Ignorance is hardly a symptom of mental health. Quite the opposite. Mental health, like health in general, requires growth through our original ignorance and its gradual erosion into a state of mature understanding ..a state of ‘adult’ ignorance is a sign of either adolescence, or arrested development.
A competent ego is not necessarily a healthy mind.
Think about this. Eichmann would probably have received a clean bill of mental health were he to have been assessed by our medical authorities…as would Rumsfeld, Bush, Cheyney et al…unless they happened to drool or slur their elocution.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes..might be rephrased as who will diagnose the diagnosticians?We need to recontextualise our criteria by recognising the dimension of collective psychological health(or lack of).

@Damien. But that “criteria” is daily rejected by medical assessors in welfare offices who are denying people their benefits with the relevant documentation. I think Economicopoly hit the nail on the head. It is Ignorant people in the sense of their lack of understanding of how a mental illness affects a person, that are adding to the stigma of mental illness.

why don’t the journal write an artical about what our government are spraying out of our aeroplanes and what their are putting in to our drinking water..please

Wow..11 red thumbs down..and only one comment, not disagreeing,

Did I hit a professional nerve?

” MORE THAN ONE fifth of Irish people surveyed believe that people suffering from mental health problems are of below average intelligence, according to research carried out by a Dublin hospital.”

Who decided the benchmark for average intelligence ? Why do have a benchmark and if you don’t come up to that level you are assumed to have mental health issues and you get a label and stigmatisation from the state !! They really need to look at the whole issue and who decides on the diagnosis of mental health problems. None of us are perfect and im pretty sure that if we ran the checklist used by the psychiatrists on the the suspected mental health victims , we would all have a label of some description !!

Some interesting data here.
75% of respondents would not accept someone with mental health problem as a friend.
42% of respondents saw treatment as a personal failure.
Yet, 40% of respondents had a family member treated for mental health issues.
75% had a friend treated for mental health issues.
And 50% have worked with people with mental health issues.
With attitudes like this, you wouldn’t be well!

Who decides..precisely.
Could it possibly be the vested pros dissing my comment, but apparently incapable of challenging my contentions?
I’ve studied the subject academically..lotsa neurosis in there..insecurities and control freakery rifling their tomes for polysyllabic terminology to erect their careers. Mediocre intelligences setting IQ tests to suit their predilections. Very tetchy..not amenable to criticism of any sort..just like your average priesthoodlums. But then averages and norms are what they gravitate towards, and conformity to such tenacious falsifications of the complexity of psychological reality, a multi-varigated continuum inimical to their reductionist obsessive/compulsive needs for order and authority.
Big pharma is not an innocent bystander either. I better shut up before they get the special jackets out.

@Michelle…’75%..would not accept…as a friend..’.

Illustrates nicely the ‘madness’ of it all…when most people share their emotional and processing problems with the very ones they consider their closest friends.

99% of people are fully convinced they are the epitome of psychological health..and terrified of any suggestion they be associated with the stigma they attache to this area they fear to explore(and fear may be contagious).
Maybe we shouldn’t mention that phobia/phobic derives from the Greek word for fear itself, the root of most, though not all mental problems.
As a result, 99% of people do not recognise their own(or their friends) chronic mental problems as such. And a compounding irony is that most of us recognise that we live in thoroughly mad world…and preserve our semblance of sanity by cultivating a sense of humour about its blatant contradictions. It is a long noted fact that clowns and comedians are often compensating for profound sates of depression, as are many creative artists making sense of their lives through attempting to express the multiplicity of human personality through the reintegrating works they produce. I need hardly produce a list..we could start with the Great Dean himself, who’s bequest of St Patrick’s was to a people who had above average need of such a shelter(which is what asylum is).
And no better man for depicting the insanity of his surrounding society..and pointing the finger at its economic pillars rather than the destitute victims he provided the shelter for.

Strenght………..and a desire to get better. Both positive steps to overcoming depression.

Well put Tom, it’s just an illness nothing more and nothing less.
If you’re suffering and don’t know what’s wrong (this illness is sneaky) then ask your GP for help.
You will be suprised at the support you will receive.

excellent article…get the word out there and help save other people’s lives. The key is to find someone that can “listen” and talk talk talk. Religion & believe is important. Do not underestimate the power of god. God bless

Did you have go and bring God into it.?Agnostics and atheists get sick too.

I wouldn’t say stupid, rather it is ill-informed. People need to be educated on this sort of thing, and unfortunately in Ireland, mental health problems have always been swept under the carpet, so people have not been willing to talk about it – until now perhaps.

The stigma around depression is ridiculous, hence my using the term stupid. and I’m going to stand by it. I agree with the term ‘ill informed’, it is no less accurate. And I couldnt agree more, We need to be much more open as a society about depression, especially if this report is the case. Reading Tom Murphys column on boards.ie, and absolutely agree with what he has said. It has nothing to do with how smart you are, or your particular circumstance. Depression is not picky. It can affect any type of human being. And we need to do far more to raise awareness.

I agree louise. I have Depression and huge anxiety and it has changed my life completely. I am still trying to cope daily. Very difficult to say anything and usually if i have to see a doctor I end up feeling uncomfortable because if you say you are depressed (especially to men) you are not taken seriously and it is seen as a flippant comment.

And no one should ever feel uncomfortable about seeking help, Chris, that must feel awful :( I suffer also, and it was terrifying enough building up the courage to seek help. I cant comprehend how awful it must have been for you to go for the help that you need, and then to be rebuffed. I hope you found someone who was willing to listen.

When I heard an organisation with an important sounding name announcing that almost half of Irish people live in poverty because they earn less than the average I fought off the implication that I was a failure. Loose talk and speculation can confuse and perhaps cause problems though they not mean to do.

I think there is a link Ellen between our education system and mental health – the link is that our current education system itself does not do enough to promote and support good mental health in young people, and actually contributes to poor mental health. Look at p. 29 of this report – what do these young people from all backgrounds say is the biggest stressor, by a long shot, in their lives? School. Emotionally literate schools where children and young people feel cherished, supported and heard support all students to learn better. I agree there are multiple disadvantages that can make the situation worse, and unconscious prejudices (such as society sometimes having lower expectations of children from some backgrounds – a completely unfounded lack of faith), but I think we need to look at the many stresses we put on our children and adolescents as a society and how we can change this.

Report! http://www.headstrong.ie/sites/default/files/My%20World%20Survey%202012%20Online.pdf which shows us may of the mental health issues of our young people – this is where it all starts and if we listen we can make a change for them and therefore future adults.

I think it’s a wider link than mental-health education itself. I’m reminded of a line I read once that some-one said about the value of anti-drugs education in school. He/she (I can’t remember) said “All education is anti-drugs education”.
All education is mental health education. Studying novels, poetry and plays helps us develop empathy. Science helps us understand the world around us and how our bodies work. Home Ec teaches kids to budget and cook, skills thought necessary for mental health unless you can afford a chef. PE, if it’s done right, can teach that excercise can be fun. Achievement school, at whatever level is approriate can give us a respect for our brain. Knowledge breed confidence.
Of course teachers have a duty to foster their students’ emotional well-being, and the guidance teacher is often the first port of call for those in trouble. But education itself can enhance mental health above and beyond instruction in pop psychology.

not necessarily true … (median rather than mean required), – but it is true that higher intelligence is a known protective factor against certain mental illnesses – but of course there should be no confusion between mental handicap and mental illness; psychiatric conditions do occur in diverse groups of people of every level of intelligence.