What's so funny about mental illness?
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0:00 - 0:04One in four people suffer from some sort of mental illness,
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0:04 - 0:08so if it was one, two, three, four, it's you, sir.
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0:08 - 0:10You. Yeah. (Laughter)
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0:10 - 0:13With the weird teeth. And you next to him. (Laughter)
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0:13 - 0:14You know who you are.
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0:14 - 0:17Actually, that whole row isn't right. (Laughter)
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0:17 - 0:22That's not good. Hi. Yeah. Real bad. Don't even look at me. (Laughter)
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0:22 - 0:27I am one of the one in four. Thank you.
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0:27 - 0:30I think I inherit it from my mother, who,
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0:30 - 0:33used to crawl around the house on all fours.
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0:33 - 0:36She had two sponges in her hand, and then she had two
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0:36 - 0:40tied to her knees. My mother was completely absorbent. (Laughter)
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0:40 - 0:43And she would crawl around behind me going,
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0:43 - 0:46"Who brings footprints into a building?!"
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0:46 - 0:49So that was kind of a clue that things weren't right.
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0:49 - 0:54So before I start, I would like to thank
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0:54 - 0:58the makers of Lamotrigine, Sertraline, and Reboxetine,
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0:58 - 1:03because without those few simple chemicals, I would not be vertical today.
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1:03 - 1:08So how did it start?
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1:08 - 1:12My mental illness -- well, I'm not even going to talk about my mental illness.
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1:12 - 1:15What am I going to talk about? Okay.
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1:15 - 1:19I always dreamt that, when I had my final breakdown,
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1:19 - 1:22it would be because I had a deep Kafkaesque
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1:22 - 1:24existentialist revelation,
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1:24 - 1:28or that maybe Cate Blanchett would play me and she would win an Oscar for it. (Laughter)
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1:28 - 1:31But that's not what happened. I had my breakdown
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1:31 - 1:33during my daughter's sports day.
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1:33 - 1:37There were all the parents sitting in a parking lot
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1:37 - 1:41eating food out of the back of their car -- only the English --
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1:41 - 1:47eating their sausages. They loved their sausages. (Laughter)
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1:47 - 1:52Lord and Lady Rigor Mortis were nibbling on the tarmac,
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1:52 - 1:55and then the gun went off and all the girlies started running,
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1:55 - 2:00and all the mummies went, "Run! Run Chlamydia! Run!" (Laughter)
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2:00 - 2:04"Run like the wind, Veruca! Run!"
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2:04 - 2:06And all the girlies, girlies running, running, running,
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2:06 - 2:09everybody except for my daughter, who was just standing
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2:09 - 2:12at the starting line, just waving,
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2:12 - 2:14because she didn't know she was supposed to run.
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2:14 - 2:18So I took to my bed for about a month, and when I woke up
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2:18 - 2:23I found I was institutionalized, and when I saw the other inmates,
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2:23 - 2:27I realized that I had found my people, my tribe. (Laughter)
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2:27 - 2:31Because they became my only friends, they became my friends,
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2:31 - 2:34because very few people that I knew -- Well, I wasn't
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2:34 - 2:37sent a lot of cards or flowers. I mean, if I had had a broken leg
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2:37 - 2:39or I was with child I would have been inundated,
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2:39 - 2:43but all I got was a couple phone calls telling me to perk up.
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2:43 - 2:45Perk up.
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2:45 - 2:50Because I didn't think of that. (Laughter)
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2:50 - 2:53(Laughter) (Applause)
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2:53 - 2:57Because, you know, the one thing, one thing that you get with this disease,
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2:57 - 3:01this one comes with a package, is you get a real sense of shame,
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3:01 - 3:03because your friends go, "Oh come on, show me the lump,
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3:03 - 3:06show me the x-rays," and of course you've got nothing to show,
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3:06 - 3:09so you're, like, really disgusted with yourself because you're thinking,
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3:09 - 3:12"I'm not being carpet-bombed. I don't live in a township."
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3:12 - 3:15So you start to hear these abusive voices, but you don't hear one abusive voice,
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3:15 - 3:18you hear about a thousand -- 100,000 abusive voices,
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3:18 - 3:22like if the Devil had Tourette's, that's what it would sound like.
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3:22 - 3:25But we all know in here, you know, there is no Devil,
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3:25 - 3:27there are no voices in your head.
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3:27 - 3:28You know that when you have those abusive voices,
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3:28 - 3:31all those little neurons get together and in that little gap
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3:31 - 3:35you get a real toxic "I want to kill myself" kind of chemical,
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3:35 - 3:38and if you have that over and over again on a loop tape,
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3:38 - 3:39you might have yourself depression.
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3:39 - 3:42Oh, and that's not even the tip of the iceberg.
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3:42 - 3:46If you get a little baby, and you abuse it verbally,
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3:46 - 3:49its little brain sends out chemicals that are so destructive
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3:49 - 3:53that the little part of its brain that can tell good from bad just doesn't grow,
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3:53 - 3:57so you might have yourself a homegrown psychotic.
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3:57 - 4:00If a soldier sees his friend blown up, his brain goes into
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4:00 - 4:04such high alarm that he can't actually put the experience into words,
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4:04 - 4:06so he just feels the horror over and over again.
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4:06 - 4:09So here's my question. My question is, how come
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4:09 - 4:13when people have mental damage, it's always an active imagination?
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4:13 - 4:16How come every other organ in your body can get sick
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4:16 - 4:19and you get sympathy, except the brain?
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4:19 - 4:21I'd like to talk a little bit more about the brain,
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4:21 - 4:23because I know you like that here at TED,
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4:23 - 4:27so if you just give me a minute here, okay.
