‘Even having a name for my bipolar condition made a huge difference’
Open Doors CEO Jeanne McDonagh says there should never be stigma surrounding people’s mental health
In her mid-teens, Jeanne McDonagh noticed a major change in how she was feeling. The academic and active 15-year-old suddenly found herself falling asleep during the daytime and eventually had to quit some of her sporting pursuits over her lack of energy.
Doctors initially suspected she had glandular fever but when this was ruled out she was referred to a psychiatrist.
A few years passed and Ms McDonagh was eventually diagnosed with depression in her late teens. She endured difficult years as an adolescent and into her 20s, which she says she could not have gotten through so well without the support of friends and family.
Her behaviour could be erratic and she would have highs and lows, but Ms McDonagh did well in her Leaving Cert and went on to study communications at Dublin City University (DCU). However, mental health struggles remained a constant in her life.
When she was 25, Ms McDonagh was admitted to St Patrick’s Mental Health Services in Dublin, under the care of now-retired professor Patrick McKeon, who went on to found the charity Aware.
Under his care she was finally given a diagnosis for her mental illness: dysphoric elation, which is associated with bipolar disorder.
“I spent six months at St Pat’s and it was one of the happiest times of my life, strange as that might sound,” said Ms McDonagh. “It was calm, it was an oasis and I learned the tools to go back into the world and be able to deal with my condition.”
The now 52-year-old said it “made a big difference” to finally have a diagnosis and not just in terms of finally being prescribed the correct medications.
“Just finally having a name for my condition made a huge difference. I could begin to understand myself,” she said.
“I’m curious by nature so I was able to do my own research as well. The correct medications greatly helped, too, with my anxiety and racing thoughts in particular. I am forever grateful to Professor McKeon.
“I took the position from the very beginning I would be very open about my condition and that I wouldn’t work anywhere where I couldn’t be open about it.
“I responded really well to the medication and it’s always been important to me that I have no reason to hide my condition.”
Ms McDonagh worked in various communication and PR roles, where she was “very lucky” to enjoy “great support” from all her employers.
After a few years, she took a role in the Bar Council in a media position. She remained there for 17 years.
“If I did have to take time off because of my condition, it was rare. It was such a supportive environment to work in. The older I’ve gotten, the more I am able to manage it. I do get blips. The changing of the seasons can have an impact,” she said.
“Stress of course is a factor, especially if I’m having issues in my personal or professional life. Exercise helps me and so do breathing exercises. If I don’t get enough sleep, that can cause some problems for me. And if that runs on for too long, I start having dark thoughts. I can start to see the world through a skewed perspective. Then I get upset and it’s hard to be objective.”
If I don’t get enough sleep, that can cause some problems. And if that runs on for too long, I start having dark thoughts
Love and support from her loved ones helps when she begins to struggle with her mental health, she added. Ms McDonagh’s husband, who she met in Sicily when she travelled there to learn Italian 15 years ago, is a great support, as is her best friend.
“They can spot the early signs in my behaviour if I am not coping well. Unlike bipolar, where the highs are euphoric, the highs with dysphoric elation are actually very distressing.”
Ms McDonagh lives a fulfilling and happy life, though. She said it’s important to her that stigma around mental illness is eradicated, so that
has gone too far in the direction of the “woke” agenda. They could have told us what they think about the NGOs in the aftermath of those defeats and whether they have too much influence over government policy.
They might have explained what Fine Gael can do to win back a few of its more traditional-style supporters or whether they are content to lose them to the Independent TDs.
We could have had a debate about asylum and immigration policy, about green policies and the trade-offs between those and the economy.
But we got none of that, which is a massive disservice to Irish voters.
Instead, we got the Fine Gael parliamentary party deciding among themselves that Harris would suit their careers better than any other possible candidate — maybe because he looked like the winner from the outset, and they didn’t want to be left out in the cold. For the rest of the country, it is a pathetic reason to back a candidate.
It is how Varadkar was chosen. He succeeded Enda Kenny not long after the 2016 general election, winning a big majority in the parliamentary party, despite having been trounced by Simon Coveney in the battle for rankand-file party members.
The parliamentary party were convinced Varadkar would appeal to ordinary voters and that was never really the case. The media liked him, and he mainly played well overseas. But it never seemed to dawn on the parliamentary party that what struck the right note in their political echo chamber might sound far more toneless out in the real world.
They could easily be making the same mistake with Harris.
He emotes more than Varadkar, but the public might not fall for that and could even see it as inauthentic.
His selection is ultimately another sign of the growing disconnect between most of the political class and the general public.
The political class operate in their own world, a world that has its own rules, its own machinations — and these have produced Harris, a man who has never had a career outside of politics but is being suddenly foisted on us as our new taoiseach.
But who is he really?
Will we find out now whether he is merely a “facade”, as that Fine Gael TD says — or is he something more substantial? Does he really know what he stands for?