OFFICIALS WORK TO ERASE THE SOCIAL STIGMA OF MENTAL DISEASE

Sue Floyd was diagnosed with depression in 1986. Since seeking treatment, she said her life has turned around completely.

Floyd gave an account Thursday of her experiences with battling the mental illness and the social taboo that followed, at a panel discussion on mental illness at the Cape Girardeau Community Counseling Center.

Bob Bax, director of public affairs for the Missouri Department of Mental Health, accompanied some of the department's officials in a tour of the state, designed to erase some of the myths about mental illness.

"Americans have been bombarded with the message that mental illness is somehow the fault of the victim," Bax said. "In reality, mental illness is a medical disease with physiological causes that can be treated with medication, just like diabetes or cancer."

Dr. Joseph Parks, deputy director of psychiatry for the Missouri Department of Mental Health, added: "But a person diagnosed with diabetes who seeks treatment will ultimately die from a complication associated with the diabetes. A person who seeks treatment for mental illness will die from something else -- not the disease."

Floyd said that her employers were accepting when she told them she suffered from depression and have since worked to accommodate her needs. But that is the exception, not the rule, officials said.

"So often people believe mental illness is a result of the lack of will power or an inadequacy of personality," said Roger Henry, director of the Community Counseling Center. "For that reason, a double standard in our society exists.

"People who are crippled, diagnosed with cancer or some other disease, are treated differently than someone who admits to having a mental disease."

And insurance coverage often discriminates against those seeking treatment. If a policy cover mental illness at all, it typically will be on a limited basis.

"Right now in Missouri, schools are not required to teach students about mental illness," said Cynthia Keele, executive director for the Missouri Coalition of Alliances for the Mentally Ill. "Children are not born with prejudices."

Keele said if children are taught at an early age about mental illness and come to understand it, not only will officials be better able to discover more cases in the early stages, but some of the taboo associated with mental illness will be erased.

Often, people who suffer from mental illness ignore the symptoms or are afraid to seek help. To help erase the stigma associated with mental disease, the mental health department will begin an advertising campaign, using testimonials of those who have suffered mental disease to encourage others to seek help.

"In the last two years, after seeking treatment for my disease, I have been able to lead a normal life," said Floyd. "But I've found that the stigma sticks with you even when you get well.

Parks said most mental illness is treatable, and in many cases, curable. After taking the first round of prescription drugs, about 70-80 percent of those afflicted show signs of improvement. Others follow suit with subsequent prescription medication.

"Mental illness can affect anyone," said Henry. "Most people would not believe how many people seek treatment, so often in secret.

"They are your next door neighbors, they are the people you go to church with," he said. "A person cannot be written off because he or she has sought help. In fact, the person should be commended."