We need to keep the pressure on our congressmen and senators. We need to keep educating friends and family. And we need to remember that Congress, when left to its own devices, will do whatever they’re told by the fat cats who stock their campaign accounts with cash.
Make no mistake about it. The current versions of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, pending in the House of Representatives) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA, pending in the Senate) would go far beyond clamping down on piracy. I was especially amused by how Chris Dodd, former Connecticut senator and current chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), missed the irony of yesterday’s protests.
In a statement, he said:
“Only days after the White House and chief sponsors of the legislation responded to the major concern expressed by opponents and then called for all parties to work cooperatively together, some technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns, rather than coming to the table to find solutions to a problem that all now seem to agree is very real and damaging. It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today.”
I ripped his statement apart yesterday on the CSO Salted Hash security blog. Among other things, I expressed my mix of amusement and disgust over his suggestion that these protests were the work of corporate greed:
Suggesting SOPA-PIPA opponents are trying to turn people into corporate pawns is very odd coming from you, Mr. Dodd, considering all the money you’ve accepted from big corporations over the course of your long political career. Don’t even get me started about all the money the MPAA gives to members of Congress to keep them in line with your agenda.
As one reader, Brian K, noted in the comments section of that post, “Dodd seems to be missing the terrible irony that people DO rely on these sites for vital information, and the legislation he’s supporting would DISRUPT those critical services. How this irony escapes him is almost unimaginable, outside of willful and deliberate malice.”
The biggest downer in all of this is that in the end, we do need a tougher law to go after online piracy. It is a huge problem. As a writer I can tell you few things are worse than watching some faceless thief online stealing your work. Piracy also hurts the bottom line of a lot of content makers, including the entertainment industry. I get that.
So I don’t get it, writers are sick of getting their material pirated, a bipartisan group creates a bill to force content aggregators to monitor copyright infringement, and liberals are all, err, against it? Someone sensible explain. And don’t tell me it’s because Wikipedia or Craigslist told you so.
Exactly! Come on people. If you make any kind of art or use art media how could you be against it? Everyone wants their damn cake and blah blah blah… you have to give up a few things to make things change.
I detected humor and sarcasm in that exchange (Traci will correct me if I’m wrong, for sure). But there’s also a lot of truth in what they say.
The problem, when all is said and done, is that the makers of these bills drafted something that goes way beyond a crackdown on piracy. It opens the door to tragic abuses of power, where the government could censor or block websites — and punish the owners with fines and jail time — every time someone posts a picture or piece of music in their blog. It would allow the government to punish people who express themselves in ways that big corporations find offensive.
It would create the kind of blackouts you saw yesterday, only it wouldn’t be a protest. It would be for real.
Trimming back these bills, so that they deal only with the intended purpose of stopping piracy, would satisfy me. It’s looking more likely that it’s going to turn out that way, as long as we keep up the pressure.
And now, I return to the regular theme of this blog.
I was saddened to see tweets today from a guy who says he was fired over his depression.
Mood music:
He tweeted:
“We’re a small company, there’s no room for passengers.” – My boss after I told her about my depression and how I’m getting help with it.
Then, another tweet:
I just had a phone call from my boss. I’ve been fired. Wow.
He also shared the termination letter he received:
“Dear (name removed):
It is with regret that we must terminate your contract with COMPANY NAME, due to non-performance. As discussed with your line manager, ***** ******, on several occasions, there has been a lack of activity resulting in lack of business and an unacceptable future business pipeline.
We do not take these decisions lightly but as you admitted yourself, you have been unable to pick up the phone and make calls lately and, as a small business, we cannot continue to pay a salesman a salary when no sales are forecast.
You are due one month’s notice as per your Contract of Employment and so will be paid up until 14th February 2012. This will be paid into your bank account on the 26th January (for January) and the balance on the 14th.
As of today you will be on garden leave and not expected to attend the office nor contact clients or candidates.”
A few thoughts:
If he did his job well and the boss couldn’t handle the fact that he has a mental illness, that’s an outrage he should fight tooth and nail. I wrote about such a case a few months ago in a post called “The Mental Illness Stigma That Won’t Die, Part 2.”
My tirade was inspired by this comment posted on the LinkedIn NAMI group discussion board:
I LOST MY JOB AS DIRECTOR – COMMUNICATIONS FROM A REGIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AFTER DISCLOSING MY 30 YEARS OF LIVING AND WORKING WITH BIPOLAR IN DEC. 2009.
