"For The Camera"

 

The old photos reveal nothing   

         show no hint of the abuses   

                     that darken your future   

         Gape-tooth smiles, youthful   

                     mugging for the camera   

                                 don’t predict   

                                             anorexia   

                                             drugs    

                                             despair   

         The childish arms that hugged   

                     friend and family   

                                 Now   

                     hang skeletal   

                                 by your sides   

         While your sunken eyes   

                     and forced and frozen smiles   

                                             lie   

                                             lie   

                                             lie    

                                                         for the camera    

         Pretending your world glows   

         Making believe he’ll finally   

                                             notice you   

                                             love you   

                                                         fit you into his small and selfish life   

Copyright 2011 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman

“Labels Make a Difference”

 

            The news of Robin Williams’s suicide sent me spinning. I recalled his interviews where he admitted his struggle with substance abuse and depression. The two often go hand-in-hand because many people with depression “self-medicate” with alcohol or drugs. I don’t want to go into the biology of the brain when considering both addiction and depression, but I do want to talk about the label “Mental Illness.”

            Why do we treat individuals suffering from brain chemistry disorders as though they are second class citizens needing to feel shame for their differences? We section off mood and psychotic disorders into an entirely separate category from the rest of our bodies, and that differentiation impacts how our society views wellness. We cling to a mindset that illnesses that affect the brain and personality are personal weaknesses.  

            No one blames the patient who slowly slips away with Alzheimer’s disease, nor ridicules the Parkinson sufferer for not controlling his motions. Instead, we run marathons to find cures for these diseases. And yet we treat patients with depression as though they’ve done something wrong. They are somehow responsible for the malfunctioning within their brains. If they really wanted to, they could “snap out of it” because they have good lives—people who love them, care for them.

            By labeling an entire range of disorders as “Mental Illness”, we’ve fooled ourselves into a belief system that these diseases aren’t as important to treat or cure.  Every time a tragedy rips through a family—like with a suicide; or a society—like with a mass killing, we pretend to care. For a week or two our media bombards us with signs, symptoms and treatments. But nothing really changes.

            And so sadness envelops us the day after another loss. I’ll read all kinds of articles about “Mental Illness” and feel frustrated because the label itself carries its negative connotations. And labels make a difference to that fourteen-year-old girl starving herself to shed another five pounds, to that seventeen-year-old who cuts herself just to “feel something.” Labels make a difference to that mother who cannot bond with her baby, to that alcoholic grandfather who must drink just to function.

 

Copyright 2014 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman

           

 

"For the Camera"

The old photos reveal nothing   

         show no hint of the abuses   

                     that darken your future   

         Gape-tooth smiles, youthful   

                     mugging for the camera   

                                 don’t predict   

                                             anorexia   

                                             drugs    

                                             despair   

         The childish arms that hugged   

                     friend and family   

                                 Now   

                     hang skeletal   

                                 by your sides   

         While your sunken eyes   

                     and forced and frozen smiles   

                                             lie   

                                             lie   

                                             lie    

                                                         for the camera    

         Pretending your world glows   

         Making believe he’ll finally   

                                             notice you   

                                             love you   

                     fit you into his small and selfish life   

Copyright 2011 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman

"For the Camera"

The old photos reveal nothing     

      show no hint of the abuses     

           that darken your future     

      Gape-tooth smiles, youthful     

           mugging for the camera     

                don’t predict     

                    anorexia     

                    drugs     

                    despair     

The childish arms that hugged     

      friend and family     

            Now     

       hang skeletal     

                by your sides     

While your sunken eyes     

      and forced and frozen smiles     

           lie     

           lie     

           lie     

                for the camera     

Pretending your world glows     

Making believe he’ll finally     

      notice you     

      love you     

           fit you into his small and selfish life     

Copyright 2011 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman