[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1OBJqhF7MI
Pragya Tank’s TEDx talk, “Schizophrenia Through a Child’s Lens (2016), struck a chord with me due to its personal portrayal of mental illness through the perspective of a child. Tank’s recounting of her mother’s schizophrenia not only humanizes the incredibly stigmatized disorder, but also highlights the broader impacts that mental health problems have beyond the individual agent and in the family. Tank’s vulnerability in sharing how childhood innocence intertwines with the complex and terrifying experiences of living with a parent who struggles with mental health underscores that maladaptive mental health can feel isolated–yet is collective and permeates through the family. This is a similar sentiment to Knopf’s (2017) discussion on trauma induced by family separations in immigration contexts as one person's mental health in a family can compound and transfer to affect the physical and mental health of those around them.
Relating this video to our class discussion on the power of diagnosis and the ethics of mental health treatment, Wheeler and Axelrod’s (2020) analysis of the DSM-5 provides a terrific framework. Emphasizing the importance of cultural and contextual factors in diagnosis, aligning with Tank’s experiences where societal stigma and lack of understanding exacerbated her family struggles, reminds diagnosis can be stigmatic depending on the context derived. Similarly, our discussions on historical trauma, as outlined by Beltrán (2019), connect with the generational impact of mental illness. As historical trauma affects not only individuals but entire communities, Tank’s experience illustrates how untreated mental health conditions can perpetuate cycles of trauma within families through interacting with broader communities.
From within a PROP lens, Tank’s story offers some profound lessons. With Finn (2021) defining engagement as a process of being fully present and honoring personhood, Tank's story reveals missed opportunities for professionals to engage compassionately with her mother and herself. Tank’s narrative educates us about the embodied experiences and lived realities of children in caregiving roles due to the mental health conditions of their family, and how resilience is often built prematurely–when lucky.
From Tank’s story, I am thinking about how mental health professionals can better support children who are secondary victims of mental illness within their families? What systems of care and community engagement could be implemented to ensure they do not carry the weight of caregiving alone–especially because they are children.