Now after trying to find another job, I applied for SSDI. I just got rejected with a letter saying,”The medical evidence in your file shows that your condition does cause restriction in your ability to function, however, while your condition prevents you from doing previous jobs, you still have the ability to do unskilled work.”
I was diagnosed with bipolar in 1980, have bouts of depression, social anxiety, migraines, gerd and visable essential tremors in my hands and legs. I cannot stand unsupported for more than a few minutes and the tremors make me not want to leave my home and when I do anxiety worsens them. I can take medication to calm the tremors but those meds also negatively effect my memory, errors, and cognitive abilities.
I know most people get rejected but I am almost 60 and have worked in public marketing communications at managerial levels since 1984. What should I do?
I felt I needed to disclose as the work was socially demanding and my tremors showed.
I felt in disclosing that especially a Chamber of Commerce would be somewhat more understanding. Instead they became hostile and took away my startegic job duties and bumped me down to a typist.
The question I have is this: If someone loses their ability to do their job because of heart disease, a terrible injury or cancer, do they get dropped cold by their employer? Do they get treated in a hostile manner? Not from my experience.
I’ve known many people who developed a disease or got in an accident, and none lost their jobs. Their seat simply stayed empty and, in some cases, temps were brought in to do their work until they either recovered or resigned. They were treated with support.
If this woman did her job admirably for many years and just recently hit a period of intensified mental illness, she should be treated like the cancer or heart patient. To fire her because she’s “gone crazy” is, in my opinion, unacceptable.
These stories ratchet up the fear level for those suffering from depression, OCD, bipolar disorder and the like. It proves to the sufferer that mental illness is still viewed as a less-than-legitimate illness, something that’s more a figment of the sufferer’s imagination.
Many good people have died because of mental illness. They were ashamed and afraid to get help because of the stupid notion that they are somehow crazy and either need their ass kicked or be institutionalized. So they try to go it alone and either end up committing suicide because their brains are knocked so far off their axis or they die from other diseases that develop when the depression forces the sufferer into excessive eating, drinking, starvation, drug taking or a combination of these things.
There’s also the ridiculous idea that a person’s workmanship becomes valueless when they’re in a depression. If someone misses work because they have cancer, they are off fighting a brave battle. They are fighting a brave battle, of course. No doubt about it.
But depression? That person is slacking off and no longer performing.
Now that I’ve said all that, let’s look at the other side.
In the case of this just-fired fellow, the boss claimed he was not doing his job and that revenue was being lost. If his illness prevented him from doing his job, that does put the employer in a bind. I get that. If his condition has suddenly nosedived and it prevents him from doing what he used to do, that’s a tragedy.
I do believe that people like us have a responsibility to prove we’re up to the challenges we seek.
Beth Horne, president and CEO of The Horne Agency, a marketing and advertising firm, has lived this from both sides, as the mental illness sufferer and as an employer. She wrote the following via the United States Mental Health Professionals group on LinkedIn:
I was diagnosed with Bipolar 2 twenty years ago. I received treatment and have been stable for years, thanks to excellent therapy, medication and education. Before returning to school for my PhD in Psychology, I worked in Marketing/Advertising for several large media companies before opening my own advertising agency. I was open about my diagnosis with my employers during my interview process, and it never hindered me from being hired. In fact, I never interviewed for a job I did not get, due to my work record, resume and references.
I think that my work performance more than made up for any issues I may have had regarding my disorder, such as sometimes having periods of depression or getting a bit manic when life changes occurred. I worked very hard NOT to let them affect my work performance or reduce my ability to generate revenue for my company.
However, I have been in management with these companies and had employees with mental issues who did not take care of themselves and they became liabilities to the company and had to be let go. Some would refuse to take their medication and attend therapy, some would miss work continually or be so over-medicated they were in a constant stupor, unable to perform their duties. I had one woman who came into the office in such a manic state I had to ask her to stay in her office until she could have her husband take her to her doctor, and to please refrain from taking any sales calls, for fear of her ruining client relations.
If someone knows they have a mental issue/disorder, it is a personal choice whether or not to accept their diagnosis and get help and follow their treatment. Is this always easy? NO! But if they are to function in the work environment, it is their responsibility to do anything and everything in their power to stay as healthy as possible. If this is not possible for them, then it is time to look into disability.
