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Health

I am an 18 year old feminist who was diagnosed with chronic depression and borderline personality disorder. As I am sure you know, women suffer from mental problems like mine far more than men. I wonder, why do feminists not seem to be vocal for the plight of women like me? Are you too affected by the social stigmas... Well, if there is any organization I can join to advocate for mentally ill women, please let me know. I am in DC.

I am not an expert in any way--especially as related to personality disorder--so I'm not sure if my direction is correct.

I wanted to make sure that you were familiar with the work of Judith Herman, Alice Miller, Jeffrey Mason, Sandra Bloom---all of whom have writen extensively on the issue of child abuse in all of it's forms. As you may or may not know, abuse often manifests itself in the form of depression and personality disorder later in life--and all of their books touch on this subject. This means both abuse that is ignored or forgotten and therefore dealt with in this way--as well as abuse that has been "dealt with." There are also a few books by Charlotte Kasl--who looks a little bit at gender and how it relates to depression. Phyllis Chesler has also written numerous books on this subject and articles--mostly for On The Issues magazine. On the line of abuse, there is also a special done for HBO on the subject of MPD--this was co-produced by Gloria Steinem.

At FEMINIST.COM itself, you might want to read an article at the site: Wing of Madness: My Experience with Depression by Deborah M. Deren. According to Marianne Schnall, the president of FEMINIST.COM: "It's a great article, with lots of insights and resources".

Good luck and let me know if you have problems locating any of the above and/or if this wasn't at all want you wanted.


Amy

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