Too lazy to cut and paste his own article onto DU, Wee Willy Pitt seeks to correct the unwashed masses of the DUmp.
WilliamPitt (57,799 posts) http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026431649
Stigmatizing depression
It is becoming clear that the pilot who apparently deliberately crashed the Germanwings flight suffered from severe depression. Just a quick, quiet note of reminder that this must not become an excuse to stigmatize people who deal with this malady. Don't do it yourselves, and if you see/hear someone doing it, very gently correct them. Blaming "depression," thus putting all who deal with depression under suspicion, is a shortcut to thinking. Don't indulge it.
Thanks.
William Rivers Pitt | To Know the Darkness and the Light
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/25564-william-rivers-pitt-to-know-the-darkness-and-the-light
AngryAmish (22,302 posts)
6. I think be was schizophrenic. Nightmares, vision problems etc. Schizophrenics should not fly airplanes.
I wasn't aware AA was a doctor?
DeadLetterOffice (732 posts)
26. Um...Nightmares and 'vision problems' do not a diagnosis of schizophrenia make. Not even a little bit. And by the way, they're not 'schizophrenics' -- they are people diagnosed with schizophrenia. There's more to a person than their diagnostic label.
AngryAmish (22,302 posts)
28. oh shut up
WilliamPitt (57,799 posts)
14. Just an article
Written on the occasion of the death of Robin Williams.
Wee Willy was too
lazy drunk to write a new article- links to old article.
Coventina (12,232 posts)
18. As a person who has battled severe clinical depression since adolescence, I agree with you.
There have been times when I certainly should NOT have had the lives of others depending upon me.
In my case, I never had a job that put others in danger due to my illness.
Most of the time (thanks to meds and talk therapy) I manage my illness very well and I'm as safe as any healthy person, but at my lowest....I can tell you I would not want to board a plane flown by anyone in that condition.
I don't feel that it is a stigma to say that severely depressed people should have close monitoring of their condition if their illness could endanger others.
They are all batshit crazy.
WilliamPitt (57,799 posts)
20. Up
Kicking your own post that links an old article writen by you on another site? Really Will? Really?
Ghost in the Machine (13,711 posts)
41. I recognized signs of depression in myself in 2001. I was married, had kids, an excellent job making
close to $2000.00/week, my wife was pulling in about $1300.00/week and we had everything we wanted and/or needed, but nothing seemed to make me happy anymore. After about a year of this, in which time I developed a gambling habit on electronic poker machines spending $100 - $200/day sometimes. There were also times I would hit a jackpot of over 2500.00 on the first $5 I spent amd I still wasn't happy. I finally took a test for depression online and it said I had Major Clinical Depression and to get to mental health services immediately. It took me 3 more months and then the breakup of my marriage, losing my home and my job alll in the same day to make an appointment... just because I didn;t want to be "one of *those people*.
I always thought that this depression thing was just a cop-out by lazy people who didn't know how to just "suck it up and keep moving on", which was a credo that I lived by. When something bad happened, just suck it up and keep going forward, things will get better. It always worked for me... until it didn't anymore. Now I have a whole different outlook on it after experiencing it first hand. At my first appointment, the doctor started talkind about filing out paperwork to get me on disability but I told him hell no, just give me meds and I'll keep working. Iwas an ironworker, commercial roofer, certified welder, carpenter and certified for all terrain high-reach forklifts amd certified crane operator. I never had a problem finding a job. I had quit jobs before just because I didn't like the boss, or the commute, and I'd stop at other construction sites on my way home and usually had 2 or 3 jobs to choose from before I got home.
I worked until late 2003 when I was seriously injured in a construction accident that left me disabled after breaking my neck and back. When I went to see a neurosurgeon, he looked at my MRIs and told me that he "didn't know how or why I was able to walk because from the extent of my injuries I should be a quadriplegic". After 2 major neck surgeries and 12 years later. I can still walk, but I stagger and limp and people think I'm drunk lol. I'm on total, permanent disability now, and on xanax for anxiety and panic attacks. I still have dreams about falling off the roof, and some days I wake up and can't move from the neck down, but about 15 minutes later it seems like the rest of my body wakes up, then I can move. I have tethered cord syndrome at the C-4 level and if it ever breaks loose I'll drop where I stand, paralyzed from the neck down... with the possibility of dying because it could affect my automatic reflexes and I could just stop breathing and die. I just try to make the best of each day now, and still suck it up and keep trying to go forward.
I'm also suffering from depression again, but I can't take anti-depressants. They have tried me on 5 different kinds, and when I was on them was the *ONLY TIME* I ever had thoughts of suicide. I always tell people that "after everything I've been through in my life, the only reason I haven't killed myself yet is because I want to hang out and see what the **** is going to happen next! I have a one way ticket on this ride called life and so far it's been a white-knuckle ride with lots of twists and turns and loop de loops, but I have no plans on jumping off early, I'm gonna ride this sumbitch out to the very end"!
Peace,
Ghost
MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME
