NYAPRS Note: I had the pleasure of participating in a conference hosted by the MHA of Westchester on Monday, where Pat Deegan offered a keynote address. Among her inspiring remarks, she noted the continuum that the mental health system often exists on; one that swings wildly between extreme control and neglect. Often when a person is experiencing extreme states, practitioners seek to control and subdue the person until they are easy to control and pacify, often using extreme measures of restraint or medications. When that individual continues to experience extreme states, or does not want to remain in a restrained capacity, the system often swings to the side of neglect, where a passive misunderstanding leads many to back away from people when their need is greatest. Pat Deegan demonstrated how extreme states affect an individual’s perception through a simulation, which she used with Anderson Cooper on Monday night on CNN. See the clip below.
Anderson takes part in an experiment to help understand how people live with mental illness
Mental illness often makes headlines after tragedies like last week’s deadly shooting at Seattle Pacific University. A number of mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, can cause auditory hallucinations. It’s important to know that only a tiny number of people who hear voices engage in violence of any kind. Anderson took part in an experiment to help people understand how others live with mental illness experience everyday. Anderson wore headphones that simulate hearing voices while trying to do everything from puzzles to simply interacting with people in the street.
Clinical psychologist Pat Deegan designed the experiment. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager.