Dr. Mark Maggio

Des Moines Area Community College professor Mark Maggio says desperate Wall Streeters looking for a $700 billion bailout recall the story of the boy who cried wolf.

The bailout package, pounded from the political left and right, failed in Congress Monday.

“I thought yesterday was a great day for American democracy,” says Maggio, who teaches economics at several DMACC campuses around the state.

Maggio said Wall Street elites, who he believes have spent careers talking down to Iowans and others, should absorb the pain of their own poor decisions. He thinks their threats about economic calamity in the form of predicted depressions and recessions ring hollow.

“It’s not going to be as bad as the little boy who cried wolf said,” Maggio said. “When people cry wolf I think it spooks people.”

Maggio said that when the question of the bailout is put to regular Americans, outside the corridors of congressional leadership offices and Wall Street boards, the reaction is outright hostility.

“I’ve never heard such unanimity of opinion,” Maggio said.

In fact, Maggio said, this watershed financial question is a rare time where liberals and conservatives are both correct with their reasons for opposing the bailout.

In Iowa, Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley opposed the package because he thinks it’s a life preserver being thrown to money men who have fallen off their financial yachts. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Steve King, a western Iowa conservative, blasted the bailout as fundamentally at odds with American free-market philosophy.

Maggio agrees with both lines of reasoning.

“It is a rare day,” Maggio said.

Some financial analysts argue that issues of morality should not be injected into the market, that actual outcome is all that matters and people shouldn’t be so concerned about fairness.

“That’s an old economics philosophy,” Maggio said. “People like me are moving away from that.”

Maggio said Americans see what is really going on with Wall Street.

“They privatized the gain and now they want to socialize the losses,” he said.

Maggio said it is not a radical idea to do nothing for the troubled companies now seeking a taxpayer rescue.
He believes the credit crunch may have a needed punishing effect on large financial institutions that carried much too high debt-to-asset ratios, and sought easy paper wealth associated with poorly backed mortgages.

“We’ve been living high and wild,” he said.

Maggio says both presidential candidates, U.S. Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., have been but bit actors in the debate over the bailout.

“I’m going to argue that both have been insignificant players,” Maggio said.

In terms of more localized impact, Maggio said community banks still need to make profits and will be able to loan money to people for cars and homes.

“The bank is still going to want to make money,” he said.

And average investors who are seeing their mutual fund portfolios and retirements dive should hold their hands, Maggio said.

“It’s only logical to do nothing because if you get out now, you get out at the bottom,” Maggio said.

He said farmland will remain a strong asset.

“I see nothing to indicate that that is going to go down,” Maggio said.

In the end, Maggio said, a collaboration of wealthy Wall Streeter and congressional leaders of both parties and President Bush, have falsely portrayed the bailout of troubled companies as a bulwark against financial Armageddon.

“That’s an essentially strong characteristic of America that we don’t do what out leaders tell us to,” Maggio said.

“I don’t think we became friends in a traditional way — that, at first, we really liked one another,” one of the friends admitted in little more than a whisper. “We came together more out of necessity.”

Their differences are striking. One, a petite redhead, is a stay-at-home-mom. She married her high school sweetheart and never intended her life to be anything less than perfect. Another, a busty brunette, has always put career first and graduated from an Ivy League school. She works 10-hour days and often proclaims antacids to be a modern miracle drug. Not one of the friends can remember the third’s natural hair color, but describe her as a tightrope walker, always working to achieve balance between family and home.

Normally, the group is talkative. Voices often overlap or one will finish another’s sentence. Today, the women steal glances at the recorder sitting in the middle of the table and shift uncomfortably in their seats.

“What will you write?” the brunette asks and her eyes scan the room like a spy discussing national secrets. “My co-workers have no idea. Hell, my husband has no idea.”

The redhead doesn’t wait until her friend’s thought is complete before voicing her own. “The other parents think I have it so together. I really couldn’t bear for them, or anyone, to know. Please don’t use my name.”

The Stigma of Depression

Carolyn Turvey, who holds a doctorate from Yale University and serves as an associate professor for the University of Iowa’s Department of Psychiatry, said it isn’t unusual for people to feel ashamed of depression.

