Scorsese offers a correct portrayl, I think.
OCD is clearly a brain illness, but is not the thing upon which those with OCD fixate a product of their upbringing and environment?

I don't know. I have strong misgivings about the parental responsibility theory, though I am sure it is an element in the shaping of humans, no doubt. I came out of a family history of mental illness, and survived the bad parenting of both a mother and father-, the mother especially being a total incompetent and self-preoccupied git, with some obsession about boys playing with their dinkies, and save for certain starved poetic and musical instincts-, but at least not given to violence like the old man. Yet in themselves, they were both reasonably decent, well meaning people-, just fucked up.

The unfortunate aspect of this entire issue, though I think "failed" fathers actually take a bigger hit, very often, undeservedly over "failed" mothers, based again on my personal experience of having passed through many families, a kind of cycle does get set up that tends to repeat itself, which the strength of certain individuals can and do break. (My experience is that "mothering" tends not to come a great deal more naturally to women, than "fathering" does to men. It is one of those myths. It is probably a learned behavioural skill, as much for mothers as fathers, for which a natural propensity in some is also a bonus. (To which it would be better if all child rearing were left, be it however unlikely.) Indeed, contrary to much gender mythology, even excluding abortion, a child is still more likely to be harmed or killed by its mother than its father, from some stats reported, I believe, if my memory serves, in the Globe and Mail, ohhh, a few years ago now.)

Whatever it is that goes on in dysfunctional family units however, no doubt inadequate parenting is an element that tends to be a cyclical influence, but no more so than rooted familial mental illness, or societal/ institutional dysfunction. Save, given a societal status quo's desire to absolve itself of a share of the responsibility, and pass on the blame to more lowly individuals, for which capitalism has a marked propensity, the bottom of the blame pile towards which all blame tends to flow, is parenting, no doubt, male and female. The reality is more complex-, again from the experience of a long life more than the testing of lab rats.

Excellent, Susan Inman. This is the kind of crap that Hollywood always does. I think Scorsese is smart enough to know that OCD is a brain disorder and not dependent upon a mother's skill or intentions. I also bet he doesn't care, as long as his stupid movie sells tickets. What's new? Hollywood portrayed blacks as idiots and Indians as savages for fifty years. The last Hollywood movie I saw in a theatre was Blazing Saddles. At least it was funny.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't The Aviator a period piece? Portraying life the way it was when Hughes was living it? If so, then it's entirely acceptable to portray his illness in the way it would've been perceived at that time. A movie set in more modern times should handle OCD and other mental illness entirely differently, and from what I've seen, they usually do.Could you imagine filming The Crucible today and including modern scientific explanations for all of the "witchcraft?" Hollywood is a place for storytellers, the origins of Cinema being to distract us from reality - why do we continuously demand they also take on the role of teacher, parent, babysitter?

Jennifer, an interesting comment. Producers, writers and directors are indeed storytellers, as you write, but they are free to take any point of view they wish. Also, as you say, the cinema may be a place for distraction, but this is not cast in stone. Many filmakers have tried to educate and enlighten about the past. Certainly, a film such as Dances With Wolves tried to show a respect for American Indians which wasn't common in the time it portrayed. A producer of Scorsese's stature could have made a film about Hughes' mental illness in a way that would have taken modern brain research into account--if he had chosen to. Arthur Miller was very interested in betrayal when he wrote the Crucible. In fact, it was so contemporary, that it was actually as much about his own personal sense of failure and betrayal as it was about killing suspected witches in Salem. The best art is probably about enlightening--not pandering. Hollywood tends to pander--which is Susan Inman's well-made point.

There's plenty of research that shows that mothers (and fathers) who hit and scream at their children can give them anxiety disorders, which often can lead to OCD and other mental illnesses. Susan Inman seems to be an apologist for the feminist community, or at least the segment of it, that doesn't want to point a finger at abusive mothers. I pity the sons, and especially the daughters, who suffer as a result of post-feminist parenting in 2005. Yikes!

