believe the attitude of some lecturers who suggested time and time again that being depressed is a blessing, a great gift for introspection. I almost groan out loud now in classes when I know we have to talk about a writer who committed suicide because I know inevitably the discussion will turn to mental illness and most of the time not even one person in the class will know what they’re talking about. And that includes the lecturer. On the days when I feel brave enough to speak up for myself, I am quick to correct any lecturer who begins the usual spiel about depression being the key to great writing but having to do this all the time raises the question about why they don’t know about mental illness in the first place. Surely there are some sort of Equal Opportunities rules that they need to know about before beginning the job? Imagine hearing a lecturer say that people in wheelchairs are lucky for not having to walk around everywhere! There needs to be better information for lecturers about the best way to discuss these things in a classroom situation. Perpetuating the myth that mental illness = creativity makes it very difficult for people like me to get their voices heard. You can imagine the frustration: on a bad day I sit in class and listen to everyone else talk rubbish about the subject I know the most about.