Mental Illness and High Public Office – What Questions Should Be Asked
Since Gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton’s revelation late last month in the Star-Tribune that he is a recovering alcoholic and has been suffering from mild depression all of his adult life, local media have struggled on how to properly report the issue – or whether to report it at all.
David Brauer of MinnPost had thoughts that were introspective and gleaned from painful experience:
….depression is the struggle of my life, from the insomnia and obsessiveness that has me up at 4 a.m. chewing over this topic, to bouts of withdrawing from my family and the physical world. Trust me, if I were running for governor, I’d regard my depression and the resulting stress-triggered struggles as something the public should know.
Others, such as Minnesota Public Radio’s Bob Collins, seem to think we should be careful:
It’s a slippery slope that the most influential news organization in Minnesota has decided to take us down, particularly when an alternative is a thorough examination of vision and ideas of candidates.
MPR has covered this story fairly extensively and in a seemingly even-handed manner. Kerri Miller’s Mid Morning show on 1/13/10 was particularly good.
There are, however, quite a few unanswered questions in my mind.
- Mark Dayton’s mental illness has been known to me for 10 years. It is one of the poorest kept secrets in Minnesota politics. I refuse to believe that a significant number of Twin City journalists did not know of it. Why the current self-flagellation when it seems the media had already made a judgment on the issue’s newsworthiness?
- Dayton is the source of the disclosure and news reports state repeatedly that he will not be more specific about the circumstances of his illness. Many have praised his honesty in this admission but questions remain. How do we know what his diagnosis is? Verifying that he suffers only from “mild depression” would go a long way in putting the issue to rest.
- Substance abuse and mental illness often go hand in hand due to the patient’s attempts to “self medicate.” When Dayton’s alcohol consumption ended up with an admission to a treatment program, had he been compliant with his medicine regimen? A simple question would be, “Has your history included periods where you were non-compliant with your medications?”
- Another question that has been asked, but bears repeating, is whether or not Dayton’s mental illness has affected his job performance. Indications have been that the execution of his office as US Senator left something to be desired.
Mark Dayton’s illness does not make him a bad fellow and doesn’t necessarily disqualify him for public office. However, that is a question for an informed public to decide. The journalists in this town have quite a lot of follow-up to do before his fitness for duty can be determined.
Since you only identified two people in the Twin Cities media, I presume you’re intimating that either David or I — or both — knew of Mark Dayton’s diagnosis. I can’t speak for David, but I had no knowledge whatsoever.
There are many people I *suspect* have a mental illness of some sort or another, but suspecting and knowing are two different things.
I am confused about your statement that you knew about his mental illness because later in your post you ask about what his diagnosis is. If you knew of it, couldn’t you share that information?
As I’ve said before, I don’t need a person’s diagnosis to know whether he’s fit for the job. I can tell that by their actions.
I know of one legislator you served with who lost a child at birth. Another lost a son in Iraq. There’s certainly some reason to suspect that such traumatic events could’ve caused some period of depression. This is classified as a mental illness.
When the former was running for re-election, none of us asked her if the loss of her child — or more accurately, the effect of losing her child — affected her fitness to serve.
Moreover, none of us made the distinction of her fitness based on asking her — not whether she was fit to serve — but whether she underwent treatment. Wink. Wink. Wink. If you sought treatment — bad. If you kept it under wraps, well, who’s the wiser, eh?
If the Star Tribune really wanted to tell us something about the candidates, the question shouldn’t have been “have you ever sought treatment for a mental illness.” The question should have been, “have you ever had periods in your life where you think treatment or therapy for an event taking place might’ve helped you.”
That would have given me more information about a candidate’s fitness to serve because I would’ve known instantly that anyone asking “no” is probably a liar.
Bob Collins
14 Jan 10 at 5:53 pm
Thanks for your input-this has been an issue I’ve thought a lot about.
First I used David’s thoughts because they were so on point and his blog is a near daily stop of mine. You were quoted because of your obviously strong feelings on the matter – and the fact I’m a loyal reader of yours. Both of you make strong arguments.
If I left any impression that I thought David Brauer and Bob Collins had prior knowledge of Dayton’s illness, I apologize to both of them and my readers. That was not my intent.
However, rumors of Dayton’s illness was openly discussed by Republicans and Democrats, in my presence, and several years prior to my election to the Legislature. I have to believe that some of the media knew about it and chose not to investigate. That’s my opinion.
My question about independently verifying the diagnosis stems from personal experience dealing with those with mental illness. Believe it or not, many folks don’t fully divulge their history when asked in a medical setting. They hold back due to the stigma, amoung other things, I suppose.
But it is Dayton himself that admits that he is trying to get out in front of the story before an opponent can use it. Letting a pol define a controversial issue when the pol himself has something to lose seems to me to be something the press rarely does.
The balance of your comment goes right to the point of why this is such a difficult issue. Your arguments have been well reasoned. But let’s consider what Dr Frank Farley said on Keri Miller’s show – and I paraphrase,”If it is mild depression, that is one thing. But if it is Bipolar Disorder then that may be something else..”
That was my thought long before Dr Farley said it.
Duke
14 Jan 10 at 6:55 pm
True, it MAY be something else. But what? Are people smart enough to know? Are they educated on the subject. Like I said, I look around Minnesota and I see lots of people I think are bipolar. But the Strib didn’t ask if they were bipolar, they asked about treatment.
Personally, I’d be much more concerned about untreated bipolar than that which is being treated.
I mentioned on the live blog I did on Kerri’s show that this area also invites inspection of the children since bipolar disorder is believed to be genetic.
I thought it was somewhat indicative of the stigma that when Kerri asked about mental health issues, the guest said it was a legitimate issue. “What about having an affiar?” she then asked. Right, of course, having a mental issue and committing adultery are on roughly the same level. Same with the Strib, mental health was one question, use of illegal substances was the other one (and, of course, you’re correct about self medication; the bars are full of people with undiagnosed mental health issues).
It was also interesting to me that the guest in the first half hour said the question of whether a candidate had sex with someone not his/her spouse was “off limits,” and then a minute later agreed when the other guest said “everything is on the table” where politicians are concerned. Well, which is it?
When a politician ran for governor a few years ago, most media — as I recall — were waiting for him to invoke family values. Why? Because “everyone knew” (meaning someone knew someone who said something) that he’d had an affair. He never mentioned it, but that didn’t prevent one local humorist from writing a column in Salon.com that basically said “everyone knows he picks up women at the St. Paul Grille.”
I was ashamed to be in the same business as the guy.
Imagine if we put as much work in investigating and publicizing the candidates’ vision for Minnesota instead of the stump speech, vague, nonsense that passes for political coverage now? How could would that be. Issues. And, of course, how disinterested would the public be? Heck, this is the state that votes for people because their name is Anderson.
Bob Collins
14 Jan 10 at 8:47 pm