mad, bad or sad?

Mental Health - It’s Complicated 

Tucked away in our very busy workshop schedule was the HFPT Recovery Conference titled: Mental Health is Everyone’s Concern.  We had been requested to provide an item and only the monologues fitted the allocated time slot so off I went (by myself) and performed.

In the Delegate pack provided there were a number of pieces written by service users concerning their mental health difficulties, manifestations and treatment and also how they felt they were regarded by professionals.  There was a piece describing the mental health of refugees which I found particularly challenging.

The topic of what constitutes a mental health disorder has been troubling me for some time.

Is the shorthand of ‘Mad, Bad and Sad’ relevant, divisive or insulting?  The phrase, for me, clouds the nuances of what is or isn’t a mental health illness or disorder.  My perception could very well be influenced by my childhood  (bear with me).

I grew up living around the corner to one of the largest Victorian lunatic asylums: Colney Hatch, later Friern Hospital and later still, The Friern.  To give my mother her due she always said that the patients found life hard and never used the word ‘mad’.  The man who loved fire engines, frequently dialing 999 to see one and the woman with her two daughters collecting conkers for the local children were accepted as part of our community.  Nothing was said about those not allowed out or the treatment they may have received.


The beliefs that addicts have brought it upon themselves and anyone sad is self indulgent are still expressed (usually by the generation that went through the Second World War).

Public awareness of mental health has been raised over the last few years so that, on the whole, it is acceptable to talk about and discuss the subject openly - to the point where the words ‘mental health’ are used carelessly and daily on radio and TV.

Many illnesses, disorders and syndromes come under the umbrella of mental health and I wonder if the realisation or understanding of the life threatening effect of some illnesses is at risk of being lost.

Just as there was an invisible line drawn between the the conker collectors or fire engine fan and the unseen patients at The Friern, is there, or should there be, a line between neuro-divergent (an umbrella term in itself) and being a significant danger to yourself or others?  Two tiers: the acceptable and unacceptable faces of mental health?

If there is an unseen line, has public perception changed or stigma really been removed?

It’s complicated.

Written by Liz - Company Member 

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