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4:27 - 4:29Okay, let me just say, there's some good news.
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4:29 - 4:32There is some good news. First of all, let me say,
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4:32 - 4:34we've come a long, long way.
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4:34 - 4:38We started off as a teeny, teeny little one-celled amoeba,
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4:38 - 4:43tiny, just sticking onto a rock, and now, voila, the brain.
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4:43 - 4:45Here we go. (Laughter)
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4:45 - 4:47This little baby has a lot of horsepower.
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4:47 - 4:52It comes completely conscious. It's got state-of-the-art lobes.
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4:52 - 4:55We've got the occipital lobe so we can actually see the world.
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4:55 - 4:58We got the temporal lobe so we can actually hear the world.
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4:58 - 4:59Here we've got a little bit of long-term memory,
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4:59 - 5:05so, you know that night you want to forget, when you got really drunk? Bye-bye! Gone. (Laughter)
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5:05 - 5:08So actually, it's filled with 100 billion neurons
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5:08 - 5:11just zizzing away, electrically transmitting information,
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5:11 - 5:14zizzing, zizzing. I'm going to give you a little side view here.
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5:14 - 5:18I don't know if you can get that here. (Laughter)
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5:18 - 5:22So, zizzing away, and so — (Laughter) —
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5:22 - 5:25And for every one — I know, I drew this myself. Thank you.
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5:25 - 5:29For every one single neuron, you can actually have
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5:29 - 5:33from 10,000 to 100,000 different connections
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5:33 - 5:36or dendrites or whatever you want to call it, and every time
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5:36 - 5:38you learn something, or you have an experience,
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5:38 - 5:41that bush grows, you know, that bush of information.
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5:41 - 5:44Can you imagine, every human being is carrying
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5:44 - 5:49that equipment, even Paris Hilton? (Laughter)
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5:49 - 5:50Go figure.
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5:50 - 5:54But I got a little bad news for you folks. I got some bad news.
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5:54 - 5:57This isn't for the one in four. This is for the four in four.
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5:57 - 6:01We are not equipped for the 21st century.
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6:01 - 6:05Evolution did not prepare us for this. We just don't have the bandwidth,
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6:05 - 6:07and for people who say, oh, they're having a nice day,
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6:07 - 6:11they're perfectly fine, they're more insane than the rest of us.
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6:11 - 6:13Because I'll show you where there might be a few glitches
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6:13 - 6:16in evolution. Okay, let me just explain this to you.
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6:16 - 6:19When we were ancient man — (Laughter) —
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6:19 - 6:23millions of years ago, and we suddenly felt threatened
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6:23 - 6:27by a predator, okay? — (Laughter) —
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6:27 - 6:30we would — Thank you. I drew these myself. (Laughter)
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6:30 - 6:34Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. (Applause)
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6:34 - 6:38Thank you. Anyway, we would fill up with our own adrenaline
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6:38 - 6:40and our own cortisol, and then we'd kill or be killed,
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6:40 - 6:44we'd eat or we'd be eaten, and then suddenly we'd de-fuel,
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6:44 - 6:46and we'd go back to normal. Okay.
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6:46 - 6:51So the problem is, nowadays, with modern man— (Laughter) —
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6:51 - 6:55when we feel in danger, we still fill up with our own chemical
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6:55 - 6:59but because we can't kill traffic wardens — (Laughter) —
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6:59 - 7:04or eat estate agents, the fuel just stays in our body
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7:04 - 7:07over and over, so we're in a constant state of alarm,
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7:07 - 7:08a constant state. And here's another thing that happened.
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7:08 - 7:11About 150,000 years ago, when language came online,
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7:11 - 7:14we started to put words to this constant emergency,
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7:14 - 7:17so it wasn't just, "Oh my God, there's a saber-toothed tiger,"
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7:17 - 7:21which could be, it was suddenly, "Oh my God, I didn't send the email. Oh my God, my thighs are too fat.
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7:21 - 7:25Oh my God, everybody can see I'm stupid. I didn't get invited to the Christmas party!"
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7:25 - 7:27So you've got this nagging loop tape that goes
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7:27 - 7:30over and over again that drives you insane, so,
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7:30 - 7:33you see what the problem is? What once made you safe
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7:33 - 7:34now drives you insane.
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7:34 - 7:38I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but somebody has to be.
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7:38 - 7:43Your pets are happier than you are. (Laughter)
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7:43 - 7:46(Applause)
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7:46 - 7:51So kitty cat, meow, happy happy happy, human beings, screwed. (Laughter)
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7:51 - 7:54Completely and utterly -- so, screwed.
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7:54 - 7:56But my point is, if we don't talk about this stuff,
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7:56 - 7:58and we don't learn how to deal with our lives, it's not going
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7:58 - 8:01to be one in four. It's going to be four in four
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8:01 - 8:04who are really, really going to get ill in the upstairs department.
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8:04 - 8:07And while we're at it, can we please stop the stigma?
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8:07 - 8:13Thank you. (Applause)
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8:13 - 8:24(Applause) Thank you.
- Title:
- What's so funny about mental illness?
- Speaker:
- Ruby Wax
- Description:
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Diseases of the body garner sympathy, says comedian Ruby Wax -- except those of the brain. Why is that? With dazzling energy and humor, Wax, diagnosed a decade ago with clinical depression, urges us to put an end to the stigma of mental illness.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 08:44
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for What's so funny about mental illness? | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for What's so funny about mental illness? | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for What's so funny about mental illness? | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for What's so funny about mental illness? | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for What's so funny about mental illness? | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for What's so funny about mental illness? | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for What's so funny about mental illness? | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for What's so funny about mental illness? |