Employers need to understand that not everyone with a diagnosis of a mental illness is like another…there are people with bipolar disorder who have little problem going on with their daily routine with just therapy and medication, while others find it impossible to blend into the work environment. I use bipolar disorder as just one example, but there are many others, as we all are aware. I have a mother who has a mild form of OCD and is a supervisor at a hospital. What better profession could there be for someone who will always be strict about following rules, cleanliness and excellent patient care than an RN? Or like my brother, who also has the same issue, works in IT?
Both are successful and well-adjusted, and their coworkers probably have no idea they have any mental problems whatsoever. So before they judge and dismiss a potential employee because of ignorance, they should look at the person as a whole and not just their diagnosis.
Like Beth, I’ve been judged by my workmanship and not by mental health issues I’ve disclosed. That has been the case for me in every job I’ve ever had. I do my current job well, and that’s all my bosses care about. I’m very fortunate.
There have also been times in past jobs where my workmanship suffered because I wasn’t taking care of myself. I was refusing to even consider therapy or medication, and I sank lower and lower.
I was reinforcing the stigma instead of breaking it.
Today I succeed because I refuse to let the struggles render me useless. I fight harder and longer, and I never give up.
But if you’re in the grip of deep depression, that’s not always possible. I feel for people in that situation, and pray that they’ll come through this better than before.
I’m all for raising awareness. Cancer. Mental Illness. People understand little about these and other maladies. But telling us your bra color isn’t going to help.
In the last couple of years, we’ve seen these awareness campaigns where women throw some cryptic message on their Facebook pages. One time it was listing a color. Another time it was where they put their purse. The message would be something suggestive like this: “I like it on the desk, or in the closet.”
The idea is to have a little fun at the expense of men. Men look at their female friends’ status updates and go nuts wondering what they are talking about. Then, at the end of a day or week, the punchline is revealed.
Here’s an example of one such campaign:
Okay pretty ladies,
It’s that time of year again…support of Breast Cancer Awareness!! So we all remember last year’s game of writing your bra color as your status? Or the way we like to have our handbag handy? Last year, so many people took part that it made national news and the constant updating of status reminded everyone why we’re doing this and helped raise …awareness!! Do NOT tell any males what the statuses mean…keep them guessing!! And please copy and paste (in a message) this to all your female friends! It’s time to confuse the men again (not that it’s really that hard to do ;]) The idea is to choose the month you were born and the day you were born. Pass this on to the GIRLS ONLY and lets see how far it reaches around. The last one about the bra went around all over the world.
Your status should say: “I am going to________________for___________ months.”
The day you were born should be for how many months you are going.
This one was particularly bad because someone’s mom or dad or best friend is going to freak out on learning that their loved one is going away for more than a year. It’s in bad taste.
Here’s the problem with these campaigns in general: It first assumes that men are clueless about breast cancer. If you are the spouse or parent of someone with breast cancer, you’re pretty damn clued in. It also ignores that men can get breast cancer too. One of the more famous male victims is Peter Criss, original drummer in KISS.
All the bra color and purse placement campaigns did was leave men picturing lady friends in their bras or having sex on a desk or in a closet. I can assure you, breast cancer awareness was the last thing on their minds.
As someone who has tried to raise awareness in this blog on the risks and remedies for addictive behavior, mental illness and Crohn’s Disease, I know I’m not going to make anyone smarter by announcing the color of my underwear. In fact, that would just be gross.
To me, raising awareness is about sharing your personal experiences, medical studies and tips for something like minimizing the side effects of chemotherapy (if that’s even possible). When you take people on a personal journey, they walk away with a much better understanding of what they can do to help.
We’re working on another story, which I’ll link to here later on this afternoon.
Meantime, a reminder on why these bills are so bad:
When you think of all America’s efforts to protect its citizens, the goal is always to protect A WAY OF LIFE. Our right to free speech and expression. The Internet has allowed that freedom to flourish in the form of personal blogs, social networking and so on. If the government gets the power to block that freedom, all our other security efforts will be rendered meaningless.
That’s my security argument. But let’s look at this in the scope of personal blogging. I started this blog to break stigmas around mental illness and addiction. There are many other blogs out there with similar missions.
