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A recent article, Teen who jumped to death from Vessel was laughing with sister before leap, guard says (link), discussed a public restaurant that has become a "suicide magnet." Teachers, medical professionals, clergy or just about any helper other than a 14 year old peer is a "mandated reporter" who has no choice but to take draconian and often counterproductive restrictive measures.
This horrible tragedy brought to mind a serious dilemma that many people experiencing depression, momentary or regularly finds themselves. A little personal disclosure because a long time ago I was there for an interval.
During academic year 1976-7 I was a sophomore at an Ivy League school with deep, scenic gorges. The combination of an undiagnosed dust allergy and the cough medicine (Codeine and Tylenol) I used to combat the allergy caused me some rather severe depression, albeit for a few months. Accentuating this was difficulties in completing my foreign language requirements. One night, in early April, I basically "had enough" and started walking back and forth over one of the bridges over one of the gorges. Before I made any attempt to take a leap, I was stopped and questioned by campus police. My first mistake was saying anything about being despondent.
I was held overnight in the campus infirmary. I was evaluated by a psychiatrist engaged by the infirmary, one "Dr. Bull" (his actual name, no joke). I told him I felt better and wanted to finish some homework. He said I didn't get "the big picture", whatever that was.
The next day I was picked up by my mother and stepfather. Both were needed because I had a car on campus. Fortunately, and this is one thing I give my mother a lot of credit for, she took me to a family friend who happened to be a psychologist. He evaluated me and penned me a note that enabled me to return to finish my classes for the semester. I returned the following fall, graduating on schedule.
Mentioning that you are in severe personal distress is most counterproductive. People are not there to help. They are there for a bureaucratic, not personal solution. Now that teen on the Vessel; he probably knew the score, and that if he told anyone how he was feeling he'd be living in a world of hurt, not of therapy and help. Psychologists and psychiatrists are mandated reporters. If someone says they are thinking of suicide in a private session they may have to call 911 or a reporting agency, even if they are well capable of handling or treating the problem. I think the evaporation of confidentiality, which did not officially exist in 1977, is just horrendous.
In case there is some confusion about the issue at hand, I think that therapists and clergy should rarely be under compulsion to betray a confidence. A person in distress should be able to confide in helpers without fear of what amounts to arrest.
Things were a lot different in the 1960s and 1970s, in the age of lobotomies and institutionalization. Mental health was not nearly as understood or appreciated. I'm not sure that in today's hyper-woke world that what happened to you would happen now. However, I would agree that there is still quite a bit of stigma attached to mental health issues. While I am part of a younger generation, and we more freely discuss these issues amongst ourselves, that's not to say that such problems will be well received in the public domain beyond our safe spaces. Part of the issue is that with so much media coverage of mass shootings and public unrest, a lot of these atrocities have been attached to mental health ailments. Obviously this does not bode well for others who are not homicidal and who need help pulling themselves out of their negative headspace. It still seems like a subject you need to hold close to your chest in hopes that you don't get targeted as an elevated risk factor for committing crimes against humanity. But I do think there are a lot bette resources out there for people struggling with mental health.
Things were a lot different in the 1960s and 1970s, in the age of lobotomies and institutionalization. Mental health was not nearly as understood or appreciated. I'm not sure that in today's hyper-woke world that what happened to you would happen now. However, I would agree that there is still quite a bit of stigma attached to mental health issues. While I am part of a younger generation, and we more freely discuss these issues amongst ourselves, that's not to say that such problems will be well received in the public domain beyond our safe spaces. Part of the issue is that with so much media coverage of mass shootings and public unrest, a lot of these atrocities have been attached to mental health ailments. Obviously this does not bode well for others who are not homicidal and who need help pulling themselves out of their negative headspace. It still seems like a subject you need to hold close to your chest in hopes that you don't get targeted as an elevated risk factor for committing crimes against humanity. But I do think there are a lot bette resources out there for people struggling with mental health.
Stigma wasn't really the problem, at least for me. I'm not afraid to discuss something with someone or tell them it's none of their business. The problem was the knee-jerk to conduct what amounted to an arrest, and being handcuffed to the bed at the infirmary. Basically when I asked about arrangements to complete a course assignment Dr. Bull said that was "very strange." At that point I thought of it as having been a bad evening when I felt down and out. From the university's perspective it was anything but routine.
The only thing missing from treatment as a criminal was not being read my Miranda rights. Please note, everyone, I did graduate quite successfully two years and one month later, the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend 1979 if my memory serves. There was no reason for some very rough handling.
