one in four people suffer from some sort
of mental illness so if it was a one two
three four its user you yeah with with
the way or teeth and you next to him you
know who you are actually that whole row
isn't right
that's not good hi yeah real bad don't
even look at me I am one of the one in
four thank you
I think I inherited from my mother who I
used to crawl around the house on all
fours she had two sponges in her hand
and then she had to tied to her knees
my mother was completely absorbent and
she would crawl around behind me going
home brings footprints and or building
so that was kind of a clue that things
weren't right so before I start before I
start I would like to thank the makers
of lamotrigine sertraline and reboxetine
because without those two simple
chemicals I would not be vertical today
so how did it start my mental illness
started with I'm not even going to talk
about my mental illness what am I going
to talk about okay I always dreamt that
when I had my final breakdown it would
be because I had a deep cough guy asked
existentialist revelation or that maybe
Cate Blanchett would play me and she
would win an Oscar for it but that's not
that's not what happened I had my
breakdown during my daughter's sports
day there were all the UH parents
sitting in a parking lot eating food out
of the back of their car only the
English eating their sausages they loved
their sausages
lord and lady rigor mortis were nibbling
on the tarmac and then the gun went off
and all the girlies started running and
all the mummies went all the girlies
girlies running running running
everybody except for my daughter who was
just standing at the starting line just
waving cuz she didn't know she was
supposed to run so I I took to my bed
for about a month and when I woke up I
found I was institutionalized and when I
saw the other inmates I realized that I
had found my people my tribe because
they became my only friends they became
my friends because very few people that
I knew well I wasn't sent a lot of cards
or flowers I mean if I had had a broken
leg or I was with child I would have
been inundated but all I got was a
couple phone calls telling me to perk up
perk up because I didn't think of that
because you know the one thing one thing
that you get with this disease this one
comes with the package is you get a real
sense of shame because your friends go
oh come on show me the lumps show me the
x-rays and of course you got nothing to
show so you're like really disgusted
with yourself because you're thinking
I'm not being carpet bombed I don't live
in a Township so you start to hear these
abusive voices but you don't hear one of
abusive voice you hear about a thousand
abuse a hundred thousand abusive voices
like if the devil had Tourette's that's
what it would sound like but we all know
in here you know there is no devil there
are no voices in your head you know that
when you have those abusive voices all
those little neurons get together and in
that little gap you get a real toxic I
want to kill myself kind of chemical and
if you have that over and over again on
a loop tape you might have yourself
depression oh and that's not even the
tip of the iceberg if you get a little
baby and you abuse it verbally its
little brain sends out chemicals that
are so destructive that the little part
of its brain that can tell good from bad
just doesn't grow so you might have
yourself a homegrown psychotic if a
soldier sees his friend blown up his
brain goes into such high alarm that he
can't actually put the experience into
words so he just feels the horror over
and over again so here's my question my
question is how come when people have
mental damage it's always an act of
imagination
how come every other organ in your body
can get sick and you get sympathy except
the brain I'd like to talk a little bit
more about the brain because I know you
like that here at Ted so if you just
give me a minute here okay okay let me
just say there's some good news there is
some good news first of all let me say
we've come a long long way we started
off as a teeny teeny little one-celled
amoeba tiny inches sticking on to Iraq
and now voila the brain there we go
this little baby has a lot of horsepower
it's not come comes completely conscious
it's got state-of-the-art lobes we got
the occipital lobe so we can actually
see the world we got the temporal lobe
so we can actually hear the world here
we got a little bit of long-term memory
so you know that night you want to
forget when you got really drugged by by
God
so I actually it's filled with a hundred
billion neurons just seizing away
electrically transmitting information
visiting I'm going to give you a little
side view here I don't know if you can
get that here so vising away and die so
um and for everyone I know I drew this
myself thank you for every one one
single neuron you can actually have from
10,000 to 100,000 different connections
or dendrites or whatever you want to
call it and every time you learn
something or you have an experience that
Bush grows you know that Bush of
information can you imagine every human
being is carrying that equipment even
Paris Hilton go figure
but I got a little bad news for you
folks got some bad news
this isn't for the wanted for this is
for the for and for we are not equipped
for the 21st century evolution did not
prepare us for this we just don't have
the bandwidth and for people who say oh
they're having a nice day they're
perfectly fried they're more insane than
the rest of us because I'll show you
where there might be a few glitches in
evolution okay let me just explain this
- when we were ancient man millions of
years ago and we've suddenly felt
threatened by a predator okay we would
thank you I drew these myself thank you
very much thank you
anyway we would fill up with our own
adrenaline our own cortisol and then we
kill or be killed we eat or we be eaten
and then suddenly we D fuel and we go
back to normal okay so the problem is
nowadays with modern man when we feel in
danger we still fill up with our own
chemical but because we can't kill with
traffic wardens or
eat estate agents the field just stays
in our body over and oh so we're in a
constant state of alarm constant state
and here's another thing that happened
about a hundred and fifty thousand years
ago when language came online we started
to put words to this constant emergency
so it wasn't just oh my god there's a
saber-toothed tiger which could be it
was suddenly oh my god I didn't send the
email oh my god my thighs are too fat oh
my god everybody can see I'm stupid I
didn't get invited to the Christmas
party so you got this nagging loop tape
that goes over and over again the drives
you'd say so you see what the problem is
what once made you safe now drives you
insane I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad
news but somebody has to be your pets
are happier than you are
so kitty cat Wow happy happy happy human
being screwed completely it are so
screwed but my point is if we don't talk
about this stuff and we don't learn how
to deal with our lives it's not going to
be 1 in 4 it's going to be 4 & 4 who are
really really going to get ill in the
upstairs department and while we're at
it can we please stop the stigma thank
you