Susan Inman has done an excellent job of spotting the weakness in this otherwise fascinating portrayl of OCD. Parenting may affect but clearly does not cause OCD. Jennifer, I believe you are confusing the issue of accurately depicting an illness as it would manifest itself in a particular time with the point of view Scorsese has chosen to take. In other words, Scorsese could have made an historically accurate film without "blaming the mother." That may have been what was believed at that time but what he showed us was what he wanted us to believe. He could have remained neutral on the "cause" and simply depicted the illness accurately or he could have had a character in the film putting forth that point of view and that would have been historically accurate but he was using his camera for emphasis and to tell us what he thought. And shame on you Truman; surely you can debate an argument put forth by an intelligent person who happens to be female without sinking to name calling. Or maybe you can't.

The comination of parents their children and alcohol leads to many difficult family problems. Why don't we raise the drinking age to 21 to help support the frustrated parents...Thank you

Hey, my mom was an inappropriate-touching hypochondriac too. Does this mean I'm NOT going to be rich?

As the mother of an autistic child, a few short years ago the theory of the day would have blamed me for being a refridgerator mother.The anguish which we parents of mentally ill,neurologically compramised children suffer is enough without constantly being hit with dangerous distorted views of mental illness this film being another example.Can a film not be brilliant without sucumbing to family or mother bashing to make it more 'interesting'
The additional pain may not seem significant to most of the individuals who responded to Susan Inman's powerful critique but think about being constantly blamed for the suffering in your child's life which you spend much of your life trying to alieviate.
Calling this a feminist plot or talking about unfit mothers is shocking in this context and makes me shudder with dispair.We have other battles to win ,long before truth is depicted in Hollywood films

It's funny; life goes in cycles. My grandma had an arranged marriage to a man at least a decade older than her. She never wanted kids- she told me (when I met her when I was 15) that she was "glad" my grandfather had died prematurely; leaving her a widow with a nine yr old (my mum) and a ten yr old (my aunt) at the age of 34!! (She was less than glad about that, though). My mother was devastated by the loss of her father, who she was very close to, and I don't think she ever got over it. These were the days before child grief counselling... she also lived through the onslaught of the blitz on Malta in WWII and I believe a lot of this affected her (bouts of depression) in later life. To my brother and I, she was a perfect, if too doting, mother who put us before anything else. She said she never wanted to be like her own mother, whom she never got along with.

Now I am my grandma all over again. Super headstrong and not desirous of children or marriage; not now anyway. I agree with 'Another Mother' above; Observer- my grandma was a young woman before feminism took shape; yet she was a feminist. She didn't have choices, though- she was verbally abusive (and physically I believe) toward my mother. But is she to be blamed completely? Was the society she lived in partly to blame for forcing her to be a 'mother'- as Coyote pointed out, not something she was ever cut out to be just because she was a woman. At least in post-feminist times women who become mothers do so by choice.

So, Hughes was autistic, or whatever. It's no reflection on anyone else and we shouldn't take offense. The point of the movie was, he was a genius (savant) who was screwed over by the powers that be.

My apologies, Truman, for mistakenly attributing the above "name calling" comments to you rather than to "The Observer" (see: 2/24/2005 7:41:07 PM)I agree with most of your points.

Thanks for that LG. I hate to admit how much that was bugging me, but I guess I just did.

With all due respect to parents of children with mental illnesses, I really don't think one should attempt to divorce biology from psychology completely. It's true that some mental problems are completely biological and have nothing to do with any external forces acting on the individual. It's also true that some psychological problems have everything to do with abuse or maltreatment by others. But most mental illnesses are both biological AND psychological in nature. For example, while Hughes was probably biologically predisposed to develop OCD, it probably made it worse that his mother engaged in such inappropriate behavior with her son. Trying to blame everything on only biology or only other people is a mistake in my opinion. There are plenty of factors, both internal and external, that lead to the many issues that we all deal with.

