Unlisted

Last night I attended an advance screening of Unlisted as part of STIFF (Seattle's True Independent Film Festival) at Northwest Film Forum. The film had special significance to me because it was made by the daughter of a schizophrenic (like myself), and it focuses on the struggle to both maintain a distance that feels safe from the mentally ill parent and at the same time maintain a relationship when the disease and medications allow.

Unlike me, Delaney Ruston had never lived with her mentally ill parent, and part of her impetus to make the film was to better understand how mental illness destroys familial bonds. In her medical practice she works with the underserved and homeless communities, and over and over she sees people with severe mental illness, living on the streets or in transitional housing, with absolutely no family to turn to for support. One of her unsettling revelations in making the film is that it is as much the broken system that destroys families as it is the symptoms of the disease.

It is always much easier to look at mental illness as an individual issue. If someone is mentally ill, we think collectively, that is their problem, and they should just stop acting crazy and get a job. That's a bit harsh, but if you look at how mental illness is approached from a systematic level, that is what we believe culturally.

As Jim McDermott pointed out in his interview for Unlisted, that's akin to saying that if your house is on fire you should put it out. Or don't start the fire in the first place. Somehow we have accepted fire as a collective issue, while mental illness is still treated as a personal stigma.

My mom has lived on social services for nearly thirty years. Because she is in Idaho, she is able to have her own apartment and receive the home care she needs. She meets with her caseworker weekly, and she has gone through vocational rehabilitation to help her get paying work as an artist. She would never have access to this level of service in a major urban area, and there is a very high chance she would end up on the streets, off her meds. That's what we dealt with in the 1980's, before good psychiatric care came to North Idaho.

But most severely mentally ill people live in urban areas, and they have to get on waiting lists to get quality care. Meanwhile, they are on the streets, and off their meds.

1% of the US population is schizophrenic. 10% of schizophrenics attempt suicide. This is not even considering the much more common severe mental illnesses like Manic Depression, and Depression with Psychosis. My mom attempted suicide several times and survived. Delaney Ruston's father only had to try once.

These are not bad people.

This was an advance screening of Unlisted, so it was not entirely done yet. She integrates animated pieces of her father's autobiographical surrealist novel he wrote in grad school, which are quite beautiful. Watching her explore her relationship with her father and his disease is moving and all too familiar. See the film if you have a chance. As far as I know there are very few people who really understand mental illness, and it is important that we all try, if we want to live in compassion.