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I appreciate people who keep saying KW needs help and we shouldn’t pick on him etc. but with respect I think to some degree that’s infantalizing mental illness and in my experience that is not helpful nor now actual “help” works when you get it.
I’ve been in and out of various levels of treatment since I was 15 years old (I am 40 now). I’ve done group, I’ve done analysis, I’ve done CBT, I’ve done meds, I’ve done that shit where they paste wires to your head. They nevrr tell you you’re not responsible for your actions.
I see some example of this infantalization almost every day online. We’ve destigmatized mental illness without normalizing treatment and accountability. People invoke diagnoses to excuse not just deliberate transgressions but all manners of shortcomings or failures.
Not just mental illness either, but various kinds of neurodivergence. We normalized all this stuff enough to say “Hey I’ve got this and you need to deal with it.” But that seems to be where it stops for a lot of people. Like a death sentence. Like there’s nothing you can do.
When you get the “help” that well-meaning people talk about, you find that it’s not easy, and doctors/shrinks/whatever aren’t going to just rubber stamp your brain as damaged goods and send you on your way. There’s a lot of work to do, because you still have to live in the world.
And that sucks and you whine to your doc about how special and sick and crippled you are, and they’ll tell you you’re right. But what are you going to do about it? That’s the hardest part. You made it through the door and that’s not easy. But then they turn it around on you.
“I’ve got this problem and now you have to deal with it” is the wrong attitude. The right way is “I’ve got this problem and now *i* have to deal with it.” You don’t get a pass. Those are just the cards you were dealt. Other people got different cards. Everyone suffers.
My fear is that the wrong attitude about mental illness etc will re-stigmatize it, create a whole class of sick people who go from suffering in silence (which is bad) to suffering at max volume, dumping their brain all over like broken glass (also bad). KW is just a famous case.
What I’d like to see is a normalization of *treatment* whether that’s therapy or medication or whatever. I’d like to see people talk about that process openly and be examples of how it can improve life for you and everyone you care about. I try. That’s how you live in the world.
The last thing I’ll add is that — and I’ve asked professionals about this — being a fucking dick isn’t a mental illness. Being a racist or sexist or just a spiteful, hateful bastard isn’t something on the spectrum. Sorry, you’re just an asshole.
Being sick doesn’t help though.
Being sick doesn’t help though.
I respect Kim for being supportive; she's his wife, that's what you do. And I respect that she acknowledges that the sick person needs to want help. But she and Kanye both irresponsibly link his "genius" to his illness; which is a dangerous myth. https://twitter.com/clauirizarry/status/1285947859376975874?s=20
The myth is that a creative person is such because of the mental illness they might suffer; because of their substance abuse; because of whatever. Every artist -- every person --who's become sober or well adjusted will tell you this is bullshit. It's a tactic to avoid the work.
One example: Trent Reznor has been very open about his substance abuse/depression in the 90s and 2000s. In the time since he got his shit together, he's released more music "fixed" than he did when he was "broken." And he's won a fucking Oscar (I know awards are meaningful to KW)
This is hard for me to say but I really feel like my career started a DECADE late because of how much time I wasted trying to white-knuckle anxiety/depression instead of getting active treatment. Once i had my shit together, everything got better. Work, relationships, etc.
