For centuries, mental illness hasn’t been considered a disease at all.
Today it is moving out from the shadows to take its place among other
handicaps; in the Americans with Disabilities Act, for instance.
To people in wheelchairs, accommodation means building ramps and
accessible work areas. We consider this their due, and our responsibility.
Some handicapped people may also have hang-ups about their dis-
abilities, perhaps feelings of hurt and anger at their loss of function, or feel
badly about themselves because they’re different. We see dealing with
these hang-ups as something they must do themselves. We sympathize
with them as they move toward this important goal, but we don’t build
ramps to help them get there.
So, are mental disorders more like handicaps or hang-ups? The
answer is critical, because accommodating a handicap helps, but accom-
modating a hang-up hurts. It’s called enabling.
Can you determine whether the following situation is a handicap or
a hang-up?
Rachel is going through a tough time with her depression. She’s
crying a lot, not sleeping well, and thinking of suicide. Her ther-
apist thinks she ought to take a few weeks off work to get her
head together.I don’t know either. The point is knowing that you don’t know, so
you have to think it through each time to strike some sort of balance
between treating people as handicapped or hung up. The only wrong
answer is picking one to the exclusion of the other.
Many explosive people come to see themselves as handicapped vic-
tims of their disorder. The choice is generally not conscious, nor carefully
considered. They already feel controlled by some external force; all it takes
is someone to make it official.
At his rehab counselor’s suggestion, Brandon attends a support
group of adults who were abused as children. Part of the group’s
canon is a list of traits that identify people with a history of
abuse, and Brandon has every one of them. He now sees abuse
as the real cause for his alcoholism, his irritability, and every-
thing else that’s wrong with him.What’s Wrong with These People? ❧ 45