“A lot of people still believe, wrongly of course, that depression is a sign of moral failure,” Turvey said. “They believe that if they are depressed that they don’t have their act together or that they don’t appreciate things in life. Some people even believe that if you’re depressed then you are crazy.”

While attitudes have been changing in terms of society’s view of depression over the past decade, such myths related to the disease persist.

“Depression is a medical illness and it can be treated,” she said. “There is no more reason to be stigmatized by it than to be stigmatized by having diabetes or any other illness. These beliefs, however, do persist and they often keep people from seeking the help they need and also staying with the help they need to relieve the depression.”

Depression, according to Turvey, occurs consistently twice as often in women than in men. Although this has been studied extensively, there are no definitive answers as to why women are more susceptible.

“There has been full gamut of explanations,” she said. “Some say it is due to societal depression. Others say it is due to hormones.”

In today’s psychology research, she said, there is also a strong belief that women, through their tendency to go over and over issues in their minds and with friends, might not solve their problems as well and be more likely to become depressed.

Living With Depression

Symptoms of depression can be different for each person. Some people just feel numb while others feel sad or helpless. Others are easily irritated. Some crave food while others have to be reminded to eat. Almost all who suffer from depression, however, report no longer having interest in things previously found enjoyable.

The three friends, who agreed to allow use of their middle names, had different experiences with depression. Elaine, the brunette, was already taking antidepressants and seeing a therapist when she became pregnant. Meghan, the stay-at-home redhead, experienced depression after the birth of her first child. The third friend, Ann, used antidepressants for a six-month period to help her combat situational depression following the death of a family member. She had been drug- and symptom-free for years when, without a known trigger, she became depressed again.

“I thought I was past it — thought I had beat it,” Ann said. “I ignored the symptoms when they first began because I didn’t want to be that person anymore. I didn’t want to have to take a pill and admit that I was weak.

“By the time I did force myself to go to the doctor, I was a complete mess. I cried all the time and over really minor things. I didn’t want to do anything — care for my children, clean my house, make my bed, fix my hair, get dressed. I was an empty shell.”

Meghan pays cash for her anti-depressants because she doesn’t even want her insurance company to know that she’s taking them.

“My doctor thinks I might be coming to a place where we can start moving away from the medication,” she said. “I’m really scared about that. I seriously thought I had lost my mind before I started using the pills. The only thing I could think about was death — not ever wanting to hurt anyone or hurt myself — but just planning for death. We all know that we will die someday, but I thought I was going to die every day. I was afraid to fall asleep because I thought I wouldn’t wake up. I was afraid to let the children sleep because I thought they wouldn’t wake up. I had jugs of water at strategic locations throughout the house because I was sure a fire would start and we’d all die.”

Elaine nodded her head in agreement. “Nothing falls into place when you depressed,” she said. “I had visions of strangling the McDonald’s cashier when she messed up my order. I hated everything and everyone because I was convinced that everything and everyone hated me. The punch line is that I was also adamant that there was nothing I could do to change the situation. In response, I removed myself from life, family and friends. I could have spent weeks in my bed.”

The Road to Treatment

A news story of an Iowa mother accused in the death of her infant was the tipping point for Meghan.

“The depression started before I even gave birth,” she said. “I knew that something wasn’t right — that I wasn’t reacting to things like I should. First I was told that I was nervous about the upcoming delivery. When I took no interest in my daughter after she was born, I was told that I had the ‘baby blues’ and that it would pass. I went home after that doctor’s visit and put my daughter in the crib. She was crying and I just stood there and thought, ‘Shut up. Shut up. I can’t take this anymore. I don’t know what you want. Shut up.’ Then I walked away from the crib and went into the back yard. I think I fell asleep. I’m not sure.”

Meghan’s husband came home a few hours later and found the couple’s daughter still in the crib. He was nearly to the point of calling police to report his wife missing when she came in the back door.

“He just looked at me like I was the worst piece of garbage in the world,” Meghan said, oblivious to the tears that now streaked her face. “I knew he was right. A good mother doesn’t walk away from her child… but I did.”

She turned to the internet for information and discovered news articles about Heidi Anfinson, a Des Moines mom who is now serving a 50-year sentence for the death of her son. Anfinson said her son accidentally drowned at home in his bath and that she panicked and placed his body in a nearby lake. The state claimed that she purposefully drowned the infant in the lake. Anfinson’s family asserted throughout the criminal investigation and subsequent trial that the mother suffered from either postpartum depression or psychosis.

