0:00:00.059,0:00:03.983 One in four people suffer from some sort of mental illness, 0:00:03.983,0:00:08.277 so if it was one, two, three, four, it's you, sir. 0:00:08.277,0:00:09.836 You. Yeah. (Laughter) 0:00:09.836,0:00:13.184 With the weird teeth. And you next to him. (Laughter) 0:00:13.184,0:00:14.239 You know who you are. 0:00:14.239,0:00:16.636 Actually, that whole row isn't right. (Laughter) 0:00:16.636,0:00:21.810 That's not good. Hi. Yeah. Real bad. Don't even look at me. (Laughter) 0:00:21.810,0:00:26.923 I am one of the one in four. Thank you. 0:00:26.923,0:00:29.933 I think I inherit it from my mother, who, 0:00:29.933,0:00:32.747 used to crawl around the house on all fours. 0:00:32.747,0:00:35.794 She had two sponges in her hand, and then she had two 0:00:35.794,0:00:40.376 tied to her knees. My mother was completely absorbent. (Laughter) 0:00:40.376,0:00:42.684 And she would crawl around behind me going, 0:00:42.684,0:00:46.249 "Who brings footprints into a building?!" 0:00:46.249,0:00:48.599 So that was kind of a clue that things weren't right. 0:00:48.599,0:00:53.791 So before I start, I would like to thank 0:00:53.791,0:00:58.477 the makers of Lamotrigine, Sertraline, and Reboxetine, 0:00:58.477,0:01:03.400 because without those few simple chemicals, I would not be vertical today. 0:01:03.400,0:01:08.237 So how did it start? 0:01:08.237,0:01:12.356 My mental illness -- well, I'm not even going to talk about my mental illness. 0:01:12.356,0:01:14.669 What am I going to talk about? Okay. 0:01:14.669,0:01:19.071 I always dreamt that, when I had my final breakdown, 0:01:19.071,0:01:21.610 it would be because I had a deep Kafkaesque 0:01:21.610,0:01:24.023 existentialist revelation, 0:01:24.023,0:01:28.368 or that maybe Cate Blanchett would play me and she would win an Oscar for it. (Laughter) 0:01:28.368,0:01:31.475 But that's not what happened. I had my breakdown 0:01:31.475,0:01:33.465 during my daughter's sports day. 0:01:33.465,0:01:37.190 There were all the parents sitting in a parking lot 0:01:37.190,0:01:41.197 eating food out of the back of their car -- only the English -- 0:01:41.197,0:01:47.424 eating their sausages. They loved their sausages. (Laughter) 0:01:47.424,0:01:52.056 Lord and Lady Rigor Mortis were nibbling on the tarmac, 0:01:52.056,0:01:54.519 and then the gun went off and all the girlies started running, 0:01:54.519,0:01:59.730 and all the mummies went, "Run! Run Chlamydia! Run!" (Laughter) 0:01:59.730,0:02:03.598 "Run like the wind, Veruca! Run!" 0:02:03.598,0:02:06.065 And all the girlies, girlies running, running, running, 0:02:06.065,0:02:09.010 everybody except for my daughter, who was just standing 0:02:09.010,0:02:11.777 at the starting line, just waving, 0:02:11.777,0:02:14.108 because she didn't know she was supposed to run. 0:02:14.108,0:02:18.457 So I took to my bed for about a month, and when I woke up 0:02:18.457,0:02:23.050 I found I was institutionalized, and when I saw the other inmates, 0:02:23.050,0:02:27.442 I realized that I had found my people, my tribe. (Laughter) 0:02:27.442,0:02:30.930 Because they became my only friends, they became my friends, 0:02:30.930,0:02:33.928 because very few people that I knew -- Well, I wasn't 0:02:33.928,0:02:37.298 sent a lot of cards or flowers. I mean, if I had had a broken leg 0:02:37.298,0:02:39.462 or I was with child I would have been inundated, 0:02:39.462,0:02:43.138 but all I got was a couple phone calls telling me to perk up. 0:02:43.138,0:02:44.838 Perk up. 0:02:44.838,0:02:49.545 Because I didn't think of that. (Laughter) 0:02:49.545,0:02:52.845 (Laughter) (Applause) 0:02:52.845,0:02:57.122 Because, you know, the one thing, one thing that you get with this disease, 0:02:57.122,0:03:01.088 this one comes with a package, is you get a real sense of shame, 0:03:01.088,0:03:03.400 because your friends go, "Oh come on, show me the lump, 0:03:03.400,0:03:05.811 show me the x-rays," and of course you've got nothing to show, 0:03:05.811,0:03:08.905 so you're, like, really disgusted with yourself because you're thinking, 0:03:08.905,0:03:11.721 "I'm not being carpet-bombed. I don't live in a township." 