A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

ecognises the disabling requirements that exist in many workplaces and says she will not
put herself into work situations which she knows would damage her health. Helen talks
about a comment made by one of her colleagues:
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...but I think it‟s like she was saying, if you want to do something different from the
normal expectation it‟s as if you‟re doing something really controversial… why is it
controversial to want to do something that‟s better for yourself… and I think it‟s
almost that I‟ve had to become… well, if not exactly militant then very firm in my
view of what works for me… and to be willing to stick to that because when you
keep coming up against people who say well, are you sure… I go well, yeah, I am
sure… just because it‟s not how you would do it doesn‟t make it wrong… I think
that‟s the thing that, like, if people showed appreciation of the fact that people just
do things in different ways it would be very helpful… (l.521ff.)
At the same time as Helen affirms her rights to recognise her own needs as somebody with
an emotional impairment, she rejects the disabled role. She rejects an identification of herself
as somebody unwell or inferior and she rejects the pressure to aspire to normality. But she
also identifies the necessity to remain strong in this perspective in the face of disabling
judgements which will always question her right to regard her situation in this way. Helen
ends up by asserting and affirming the right to do things differently.
I sometimes feel that other people feel that maybe I should… and that maybe I
should keep my mouth shut… and not try to mark myself out… but to me it‟s not
that I‟m trying to mark myself out, it‟s that I‟m trying to make it more normal… so
that it‟s more acceptable so that it is easier for everybody… (l.3:480ff.)
Her experience is that she will be generally expected to keep quiet about her difference. As
somebody with a hidden impairment, she is encouraged to try to pass as non-disabled and
avoid the stigma attached to mental health issues. Her attitude is dismissed as attention-
seeking. Yet for Helen, this is a matter of trying to demystify issues around mental health
issues, of trying to establish that this is a fairly ordinary part of human experience.
Jennie: Work
Jennie took me into her work area, a small, high ceilinged cluttered room off the main living
room in her shared Glasgow flat. Most of the space was taken up by an old office desk. On
the desk, among a mass of papers, a p.c., and a a dictaphone for interviews, there was a half-
finished bottle of Irn Bru, a bottle of water and a bag of ginger. The walls were lined with