It must be terrible enough to be the generally loving parent of a mentally ill child, and then, presumed to aggravate the condition through misjudgments, oversights, fears, personality flaws, moments of negligence, periods of short patience, whatever. I get what the author of this article is saying; blame just doesn't help.

D's comments raise many important issues. D. writes with a tone of authority but chooses not to reveal the basis for that authority. I agree that biology should not be completely divorced from psychology; living with biological difficulties of the brain has tremendous psychological impact both for the people with the disorders and for those who love and care for them. Of course abusive parenting severely damages children; it just doesn't cause serious mental illnesses and is an inappropriate way to begin to understand the nature of these disorders.
D. is unclear about which mental illnesses she or he is writng about in saying that "some" are completely biological but that "most" are not. Perhaps D can be more specific and also provide well-accepted, current references. I assume that D acknowledges that developmental disabilities are brain based although in the past this belief was not always the case. Inadequate parenting was assumed to be their cause and devoted parents could feel falsely assured that their new infants would develop normally. What about autism spectral disorders? The latest Newsweek profiles the growing epidemic of these disorders (currently 1 in 144) and, like "Another Mother" above, understands these disorders to be neurological in origin not, as was assumed for most of the 20th century, the result of poor parenting. Does D mean schizophrenia or bipolar disorder? Again, if D acquired most of his/her assumptions from older literature, it will be enlightening to read the current research as well as accounts of people with these disorders now that medications have helped many of these unlucky people lead more normal lives and discuss their experiences. If D is only referring to OCD and genuinely seeks to understand this disorder, then I urge her or him to do further reading; the sources I mention are good places to start.
Another place to start to understand more about the experiences of people with serious mental illnesses is to explore our community more fully. "Consumers" (as many have chosen to call themselves) of mental health services are all around us and eager to receive greater social understanding and support. The growing amount and acceptance of brain based research means that parents who helplessly watched their children's development be shattered by renegade neurotransmitters are beginning to be willing to emerge from the shameful position that society placed them in and speak out about their experiences. Often they do this to improve the quality of the health, educational and vocational services their children receive, reduce unjust stigma and make the journey easier for the many unknowing parents, who like me, will find themselves suddenly having to learn alot about the brain disorders they'd assumed they understood. Hopefully, these parents will be more knowledgeably served by the artistic community than have been those who came before them.

Check the Guardian website for a fascinating story about an autistic savant whose communication skills may help us understand this disorder, and possibly even expand our "normal" mental abilities... "A genius explains..."

"Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He can perform mind-boggling mathematical calculations at breakneck speeds. But unlike other savants, who can perform similar feats, Tammet can describe how he does it. He speaks seven languages and is even devising his own language. Now scientists are asking whether his exceptional abilities are the key to unlock the secrets of autism."

Interview by Richard Johnson
Saturday February 12, 2005
The Guardian

Susan Inman seems to have informed herself very well on the topic of serious mental illnesses, and it is a topic that is of course critically important to her because she is the mother of a child with a serious mental illness. She does not claim to be a mental health professional, and the following remarks are made in the same spirit. I am not a professional working in the mental health field, though I do have some knowledge in the area of health research and recent developments in understanding the causes of mental disorders.

I cannot agree with Susan Inman’s rather extreme presentation of serious mental illnesses solely as ‘brain disorders’. Nor do I think other complex chronic diseases can be characterized simply as a disease of a particular organ.

Diabetes is not simply a ‘pancreas’ disease, though the pancreas fails to function normally in most types of diabetes. In many cases, the autoimmune destruction of pancreatic islet cells is probably due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors. In some cases, particularly in type 2 diabetes, the other cells in the body are less responsive to the insulin that is produced. But whatever the cause of diabetes, the therapy usually involves a combination of medication and lifestyle changes.

A hereditary predisposition is not the sole factor in heart disease, though heredity may play an important role. Both hypertension and heart disease can have causal factors related to lifestyle and behaviour, as well as genetic factors.

