PopSyndicate.com

Welcome to the second installment of the weekly CBQ article, Nothing Less Than Fabulous.  I can already tell that I’m working up a rant this week, so grab a chair, a Luna bar, and an Evian.

My rant is about mental health, specifically mental ILLNESS.  Superficially, this may not seem to have much to do with comic books, or us queers.  Until you consider that up until 1973, you were considered mentally ill just for being gay, and could be psychiatrically hospitalized for a little boy-on-boy or girl-on-girl action.  Both the mental health system and queer rights have come a long way in 35 years, although I know I’m preaching to the choir when I say that we have a long way to go.  Another thing to keep in mind is that about one in five adults will experience a serious mental illness in their lifetimes, so chances are that you or someone you care about will experience mental illness in your lifetime.  What does this have to do with comic books?  Excellent question, my hardbodied bachelor friend. 

Where did I put that soapbox?  Oh, here it is… Hold on while I just step…up… Hey, I can see my house from up here!

I’ve worked at a community mental health center here in Chicago for about thirteen years now, and provided services to dozens and dozens of individuals living with severe and persistent mental illnesses.  I’m one of a handful of people I know who love their jobs.  Even after all this time, I’m still constantly learning things from my clients about living with grace, dignity, and even style in often terrible circumstances.  I’m horrified how people with mental illnesses are portrayed in the media, especially comics.

Schizophrenia is not “multiple personalities”, as commonly portrayed in the media.  Its origins are unclear, but most of the time, when someone has schizophrenia, somebody somewhere in their family probably had it.  There are several types with different symptoms, but the most common is characterized by hallucinations (usually experienced as hearing voices) and delusions (firmly held beliefs that aren’t true).  Disorganized thought processes are also common; rather than going from A to B to C in conversation, the person with schizophrenia will go from A to Q then back to B then R and then maybe on to L, while making sure to hit on G every now and then.  People with this type of schizophrenia usually have flat or inappropriate affect, which means that they don’t demonstrate their emotions the way the rest of us would, or they experience feelings incongruent with a given situation, like laughing in a sad movie.  Someone can have a single episode of schizophrenia, or it can be a lifelong illness that needs to be managed with medication and other interventions, like diabetes or HIV.  Even with fantastic treatment, chronic schizophrenia tends to be cyclical, where someone experiences acute symptoms, then gets stabilized (usually in the hospital), then enjoys a period relatively free of symptoms, then gets sick again in response to going off medications or experiencing extreme stress.

Now I’m going to ask you to stop thinking about people with schizophrenia as “them”, and imagine what it would be like if you had acute symptoms of schizophrenia.  Imagine what it would be like to be in the laundromat folding your underwear while a familiar but frightening voice whispers, or screams, that everyone in the place knows your dirtiest, most intimate secret, and they’re looking at you.  Think about something you know to be true about yourself (e.g., “I’m a computer programmer,” or “I live in Wisconsin.”).  Now think about what it would be like to have everyone in your life tell you that it’s not true, that you’re just “crazy”, and how you might react.  What would it be like feeling like you desperately wanted to clearly communicate something to the people who are most important to you, and having it almost always come out jumbled, so you were never understood?  This all adds up to a nightmare that you can never seem to wake up from.  It would be like being in a horror movie, and it would be your life.  That’s what schizophrenia really is—it’s Freddy Krueger.

There’s a guy who comes to our agency for services named “Joe”.  He sits quietly in our day treatment area for hours at a time, sometimes reading, sometimes staring in to space, sometimes whispering inaudibly back to the voices he hears, sometimes chatting with his friends who also receive services here.  Sometimes he just cries.  When Joe and I pass in the stairwell, which sometimes happens several times a day, he invariably tells me, “I’m doing the best I can.” Twenty years ago Joe was a promising young journalist.  Now, it’s truly an accomplishment if he’s free enough from his symptoms to remember to shower every day.  “Joe, you’re doing the best that anybody could,” I tell him.  People living with severe and persistent mental illnesses don’t just deserve your tolerance; they deserve your admiration.

The next time you open a comic and there’s another crazed serial killer responding to voices or the wacky crazy person as comic relief, please think of Joe.  I hope you’ll find yourself as angry as I am.

I’m looking at YOU, Geoff Johns.  Yes, you’re a fantastic writer, and yes, Justice Society is one of my favorite books, and between us, you’re kind of hot, but having Starman as a sloppy-joe obsessed babbling idiot?  Oh no you di’int!  Even though he becomes un-crazy in the Lightning Saga, your treatment of Starman is really uncool.  And what makes it worse is that you’re capable of so much more!  You’ve hinted at the fact that Cyclone takes medications for a psychiatric disorder, probably bipolar disorder given her boundless energy and pressured speech.  She’s a wonderful, compelling character that people can relate to.  Don’t let us down!  Don’t devolve her into a crazed serial-killing hate machine, or worse, a comic distraction from an actual plotline.  Give people with mental illnesses what they deserve-- a character they can look to and say, “She’s kind of like me.  Maybe I’ll be okay.” Queers have been enjoying decent representation in comics for a few years now.  Give people living with mental illness the same diginity.

0