0:03:11.721,0:03:15.169 So you start to hear these abusive voices, but you don't hear one abusive voice, 0:03:15.169,0:03:18.028 you hear about a thousand -- 100,000 abusive voices, 0:03:18.028,0:03:22.037 like if the Devil had Tourette's, that's what it would sound like. 0:03:22.037,0:03:24.665 But we all know in here, you know, there is no Devil, 0:03:24.665,0:03:26.544 there are no voices in your head. 0:03:26.544,0:03:28.218 You know that when you have those abusive voices, 0:03:28.218,0:03:31.119 all those little neurons get together and in that little gap 0:03:31.119,0:03:34.777 you get a real toxic "I want to kill myself" kind of chemical, 0:03:34.777,0:03:37.523 and if you have that over and over again on a loop tape, 0:03:37.523,0:03:39.419 you might have yourself depression. 0:03:39.419,0:03:42.102 Oh, and that's not even the tip of the iceberg. 0:03:42.102,0:03:45.704 If you get a little baby, and you abuse it verbally, 0:03:45.704,0:03:49.161 its little brain sends out chemicals that are so destructive 0:03:49.161,0:03:53.153 that the little part of its brain that can tell good from bad just doesn't grow, 0:03:53.153,0:03:56.608 so you might have yourself a homegrown psychotic. 0:03:56.608,0:04:00.085 If a soldier sees his friend blown up, his brain goes into 0:04:00.085,0:04:03.599 such high alarm that he can't actually put the experience into words, 0:04:03.599,0:04:06.373 so he just feels the horror over and over again. 0:04:06.373,0:04:08.746 So here's my question. My question is, how come 0:04:08.746,0:04:12.791 when people have mental damage, it's always an active imagination? 0:04:12.791,0:04:16.010 How come every other organ in your body can get sick 0:04:16.010,0:04:18.714 and you get sympathy, except the brain? 0:04:18.714,0:04:21.113 I'd like to talk a little bit more about the brain, 0:04:21.113,0:04:23.144 because I know you like that here at TED, 0:04:23.144,0:04:26.597 so if you just give me a minute here, okay. 0:04:26.597,0:04:28.603 Okay, let me just say, there's some good news. 0:04:28.603,0:04:31.885 There is some good news. First of all, let me say, 0:04:31.885,0:04:34.212 we've come a long, long way. 0:04:34.212,0:04:38.253 We started off as a teeny, teeny little one-celled amoeba, 0:04:38.253,0:04:42.850 tiny, just sticking onto a rock, and now, voila, the brain. 0:04:42.850,0:04:44.750 Here we go. (Laughter) 0:04:44.750,0:04:47.115 This little baby has a lot of horsepower. 0:04:47.115,0:04:51.538 It comes completely conscious. It's got state-of-the-art lobes. 0:04:51.538,0:04:55.131 We've got the occipital lobe so we can actually see the world. 0:04:55.131,0:04:57.777 We got the temporal lobe so we can actually hear the world. 0:04:57.777,0:04:59.396 Here we've got a little bit of long-term memory, 0:04:59.396,0:05:04.633 so, you know that night you want to forget, when you got really drunk? Bye-bye! Gone. (Laughter) 0:05:04.633,0:05:07.953 So actually, it's filled with 100 billion neurons 0:05:07.953,0:05:11.256 just zizzing away, electrically transmitting information, 0:05:11.256,0:05:13.976 zizzing, zizzing. I'm going to give you a little side view here. 0:05:13.976,0:05:17.568 I don't know if you can get that here. (Laughter) 0:05:17.568,0:05:21.568 So, zizzing away, and so — (Laughter) — 0:05:21.568,0:05:25.257 And for every one — I know, I drew this myself. Thank you. 0:05:25.257,0:05:28.929 For every one single neuron, you can actually have 0:05:28.929,0:05:32.655 from 10,000 to 100,000 different connections 0:05:32.655,0:05:35.917 or dendrites or whatever you want to call it, and every time 0:05:35.917,0:05:38.437 you learn something, or you have an experience, 0:05:38.437,0:05:40.710 that bush grows, you know, that bush of information. 