In the movie, “The Aviator”, I agree that whatever Howard Hughes’s mother may have said to him when he was small probably had very little if anything to do with the fact that he later developed an obsessive-compulsive disorder, and I saw little purpose in introducing this scene into the movie. I also very much doubt that the mother’s supposed actions had much to do with the onset or expression of the disease, though I can’t say for certain that it might not have contributed to some minor aspects of its manifestation – nor do I think anyone else can. In this way, I am not particularly interested in the question since there are much more interesting and pressing ones to pursue with regard to OCD. I also think that Ms. Inman is right that mothers are often unfairly singled out as causes of psychological problems. I believe, too, that far too little emphasis was given in the first half of the last century to physiological aspects of mental illness. It’s possible that the pendulum may have swung a little too far now in the other direction, but what I mostly notice is there is often a failure to take a balanced and comprehensive view of the evidence.

The gist of what I’m saying is that I think that the human organism and human beings are sufficiently complex that it is foolish to ignore all possible contributors to health and disease. There are diseases where the cause is exclusively genetic (inborn errors of metabolism such as phenylketonuria) or organic, but I don’t think there is sufficient evidence to support such an exclusive view for serious mental illnesses. Furthermore to make such claim would be to ignore recent research in psychoneuroimmunology, which describes the mechanisms for the strong reciprocal linkages that exist between physical and emotional states. (Candace Pert has written an interesting popular discussion of this research in Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine. The book also gives an interesting depiction of what it is like to be a woman in science doing research at the National Institutes of Health in the US.) Other research has shown that depression can be both a cause and a result of impairment of some aspects of brain function. Assigning cause is not the same as assigning blame or responsibility, though I recognize that all human activity is value-laden. Anyway, would we really want in all instances to leave out questions of moral responsibility and accountability with respect to health and health research?

To sum up, I think that there can be many different causes for health problems, including serious mental disorders. They may involve a combination of genetic, environmental, social, and behavioural factors in a complex interplay. In some instances, one aspect may dominant, but that does not mean that other aspects are irrelevant.

Thank you, E.W., for your balanced approach. As the mother of a young man who suffered a psychotic episode 8 years ago, at the age of 15, and who has not had a repeat episode, I have resented the mental health workers and mothers of schizophrenics who are still telling me that I'm "in denial" because I have an open mind about what happened to him. He has never had a diagnosis. He is not on anti-psychotics anymore. He sometimes suffers from anxiety attacks, as do many otherwise sane people, and he has other problems common to many young people. Yet, everytime one of these problems arises, these people keep insisting that my son is schizophrenic and ought to be on medication! As I said, I have an open mind. As soon as a psychiatrist gives my son a diagnosis of schizophrenia or any other mental disorder I am ready to try anything that might help him. I am also glad that I, as his mother, was not blamed for his episode (which may have had to do with drug abuse, though he has insisted that it didn't).

At the same time, I feel confused. Mentally ill people and their families obviously need help, and it would seem that the new drugs have helped some of them. At the same time, many mental health consumers claim that the drugs' side effects make them miserable. I refer to facial and body tics (some of which I have heard prove permanent) and chronic tiredness while at the same time being unable to sleep. Some mental health consumer groups are against these drugs. I've heard accounts (especially from the U.S.) of psychiatric drugs being inappropriately used as social control.

It may be that these latest so-called miracle drugs bring problems of their own and are not the perfect solution that many families of the mentallly ill, and those who work with them, think they are. What is the solution? I don't pretend to know, but I suspect that the solution, like the cause, might be different for different suffers, or might consist of a combination of different treatment methods.

