“There is no great genius without some touch of madness.” Aristotle

While this is a space for me to write about the science behind mental illness, I was recently inspired to write about something that I also find very important: breaking down the stigmas that surround mental illness.

Just over a year ago, when I was hoping to pursue a PhD, I was told that I should seek other paths in life because I've struggled with mental illness. Unfortunately, I quite literally have to wear my struggles on my sleeve, while some mental illness can fly under the radar. She thought she was helping me, guiding me away from a path that she thought would lead to inevitable failure. "I've never seen someone with depression get through a PhD program. I've seen them try," she told me, "but eventually they left or just barely made it through by the skin of their teeth." I was discouraged; the very thing that had launched me into mental health research was, apparently, going to be my demise in academia. I let her fuel my mental illness, catapulting me into a deep depression filled with self-deprecation and self-destruction. Just a few months later, I was half-heartedly filling out applications for graduate programs, knowing I would be rejected. With what I thought had to be a stroke of dumb luck, I got into the Master's program in Psychology. I was convinced that they made a mistake, but I decided to dive in, anyway. 

This week, in my Clinical Psychology seminar, a wonderful professor came in to teach us about the models of treating mental illness. We were learning about Marsha Linehan, the psychologist that created the innovative Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). "You're probably wondering how someone comes up with a therapy that could help so many people with difficult to treat disorders," my professor said. "She revealed recently that she had struggled with Borderline Personality Disorder and was suicidal, the issues she now helps to treat." The year-long knot in my stomach began to loosen as hope flooded back into my veins. I spent the next two days researching the many successful people that we had no idea struggled with mental illness and discovered that Marsha Linehan wasn’t alone. Many of the people we learn about in our history and science classes that helped shape the world we live in today had their own battles to fight. This post is as much for me as it is for all of you; we need to begin to put a face to mental illness instead of allowing it to become an entrenched societal stigma. People with mental illness are not incapable, they are not lazy, they are not “crazy.” We are different, but that does not make us worthless.

I'll list just a few of the other many successful people who have struggled with mental illness; this list is anything but exhaustive, as success and mental illness are anything but mutually exclusive.

Elyn Saks graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University, earned her Master’s at Oxford, earned her J.D. from Yale Law School, and holds a Ph.D. in psychoanalytic science from the New Center for Psychoanalysis. In 2009, Saks was selected as a MacArthur Fellow and received a $500,000 genius grant. Saks also lives with schizophrenia, a disorder with a heavy stigma and an often bleak prognosis. Her disorder began when she was a student at Oxford. She now writes about legal issues related to mental health and advocates for proper treatment: "we who struggle with these disorders can lead full, happy, productive lives, if we have the right resources."

(Watch Elyn’s amazing TED talk here: http://www.ted.com/talks/elyn_saks_seeing_mental_illness?language=en)

Isaac Newton, a physicist, philosopher, astronomer, mathematician and mentally ill. It’s thought that Isaac Newton had bipolar disorder, psychotic tendencies and possibly fell on the autism spectrum. This didn’t stop Newton from developing theories in modern physics, laws of planetary motion, and laws of gravity – all incredible discoveries within the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century.

Winston Churchill, widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, often spoke of the “black dog of depression” that followed him throughout his life. While he spent much of his time as Prime Minister trying to determine what the next step should be in World War II with Hitler, he also spent a great deal of time contemplating ending his own life. Some say that his battle with depression may have allowed him to see hope in the hopeless of World War II, and that his bouts of mania were responsible for the 43 books that he wrote.

Buzz Aldrin became the second man to walk on the moon, piloting the first human lunar landing in history. Famous and beloved, Buzz had his share of struggles that we couldn’t see. After coming back to Earth, the fame and changes got the best of him and he fell into a deep depression and an even deeper battle with alcoholism. Following his struggles, he became a chairman of the National Mental Health Association.

Others include Abraham Lincoln, J.K. Rowling, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Darwin, Calvin Coolidge, John Nash, John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt…the list goes on for miles.

We should never allow our illnesses to deter us from our dreams, but rather inspire us to run faster toward them. Never allow anyone to tell you otherwise. Yes, these illnesses are obstacles, but as the old saying goes, nothing worth having will ever come easy.