0:05:40.710,0:05:43.664 Can you imagine, every human being is carrying 0:05:43.664,0:05:48.587 that equipment, even Paris Hilton? (Laughter) 0:05:48.587,0:05:50.281 Go figure. 0:05:50.281,0:05:53.765 But I got a little bad news for you folks. I got some bad news. 0:05:53.765,0:05:56.885 This isn't for the one in four. This is for the four in four. 0:05:56.885,0:06:01.065 We are not equipped for the 21st century. 0:06:01.065,0:06:04.814 Evolution did not prepare us for this. We just don't have the bandwidth, 0:06:04.814,0:06:07.397 and for people who say, oh, they're having a nice day, 0:06:07.397,0:06:10.957 they're perfectly fine, they're more insane than the rest of us. 0:06:10.957,0:06:13.481 Because I'll show you where there might be a few glitches 0:06:13.481,0:06:15.925 in evolution. Okay, let me just explain this to you. 0:06:15.925,0:06:19.486 When we were ancient man — (Laughter) — 0:06:19.486,0:06:23.247 millions of years ago, and we suddenly felt threatened 0:06:23.247,0:06:26.949 by a predator, okay? — (Laughter) — 0:06:26.949,0:06:29.897 we would — Thank you. I drew these myself. (Laughter) 0:06:29.897,0:06:33.720 Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. (Applause) 0:06:33.720,0:06:37.794 Thank you. Anyway, we would fill up with our own adrenaline 0:06:37.794,0:06:40.412 and our own cortisol, and then we'd kill or be killed, 0:06:40.412,0:06:43.682 we'd eat or we'd be eaten, and then suddenly we'd de-fuel, 0:06:43.682,0:06:45.615 and we'd go back to normal. Okay. 0:06:45.615,0:06:50.897 So the problem is, nowadays, with modern man— (Laughter) — 0:06:50.897,0:06:54.664 when we feel in danger, we still fill up with our own chemical 0:06:54.664,0:06:59.299 but because we can't kill traffic wardens — (Laughter) — 0:06:59.299,0:07:04.096 or eat estate agents, the fuel just stays in our body 0:07:04.096,0:07:06.584 over and over, so we're in a constant state of alarm, 0:07:06.584,0:07:08.317 a constant state. And here's another thing that happened. 0:07:08.317,0:07:11.422 About 150,000 years ago, when language came online, 0:07:11.422,0:07:13.847 we started to put words to this constant emergency, 0:07:13.847,0:07:16.503 so it wasn't just, "Oh my God, there's a saber-toothed tiger," 0:07:16.503,0:07:20.544 which could be, it was suddenly, "Oh my God, I didn't send the email. Oh my God, my thighs are too fat. 0:07:20.544,0:07:24.549 Oh my God, everybody can see I'm stupid. I didn't get invited to the Christmas party!" 0:07:24.549,0:07:27.035 So you've got this nagging loop tape that goes 0:07:27.035,0:07:29.571 over and over again that drives you insane, so, 0:07:29.571,0:07:32.548 you see what the problem is? What once made you safe 0:07:32.548,0:07:34.354 now drives you insane. 0:07:34.354,0:07:37.508 I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but somebody has to be. 0:07:37.508,0:07:43.372 Your pets are happier than you are. (Laughter) 0:07:43.372,0:07:46.268 (Applause) 0:07:46.268,0:07:51.423 So kitty cat, meow, happy happy happy, human beings, screwed. (Laughter) 0:07:51.423,0:07:53.698 Completely and utterly -- so, screwed. 0:07:53.698,0:07:56.157 But my point is, if we don't talk about this stuff, 0:07:56.157,0:07:58.495 and we don't learn how to deal with our lives, it's not going 0:07:58.495,0:08:00.969 to be one in four. It's going to be four in four 0:08:00.969,0:08:04.232 who are really, really going to get ill in the upstairs department. 0:08:04.232,0:08:06.759 And while we're at it, can we please stop the stigma? 0:08:06.759,0:08:13.436 Thank you. (Applause) 0:08:13.436,0:08:24.181 (Applause) Thank you.