by Michael Catalanello, Ph.D.

A man was shot to death by federal air marshals at a Miami airport last week. Media reports indicated that the man, Rigoberto Alpizar, an American citizen, ran from an aircraft after claiming to have a bomb in his backpack. No bomb was found.

It was later revealed that Mr. Alpizar may have been mentally ill, suffering from a bipolar disorder, and off his medication.

This tragic incident is by no means unique. A nonprofit group called Treatment Advocacy Center this year published results of a study indicating that people who are mentally ill are four times more likely to be killed by police as compared to other members of the public. Moreover, people who suffer from a severe or chronic mental illness face a number of daily obstacles few of us can even imagine.

First, the mentally ill are confronted with the problem of dealing with the disturbing and potentially debilitating symptoms of a mental or emotional disorder. One’s symptoms might range from nervousness, anxiety, and depression, to hallucinations, and bizarre and frightening delusions. The simple process of reliably distinguishing between reality and fantasy, an ability taken for granted by most of us, can be a major challenge for a person experiencing a severe thought disturbance, known as psychosis.

Further, the mentally ill are often misunderstood and demonized by our societies. People often look upon mental disorders as a sign of low intelligence, indecisiveness, or worse. Some groups hold that the mentally ill are impious, immoral, even influenced or possessed by evil spirits. Despite the development and availability of effective treatments for mental illness, there is a persistent belief in our societies that psychological disorders are untreatable.

Ironically, Mr. Alpizar’s killing approximately coincided with December 10, designated as Human Rights Day, a day the World Health Organization (WHO) has dedicated to people with mental disorders. The following important facts are offered by WHO on this occasion:

* 450 million people worldwide are affected by mental, neurological or behavioral problems at any time.

* About 873,000 people die by suicide every year.

* Mental illnesses are common to all countries and cause immense suffering. People with these disorders are often subjected to social isolation, poor quality of life and increased mortality. These disorders are the cause of staggering economic and social costs.

* One in four patients visiting a health service has at least one mental, neurological or behavioral disorder but most of these disorders are neither diagnosed nor treated.

* Mental illnesses affect and are affected by chronic conditions such as cancer, heart and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and HIV/AIDS. Untreated, they bring about unhealthy behavior, non-compliance with prescribed medical regimens, diminished immune functioning, and poor prognosis.

* Cost-effective treatments exist for most disorders and, if correctly applied, could enable most of those affected to become functioning members of society.

* Barriers to effective treatment of mental illness include lack of recognition of the seriousness of mental illness and lack of understanding about the benefits of services. Policy makers, insurance companies, health and labor policies, and the public at large - all discriminate between physical and mental problems.

* Most middle and low-income countries devote less than 1% of their health expenditure to mental health. Consequently mental health policies, legislation, community care facilities, and treatments for people with mental illness are not given the priority they deserve.

It is important for us to develop an increased awareness and sensitivity to the problems faced by those with mental illness. Treating these individuals with greater understanding and compassion makes good sense, both from a humanitarian and a practical, economic perspective.

To learn more about mental health issues, visit the WHO website at http://www.who.int/, or that of the American Psychological Association at http://www.apa.org/

Dr. Catalanello is a licensed psychologist in his home State of Louisiana, USA, and a member of the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Asian University, Chonburi. You may address questions and comments to him at [email protected], or post on his weblog at http://asianupsych.blogspot.com

A Female Perspective: At the end of the day

with Sharona Watson

They say that behind every great man is an even greater woman. Well, I’m not sure about that. My husband of 14 years is not someone whom I immediately think of as a “great” man. I certainly don’t think of myself like that. Sometimes I look at him and I think, “Oh blimey!” He’s bald, has a bit of a belly and seems to be in high dudgeon for much of the day. But then again, sometimes I remember that he’s really busy with TV, writing, travelling, giving talks on this and that, not to mention teaching. And I must say, he is a loving father. He loves being with the children and even with me (when it suits him). In fact, he didn’t need me to remind him this time that he’s working too hard and needs to spend more time with the family. And seeing as he’s taking a break from writing for the paper whilst he puts his book together, I thought to myself, “right, it’s my turn now!”

