If former N.H. Chief Justice John Broderick had known the signs of mental illness, he might have saved himself and his son, Christian, a lot of heartache. Now he’s on a mission to see that others can identify the signs early and obtain help.
Broderick is co-chair of Change Direction New Hampshire, a statewide campaign that kicks off at the Statehouse in Concord on May 23 at 10 a.m.
Not feeling yourself? Are you feeling agitated? Are you feeling withdrawn? Taking care of yourself? Are you feeling hopeless? The answers to these questions are keys to the five signs of a mental health condition. But the problem, Broderick said, is that people don’t know them and as a society we’re not talking about it.
The reason? Shame.
“A lot of the response is based on ignorance and fear,” Broderick said. “If we just grow up as a society.”
The more we talk about mental illness and educate ourselves, the faster society will shed the shame, he said. That’s what happened with breast cancer, he said, recalling how at one time it was something taboo, whispered even among family members.
“Over time, the stigma will start to wash away,” he said. “I wish I had known about [mental illness].”
Growing up, Christian was a good kid, Broderick recalled, but as he became a teenager things changed. He was more withdrawn. Eventually, he began drinking and that became the focus. That was in the mid-’80s.
“He was self-medicating,” Broderick said about his son. “A lot of kids, that’s where it starts. … It usually gets worse.”
It wasn’t until Christian was 27 that he realized he had a mental health issue.
“Parents need to be smarter than I was. I wasn’t even thinking about mental illness,” Broderick said.
Not everyone who uses drugs has mental illness, Broderick said, but it’s common. “It takes some of the anxiety away for a while,” he said. “But ultimately it takes you to a bad place.”
Educating the public about the signs of mental illness will mean more people can get the help they need early, Broderick said, and perhaps it will keep more people out of jail and from overdosing.
The campaign began with a few conversations between Broderick and Barbara Van Dahlen, a noted child psychologist.
Based in Bethesda, Maryland, Van Dahlen wanted her next campaign to be more inclusive, Broderick said, and she wanted to do it in New Hampshire. Her idea was to make the five common signs of mental illness widely known, just the way the signs of heart attack are.
“I said, ‘How can I help?’” Broderick said.
Van Dahlen asked him to create a steering committee, and eventually Broderick realized they needed to raise money. “In 30 days, we raised $150,000,” he said, noting New Hampshire hospitals and private donors have been generous.
“Almost everybody I spoke with had an anecdote, a story,” Broderick said. “They also know there’s a huge stigma around mental illness.”
But Broderick said mental illness is more common than people realize. A recent survey of members of the N.H. Bar Association, for example, showed a high rate of depression, he noted. And in the country as a whole, 2016 is seeing a 30-year high for suicides.
“It’s very alarming,” Broderick said.
“There’s no one who doesn’t need to learn more about mental illness.”