(Aug. 29, 2014) Like most people with serious mental illnesses, I have as a result of my illness experienced my share of prejudice and discrimination. 
I have been denied jobs, lost jobs and had acceptance to grad school rescinded because of my illness. I would probably never have landed the good job from which I am retired had it not been illegal to ask questions about past mental illness on a job application at that time. When I experienced a psychotic episode several years after landing the job, I had proven myself enough of an asset to the company that they decided to keep me on. It was the first time I had an episode without it costing me something substantial. I never advanced from that point on, but I did keep my job.
Now I am over 60 and retired, and I intend to speak out to anyone who will listen. The first thing I want to speak out about is shame.
When I looked up the incidence of serious mental illness from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), I found that more than one percent of the population is schizophrenic and more than two percent are bipolar. Most sites set the figure at four percent of the population with serious mental illnesses. That's a lot of people. Most of us would be astonished to think that four of every hundred people we meet or know are seriously mentally ill.
Like many families, my family never talked about my issues or my mother's, who was twice hospitalized because of a serious mental illness. It was as if mental illness in a family member brought shame upon the whole family. We were ashamed because we had some bad genes.
Society generally seems to believe that unlike a disease of the heart or liver, there is something shameful about a disease of the brain. True, our brain diseases sometimes cause us to behave in embarrassing ways and sometimes in dangerous ways. But I don't feel personally responsible when I do something embarrassing because of my disease. That's not me acting. It's my disease acting. This is not a cop-out or a failure to accept personal responsibility. I have done many things while psychotic that I would never have considered doing when it was me in control and not the disease in control. Should I be ashamed of those things? I don't think so. I regret many of them, but I am not ashamed,
On the day that he resigned as president of the United States, Richard Nixon told his staff that the people who hate you don't win unless they get you to hate them. When people tell us we should be ashamed, we lose when we agree.
It's easy for me to say, “Speak out! Tell everyone about the issues you deal with! Educate everyone you can!” I'm over 60 and retired.
But the gay pride movement proved that public opinion can be transformed if people speak out. It's harder for us -- it's true. Many of us don't know we have a problem. Those of us currently psychotic are unable to articulate our cause. But those of us who have learned how to manage our diseases have an obligation to speak out for all of us. Logically, mental illness is no more shameful than heart disease or cancer.
Whether or not you want to speak out, don't be ashamed.
Joseph Bowers
Author of Life Under a Cloud: The Story of a Schizophrenic
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