Not only that, but as his TV show is called, “Perspectives” it seemed like a good idea to call my column the same but from a female point of view. That’s it. A real husband and wife team! But if you think that this column is going to be like his, you’re wrong. In fact, I’m going to be making fun of him and maybe some others, on a pretty regular basis. I’m going to be giving my perspective, from where I stand, from what I see, as what is known as a “trailing spouse”.

However, I might mention his show a few times, because he gets to meet some interesting people. But what do you think I do when he’s off in Pattaya or Rayong, Bangkok or India? I tell you what I do. I look after our two girls. So one’s fourteen and kind of looks after herself you think? Well, let me tell you something. She needs a lot of looking after! And the six year old? She’s busy as a bee. Where do they get their energy from? Mine is completely gone by the time even nine o’clock comes around. Sometimes, no make that often, I fall asleep next to the little one when I’ve put her to bed. Then I wake up and feel kind of drowsy and crawl upstairs and collapse.

Of course, my husband comes home after filming and it’s late and he cannot understand why I’m asleep at all. He seems to think it’s all so easy, looking after a house and the children most of the time. Well, Hallas! (Enough!) Every woman knows, and every man who’s ever bothered to try knows, that it’s extremely tiring! So now, he’s looking after the children and I’m doing the writing. Now we’ll see who falls asleep next to their child!

The other day, he came back and he was telling me about one of his guests (he likes talking). Thor Halland was his name and he sounds like a very interesting guy. I don’t get jealous or anything that my husband’s out filming and meeting these people, but I would like to get to know them myself. At least that’s how I feel about most of the guests on the show I hear about. I listen to what Andy (that’s my husband) says and I think, “You know, I’d like to invite him over to our house for dinner, or tea or something.”

Thor Halland runs an expats group in Pattaya but he’s done all these brilliant things and he’s done so well for himself that apparently he’s ‘retired’, even though he’s still really young. One of the things I really appreciate is how he uses his time. Thor studies whatever interests him at a high academic level. So, already he’s got about three degrees in things like History and Philosophy. Of course you can easily study online now with really good universities. But it takes a lot of time and a lot of money.

When he was at his last university in England, called Birkbeck College in London, Thor was a member of the team which won ‘University Challenge’! I thought this was incredible. ‘University Challenge’ is a very popular television programme in which all the best colleges and universities take part. And they are all desperate to win!

Thor was saying that the colleges from Oxford & Cambridge always think they are going to win but Birkbeck beat them, and they received a lot of fan mail saying how pleased they were that they had beaten ‘the snobs’. It was in all the newspapers in the UK but what was funny was that all the programmes are ‘pre-recorded’ by about six months. I think everyone imagines that they are either ‘live’ or far more recent. So Thor was saying that he had almost forgotten about it by the time it came on TV.

Actually, Andy’s show is the same. He pre-records each series, so he’s basically doing other stuff by the time the shows come out on TV. I suppose if you’re not interested in how TV programmes are made, you never think about it. But I think it sounds quite clever.

Thor was also talking about his passion for the church. He’s working towards becoming ordained and he loves ‘old fashioned’, very English churches with very traditional services, with all the rituals. I must admit, when I first went to England, in 1991 it was a bit of a shock to see all that, but now I have become used to it. Although I don’t really see it very much over here in Thailand, of course. I prefer the temples. They are soft and gentle places. I always found churches cold and hard.

Andy’s coming to the end of another series of ‘Perspectives’ on TV, which means he’ll be working harder than ever on the next. Christmas is coming and I’m hoping to see more of him over the holidays that I usually do, unless he goes on ‘boys nights out’ with his mates. What do they do?

Next week: What I think they do…
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