DISCUSSION TRIGGER 5: How do stigmas surrounding mental illness affect us?

SCRI

PT

Lizzie ...And I thought I had some terrible thing Like diabetes or cancer or glandular fever. And I went to the

doctor. I was so scared I had to lie down I thought I’d pass out just to tell

him. And he said he said it was my brain doing that That it was stress and panic and anxiety doing that to me. And for you that probably sounds like the news would have been

a relief… But for me it wasn’t Not a relief for me at all. And he said would you like to see a counsellor? I could prescribe you Cognitive Behavioural Therapy And I said ‘I’m not doing therapy, I’m not’ And he said: It’s not the kind of therapy where you lie on a

couch and talk about your dreams And I said I don’t believe that therapy works And he said I don’t want to give you anti-depressants until you’ve tried

therapy And I said I’m never taking anti-depressants, I’ll never do that. And then he asked me if there was any history of mental illness

in my family… And I said…I said no. And he looked at my notes. And he wrote something in there –

he wrote something – and I said – what are you writing in there? And then he asked me if I ever felt suicidal. At that moment I got up and ran out of the surgery. Sorry… I’m… I’m coming on again

COM

MEN

T Lizzie recounts the moment in which she was diagnosed as being mentally ill. She has great difficulty in coming to terms with the diagnosis, partly due to her fears of being 'like her mother', and also due to the stigmas attached to mental illness. She refuses treatment believing 'therapy doesn't work' again highlighting her failure to accept mental illness in the way that she would a physical one. Lizzie's desire to cover up her illness, which seems to have been triggered by her mother's death, is demonstrated in Simon's lies about her absence from school, '[I said] that you got glandular fever. That’s why you had to drop out the year'. It is also mirrored in Richard's cover up of his wife's death.

ISSU

ES/P

ROM

PTS • How do stigmas surrounding mental illness affect the way we thing

about treatment? • Do these stigmas compound the need for tight security on medical

records? Would privacy fears be allayed if there were no stigmas attached to mental illnesses?

• Does the stigmatisation of mental illness potentially damage medical research by causing people to opt-out of being included in trials and studies?

• Think about how mental illness appears in the play. Does Breathing Country help in any way to dispel stereotypes and stigmas?