A good thing that's happened during my adult lifetime is the effort to destigmatize mental health issues. Depression, anxiety and PTSD are things that we used to hide from each other -- and still do -- rather than be seen as "weak" or defective somehow. We haven't entirely left those days, but we've made progress, and this is a good thing.
I've been in therapy. I've been diagnosed with PTSD. I've urged people -- men -- in my family to do the same and they resisted. (Midwestern dudes. Gotta be stoic, taciturn.) But when they went, it transformed their lives and relationships. It's not just men: My late mother went on anti-depressants after I left home and it made her so much more willing to engage the world.
These are good things.
So I'm tempted to show a little mercy to Herschel Walker when he defends a lifetime of violent acts and pecadilloes as being the result of mental health issues -- and implicitly daring the rest of us to live up to the destigmatization talk with a "mental health IS health" hallway pass.
Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker discusses his past battle with mental health in an ad released Wednesday amid fallout over allegations that the GOP candidate paid for a former girlfriend’s abortion.
“As everyone knows, I had a real battle with mental health. I even wrote a book about it. And by the grace of God, I’ve overcome it,” Walker says in the ad, referencing his 2008 memoir “Breaking Free: My Life with Dissociative Identity Disorder.”
The former football star was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder “as a result of trauma he experienced in childhood,” according to his campaign site.
You've probably guessed I'm resisting the mercy temptation.
It's not that I'm unsympathetic to Walker's childhood trauma. And if he has made real efforts to deal with those issues, more power to him.
But also: I'm not sure more power should be given to him.
There are two issues at play here:
* It sure seems like Walker is trying to launder a lot of his bad behavior with his talk about mental health. I admit, though, that I might be cynical because my politics are different than his, and maybe that's unfair of me. But I still can't shake the feeling that he's simply insincere.
* More to the point, maybe we need to have a talk about just how much destigmatizing we need to do. I hesitate to say this -- I *hate* to say this. But the fact is, Walker held a knife to his ex-wife's throat at some point. He admits this! And by his own son's account, his family (such as you can call it) at times lived in fear of the violence.
Even if that was a brain chemistry issue, even if he's "fixed" in some sense, I can't escape a gut-level feeling that such acts, no matter their cause, should carry a stigma. At the very least, maybe it means Walker -- and the rest of us -- are better off if somebody else is elected to the U.S. Senate.
I'm thinking now of the writer Freddie deBoer, who describes how his life changed after a rather notable mental health episode:
My entire life changed, and I changed, as a result not only of what happened with Malcolm but of my treatment of several other people in that summer. After 15 years of briefly starting meds and intentionally falling off again I have now been medicated without break for over four years. At one point I was regularly taking seven psychiatric medications. ... My medications carry with them punishing side effects, which include severe weight gain, profound cognitive problems relating to memory and attention, trembling, twitching and akithisia, constant sweating, reduction in brain mass, severe emotional withdrawal and apathy, serious gastrointestinal distress, sometimes leading to incontinence, constant urination, reduced libido, occasional impotence, potential liver and kidney damage, the risk of neuroleptic malignant syndrome, which is often fatal, and the constant potential for addiction and withdrawal. ... I have worked hard to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again, and I have attempted to make restitution to individuals in private ways and to society with charitable giving. These are things that I have done in an attempt to make amends to others, to grow, and to save my own life.
There are other things that deBoer has done to prevent a relapse, and he's recovered some of his career, but he recognizes that he can't undo the damage that was done, even if that damage was the result of mental illness. And whatever successes he has going forward, it's doubtful he'll be running for the U.S. Senate sometime soon.
The point is. The slate isn't always wiped clean. Or not entirely so.
I don't really want to restigmatize mental illness. But neither should it be used as a shield against fair criticism. And we should recognize that some acts, while not irredeemable, make one unfit for a position of power and responsibility. Maybe we need to move the lines instead of erase them. I don't think Hershel Walker should be a senator. I do hope he is getting the help he needs.
What I’ve been watching
Pearl, starring Mia Goth: I’m not a horror movie guy — I don’t like being scared by my entertainment! — but the chatter around this one was strong enough I made myself go. (Scorcese said some nice things.) And I’m glad I did. Not just because it’s artfully crafted, calling to mind both Douglas Sirk and Judy Garland movies like Summer Stock. But Goth delivers a powerhouse performance of movie acting, including a lengthy one-take monologue that is … a journey. I’m not really into violent movies at this point in my life. But I do love human stories. Despite the slasher flick trappings (I’m told this is in the “psycho-biddy” genre) this is a human story.
What I’ve been reading
Lessons, by Ian McEwan: This tour of one man’s life — from the early days of postwar Europe all the way through to the pandemic — is tedious when it stops along the way to shoutout history’s signposts. (Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of Tony Blair and Brexit all make appearances.) But it’s at its most compelling and meaningful when it reflects on growing older, having fallen short of one’s ambitions while still making a good-enough life. For that reason, it left me raw and emotional.