Dear Anne,
Please let me clarify my comments and respond to the very important story that you shared here. People can defintely have a single psychotic episode, recover from it, and get on with their lives. I'm shocked that based on this one episode so many years ago that you are being told your son has schizophrenia when he's anxious. A key book that the BC Schizophrenia Society recommends for understanding schizophrenia is E. Fuller Torrey's "Surviving Schizophrenia". Their website also provides important basic information: www.bcss.org
You're absolutely right that medications are very problematic. There are many people for whom no current medications work in ending a psychosis.Many people in this situation are in a refractory ward at Riverview Hospital. What will happen to them when Riverview closes is a real concern but that's another story. The tics you mention can be part of a serious disorder called tardive dyskinesia. You can see people with td on the streets of Vancouver; they have many involuntary movements and their tongues often hang out of their mouths. They are usually older and were treated with large doses of early anti-psychotic medications.
Best practice in psychiatry seems to be based on using the smallest doses of medications that keep people's symptoms undercontrol. Psychotic symptoms such as paranoid delusions, auditory or visual hallucinations, and general mental disintegration are such agonizing experiences that many consumers are very willing to take medications even though they very often have difficult side effects.
I hope you never have reason to have to learn in depth about mental illnesses. For people who must confront this reality, it's very important to know that the BC Schizophrenia Society offers an excellent education program for families. Information about it is available on their website.
Good luck.

Anne and Susan...your comments offer a lot on the topic of mental health. Thank you.
I accepted the original scene in 'The Aviator' forwarding the tale that he could have inherited the genitics that would make him susceptible to OCD.

I find there is a lot of misunderstanding and fear around mental illness... I appreciate the opportunity to hear an alternative view.

I do not believe it is a debate of "either/or". Mental illness is probably a sad combination of both. A researcher at UBC years ago examined the brains of dead "schizophrenics" and determined they had twice as many receptors as "normal" people...my interpretation of that was that myself and some others in my family, experienced the world in quadraphonic while the rest of the world experienced stereophonic. Some of us function in spite of the voices in our heads, some of us function because of them. I am often asked where I get my ideas for my novels. They are given to me. I call them my storytelling spirits. The voices in my head are constant and many. I was not able to block them. SO I listen to them, and record the stories they tell me. My father was a lunatic, I'm sure he would have been locked away for chronic child abuse if he were alive and pulling his bullshit today. I have a son who experiences paralyzing bouts of anxiety, he has sought relief in all the wrong places and at great personal cost. He is now able to control most of his anxiety disorder and what he can't control he is learning to channel into more positive behaviours. My dearest grandson, my golden boy , is right now on a psychiatric ward being assessed, he is seventeen and barking mad right now. Yes, he probably had a familial predisposition to....whatever....but what that boy has survived would have broken older people. For most of his life the welfare and social workers involved sat around as much help as so many quarts of warm goat piss and did nothing at all while horror was visited on a child. He was demonstrably in need of protection and they failed to provide. As one thing piled on another his ability to survive was whittled. So now he's on a ward. I know in my heart he'll eventually be able to cope, he has survived so much he will survive this. But what of THEM? The ones who cashed paychecques for work they did not do?

Yes, some of what we call "mental illness" is genetic, is biological, and one day will probably be "fixed" by drugs and medication. But much of what we know is mental illness is the result of a society which has not learned that early intervention on some of the root causes of misery can avoid generation after generation of disaffected, angry, or frightened folk who lash out inappropriately.

My grandson will survive. He will mature and he will "learn"...and there are thousands of others out there who will walk the same heartbreaking highway because we are more concerned, as a society, with the Dow Jones average and the accumulation of consumer goods. A friend of mine recently saw an ad for a fridge..which had a radio and a TV in the door. Fekking right! God forbid we miss any part of an episode of As The Stomach Churns while pulling the frozen TV dinner out of the big chromed box!! Our government spends who will ever know how much money on advertising campaigns while children as young as nine years old offer their flesh on the streets, sleep in abandoned cars or in the donation boxes outside Thrift stores, and we all wait breathless for the next reality TV show... mental illness is rampant in this society and we all seem to be suffering some degree of it. A baby is left in a shopping bag at a bus stop and the police appeal on TV for the natural parents to please phone and explain...the DNA of more than four dozen humans is found at a pig farm and the police ask anyone who has any sausages which they bought from the pig farmer to please contact the police and hand over the sausages for testing...but nobody dares use the word cannibalism...mental illness??? We have children in our schools who are vitamin deficient and we talk of surplus food. We have kids right now in schools all across this nation who do not get the basics of food, shelter and love and what do we do about it? Our Prime Ministers boats are searched and huge amounts of heroin are found in one of them and it is a one-day headline...our journalists are muzzled and the conglomerated media gives us feel good stories which signify fuck all, Stephen Harper drools hatred and we tolerate the twit...mental illness? Well, blame mom. Why not? Blame dad, too. Why not? It's easier, it's cheaper, it's quicker and we want a quick fix.Guhzillions of federal money is wasted and our children are hungry, people are sleeping under bridges, eating out of dumpsters and we wonder why they are barking mad?

