Letter to Daily Mail

I have just sent an official letter of complaint to the Daily Mail. I have publicly copied it here so people can see what was written.



To Whom It May Concern,

I have written this email to two seperate addresses as I could not find clear direction as to who complaints should be emailed to. I found one page saying contact the editor, but I could find no links to the editor from that page, and these were the two best emails I could find.

I am writing with regards to the column written by Janet Stree-Porter and published on 15th May titled "Depression, It's Just The New Trendy Illness".

There are numerous complaints I wish to make about this article.

1) It breaks item 1.i on the Editors Code of Practice as can be found on the PCC website. Item 1.1 states that:
- "The press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures."

There are several sentences within the column that are inaccurate or misleading these are as follows.

The column describes depression as "This relatively new ailment first appeared on my radar a couple of years ago." This is inaccurate. Writings on depression began as far back as 4th BC, with more descriptive works being done from the 17th century onwards. Major Depressive Disdorder, the most prototypical form of unipolar depression was termed and described in 1980.

"...most of this new band of sufferers are middle class, highly successful and - most important of all - comfortably off." According to most statistics around 1 in 6 people will suffer from depression at any one given time, with 1 in 4 people experiencing it in any one given year. There is no evidence to suggest that well off people are more likely to be affected by depression, and certainly you will find this contradicts any evidence you will hear from a medical professional.

"If you're a black South African woman growing up in a township, or a mum in a slum favela in Rio, or a supermarket shelf-stacker in Croydon, or one of the band of low-paid female workers who go to work at 3am to clean the offices of the wealthiest and most powerful people in Britain in the City of London, you probably aren't afflicted by depression." There is some suggestion that depression detection rates may be higher in the west - although this largely due to the health service effectiveness. There are however plenty of charities trying to deal with depression in these countries.

"My mum's generation didn't suffer from stress or depression. Instead they just on with the washing up, the ironing, their long hours in low-paid jobs." Plenty of people suffered from stress and depression in previous generations. This once more goes against the views of medical professionals.

"...stress has become in our work orientated society, almost a badge of honour." and "There's virtually no stigma at all attached to saying you're suffering from stress." This isn't the case. Groups have found that as many as 3 in 4 men would be worried about going to see a GP if they were suffering from stress because of the stigma involved. There is no statistical evidence to support the idea that there is virtually no stigma in admitting to suffering from stress.


2) It breaks item 12.i of the Editors Code of Practice
- "The press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual's race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability."

There are several instances where this point is broken in the article. Examples of these are as follows.

"...in recent months it's become apparent that, along with the Sam Cam handbag, the latest must have accessory is a big dose of depression."

"I truly believe illnesses go in and out of fashion - at the moment, trendy women are allegedly suffering from 'depression'."

"Nowadays women who've never been in a war zone or experienced an act of terrorism are claiming that are suffering from stress when all they do is run a home and get the bus to work."

All of these statements show a prejudice on the issue of depression and stress related illnesses, and raise stigma around mental illness.

3) I wish also to complain about the offence this has caused to people suffering from mental health.

Several lines in this article are intimidatory and mock people suffering from depression. For instance:

"Now, men are jumping on the depression bandwagon [...] 45 per cent of women earn the same or more than their husbands, then the male ego is under attack [...] at this point, I'm afraid to say, I laugh out loud. The idea of feeling sorry for a bloke with low self-esteem is frankly, risible. Let's just call it karmic revenge for all those years men have been in charge of everything."

This line proposes laughing at men suffering from depression. This is deeply offensive to all male sufferers.

"They're even dredging up dodgy statistics to prove that depression - assuming there is such a thing - is on the increase."

This suggests the author is denying the existence of depression as a medical condition. This affects deeply those suffering from depression.



My concerns with this article are that through mis-information and prejudice comments about depression, the article will reinforce currently existing stigmas and prejudices around depression and other mental illnesses.

I am currently the admin of a Facebook group for people who have been affected by this article, some of whom are mental health sufferers, others who work in mental health sectors, others who simply agree with the principle that this article is potentially damaging and should not have been printed. The group currently has over 1000 members after three days.

