Deconstructing Stigma

Deconstructing Stigma

Changing Attitudes About Mental Health

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The Campaign

Deconstructing Stigma: Changing Attitudes About Mental Health is a series of larger-than-life photographs and interviews with people from across the United States and beyond who have been affected by mental illness.

Since the campaign’s initial physical installation at Boston’s Logan International Airport, it has found homes in various US states, and has traveled the world with pop-up installations across the United States and in almost every inhabited continent. The installations, website, and the companion books serve to capture the complexity of living with a psychiatric disorder, seeking treatment, navigating insurance and healthcare systems, and facing stigma.

Told through the eyes of its participants, Deconstructing Stigma boldly challenges the misconceptions of what those with mental illness look like. The volunteers in this project are more than just statistics or nameless faces. They are mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, lawyers, doctors, engineers, musicians, and more. Each one has been affected by mental illness, and each one has also faced stigma.

Travelers look at airport exhibit — The physical installation of Deconstructing Stigma, on view now at Boston’s Logan Airport

Stigma—it’s an ugly word, and it’s even uglier to experience. Yet 75% of people with mental illness say they have endured the pain of stigma. Despite the concerns of being labeled and risking further stigma, the volunteers in this project are courageously sharing their stories of hope and resilience so that you will have an opportunity to “walk in their shoes” and perhaps step away with a different view of what it is like to have a mental illness.

1 in 5 Americans will experience mental illness in his or her lifetime. It is something that affects us all. If you are struggling with symptoms of an illness, or if you feel like no one would understand what you’re experiencing, this campaign is for you. You are not alone.

This project was developed by McLean Hospital, in partnership with local and national organizations. Together, we are deconstructing stigma, and together, we are changing lives.

Bob

I am not going to not recover

Bob had a normal childhood with a loving family and access to good schools. But as a graduate student, his life took a devastating turn after his first psychotic break.

I was renting an apartment with another student. There was a regular 40-watt bulb in a closet, and shafts of light showed through to the bed where I was sitting. All of a sudden, I realized that it was the light of God and that God was sending me telepathic messages!

The bizarre messages told Bob that a nuclear holocaust was happening in his city. He was compelled to alert the chancellor of his university, so he hopped in his car and drove into the night. He arrived at a four-way stop and believed a car he came upon would lead him to the chancellor’s home. He followed the car until it drove up to a large building with a portico.

I ran into the building, and there was a woman at the desk. I insisted I needed to see the chancellor. She smiled and took me to a treatment room.

Bob had unknowingly driven himself to the local emergency department. He was admitted to the hospital’s psychiatric unit. After 10 days, he was only told of a diagnosis of an adjustment disorder but was prescribed an antipsychotic. His treatment team seemed to mostly be interested in helping him return to classes.

But I couldn’t do it. My mind was numb from the psychosis and medication. I had to resign from graduate school.

In the years that followed, Bob tried to find work while managing severe episodes of depression and a near-constant but mild psychosis.

At one point, when the depression had temporarily abated, he took a job as an admissions officer at a leading university. But he struggled in that position and, over the years, was demoted to computer specialist and eventually to groundskeeper.

Because of my diagnosis, the IT managers thought that I was going to do something diabolical with the computer, which of course, was completely false. It was stigma.

Bob remains grateful that his family supported him through many mental health crises over the years. One day at his parents’ home, he came up with the mantra, “I’m not going to not recover.” He didn’t know how; he just had confidence that everything would turn out right.

After being fired from many jobs, he still wanted to work, so he started his own business.

He was drawn to horses; they were therapeutic. For a few years, he closely guarded a delusion to “save” the U.S. Equestrian Team (USET). By strange chance, he became involved with the USET, traveling around the United States and promoting their merchandise on the East and West Coast horse circuits.

But the USET business failed, and he found himself alone in a small apartment. After three subsequent and severe episodes of psychosis, Bob finally met with a psychiatrist who diagnosed him with both a mood and psychotic disorder.

The updated diagnosis, as well as prescriptions for both mood stabilizing and antipsychotic medications, created a remarkable turnaround.

Those medications straightened me out. I no longer had psychosis, and I was no longer acting on these delusions. It just changed my life completely.

Now with reasonable and realistic goals, when Bob reached midlife, he found stable work as a photojournalist and reporter for news publications. He also joined the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

NAMI is very good if you want to work through stigma issues. It was the first time I had been in a situation where people applauded me when hearing about my mental health condition and my struggle for recovery.

NAMI allowed Bob to speak at conferences and other venues. His affiliation with the organization led to his position as a researcher at a center for psychiatric rehabilitation—his first full-time job since his mental health struggles began at age 23.

At about the same time, Bob founded a nonprofit whose mission is to support people with lived experience of mental health disorders in pursuing the arts.

Now retired, Bob still serves as editor of an award-winning literary journal. He continues to take medication and see a therapist regularly, and he has many friends who provide support. Bob wants others who experience mental health challenges to remain hopeful.

You may not see an end to your problems right away, but you never know what’s going to come around the bend!