EUGENE REGISTER-GUARD, Friday, Dec. 21, 1962 Page 9A
Mental Health V
Emotional Illness Losing Old Stigma
EDTOR'S NOTE: More and more, the man who feels
emotionally distressed seeks professional help and makes
no secret of it. This, psychiatrists say, is a healthy develop
ment in the struggle to prevent and treat mental illness
today. Here, in the last of a series of five special articles,
is a report on how the public attitude toward emotional
affliction is changing.
By ALTON BLAKESLEE
r Of the Atsoelated Prest
NEW YORK Recently, a man placed a personal notice in
bis hometown newspaper.
He said he'd be away for a time at a hospital, and urged
friends to write him there.
His new address-la mental hospital.
He felt no embarrassment in admitting to emotional ail
ments, a need for treatment, and expectation it would work.
It is one straw in the wind of public change to regard
mental illness as objectively as heart disease or TB, without
atimga, shame or fear.
People don't "catch" emotional illness just to be mean or
because they are weak, or feel sorry for themselves, says Dr.
C. Hardin Branch, president of the American Psychiatric
Assn. Their treatment calls for understanding by family, '
friends and the public, even though the severely ill sometimes
do see and hear things which are not there.
' ,-, Don't Evoke Sympathy
Their sickness differs in one important respect they don't
seem to want to be helped, and thus don't evoke sympathy,
the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health points out.
This expert group was authorized by Congress in 1955 to
survey the nation's mental health needs, and it issued a report
last year calling urgently for a vast build-up in facilities to
treat mental and emotional ailments.
Neurotics the man with a constant grudge, the woman
always nit-picking at faults in everyone else are simply hard
to get along with.
One old fear is that the mentally sick usually go beserk. .
But the crime rate of discharged mental patients actually
is lower than it is among the general population, Drs. B.
Malzberg and H. Brill of the New York State Department of
Mental Hygiene found in a study of more than 10,000 male
patients.
Low Crime Rate Found
Those with no record of prior arrest had a strikingly low
rate. The crime rate among those arrested before hospitaliza
tion compared favorably with that of other persons arrested
previously. ......
More people 24 per cent last year are voluntarily enter
ing mental hospitals, admitting they need help.
How does one know if he needs help?
If you often feel emotionally upset, seek advice from a
doctor, psychiatrist, clinic, clergyman or other source, experts
advise. They could help with problems, or point out. emotional
frictions not apparent to you.
Dr. William Menninger advises emotional checkups, much
as sensible people have regular physical checkups. While there
is no simple test for mental health, he lists some questions to
be asked in an emotional checkup:
How Do You React?
How do you get along with other people? When a situation
gets really rough, do you lose your temper, become jittery or
paralyzed, or so anxious you cannot function? How much fun
do you get from constructive, creative giving of yourself? -
How do you react to frustrations by quitting? By realizing
you cannot win all the time? How free are you from anxiety?
What outlets do you have when you are tense or anxious? If
you are troubled, do you really try to seek help?
"The essence of all these suggestions Is the recognition
that we have to have the bourage, before we look at other peo-
(That's dog talk for something really new!)
pie, to be able to look at ourselves," he writes.
Depressions, the feeling you've missed out in life, continual
tension, are some common signs of emotional disturbances.
Life brings changes and losses, particularly in middle age,
says Dr. Harry Levinson of the Menninger Foundation. Some
ways to make up for losses include activities to expres ag
gressive feelings, through sports, gardening or walking. You
can find new friends, new hobbies and interests, new stimula
tions. One of the healthiest avenues is public service, volun
teering to help church, social agencies, or political organiza
tions, he adds.
Dr. Karl Menninger suggests that frequently what we need
is not "don't give a damn pills," but "do give a damn pills" to
prompt us to be useful and constructive.
Crisis Said Near
As one point for concern, the joint commission declares
this country faces a major crisis in mental health unless pro
fessional personnel and other programs are increased many
fold within 10 years.
It calls for tripling mental health expenditures in the next
decade. . . for more basic research. . . for limiting new state
hospitals to no more than 1,000 beds, in favor of smaller
mental hosjitals within the communities. . . for more psychi
atric beds in general hospitals ... for 3,600 full-time mental
health clinics in the nation.
Half of all present mental hospitals still do very little for
patients, declares the National Committee Against Mental
Illness, Inc. .
It pleads for 10,000 to 20,000 more psychiatrists, 10,000 '
more clinical psychologists, 30,000 more graduate nurses, near-
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