Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: disclosure of mental illness

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

on 10/2/2002 8:07 AM, Hans Tilstra at tilstra [at] smartchat.net.au wrote:

> Hypothesising here that the discussion would be driven by those members who
> are part of the dominant norm, ie. those 4 out of 5 members of the
> population who do not have a mental illness. I wonder what would this
> discussion would be like for a person who has a mental illness and is not
> comfortable discussing this due to past experiences of stigma?
> 
> Does the cohousing context mean that the discussion is considered
> "need-to-know", as it affects what happens in the common house?

It is also affected by who is calling whom mentally ill. I once worked in a
residential facility for teenaged girls who had various behavior problems.
One of the girls that we had had the least success reaching, returned weekly
for group sessions after she was released. Her comment: People are crazy out
there! Here at least people know what the problem is. Out there they don't
know anything.

What is mental illness?

Sharon
-- 
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org


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