APRIL 2008
the newsletter for Nuçi’s Space, a nonprofit musicians’ support/resource center
Ignorance is bliss… S
everal nights ago I was at home enjoying the lightning show, the much-needed rain and the sound of hail on the window. I love this kind of weather and because I now live in a highrise building, I no longer worry about a tree falling on the house or the gutters filling up with debris. Not until a friend called did we find out that just seven or eight miles down Peachtree a tornado was decimating the Atlanta downtown area. It reminded me of 9/11. We had just moved into our condo and our TV was not yet connected. It wasn’t until a friend called to ask about our son who lives in New York that we understood what had happened.
Ignorance is bliss… There are so many things that many of us are ignorant of and because of such ignorance we shortchange our health and our happiness. Some of us choose ignorance out of fear—fear of pain, fear of judgment, fear of an inability to accept reality. Since November, the Athens community has lost two musicians to suicide. In reading about these deaths in the local papers, I noticed that in both cases, the writers hinted that a possible reason for these people taking their lives was that both had been suffering from various “physical” illnesses. Instead of addressing the most obvious reason why someone would kill himself or herself, mental illness, many of us dance around the subject as if it were to be avoided as a plausible explanation. As if the very mention of Depression is taboo. Such an omission is very telling. We know for a fact that Depression is a physical illness. Our failure to “believe” this is problematic and stigmatizing and is the reason many don’t get treatment. People kill themselves not because they want to die but because they can’t live with the pain. Imagine being
in so much pain that the only way you can see to stop the pain is by putting a gun to your head and pulling the trigger. We must not trivialize the 30,000+ lives that are lost each year to suicide. We must make appropriate treatment available, affordable and nonstigmatizing. Research is revealing just how big a role Depression plays in our lives. Dr. Charles Nemeroff, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University, says “depression is a systemic illness not just of the brain, but of the body.” It is a disease enhancer. Dr. Nemeroff states that depression increases the risk of heart attacks, congestive heart failure, hypertension and “is as significant a risk factor as cigarette smoking” is for heart disease. There needs to be a major campaign on par with the anti smoking crusade to alert people to the dangers and risks associated with unidentified and untreated Depression.
Ignorance is bliss… For a while, I was ignorant of the tornado that tore up downtown Atlanta. For a while, I was ignorant of the airplanes flying into the World Trade Center. But not even for a little while am I ignorant of the devastating effects of untreated Depression. I know what it can do. I lost a son to it. It got my attention! Just as I know now that it’s a myth that tornadoes don’t hit urban, highly populated areas like downtown Atlanta, I also know that Depression wreaks its havoc across the board. It attacks us all. It does not discriminate. Being ignorant of this terrible disease does not keep it at bay. In fact, ignorance is just ignorance… the stuff of which myth and stigma are made. Linda V Phillips
nuçi’s space 396 Oconee Street Athens, GA 30601 706.227.1515 space@nuci.org www.nuci.org
Newsletter contributors
Linda V Phillips Bob Sleppy Alyssa Bernstein Will Kiser Laura Ford Design & Layout
Larry Tenner