This legislation threatens all of it.
A few months ago I wrote a post about how I was ripped off by The Midwest Center For Stress and Anxiety and how, in my experience, it’s a sham. That post has gotten more page views than any other I’ve written, and it has received countless comments, most of them mirroring my own experiences.
If this law were enacted, The Midwest Center could petition the government to block my site for posting content harmful to it’s business interests.
The government would also have greater authority to block much of the content we all post on Facebook.
I don’t deny that there is a problem with pirated content in this country. But this kind of response is typical of the entertainment industry.
Instead of embracing the new ways people choose to get their multimedia content, the industry tries to punish us instead. Their profits are drying up because consumers are abandoning them.
When your business can’t adapt to changing times, it doesn’t survive. It’s simple. It’s fair. The entertainment industry and big software companies can’t handle this simple truth. So they’re using the government to beat consumers into submission.
It’s been an interesting month in mental disorder awareness. In taking steps to nip wintertime depression in the bud, I’ve learned that OCD isn’t my only mental defect.
Mood music:
It appears that as OCD messes with one side of my brain, Attention Deficit Disorder is toying with the other side. This little epiphany happened when I visited the nurse who helps me manage my regimen of medication.
She asked a lot of questions she usually doesn’t ask about my focus of late. I noted that while I still have frequent OCD moments — particularly if I’m knee-deep in a work project or tackling a list of chores at home — I also seem to be having trouble concentrating a lot. One recent day in work, for example, it took all the strength I had to focus on the work at hand.
That almost never happens. But this time, doing the work was painful. It gave me a migraine. If I hated what I do that would be normal. But I love what I do. Meanwhile, at home, I’d stand in the kitchen, oblivious to the fact that I was standing right where Erin was working on dinner. I would try to give her a hug or shoulder rub while she was in the middle of a task — almost as if I had one foot in this dimension and another foot in some other world.
There’s more to it, but those are a couple good examples.
Looking back on my life, it all makes sense. The OCD-ADD push and pull has always been there to some degree. As a kid I would go into OCD mode, organizing my Hot Wheels and Star Wars action figures just so. Then I’d go the other way and have a hell of a time trying to focus on simple homework assignments or chores around the house.
The Prozac nurse tells me it’s actually typical for someone to go back and forth with these disorders. OCD and ADD operate on the same mental plain. Both spark anxiety (I used to be crippled by anxiety, but that’s not an issue today) and mood swings. Both are effected by the time of year, amount of daylight vs. darkness, etc.
The image that comes to mind is two-face, that villain in Batman with the split personality.
Tomorrow night is the second annual benefit show for Joe “Zippo” Kelley. This post is to urge you to go. But it’s also to show you how his spirit lives on.
Mood music:
http://youtu.be/nnyVCQrFN7Q
This is my own little example of how a life touches other lives, even after death. Joe died in August of 2010. That day, I didn’t know people like Anne Genovese, Audrey Clark or the guys in Up Your Bucket.
I’ve met them at subsequent shows to celebrate Joe’s life and legacy. I’m a richer man for it.
I’ve also gotten to know and grow fond of Joe’s parents.
My musical tastes have widened to include The 360’s and a lot of punk. I’ve also gotten to know the other guys from Pop Gun (I’ve known the drummer, Greg Walsh, for many years) and have a renewed appreciation for The Neighborhoods, who headlined last year’s benefit show.
See what happens? You go do something to honor a guy who is no longer with us. Then, from his perch in Heaven, he leads you to a bunch of special people who become friends. It gives new meaning to the idea that someone lives on after death.
Joke all you want. In my opinion, Hazel Jones, a woman with two wombs and two vaginas, (the condition is called uterus didelphys) has more balls than many of us ever will.
Mood music:
http://youtu.be/yxOHm8M8BcQ
Jones opened up about her condition on the This Morning show, and The Huffington Post ran this article, which says in part:
Embarrassing Bodies health expert Dr Dawn Harper explained on the show that Hazel’s condition occurred because the uterus tube septum failed to break down when Miss Jones was a baby, meaning two uteruses formed instead of one.
Uterus didelphys, more commonly known as ‘double uterus’ happens when a woman’s uterus forms differently and goes on to develop into two uteruses (wombs). While the condition itself is not uncommon, having two separate vaginas is extremely rare.
