There is something bothering me. I frequently flip around to different radio stations while I am driving. One of the radio stations I listen to used treatments for depression as a joke. I find this offensive. They would not make jokes about a heart medication or chemotherapy. Why is it okay to joke about mental illness treatments? This radio station seems to think that ketamine and psilocybin are humorous. As someone who is treated with ketamine in the form of esketamine, I did not find their jokes funny. I need this treatment to battle depression. It is not a joke to me or to the many people who receive these treatments. It is not a joke to the mental health professionals who treat people with ketamine and psilocybin.
I understand that this radio station pokes fun at a lot. Its computer-generated voice is intended to be funny. Sometimes it is funny. I even laugh at some of their jokes, but that is when the humor is not at someone’s expense. Unfortunately, making jokes about mental health treatments is not funny and it does hurt people. It perpetuates the stigma surrounding mental health. These jokes might stop a person who is suffering from mental illness from trying a treatment that could bring healing.
Living with mental illness is difficult enough without jokes being made at our expense. We need access to treatments that can provide healing. I guess the jokes may have seemed harmless to many. Just a little radio humor. Maybe there was no ill-intent, and it was a product of not understanding the harm that it caused. That does not excuse the airing of the jokes. A media company has a certain obligation to be aware of what they are airing. A simple internet search about ketamine and psilocybin would have provided information on how these treatments help people and are not a laughing matter.
I was not going to call out the radio station, but I have not received a response to the email I sent. First, I sent an email to the parent company. I received a response from them saying they did not have control over what the local stations say on the air. The message stated that my email would be forwarded to the Los Angeles station. I have not heard anything from the local station. So, I feel I am justified in saying which station made these jokes. It is Jack FM, 93.1 in Southern California.
We need more education about how mental illness impacts people. An effort needs to be made to learn more about treatments and to understand that these treatments are just as important as the treatments for physical illnesses. I have this platform. So, today’s post is my attempt to draw attention to the need for radio stations and other media outlets to be aware of how their words impact people.
I have written about esketamine on this blog before. If you are interested in learning more about this treatment, check out these posts, Gardening the Mind (Esketamine Treatment), which was a guest post written by psychiatric nurse practitioner, Stephanie Debnath, PMHNP, who treats patients with esketamine, and Fertilization and Purple Lights (Esketamine Treatment), which I wrote to share my experience with esketamine as a treatment for my depression.
I do not know enough about psilocybin to write a post right now, but I will make an effort to learn and write a post in the near future.
I still hope to hear from the radio station. It is also my hope that the radio station will try to avoid these types of jokes.
I hope this post makes people aware that mental illness is not a joke. I also hope it provides an appreciation for the fact that people with mental illness deserve understanding and empathy, not ridicule.
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