Sunday’s New York Times had an article about “Mad Pride”: More people with “severe forms of mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder” are now speaking out about “their demons”:

About 5.7 million Americans over 18 have bipolar disorder, which is classified as a mood disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Another 2.4 million have schizophrenia, which is considered a thought disorder. The small slice of this disparate population who have chosen to share their experiences with the public liken their efforts to those of the gay-rights and similar movements of a generation ago.

Just as gay-rights activists reclaimed the word queer as a badge of honor rather than a slur, these advocates proudly call themselves mad; they say their conditions do not preclude them from productive lives.

One of the persons interviewed for the article is a law professor and associate dean at the University of Southern California, Elyn Saks, who has schizophrenia; she did not reveal her diagnosis until after she had received tenure.

Autism as I understand it, as I know it from my son Charlie, and as I write about it here, is not a mental illness. It’s a neurological disorder. Nonetheless, there’s been a side-discussion going on about autism, trauma, and neurosis in an older post I did on Floortime therapy, in which autism is referred to as psychological and even psychogenic. If there’s one theory about autism causation that today’s parents universally reject, it is that they themselves “caused” a child to become autistic due to the parents being emotionally withdrawn, as stated in the infamous “refrigerator mother theory.”

One could argue that some of the past and present stigma cast upon autistic individuals is in part because of misconceptions not only of autism, but of mental illness. More about “Mad Pride” in the New York Times:

Members of the mad pride movement do not always agree on their aims and intentions. For some, the objective is to continue the destigmatization of mental illness. A vocal, controversial wing rejects the need to treat mental afflictions with psychotropic drugs and seeks alternatives to the shifting, often inconsistent care offered by the medical establishment. Many members of the movement say they are publicly discussing their own struggles to help those with similar conditions and to inform the general public.

“It used to be you were labeled with your diagnosis and that was it; you were marginalized,” said Molly Sprengelmeyer, an organizer for the Asheville Radical Mental Health Collective, a mad pride group in North Carolina. “If people found out, it was a death sentence, professionally and socially.”

She added, “We are hoping to change all that by talking.”

The confessional mood encouraged by memoirs and blogs, as well as the self-help advocacy movement in mental health, have deepened the understanding of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

It’s the stigma attached to mental illness that rings true. There’s been more than a few people whom we’ve heard say things like “he’s nuts!” or “what’s wrong with that kid?” about Charlie. Certainly we strive to teach Charlie that home and the car are the safe places to do some things, but I also know that some seemingly “odd behaviors” that Charlie might do (like the curious and loud barking sound he’s been making of late) are how he communicates how he feels about being in some public situations. We try to teach him to talk and not be quite that loud, and we also hope seeing Charlie out and about might teach people that autism, too, is not a “death sentence.”

And as far as pride—I can never say enough about how proud I am of Charlie.

(But you probably already know that.)

“In psychology, I’m starting to get the weary feeling that everything gives you mental illness,” quips Williams Saletan in the May 7th Slate on Human Nature. Saletan references the recent study which found that parents who have psychiatric disorders are doubly at risk to have an autistic child (while also citing another study according to which “adoption can double a child’s risk of disruptive behavior disorder“). Have to say, I’m starting to feel that everything can give a person autism.

What hasn’t been cited as a cause of autism?

The risk of having an autistic child is doubled if a parent has schizophrenia or if a mother has psychiatric problems (depression, personality disorders), according to a study published in Pediatrics. From Reuters via WNED.org:

The study of families in Sweden with children born between 1977 and 2003 involved 1,227 children diagnosed with autism. They were compared with families of nearly 31,000 children who did not have autism. Sweden’s detailed health registry provides a wealth of data for such studies.
…..
The association between a child’s autism and mental illness in the parent was strongest with schizophrenia, and was less powerful when the mother suffered from depression or personality disorders. There was little association between autism and parental addiction to alcohol or drugs or some other types of mental illness.

It was not clear if it was significant that having a mother, but not a father, with certain mental illnesses, raised the risk of autism.

Interesting—once autism was called childhood schizophrenia.

There’s a list of 23 unidentified modern eccentrics over on Gawker today. From the descriptions, some of those mentioned are homeless, one is a paraplegic, and more than a few have possible diagnoses; whether those who need it are getting any treatment or even care is not at all clear. The list is part of a “research project” to determine New York’s greatest modern eccentrics. Certainly I’m used to walking around New York with my own son offering some occasional eccentric behavior but I don’t think that “freakshow is the best, or an at all appropriate, word to use about anyone, and especially those who really may need some help and understanding.