Voices
mental illness. Just as we tackled
a threat to our national security
with a comprehensive Homeland
Security approach, we need to
break down barriers with a comprehensive approach to treating
mental illness. This is needed to
keep us safe and to save us money,
as we alleviate the personal pain so
many feel. Most importantly as a
nation we owe it to the victims of
Newtown and their honor.
With the best of intentions,
due to past abuses, we have strict
rules around confidentiality and
confinement of those with mental
illness. As a result, mental health
professionals have a confined ability to push solutions on families.
Yet heart surgeons like me can do
whatever we deem appropriate to
help a heart attack victim, including emergency transport to catheterization labs.
In many ways, managing mental illness represents the final
frontier of medicine because we
struggle with the painful reality of
coping with an invisible ailment
that sneaks up on us unpredictably and has overt consequences
on families and communities. But
we are surrounded by differing
degrees of mental illness in ourselves, in relatives we love, and
DR. MEHMET OZ
HUFFINGTON
02.03.13
in some people that we should
fear. I was thrilled to witness
this reality addressed so tenderly
in the hit movie, Silver Linings
Playbook. The movie’s humor
cracks our natural defense against
“messed up people” so wisdom
and insight penetrates into our
psyche. More importantly, solutions for the unlikely protagonists
come from unexpected places as
profoundly flawed people comple-
We have strict rules
around confidentiality and
confinement of those with
mental illness. As a result,
mental health professionals
have a confined ability to
push solutions on families.”
ment each other’s ailments. An
institutionalized manic-depressive man (Pat Jr.) is freed by his
loving mother who is willing to lie
to her obsessive, compulsive gambler husband (Pat Sr.) to give the
boy another chance. Pat Sr.’s first
question after being surprised by
his son’s return is, “Are you taking the right dosage?” Pat Jr. falls
in love with a complementarily
strange woman and they awaken a