So, who is Katie Hopkins? I have never actually seen the TV shows in which she appears – why would I want to watch drivel like ‘The Apprentice’ or ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ which are essentially packed with attention and fame-seeking wannabes from different ends of the spectrum? – but I know what she does fora living these days. She makes outrageously crass and insensitive comments, especially in her column in – surprise, surprise! – Rupert Murdoch’s Sun and on daytime TV shows like the squalid and puerile Loose Women.
So what does Hopkins thrive on? Publicity. The more publicity she gets, the more attention she gets and the more money she makes. And what am I doing here? Giving her (very limited) publicity on this website. Sorry about that, but she’s gone too far again.
It’s nothing to do with her threat to leave the country if Labour wins the coming General Election – although that’s as good a reason to vote Labour as anything about the NHS or schools in my opinion – but everything to do with her disgusting comments about depression.
Here are some Hopkins gems:
“Sympathy for the co-pilot is making me angry. If you are suicidal, for goodness sake top yourself in private. Attention seeking b*stards.”
“People with depression do not need a doctor and a bottle of something that rattles. They need a pair of running shoes and fresh air.”
“UK has seen a 500% growth in anti-depressants since 1991. Like being bullied, being depressed is a fashionable thing to be.”
“To be diagnosed as depressed is the holy grail of illnesses for many. The ultimate passport to self obsession. Get a grip people.”
“Most depression is just genuine sadness at a social situation. Like being caught in torrential rain with a bag from Primark.”
“We have taken being sad and made it into a medical condition.
“They (GPs) also know a referral to mental health will involve a long waiting list. Far easier to diagnose depression and prescribe a bottle of something that rattles than to resort to tea and sympathy.
“Turning grief into a mental disorder is wrong. We are substituting the traditional healers – time, watchful waiting and a sense of purpose – for a ritual of tablets and, once diagnosed, these individuals compromise their sense of agency.
“Angry women argue there is a stigma around depression. There is – and rightly so. It is over-diagnosed and over-prescribed.”
Where do you begin with that catalogue of ignorance and insensitivity? I knew people who took their own lives, some very young, the same age or even younger than my own sons. In some cases, neither family nor friends knew there was anything wrong. It turned out that some were hiding deep and complex mental illnesses, including depression, and at least one other took his own life because he did not want to reveal his true sexuality. Not one of these people, some of whom were lifelong friends, were what I would describe as “attention seeking bastards”. Usually, they were the exact opposite of being attention seekers. The stigma of depression still runs deep in the psyche, something made far worse by the brainless polemic of the likes of Hopkins. The reporting by large parts of the media to the Germanwings crash, and the alleged mental health issues surrounding co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, have the potential to make life even worse for depressives when the clear, unambiguous suggestion from some is that no one with depression can be allowed to do any work.
More baffingly, Hopkins says, “sympathy for the co-pilot is making me angry.” Who is she railing against here? I have not watched the TV, heard the radio and read the newspapers and been confronted by anyone offering their condolences to Lubitz. It just hasn’t happened: it’s a figment of her imagination. People don’t understand it, true, and they are shocked and angry, but showing “sympathy for the co-pilot”? I don’t think so. We don’t know many of the background or the facts yet. Who knows whether there might be an element of sympathy for him sometime in the future, but everyone’s thoughts are with the 149 passengers Lubitz took to their death, as well as their friends and family.
How Hopkins comes to the conclusion that “like being bullied, being depressed is a fashionable thing to be” is well beyond me. Schoolchildren revelling in a new essential fashion accessory called being bullied, with all the fun that brings, like ridicule and physical abuse. Well, you’d look forward to that, wouldn’t you, like a new pair of shoes? “I’ve got some great news, mum. I am being bullied at school! My life is so much better now and it’s really hip. Do you think you can go and see the head teacher and see if he can arrange for me to get extra bullying?” The suggestion is that it’s fun to be bullied and so it’s fun to suffer from mental illness. You never know until you have tried it! Why not give it a go?
Is this really about being sad at a social occasion, being self-obsessed and getting a grip? What if Hopkins replaced the word depression with cancer?
“If you have cancer, for goodness sake suffer in private. Attention seeking b*stards.”
“People with cancer do not need a doctor and a bottle of something that rattles. They need a pair of running shoes and fresh air.”
“UK has seen a 500% growth in cancer drugs since 1991. Like being bullied, cancer is a fashionable thing to have.”
“To be diagnosed with cancer is the holy grail of illnesses for many. The ultimate passport to self obsession. Get a grip people.”
I am not sure that even Hopkins would have the brass neck to attack and belittle people with cancer as she does those with mental illness, but I suppose she is capable of anything.
There is a world of difference between being sad and suffering from severe clinical depression. If you have a spare day or so, I’ll tell you all about it. I’m old enough not to care who knows about my issues, but it wasn’t always that way.
A psychotherapist once told me that mental illness was the great unknown. It remains under-diagnosed with many, many people struggling through their lives without any help and treatment. I can believe that. I’m on yet another endless waiting list for treatment and I have “a bottle of something that rattles” to help me live a ‘normal’ life.
My first advice to anyone who feels things are not quite right in the mental health department is to see a GP as soon as possible. My second is to do the exact opposite of anything Hopkins tells you to do. I suspect she is not an expert on anything but she certainly doesn’t have a clue about depression.
2 comments
Hi Rick,
Very much a topic that I relate to and because I guess I must be one of those attention seeking bastards ?
I used to have an ongoing dialogue with my dearly departed and sorely missed Dad. He never understood depression and his views were very old school, he was a stoic man, had been through the horrors of the Siberian gulags and saw action through the Normany landings, right through to Germany. The Polish people have suffered greatly and often.
I could actually understand his viewpoint though, his was not vitriolic and nasty though.
He once snapped at me, I was in the grip of a severe depressive bout. He said “do you think I never felt like giving up, like just going to sleep and dying ” this really surprised me. I saw Dad as the toughest of the tough, a grizzled old warrior who always survived the many attacks upon him and his beloved Polish 1st armoured division.
I was shocked as I never ever thought he could have suffered.
Please stay with me, this is not self indulgent. To find out that my hero had his own battles with depression was a massive shock to me. Upon reflection I now realise he suffered a very severe case of what we now recognise as PTSD ( post traumatic stress disorder) for those not knowing of this. He never slept more than 3-4 hours and that was with the aid of strong sleeping tablets.
The point I am trying to make, badly I am afraid, is that many, who we believe & perceive to be the strongest, can suffer in silence. It is an awful affliction that many, even now and in so called enlightened times, can show no outward signs at all. It hurt me to fully understand, when Dad was in his 80’s, that he too suffered. He survived because that was his default setting.
My hope is that, collectively, we can be on the lookout for the signs. I hope we can listen, care and act when necessary.
I too have lost friends, 2 hung themselves and one gassed himself. I had no idea they were depressed. I still feel guilt that I never noticed &Aubrey because I was the one who openly talked about my illness and they never did.
Katie Hopkins statement very much reminded me of Edwina Curry’s obscene remark, under Thatchers reign. She said us sufferers should go for long walks and eat berries !! Can you remember that ?
I am going on a bit here & know it’s disjointed but the point I am trying to make is that those that suffer can very easily show no sign of depressive illness.
I hope this changes.
Thanks for writing this Rick for anything that highlights this plague, can only be a good thing.
Acted not AUBREY. Stupid auto correct.
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