Here's the Deal.
Mental illnesses sometimes run in families. I know it did in mine. As a result, it is easy to assume (both as a patient her/him self, or a professional) that something like OCD is due to the upbringing. Since the upbringing is worse than it might have been had the parents not also been disordered to one degree or another (and it is not always severe as in some cases listed here), one blames past traumas to children for ones problems.
However, as a person with OCD myself, I know that as an adult, I can develop a brand new phobia in a matter of days or weeks, requiring as much work to overcome as one from childhood. Other people don't develop this. So it has nothing to do with the parents.
On the other hand, the best drug could not eliminate the effects of OCD because one has grown up in self-doubt, and thinking in black-and-white. As a result, relationship development can be seriously lacking.
Thus, begins a never-ending, life-long journey into growth, and sometimes excruciating disillusionment, and amazing exhilaration. (That's *if* you found a drug that worked to get you to a place where you could do that in the first place, and *if* you find a helping professional who's good for more than prescribing a drug and "tell me about your childhood"...)

Interesting discussion. DW, appreciate your comments. I haven't seen 'The Aviator", but my mum told me I should go see it, because apparently he's just like me! Actually, I was diagnosed with OCD three years ago, after experiencing the disorder to such a degree that I was unable to function or interact with anyone at all--couldn't leave my house.

My personal take on OCD is that it (along with related disorders like depression) is a natural response to the bizarre state of our society: breakdown of social structures, rampant consumerism, environmental destruction. Essentially, the split from being attuned to nature. Pretty crystally, hey!

After my 'official diagnosis', I was immediately subjected to the doctors' drug-pushing. Anti-depressants, anti-psychotics etc. I refused all drugs point blank, then I went home and decided that there was nothing wrong with me, and that I'm probably saner than everybody else, but that the OCD thing was counterproductive. So I stopped. It was hard, there was some regression at times (stress makes it worse, for sure), but now I'm great and pretty darn 'normal' thanks very much.

For all you out there still suffering from OCD: Brain-Lock is a good book. But all he really says in there is, 'just stop'--by doing so, you are essentially 'retraining' your brain thingies (synapses ?).

So, when it comes to people getting uppity about portrayals of 'mental illness', I'm of two minds (ha!). I feel for you, but I kind of think you should stop whining and get over yourselves.

Btw, I'm sure most of it was my mother's fault.

Interesting discussion. DW, appreciate your comments. I haven't seen 'The Aviator", but my mum told me I should go see it, because apparently he's just like me! Actually, I was diagnosed with OCD three years ago, after experiencing the disorder to such a degree that I was unable to function or interact with anyone at all--couldn't leave my house.

My personal take on OCD is that it (along with related disorders like depression) is a natural response to the bizarre state of our society: breakdown of social structures, rampant consumerism, environmental destruction. Essentially, the split from being attuned to nature. Pretty crystally, hey!

After my 'official diagnosis', I was immediately subjected to the doctors' drug-pushing. Anti-depressants, anti-psychotics etc. I refused all drugs point blank, then I went home and decided that there was nothing wrong with me, and that I'm probably saner than everybody else, but that the OCD thing was counterproductive. So I stopped. It was hard, there was some regression at times (stress makes it worse, for sure), but now I'm great and pretty darn 'normal' thanks very much.

For all you out there still suffering from OCD: Brain-Lock is a good book. But all he really says in there is, 'just stop'--by doing so, you are essentially 'retraining' your brain thingies (synapses ?).