“As I read about Heidi, my skin began to crawl,” she said. “I became physically ill because I thought I was heading down the same path.”

Meghan made an appointment with a different doctor for a second opinion.

“When I told the nurse on the phone why I wanted the appointment, she told me to be at the office in two hours,” she said. “I knew then that I was going to find help and that, one way or another, everything was going to get back to normal.”

Finding Normal

Postpartum psychosis — the most extreme form of postpartum mood disorders — is very rare, according to Dr. Robin Kopelman, and occurs in only about one out of 1,000 women who give birth. When it does strike, however, it can be devastating if untreated since it carries a 5 percent suicide and a 4 percent infanticide rate.

“Often [postpartum psychosis] is the first manifestation of bipolar disorder,” said Kopelman, who sees perinatal patients with mood disorders through the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry. “This is due to a variety of reasons that often contribute to a disruption of social rhythms for these women. In particular, sleep disturbance and sleep deprivation, but also just a general disruption of their daily rhythms and routines leave them pre-disposed to a mood episode with psychotic symptoms.”

Because the cases involving psychotic episodes — such as Andrea Yates — have been so widely publicized, Kopelman said that is often what people think about when they think of postpartum depression. Such misconceptions can further add to the stigma and, perhaps, prevent a young family from seeking help.

“I think that some of the research we’ve been doing is finding that stigma isn’t keeping women from getting treatment to the same degree as it once was,” she said. “That being said, there are still many other barriers that exist to getting treatment.”

In Iowa, those barriers are a shortage of mental health professionals and the fact that women are diagnosed on a case-by-case basis. Women who are taking anti-depressant pharmaceuticals when they become pregnant or are planning a pregnancy, may or may not cease the medication.

“We certainly take into consideration what medications the woman is taking and the medication’s track record during pregnancy,” said Kopelman. “We take into account how many depressive episodes she’s had and how severe her symptoms are and have been. We consider what her experience has been coming off medication in the past. We also take into account if the woman wants to come off of medication or not.”

Iowa residents who are in need of help have a new avenue available to them through the Iowa Perinatal Depression Project, a Health Resources and Services Administration grant-funded venture through the Iowa Department of Health. Partners in the project are Iowa State University Extension and the Iowa Depression and Clinical Research Center. The website includes information on the various levels of depression that can follow pregnancy and has a hotline number for women who need assistance.

“As a part of that project, we’ve put together the website where families can go for information,” Kopelman said. “As the website expands, we will have information on the various medications oriented toward families, more information on psychotherapy and a link to the University of Iowa Women’s Wellness and Counseling Service.”

Feelings of gloom and anger had shadowed him for some time. He found his anger intensifying after cancer ended his mother’s life at age 43, his marriage failed, and an 11-year-old daughter and adult step-son died. As if all that were not enough, there was the discrimination he regularly endured as an African-American man living and working in Iowa.

But it was more than anger eating away at Campbell, 51. It was a formidable adversary that affects an estimated 24 million adults in the United States – depression.

“It bent him, but it didn’t break him,” said Ann Bell, whom Campbell considers a second mother.

Dealing with Stigma

Campbell, political director for United Steelworkers Union District 11, mentioned his depression recently during a meeting of the Iowa Commission on the Status of African-Americans, which he also serves as vice chairman. He explained why some blacks don’t seek help for depression.

“It did have a stigma,” Campbell said about his own efforts. “But it also had a sense of urgency. You know something is not right. You have to attempt to fix it. You go to a car mechanic for a car. My behavior wasn’t what I wanted and wasn’t getting me to where I wanted to be.”

But some blacks balk at seeking professional help from a mental health expert or taking medication for a mental health disorder, Campbell and others said.

Some blacks might say, “What the hell you going to see a therapist for? What the hell are they going to tell you that you don’t know already? You’re going to get better by talking to somebody?” Campbell said.

