As featured in the 411 Newsletter by the Center of Forensic Profiling
Who hasn’t seen something about Charlie Sheen in the news this past month? Who hasn’t WRITTEN or REPORTED on Sheen in the past month, now including me? Charlie’s articles and talk of warlocks and tigers blood and WINNING!!! Is fodder not just for tabloids and celebrity magazines but for national, primetime news reports and exclusive interviews. I think all of us, at least once have been bombarded with his videos or interviews and depending on what you’ve heard, your reaction can go from , “Well he seems pretty sane to me,” to the extreme, “I can’t believe he’s walking around without a keeper!”
In less than 30 days, though, Sheen has lost a very lucrative job, who knows how many friends and family members he’s alienated and he’s had his twin boys removed forcibly from his home. Does anyone doubt that this has gone way past typical publicity issues or even addiction issues? We are looking in the face of mental illness in all its power and destruction.
I empathize with Sheens’ family. My heart hurts for Sheen and his torments. But I am damn mad at the media! Not because they are telling us what Sheen is doing, but because that is ALL they are doing. This is a golden opportunity to educate the general public and break down the walls of stigma in one swoop of the media sword by providing the world with information about mental illness and what is available to treat it. It’s like Sheen said, “Manic? I don’t know what that means,” in one of his rants. Most of the world doesn’t really know that means either. But it is the name of a mental state of someone who has bipolar disorder who is experiencing symptoms such as:
1. inflated self-esteem or grandiosity
2. decreased need for sleep
3. more talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking
4. flight of ideas, or subjective experience that thoughts are racing
5. distractibility increase in goal-directed activity (either socially, at work or school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation
6. excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences
Sound like anyone we’ve been talking about? Along with mental health education, the media has failed to provide information about resources, help lines and all manners of information that the general public could utilize, because Charlie Sheen is not the only Warlock with Tiger’s Blood DNA walking around today. He is just getting all the attention. So in this little circus, we are watching a person struggle through an illness with no idea of what support or treatment he may or may not be experiencing. Sheen’s brother and dad did make a public statement that they are praying for his recovery. And I will join them in this. As of today though, the score is: Sheen – 0,
Media - Winning!,
General Public – Losing!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
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