Out of your mind

Mental illness continues to be one of those things that it just is not polite to talk about.

Consider this extreme experience that the sister of Lata - one of our JSK staff - is going through. "Vishranti" (as we will call her) got married a few years ago, and soon found out to her horror that the man she had been married off to already had a wife and family.

Vishranti tried to stick it out (not having any option since her widowed mother and angry brother did not want her back) - but just couldn't handle the beatings that she got and slipped into a deep depression.

That set up the background for progressively worse behaviour all around - with Vishranti being physically attacked by the villagers of her mother's village who pounded her on her head, causing severe bleeding - since they did not want 'a mad-woman' living with them. The villagers had repeatedly called the police 'to take her away.' As village policemen are wont to do - they came around to the hut, threatening, seeking hinting bribes from Lata's illiterate mother who was sheltering Vishranti, but eventually not 'taking her away.' Village 'justice' then stepped in as the mob caught Vishranti and beat her mercilessly.

Lata's mother took Vishranti to a local psychiatric hospital. Vishranti was put under heavy sedation and given deep shocks.

One afternoon - overcome with sorrow - Vishranti's mother started to tell the treating Doctor about the suffering that her daughter had gone through.

The doctor listened briefly then took his notebook, and hit the mother in the face! Hard! He picked it up again and hit her again. And again. Using his notebook as a weapon. The old woman dissolved in tears and ran outside.

So much for a compassionate medical care in the mental health field. The man sounds like he needs institutionalising himself, rather than providing mental health care to others. When we asked Lata why the doctor did this, she said that he told her mother that she was not supposed to be talking about the patient in the presence of the patient. Surely there are other ways of expressing this point?

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We are in the process of arranging for Lata to accompany her mother and sister for a full evaluation and therapy at the Christian Medical College, Vellore. It is pitiful to have to send this broken little family half-way across India to get compassionate Chrstian care for mental illness - esp. since we have 16 million odd people in the greater Mumbai area.

I am so grateful for Dr. Marjorie Foyle who was able to diagnose my mother with bi-polar disorder (called manic-depression at that time) in the early 1980s. I remember Dad taking Mum up to Lucknow for 2 weeks when I was in grade school - not knowing why at the time - but later learning she had gone to Noor Manzil. Since then Mum has been on a maintance therapy based on lithium which has been a tremendous boon to us as a family. In exchange for her daily adherence to the meds, I was given the benefit of a stable mother who was there for us and poured herself into us - and many others. Though the journey has not been easy for her, Mum has been able to help many others who have struggled with depression - having known 'from the inside' what it is like. We are very proud of our courageous and giving Mum!

There are no easy answers in mental illness. But there are answers - especially if we take them together. In the past 2 weeks we have suggested 2 other people with long-term seemingly intractable situations explore therapy with the kind doctors of CMCH Vellore. It is not by accident that we have stumbled across this small node of people needing help. And it is a great honour to be part of the healing process. We know that true healing will not just come from taking a pill. We know that we need to include family, prayer, positive steps forward... But we are also very grateful for the various medications that have and continue to be important portions of the healing process.

In the mean-time there remain a vast number of people who continue to suffer the shame of mental illness. This hidden epidemic remains largely out of sight - and out of mind.