Olympic diver Greg Louganis
and actor Chad Allen
Feature
'Talk About It'
Coming Out About Depression
By Mona de Crinis
Breaking records may have been easier for Olympic diver Greg Louganis than shattering the unforgiving casket of his own depression, a disorder which has haunted the popular athlete since thoughts of suicide plagued him as a teen. Louganis came out about his depression, HIV status, substance abuse and his sexuality in his autobiography, Breaking the Surface, which enjoyed five weeks at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Even though I had a very successful diving career, I couldnt beat back the debilitating symptoms of depression, Louganis comments.
Actor Chad Allen, of St. Elsewhere, Our House and Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman fame, abused substances to facilitate a slow suicide in dealing with the emotions surrounding the pressure of fame and the truth about his homosexuality, which he revealed in a now famous 2001 interview with The Advocate. Depression cripples so many of us, but no one talks about it. By sharing my experiences, I hope I can inspire other people to get help, says Allen. Sometimes we hurt, but even when we do, we never have to hurt alone.
With the concept of educating and giving back firmly entrenched, the celebrities are
touring the country as part of Talk About It, a campaign designed to create awareness about depression and other disorders within the GLBT community. By being involved in the Talk About It initiative, Louganis and Allen have traveled to major metropolitan areas such as New York and San Francisco to share their stories, their triumphs and their encouragement at public forums that strive to raise the profile of depression and persuade others to seek help. On January 20th, the two are coming to Los Angeles as part of a public forum to be held at 7 pm at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza, Renberg Theatre (1125 North McCadden Place) in Hollywood.
Talk About It is the brainchild of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists and major pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. The campaign was originally launched last year in recognition of National Coming Out Day. Together with Osmosis Media Lab, a public relations agency representing the gay and lesbian community, GlaxoSmithKline, with support from GLMA and AGLP, worked to develop something that would help people realize that theyre not alone and provide resources and information about depression, as well as insight into the causes of the disease.
Moderator of the forum, San Francisco psychiatrist Dr: Stan Yantis, acknowledges that the prevalence of depression is thought to be higher in the gay and lesbian community than in the mainstream. Maybe a little higher among lesbians, he notes, adding, but on the other hand, it is clear to me from looking at the literature that theres no inherent connection between being gay or lesbian and being depressed. I think the core problem is lack of support on a thousand different levels. Im a gay man so I think I can take it on personal authority, Dr. Yantis continues. Im a psychiatrist whos been on both sides of the fence: Im positive, Im out and I can honestly say from my reading that developing a healthy mental outlook is partly from feeling connected and loved for whom you are.
Naturally, acknowledges Dr. Yantis, there are always going to be problems growing up. For instance, blacks have had to deal with social prejudice forever in this country, as have many other minority groups, but one big difference that I think gay and lesbians have to deal with that other minority groups perhaps dont is that when the gay or lesbian child is growing up and senses that theres something different, theres no way to get any kind of positive core affirmation, empathy about feelings that the child is having, Dr Yantis explains. The feelings are really suppressed, shut down by anyone that they would talk to about their feelings. As a matter of fact, usually they dont talk to anyone about their feelings because its too threatening. Theres an awareness, in a young child even, that theres something about this that you cant even talk about. So the child whos going to evolve into a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender has no where to go just to even find out whats going on within him or her, and I think this is the cause for the heightened sense of difficulties that we have to deal with in our lives. We grow up feeling very confused, very unsupported. So I think the root stems from very early childhood experiences of not belonging, not feeling a part of the family and the peer groups around them.
The prevalence of HIV and AIDS has also impacted the likelihood of mental disorders within the gay community. Studies show, when you look at the statistics, that the rate of HIV very much mirrors the rate of depression, Dr. Yantis observes. So theres something about HIV that, forgetting everything else and not just because its a very frightening disease and a very serious medical condition but it also has a psychological component to it and it affects nervous systems and makes people much more prone to depression just the disease itself. But then theres the whole issue of stigmatization and the feeling that youve been wrong or bad or its a punishment. And the sense of shame and guilt that sometimes society fosters or voices on people.
According to Dr. Yantis, the AIDS epidemic and the stigmatization that still surrounds the disease has adversely hampered the ability to adequately explore ones sexuality, which is part of becoming a whole person.
Imagine a young child growing up now in a world where not only is it forbidden to talk about your homosexual impulses, but you know that if you act on them you could catch a disease that could kill you, and if you do, you could be labeled as a freak or a sinner or something very negative, he theorizes. And when you really think about it, growing up right now can be a frightening experience for any young person, especially for a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered person. Where do they go to experiment? How do they do it safely? And if something goes wrong, where do the get compassion and help? Though on the other side of the coin, I think there are things that have made the world different in a better way. Unlike the past, gay youth have the Internet and clubs at school more and more though they are still very controversial but provide ways to meet and find an identity within a peer group.
It would be logical to wonder whether the rate of depression has decreased as tolerance and acceptance of a gay or lesbian lifestyle have increased over the past decade, but according to Dr. Yantis, its difficult to tell because depression that is reported is not always indicative of the depression that truly exists.
Theres always been a lot of depression and more depression everywhere than is reported because a lot of people dont realize that what theyre going through is depression. Sometimes it seems greater at certain points [in time] because theres more awareness, so people go in and get help for something they may not have even thought of as depression, especially when clinical depression doesnt always have the classic sadness or feelings of hopelessness as you would expect with depression. Sometimes it manifests more as physical symptoms, like aches and pains or extreme fatigue or loss of motivation, and it doesnt fit the classic form of what we think depression is. So as we educate people about the disease, sometimes it becomes much more prevalent, or seems to become more prevalent, but actually its not that its more prevalent, rather people now know theres something going on for which they can get help.
Dr. Yantis is quick to point out that depression is not inherently a by-product of being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. He cites earlier studies by psychologist Evelyn Hooker that analyzed people regardless of whether they were gay or lesbian; their sexuality was just another characteristic of the person. Dr. Hooker conducted all the routines, battery of psychological tests, and determined that being gay or lesbian incorporated no higher degree of psychopathology than being heterosexual. And that is what led to the APA removing homosexuality as an illness, which it used to be, Dr. Yantis adds. I think thats whats really important, because its so easy to start looking at a group and say being gay means that youre sicker or more depressed or youre weaker or more vulnerable or whatever. And I dont think thats what it is. Being a member of a group that has a very hard time in the world creates an enormous number of stressors that are incredibly hard to cope with. And it creates, therefore, anxiety, depression and other emotional problems, including alcoholism and drug addiction and other things. Its a combination of early childhood senses of aloneness, alienation and trauma along with the psychosocial stressors of growing up a member of a stigmatized and rather devalued social group.
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Talk About It: Coming Out About Depression, Thursday, January 20th at 7 pm, The Village at Ed Gould Plaza, Renberg Theater, 1125 North McCadden Place, Hollywood, CA. Call 323.860.7302 for information.
