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| Brandon Marshall |
After admitting to the world he's struggling with amental disorder it's more fitting to describe theMiami Dolphins receiver as the bravest person I've known.
Admitting to your family something is wrong with the way yourbrain's wired is courageous. Telling the world you have a mental disorder is fearless.
I had that opportunity the past decade. After sitting down with a psychiatrist for 15 minutes in 2001 she diagnosed me as bipolar disorder, handed me a bag full of drugs and told me to come back next week for more.
We repeated that cycle for a couple of months till I'd had enough. After visiting another clinician years later I discovered I wasn't properly assessed, and had been misdiagnosed.
Few of my family members have heard that story because of the shame the initial diagnosis brought, so one can only imagine what Marshall must feel like to pour his soul out to the nation Sunday in a nationally televised news conference.
"Therapeutic," he said. "It's part of my healing, and I hope it can help others heal, help others end their shame. I have a mental disorder, but it's not a death sentence."
The way Marshall viewed it, living with undiagnosed Borderline Personality Disorder, also known as BPD, would have been.
Marshall's goal was to bring awareness, but it appears he's done more. He's inspired many struggling with BPD, a mental disorder that studies say is more common thanschizophrenia and bipolar. And he's challenging the mental healthcommunity, which rarely diagnoses BPD because of its misperceptions, to provide a proper treatment plan.
He's touched others who are struggling to care for and tolerate their BPD stricken loved ones.
Mental illness causes as much, if not more distress, for its sufferers and their families as physical illnesses do.
Marshall's inspiration was his peers at McLean Hospital, where he spent three months receiving treatment, discovering things like mindfulness, radical acceptance and distress tolerance, which comes naturally to most but not to someone suffering from BPD.
During his opening statement he kept thinking about Ariel Adams, whose friends held an intervention for her on her 21st birthday to demand she seek help. And Ellen Miller Carter, who tried to commit suicide three times before she finally got the right diagnosis, and proper treatment plan.
Both Adams and Miller Carter got passed around like a hot potato by clinicians before they finally found McLean. After spending a year there as an outpatient, Miller Carter has become a mentor and sponsor for others. She's also preparing to re-launch her life.
After reading Sunday's story Bill Strickler, a St. Cloud resident, admitted he'd become reinvigorated. His wife Sharon battled with manic depression and BPD for 40 years before taking her life in December of 2009.
Stricker can't get over the fact he was living in the dark and didn't know enough about BPD to help her. That's why he's sponsoring billboard in Central Florida.
"No one wants to be rejected, especially those with BPD. Society has been locking up and separating the ill from society instead of trying to embrace them," Strickler said. "All these people with mental health illnesses, they all want peace of mind. They just don't know how to get it."
Marshall believes he's found the way.
With the assistance of McLean Hospital, the training ground for Harvard University's medical students, Marshall has been filming a documentary called Borderline Beast. It takes the world on his journey to mental health. Robert Vickers hasn't left his side for three months, following him from his depressed state up to today.
The documentary isn't flattering. It's complex and emotional, but genuine. Marshall has no intentions of repairing his NFLimage. At this stage of his life he's too busy trying to save lives like the late Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chris Henry. Marshall said he's been told that close friends and family members of Henry suspect he might have also suffered from BPD.
"You're not blessed until you bless others. There's a lot of people who suffer from what I suffer from that never have the opportunity to get the right help," said Marshall, who paid $60,000 for three months of treatment at McLean hospital. "That's my purpose in life."
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