The past few weeks readers have been deluged with the diagnoses by lay people regarding mental illness. According to many pundits at the Globe and Mail, the National Post, the CBC, the two men who murdered our soldiers were not terrorists, they were mentally ill.
The few facts available pointed to a lone wolf terrorist, based on expert opinion that was available at that time. There was not one fact that could justify the diagnosis of mental illness. Not one. I say this as a mental health advocate. I have written extensively about mental illness and have a six part radio series “The Many Voices of Mental Illness.” I also have a mental illness with a familial history of mental illness and have experienced suicidal ideation. In my role as a chaplain I have worked with people with mental illness.
Now we are learning more about Jian Ghomeshi. I have no particular feelings either way about him. But an article by Margaret Wente in the Globe and Mail opened a window onto his life that no one else had exposed.
First, that he had a therapist-someone the “mentally ill” terrorists didn’t have.Second, the teddy bear. He had a teddy bear as a child named “Big Ears.” And he had a teddy bear as an adult named “Big Ears” to help him with his generalized anxiety that had plagued him for years. And it was his therapist who suggested he get that teddy bear. Mr. Ghomeshi said,
“Big Ears has played a really important role in my life.”
“Two of his accusers say he invited her to his house and proceeded to assault her. Each alleges that before he began, Mr. Ghomeshi turned the bear to the wall and said, ‘Big Ears Teddy shouldn’t see this.’” Wente found this to be “beyond creepy.” So do I. All my alarm bells went off when I read that. If a patient of mine in hospital had shared those stories with me I would have run, not walked, to speak to the psychiatrist on call.
I cannot be the only one who wonders why Mr. Ghomeshi said “Big Ears Teddy” should not see this? Did it not raise suspicions? I wondered right away what had little Big Ears Teddy seen? I have no idea if he was abused as a child, in front of teddy, but reading this, I have lots of questions. Was his mother abused by his father? Did he beat her? Did Jian see this? Do you think a childhood like that might trigger generalized anxiety and then lead to his behaviour? This isn’t a justification. It is a possible explanation, mitigating circumstances-a “root cause.”
For me, there are so many hints of a mental illness, but up until the fifth estate report on November 28, I hadn’t heard a word about the possibility of mental illness.
According to Chris Boyce, head of CBC Radio, Ghomeshi lied when he posted to Facebook that he had been offered the chance to walk away quietly before he was fired, to leave the impression it was his own decision.
“That is untrue,” said Mr. Boyce. He said Mr. Ghomeshi was offered 24 hours to provide more information, possibly about a mental illness.
They were looking for a possibility of mental illness? Unlike their diatribes on air declaring that the terrorists were mentally ill without one fact, the CBC was not prepared to jump to the conclusion that Mr. Ghomeshi had a mental illness despite facts?
Interviews with two former producers, Sean Foley and Brian Coulton, describe how Mr. Ghomeshi “broke down” and confessed to them while on location in Winnipeg last spring, saying he likes rough sex and an angry ex-girlfriend is “threatening to tell everybody.” He said he was confident he had done nothing illegal.
Sounds like a man unraveling to me. Is it a mental illness? Why was he not accorded by the CBC the same courtesy of a fact-free diagnosis of mental illness from the very beginning, like the terrorists?
And I am left wondering about the rights of employees. It is my understanding as a lay person that employees found to be suffering from a mental illness must be accommodated in the work place. If the CBC had any inkling at any time that Mr. Ghomeshi was dealing with a mental illness that had overwhelmed him were they not obligated to help him? To make it a better work-place environment for him? Before firing him?
This is not an article that is meant to take away the pain from all those who have alleged that they have been hurt by Mr. Ghomeshi. Yes, there are some people who are born without a scintilla of empathy and none will be developed with life experience. These are people who will not improve with medication or therapy. But millions of people with mental illness, from schizophrenia to generalized anxiety and depression, improve with the right medication and therapy and live great lives.
The media was sure that the men who murdered our soldiers were mentally ill; yet, when it comes to Mr. Ghomeshi, not a peep. Why? Does Mr. Ghomeshi, a man who has a teddy bear whom he turns away during “sex,” sound normal to you?
Of the two, I am prepared to suggest that Mr. Ghomeshi has mental health issues and that perhaps his therapist missed a few signs, long before I would ever accept the media’s diagnosis, (especially the CB C)of mental illness as a root cause of the terrorism that took place on Canada’s soil. What does the CBC gain by calling terrorists mentally ill but not offering that possibility to Mr. Ghomeshi?
