Blog
Ryan Tubridy Show: Interview with author Scarlett Curtis on mental illness
- October 10, 2019
- Category: Blog Of interest from media
Ahead of World Mental Health Day, Ryan Tubridy interviewed author Scarlett Curtis about her personal experiences with anxiety, depression and PTSD, inequalities around access to treatment and her generational history with psychology and psychiatry as the great-great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud
Curtis spoke following publication of her book It’s Not OK To Feel Blue (and other lies), a collection of over 70 essays and stories she curated chronicling what people’s mental health means to them. Curtis’
You can listen to the full interview here. Some relevant quotes are below:
Originally believing PTSD only applied to soldiers returning from war or people who have experienced traumatic life events, Curtis said, “It took me a long time to wrap my head around the idea that [PTSD] could be something that applied to me.”
“We need to talk about the ways in which mental health isn’t equal. So many people don’t have access to care. On average it takes a young person around 10 years to find adequate treatment for their mental health… I really wanted to acknowledge that my story wasn’t the norm when it comes to having access to help.”
“When Sigmund Freud was working, he was still using the term ‘hysteria’, which was given to women who, looking back now, they were probably suffering from some form of anxiety and they were labelled this ‘hysteric’ and locked away.”