I wish to raise this complaint with yourselves and see what reaction you had to the criticisms I have raised over this article. If you could write back to me with your comments as soon as possible I would be most grateful.

Regards,

George Pearson

How You Can Help The Campaign

We would like to link and share as many people's thoughts and feelings on this as possible. If anyone does come across well written blogs/articles upon this article and the surrounding issues please do let us know.

We are also aware the acadmics amongst you will be unhappy with referencing Wikipedia articles (although we did check that the ones we used were fully referenced.) However if anyone has any better references they feel we should use, or wants to add a suggested point to the list in the description please feel free to suggest it.

If anyone needs to get in touch with us more privately, please feel free to send us an email.

The Flaws In The Article

Below I have outlined two criteria of Janet Street Porter's piece where she is in the wrong. Sections where she is inaccurate/misleading and places where she has caused offence/stigmatised depression. Please feel free to discuss.

Factually Inaccurate/Misleading:

- "This relatively new ailment first appeared on my radar a couple of years ago.." A fully references article on the history of depression can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_depression. It shows evidence of writings on depression as early as 4th century BC, and major writings from 17th century onwards. Major Depressive Order, the most prototypical form of depression, was defined in 1980 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_depressive_disorder)

- "Like the shopaholics who purchase expensive accessories most of this new band of sufferers are middle class, highly successful and - most important of all - comfortably off." Statistics for depression findd that on average 1 in 4 people will suffer from depression in any given year. This statistic is true of middle classes and also remains constant for the unemployed. Furthermore "mental health problems are thought to be higher in minority ethnic groups than in the white population, but they are less likely to have their mental health problems detected by a GP." (http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/information/mental-health-overview/statistics/)

- "My mum's generation didn't suffer from stress or depression. Instead they just on with the washing up, the ironing, their long hours in low-paid jobs." Yet again, stress and depression existed in previous generations.

- "[S]tress has become in our work orientated society, almost a badge of honour." and "There's virtually no stigma at all attached to saying you're suffering from stress." Is this is true then why did "A Scottish Public Attitudes Survey on Mental Health in 2002 [find] that half of all those who took part said that they would not want anyone to know if they developed a mental health problem." and "3 out of 4 men in Britain say they would not go to the GP if they were under stress as they would be afraid that the GP would think that they are 'unbalanced' or 'neurotic'." (http://glasgowsteps.com/information/stress/stigma.php)

- "[M]araculously 90% of us don't get depressed about it, don't take special medication and don't whinge about 'black holes'." - 1 in 6 people will suffer from a metal illness at any given time. Not 1 in 10.(http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/information/mental-health-overview/statistics/)

Offensive/Like To Create Stigma About Mental Health:

- "The misery movement has rapidly gathered momentum and in recent months it's become apparent that, along with the Sam Cam handbag, the latest must have accessory is a big dose of depression."

- "I find something very repellent about this recent epidemic of middle-class breast-beating. This tidal wave of analysis about why'having it all' isn't what it used to be. [...] Get a grip, girls."

- "[M]y life goes on, I haven't retreated under the duvet with a bottle of pills, I refuse to accept this notion that a whole generation of women are being laid low by an unexplained epidemic of depression."

- "[T]he other so-called illness (stress) [...] is another matter. [...] I truly believe illnesses go in and out of fashion - at the moment, trendy women are allegedly suffering from 'depression'."

- "From agony aunt Sally Brampton to former literary editor Lorna Martin, they've been quick to cash in on their personal demons."

- "Now, men are jumping on the depression bandwagon [...] 45 per cent of women earn the same or more than their husbands, then the male ego is under attack [...] at this point, I'm afraid to say, I laugh out loud. The idea of feeling sorry for a bloke with low self-esteem is frankly, risible. Let's just call it karmic revenge for all those years men have been in charge of everything."

- "But miraculously 90 per cent of us don;t get depressed about it, don't take special medication and don't whinge about 'black holes'. That's life in the real world."