It seems like you're judging mental health treatment on the experiences you had with it over 40 years ago. Much has changed since then, and you might not be truly seeing how your behavior was presenting to law enforcement and psychiatric professionals at the time, and why they made the choices they did with the information they had.
It seems like you're judging mental health treatment on the experiences you had with it over 40 years ago. Much has changed since then, and you might not be truly seeing how your behavior was presenting to law enforcement and psychiatric professionals at the time, and why they made the choices they did with the information they had.
My views might be a bit jaundiced. Dr. Bull was the psychiatric equivalent of the dentist in the movie Marathon Man. I was going to say Dr. Mengele but that would be taking it a bit far.
Stigma wasn't really the problem, at least for me. I'm not afraid to discuss something with someone or tell them it's none of their business. The problem was the knee-jerk to conduct what amounted to an arrest, and being handcuffed to the bed at the infirmary. Basically when I asked about arrangements to complete a course assignment Dr. Bull said that was "very strange." At that point I thought of it as having been a bad evening when I felt down and out. From the university's perspective it was anything but routine.
The only thing missing from treatment as a criminal was not being read my Miranda rights. Please note, everyone, I did graduate quite successfully two years and one month later, the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend 1979 if my memory serves. There was no reason for some very rough handling.
I still stand by my comment that I don't think the situation would have been handled the same today, unless you were doing something to effectively disturb the peace and resisting communicating with the peace officer in the process.
I still stand by my comment that I don't think the situation would have been handled the same today, unless you were doing something to effectively disturb the peace and resisting communicating with the peace officer in the process.
You may well be right. I don't want to experiment.
A recent article, Teen who jumped to death from Vessel was laughing with sister before leap, guard says (link), discussed a public restaurant that has become a "suicide magnet." Teachers, medical professionals, clergy or just about any helper other than a 14 year old peer is a "mandated reporter" who has no choice but to take draconian and often counterproductive restrictive measures.
This horrible tragedy brought to mind a serious dilemma that many people experiencing depression, momentary or regularly finds themselves. A little personal disclosure because a long time ago I was there for an interval.
During academic year 1976-7 I was a sophomore at an Ivy League school with deep, scenic gorges. The combination of an undiagnosed dust allergy and the cough medicine (Codeine and Tylenol) I used to combat the allergy caused me some rather severe depression, albeit for a few months. Accentuating this was difficulties in completing my foreign language requirements. One night, in early April, I basically "had enough" and started walking back and forth over one of the bridges over one of the gorges. Before I made any attempt to take a leap, I was stopped and questioned by campus police. My first mistake was saying anything about being despondent.
I was held overnight in the campus infirmary. I was evaluated by a psychiatrist engaged by the infirmary, one "Dr. Bull" (his actual name, no joke). I told him I felt better and wanted to finish some homework. He said I didn't get "the big picture", whatever that was.
The next day I was picked up by my mother and stepfather. Both were needed because I had a car on campus. Fortunately, and this is one thing I give my mother a lot of credit for, she took me to a family friend who happened to be a psychologist. He evaluated me and penned me a note that enabled me to return to finish my classes for the semester. I returned the following fall, graduating on schedule.
Mentioning that you are in severe personal distress is most counterproductive. People are not there to help. They are there for a bureaucratic, not personal solution. Now that teen on the Vessel; he probably knew the score, and that if he told anyone how he was feeling he'd be living in a world of hurt, not of therapy and help. Psychologists and psychiatrists are mandated reporters. If someone says they are thinking of suicide in a private session they may have to call 911 or a reporting agency, even if they are well capable of handling or treating the problem. I think the evaporation of confidentiality, which did not officially exist in 1977, is just horrendous.
I know which college you're talking about and the gorges are still an issue today. Seems like at least once a semester a student commits suicide on one of the gorges sadly.
When I was a teenager my mother insisted I was suicidal. I still have no idea why she thought that. She brought mw to a hospital where I had to speak to a psychologist. I told him what I thought he wanted to hear. I wasn't going to hurt myself. After 15 minutes I was released and sent on my merry way. Now this was decades ago, but people can say something that they don't mean or say things they think another person wants to hear. Locking me up would have done nothing. Now locking someone up who is in distress could actually make things worse for them. They may develop trust issues....if you can't talk to your therapist confidentially who can you talk to?
Now locking someone up who is in distress could actually make things worse for them. They may develop trust issues....if you can't talk to your therapist confidentially who can you talk to?
Exactly my point and this aspect has not changed much since 1977. Mandating people to report confidential information may sound like it's a good idea; frankly it's terrible.
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