Dolphin Boy
I recently saw a documentary about a boy called Morad who had been tortured because he was suspected of trying to seduce a girl. As a result he lost the ability to speak and disconnected himself from reality. In order to avoid hospitalisation he was sent for dolphin therapy. It was really interesting to see this alternative to hospitalising someone. If you want to watch it for yourself it’s on 4OD (channel4.com). This alternative treatment to mental health seems like a much better option than dishing out tablets and sectioning individuals.
Mental health problems usually get a negative stigma attached in western society. I suspect that the reason for this is that there is a lack of education amongst the general public about this area. This is not helped by the fact that they are not really talked about because of fear of exclusion or people assuming that the person is crazy. For example I have bipolar type 2 and whilst my close friends are aware of this, I don’t tend to tell people I have found that people don’t really understand and so treat you differently. A few classic examples of this are people avoiding you as they think it is something that they can catch, others assume that you are crazy or are suddenly going to attack them or something it’s nuts. The majority of those who have mental health problems tend to blend into society and noone is any the wiser unless told otherwise. It’s ironic if we find out that a celebrity has a mental health problem people tend to be like “oh aren’t they brave etc…..” a classic example was Catherine Zeta Jones who was recently in the papers talking about her bipolar disorder.
Tags: bipolar, Mental Health, Research, therapy