”The two tubes have made two separate uteruses and two vaginas and two cervixes. And although it’s relatively common to have a septum within the uterus, to actually have two separate uteruses is much rarer – one in a million,” explained Dr Harper.
MIss Jones first discovered something was wrong when she reached puberty and started her periods at 14.
“That wasn’t fun. I used to suffer from horrendous cramps and my periods could be very heavy. I now know that my periods were worse because I have two wombs,” Hazel explained. “It wasn’t nice. I had friends and I tried explaining to them I was having problems and they had no idea what I was doing wrong.
“I always noticed there was this thing there,” said the 27-year-old.
She also revealed that she had to lose her virginity twice as she had two hymens – the thin membrane surrounding the external vaginal opening – to break.
She explained: “If you are not aware that you have got this, it can be really uncomfortable as I thought I was having cystitis and urine infections from a young age when I was tearing the middle septum.”
I’ve read a lot of comments about this and the vast majority of them are stupid jokes about the horror of this woman having two periods, thus making life doubly miserable for the men around her. The rest of the jokes are all testosterone-driven.
The jokesters fail to give her credit for having more balls than they ever will.
To publicly talk about something so embarrassing, sensitive and painful takes courage. I’ve read that her condition is not uncommon. Those who suffer from it must feel an enormous amount of shame. It must ruin their lives in a lot of ways.
Now that Jones has spoken up, the others will not feel so freakish and alone anymore. I’m not just talking about other women with her condition. I’m talking about all the “embarrassing” maladies people live with.
I’ve often been asked why I choose to “flay” myself in this blog, as one fellow put it. I do it in part to let others know that they are not alone and that they don’t have to let their demons win.
Jones doesn’t deserve ridicule. She deserves thanks.
As the reader knows, I’ve had a persistent bout of winter depression. Not the “I’m sad and want to hurt myself” type, but the ho-hum, grumpy old man variety.
Mood music:
http://youtu.be/c-QnnLudkQA
This afternoon I visited the nurse who manages my Prozac intake and walked out with a new drug: Wellbutrin.
I’ll be taking it in addition to the 60 MG of Prozac I’ve been taking for a few years now. The Prozac increases the amount of serotonin, a natural substance in the brain that helps maintain mental balance. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, a substance that helps transmit messages from one nerve cell to another. In other words, it keeps traffic in the brain moving normally.
It has served me well, but this winter the blue moods have been tougher to shake. Enter the Wellbutrin, a drug used to treat major depression and seasonal affective disorder. It’s also used to help people quit smoking because it squashes cravings.
While the Prozac raises Serotonin levels, Wellbutrin shores up another neurotransmitter called Dopamine.
If this all sounds confusing, think of the brain as a car engine. To run properly, the engine needs the right amount of fluids, including brake fluid, transmission fluid and oil. Run low on any one of these and you got problems.
I just started taking the Wellbutrin this afternoon. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’m thinking of two classmates from high school today: Anne Wallace-Demenkow and her husband, Shawn. Their daughter, Emily, would have turned 13 this week.
Mood music:
She died from cancer at age 6.
I know from my brief Facebook exchanges with Anne that this was a terrible loss for her family. What could be worse than losing a child? I don’t know the answer and I hope to never find out. But I’ve lost a sibling and I saw what that did to my parents.
I bring this up because there are a lot of ways this kind of loss can ruin a person. Some people are eaten alive by the pain and others learn to keep living despite it. Anne and Shawn found a way to keep living.
I never knew Emily and, truth be told, I’m not close with Anne and Shawn. We’re just connected on Facebook because we went to high school together. Anne was in my shop. I didn’t think much of her back then. I’m sure the feeling was mutual. No big deal. We just hung out with different crowds.
But on reconnecting via Facebook a few years ago, I’ve seen what a dedicated Mom Anne is. She has shared the pain of losing Emily, but the joy she feels over her other kids, her husband and her community shine through daily.
You can tell a lot about a person by the stuff they post on Facebook. Some people troll, whine and brag. Others simply share their joy and gratitude over being alive, even if life has been cruel at times.
I stay connected with the latter crowd because I need that positive energy to rub off on me.
I want to thank Anne for sending that positive energy, despite what she’s been through.
May her and Shawn take comfort in knowing their little girl is looking out for them from Heaven.
I’ve also gotten to know and grow fond of Joe’s parents.
