Tuesday 21st October: South London
Rebecca's story: What happens when people learn you鈥檝e self-harmed
Rebecca shares her experience of self-harm and the shocking reactions to her illness.
There has been a lot of coverage recently about the stigma attached to mental health problems but when the Free Speech team spoke to Rebecca we were shocked. 鈥楽tigma鈥� didn鈥檛 quite seem to cover it.
Our society and culture is often hostile to mental health. Films, media and popular culture are full of preconceptions and prejudice when it comes to 鈥榤adness鈥�. We equate mental health with 鈥榤urderous psychopath鈥�.
This is why Free Speech decided to make this programme.
We are recording the show in a mental health hospital in London and have invited an audience made up solely of those with a personal experience of a mental health issue. As the write on their website; "Research shows that the best way to challenge these stereotypes is through first hand contact with people with experience of mental health problems." We hope to provide those watching the chance to have some 'first hand contact' and have a frank and open discussion about what it鈥檚 like to live with a mental health problem.
Self-harm
Rebecca鈥檚 story of prejudice is about the reaction of people to her self-harming, though self-harming is not in fact a mental illness. As the explains; 鈥淚t is a way of coping with or expressing overwhelming emotional distress鈥�, usually caused by something else 鈥� in Rebecca鈥檚 case, depression.
The issue of self-harm is really important but it鈥檚 also a difficult area. On the one hand, it鈥檚 a big story for our generation and important to talk about. As reported by the NHS website, a survey of people aged 15-16 years carried out in the UK in 2002 estimated that more than 10% of girls and more than 3% of boys had self-harmed in the previous year.
However, the media tends to glamorise the issue 鈥� focusing on the details, pictures of scars and descriptions used. We haven鈥檛 done this in Rebecca's film. Partly the reason for this is we want to avoid 鈥榯riggering鈥� those who are trying to recover; just as describing a heroin hit might distress a drug addict trying to recover, explicit description can be unhelpful. However, the main reason is we wanted to focus on the hostile reaction of the teachers, school friends and others that Rebecca encountered 鈥� rather than on unnecessary details.
Is it okay to like my mental health issue?
A number of celebrities have spoken recently about liking their mental health problem or illness. In 2006, Stephen Fry, who has struggled with bipolar disorder, said; 鈥淚 love my condition鈥� I get a huge buzz out of the manic side. I rely on it to give my life a sense of adventure and I think most of the good about me has developed as a result of my mood swings鈥�. Earlier this year, actor Robert Pattinson said; 鈥淚 kind of like my anxiety in a funny sort of way and I like my peaks and troughs鈥�.
On the other hand with prejudice in the work place, bullying and the gruelling experience of some conditions such as depression, are positive feelings like this only possible if you鈥檙e a rich celebrity?
This is one of the things we鈥檒l discuss on Tuesday 21st October.
Remember you can tweet us or comment on our . Social media presenter Tina Daheley will try and get your comments heard in the debate.
On the panel is Tony Blair鈥檚 fomer Director of Communications, Alastair Campbell; Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, who has spoken about her experience with post-natal depression and is the chair of the Health Select Committee; journalist Jon Ronson, author of The Psychopath Test; and Zoe Hardman, a TV and radio presenter who has been open about her former battle with an eating disorder.