Mental Health of America is a national nonprofit group that promotes mental wellness. The organization, which has local affiliates in Dubuque, Webster City and the Sioux City area, has a special section for blacks on its website at http://www.mentalhea…

Myths in the black community can serve as barriers to treatment for depression, including a belief that if blacks could survive slavery, they can survive anything; that depression is a sign of weakness in black women who are supposed to be strong, and that it’s better to rely upon religion when times are tough, instead of a mental health professional, according to the website.

Campbell has heard the myths before. Myths can keep people mired in pain.

There’s the attitude that “it’s just life,” he said.

“It just happens. That’s the way it is. You just deal with it. That’s what black folks do. We rise above it,” he said. “Some people find solace in the church and get strength that way.”

But treatment, not church, has helped Campbell, he said.

What is depression?

Mental health disorders are common in the United States and elsewhere. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older suffer from a mental disorder in any given year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

An estimated 7 percent of Iowans experienced major depression in 2005, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

John Curtis is president of the Mental Health America of Dubuque County. The retired licensed psychologist worked for the Gannon Center for Community Mental Health for 20 years.

“Sometimes people describe depression as going into a pit,” Curtis said. “Having no way out. No options.”

The symptoms of depression can include the following, Curtis said:
]]> http://iowaindependent.com/1110/blacks-feel-added-stigma-in-seeking-help-for-depression-3/feed 0 http://iowaindependent.com/1104/blacks-feel-added-stigma-in-seeking-help-for-depression-2 http://iowaindependent.com/1104/blacks-feel-added-stigma-in-seeking-help-for-depression-2#comments Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:06:52 +0000 Dana Boone http://iowaindependent.com/1104/blacks-feel-added-stigma-in-seeking-help-for-depression-2 It dawned on John Campbell Jr. one day that he had stopped smiling.

Feelings of gloom and anger had shadowed him for some time. He found his anger intensifying after cancer ended his mother’s life at age 43, his marriage failed, and an 11-year-old daughter and adult step-son died. As if all that were not enough, there was the discrimination he regularly endured as an African-American man living and working in Iowa.

But it was more than anger eating away at Campbell, 51. It was a formidable adversary that affects an estimated 24 million adults in the United States – depression.

“It bent him, but it didn’t break him,” said Ann Bell, whom Campbell considers a second mother.

Dealing with Stigma

Campbell, political director for United Steelworkers Union District 11, mentioned his depression recently during a meeting of the Iowa Commission on the Status of African-Americans, which he also serves as vice chairman. He explained why some blacks don’t seek help for depression.

“It did have a stigma,” Campbell said about his own efforts. “But it also had a sense of urgency. You know something is not right. You have to attempt to fix it. You go to a car mechanic for a car. My behavior wasn’t what I wanted and wasn’t getting me to where I wanted to be.”

But some blacks balk at seeking professional help from a mental health expert or taking medication for a mental health disorder, Campbell and others said.

Some blacks might say, “What the hell you going to see a therapist for? What the hell are they going to tell you that you don’t know already? You’re going to get better by talking to somebody?” Campbell said.

Mental Health of America is a national nonprofit group that promotes mental wellness. The organization, which has local affiliates in Dubuque, Webster City and the Sioux City area, has a special section for blacks on its website at http://www.mentalhea…

Myths in the black community can serve as barriers to treatment for depression, including a belief that if blacks could survive slavery, they can survive anything; that depression is a sign of weakness in black women who are supposed to be strong, and that it’s better to rely upon religion when times are tough, instead of a mental health professional, according to the website.

Campbell has heard the myths before. Myths can keep people mired in pain.

There’s the attitude that “it’s just life,” he said.

“It just happens. That’s the way it is. You just deal with it. That’s what black folks do. We rise above it,” he said. “Some people find solace in the church and get strength that way.”

But treatment, not church, has helped Campbell, he said.

What is depression?

Mental health disorders are common in the United States and elsewhere. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older – about one in four adults – suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

An estimated 7 percent of Iowans experienced major depression in 2005, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

John Curtis is president of the Mental Health America of Dubuque County. The retired licensed psychologist worked for the Gannon Center for Community Mental Health for 20 years.

“Sometimes people describe depression as going into a pit,” Curtis said. “Having no way out. No options.”

The symptoms of depression can include the following, Curtis said:
]]> http://iowaindependent.com/1104/blacks-feel-added-stigma-in-seeking-help-for-depression-2/feed 0