Mark Vonnegut: "Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-11-08/mark-vonnegut-just-someone-without-mental-illness-only-more-so
Kurt Vonnegut's son gives an intimate glimpse of what it was like to grow up with a used car salesman turned iconic author. Mark Vonnegut also gives his account of coping with mental illness and finding his calling as a pediatrician.
Guests
Mark Vonnegut
pediatrician, the only son of the late Kurt Vonnegut, and author of "The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity" and "Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So."
Comments
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The Eden Express was an incredibly intimate and open look at mental illness. I have always admired Mark Vonnegut's honesty and bravery for writing it.
I like Mr Vonnegut's work, and admire his honesty. As such, though, I'd be interested in his take on whether he would have been accepted had his name been 'Mark Smith'---I won't be coy, I think not, and wonder if he does as well, and wonder if this increases his sense of obligation toward a society which has given him a few legs up.
AND:
What does he think we should do about health-care?
My husband has been between diagnoses for two years. Those diagnoses range from generalized anxiety disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, schizoeffective disorder, agoraphobia, and now social anxiety, insomnia, and panic disorder. He is happy and "normal" around me, but others, including family, don't even know him now. How do you overcome the constantly changing mental health industry and learn to function and communicate about your illness?
Several years ago I served on a National Institute of Health Consensus Conference Panel with Dr. Vonnegut. It is fascinating to learn more about his background.
Thank you for publicizing the reality of mental illness. As a physician I have found it totally humiliating and painful to suffer in silence with major depressive disorder.
What role has being a physician had on your appreciation of your illness, and what impact has your bipolar disorder had on your practice.
I'm curious to know how Mark overcame the stigma of mental illness within the medical field.
Hi Diane,
I wanted Mark to know how much Eden Express means to me. My sister found the book on an army "book wagon" that came into the camp she was staioned at while fighting in Bosnia.
She then brought that book back to me in the States. Our brother was suffereing from Schizophrenia at the time and this novel offered me hope and insight at a time of need. Thank you Mark.
Mark's story is well-told and he is to be congratulated for making this accessible in a plain-language and direct manner. Public discussions like this are invaluable in getting the public to understand the value of mental health support systems. I have worked my entire career with Psychiatric Rehabilitation programs (see www.uspra.org)-- also described as Clubhouse programs-- and know them to be useful adjuncts along with well-prescribed and monitored medications.
I would also recommend Jackie Lyden's book "Daughter of the Queen of Sheba" for a good description of the experience of mania.
Thanks for your courage and skills in writing this book!
Thank you for talking about mental illness and mentioning National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). NAMI's slogan, "Everybody knows somebody" is so true. Our daughter was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 10 years ago and (thankfully) is doing well. Were it not for NAMI's Family-to-Family 12-week free course, I don't know where our family would be today --- it explained so much to us about what was happening to our daughter and helped us to support her.
Thank you for sharing your story. I look forward to reading your memoir.
Very informative. Thank you!
The National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health is the national voice for families whose children suffer with mental health challenges. Information and support can be found online at www.ffcmh.org.
Mr. Vonnegut's book title is excellent. Although trained as a lawyer (to avoid Vietnam; long story) I later volunteered through VISTA to work with drug affected youth in local court, than retrained as a therapist specializing in substance abuse and mental health in a public setting, and stayed at the direct service level for all 29 years I practiced. My brother went through some of the treatments Mr. Vonnegut described (megavitamin) during his hospitalization in the late 60's; my mother was a functioning depressed person until it couldn't be distinguished from evolving dementia; her father committed suicide when she was a young child. I am fortunate to, so far, at age 67, be subject to only mild depression, unmedicated with drugs.
Anyway, the title ("Just like a person without mental illness only moreso") reflects my own experience and 'lecture' to clients that a person 'in recovery', having learned to cope with a mental or substance disorder, has learned and adjusted in ways the unafflicted never will; and will hence be potentially a stronger person in ways.
I totally endorse the wrongheaded emphasis on diagnosis, a requirement in the field, which I have disliked since the beginning. Entering the treatment field through the substance abuse subspecialty gave me latitude to ignore fixation on diagnosis more than most, though not to ignore the symptoms. Conversely, those entering the field through graduate programs in mental health tended to be blind to contributing substance abuse issues and saw only the mental health diagnostic component and, more to the point, the interrelation between the two.
This book is a great read and has touched me personally on so many levels.Thank you so much Mark for educating others about Bipolar Disorder as it is a very complex one at that. I greatly admire your courage and strength to follow your dream to become a physician and you are an inspiration to anyone who struggles daily with this condition.