So, when it comes to people getting uppity about portrayals of 'mental illness', I'm of two minds (ha!). I feel for you, but I kind of think you should stop whining and get over yourselves.

Btw, I'm sure most of it was my mother's fault.

You make some excellent points. The truth about mental Illness continues to be underground in many ways, and we are in great need of public education and funding for research. Powell River BCSS is hosting a weekend of film, drama and discussion on March 11&12, titled Nothing To Hide: Lifting the Stigma from Mental Illness. We hope to make some strides for the cause.

I feel that it was inappropriate when my depression of several years ago was treated with Zoloft (I just read a newspaper article saying that folks on the new anti-depressants have been found to be MORE likely to committ suicide than those depressed people who don't take them). Some depression may be due to chemical imbalance, but I believe that mine was due to trying to do social justice work under an N.D.P. gov't that had sold out its principles, and having no one believe me when I tried to tell them what was happening! This and related factors from my childhood and life, for which I do not especially blame my mother--she was hurt by her own upbringing. I got over my depression by with-drawing from the kind of volunteer work I'd been doing. I am now looking for a way to make a difference without it being a crashing downer for me!

I'm glad you were able to "just stop", Jennie, but it's not that simple for many people. In my mid-twenties I had an eating disorder (compulsive over-eating) which I identified correctly as a spiritual lack. It stopped when I changed my life by going back to university and never recurred despite other negative life events. I had, however, tried "just stopping" for 5 years and that did not work. Also, psychosis is a whole other thing. People cannot chose to "just stop" their hallucinations and delusions, nor can they blame them on "capitalism", "poor parenting", etc. though these factors may exacerbate their conditions. Paradoxically, serious mental illness is not "all in your head"!

Susan, thanks for the clarifications. Unfortunately, some professionals cannot be bothered to fine-tune prescriptions to optimally benefit their patients. My friend's son has tics from more modern prescriptions.

The reason my acquaintances started up again about my son's "inevitable" schizophrenia was that, two years ago, he had a serious drug problem (crystal meth) and they absolutely INSISTED that this must be self-medication for a second episode that he was refusing to admit to. Well, it could be so. All I was saying is "I don't know, and neither do the doctors." For this, I was treated as if I were "in denial". What is with these people, that they are so eagar, since they have mentally ill children, to diagnose my child? Do they need more members for their club? (The woman who was most pushy in her opinion had never even met my son!)
Meanwhile, my son struggles with the temptation of drug use, deals with his anxiety attacks, and attempts to live a normal life in terms of employment and relationships.

Thank you all for a relatively lively and intelligent discussion including the 'personal sharing'. Clearly this topic touches many in our society and we are still on the learning curve. Susan, you really seemed to hit a chord with your analysis and the follow up comments serve to highlight the complexity of mental illness issues. This has been a great Tyee read!

I suffer from bipolar disorder and also from PTSD. I don't necessarily feel that The Aviator puts the whole responsibility on the mother. Rather, I felt that like many of us who suffer from mental illness, it says that we remember lessons that we are taught as children and carry them to excessive extremes.

The view that our obsessions are the pure products of chemical imbalances is as misguided as the Freudian view. Having taking medications for many years -- first for depression only and now for bipolar disorder -- I have learned that the medications alone do not solve the problem. In fact, a mania with unresolved issues to inform it is a very dangerous thing. If I've taken the time to work those through, they possess much less power when I lose it.

Medications can only serve as a floor for doing other work such as cognitive reframing of the messages we were taught as children and beyond. Without them, the problems are much worse, but with them, they still exist and lurk in the subconscious waiting to come out.

It's not Nature or Nurture: it's both! And in my recovery, I have found it expeditious to follow a course which includes both medications and talk therapy which strives to identify learned behaviors and replace them with new ones. Sometimes that means reframing your parents not as gods or tyrants, but as fallible human beings.

A more extended reply appears on my blog:

http://paxnortona.notfrisco2.com/index.php?p=3130