Is "Education" the Answer?

Apparently education is the solution to combating the Stigma associated with Mental Illness. I believe that if we don't make a place for people like myself by giving them Occupation no amount of "Education" will solve the problem. My ideal would be that we have Workshops for the Mentally Ill and Drug Addicts also. At the moment there is an Abyss that is very hard to climb out because once you are Stigmatised there is no way back! There should be basic benefits for those that DON'T want to work and then rewards for people that do. What is the point of all these people picking up the pieces with over 40,000 New Zealanders seeking Drug and Alcohol counselling if there is nothing for them to do but fall into the same traps again?

Apparently we have Third World Illnesses

And can not understand why?


But how many Politicians


Would be happy


To LIVE


on $250 per week


Whilst paying rent?


Poverty and associated illness are rife


Within Our Communities


Yet the gap between


Rich and Poor


Keeps Increasing


And Unemployment


Keeps rising


What we are breeding


Are angry


And disenfranchised


PEOPLE

Pathways Angels

LIKE JACKALS OR HYENAS

It seems to me that we are as Jackal's or Hyena's towards the Mentally Ill. If people pull up "lame" with a Mental Illness, instead of being like Geese and supporting one another, we are in for the kill and make a meal out of the others weakness. There is something intrinsically wrong with our Society when we are so quick to condemn. Another lady was at Golf today who has recently suffered from Mental Illness, and in front of me, and almost within earshot of this lady they were asking what was wrong with her and stating that "She's not on the same Planet". And that was their way of being "kind". From my observation she had put on weight and was shaking from Medication but otherwise obviously had her faculties in tact. I KNOW what it is like not to be "On the same Planet" but it seems there is the temptation to be CRUEL even when there is nothing to be CRUEL about. I'm the first to plead GUILTY because I believed from when I was about 5 years that I'd rather be DEAD than be Mentally Ill like my Mother. But FATE and time have helped me to see that it is as much the floors in our Society that we should be aware of rather than focusing simply on the weakness of the Mental Health Client if we are to be a Humane and "Christian" Society. We'd rather scream POSITIVITY at the Mental Patient rather than be open and honest about the GLOWERING ISSUES surrounding these people.

LEGAL PROTECTION

I believe that every Psychiatric Patient that presents should be afforded LEGAL PROTECTION from the get go. For whatever reason they are presenting something is seriously wrong in their lives and often they are an identity factor in a web of despair.

As well as that it should also be illegal to take advantage of the Mentally unwell sexually. If people are crazy the Law, at present, does not protect them. In fact it usually underlines their condemnation by not affording them Justice. It is a hideous situation really. Instead of SHEILDING and PROTECTING our vulnerable we JUDGE them, shun them and label them as DAMAGED GOODS as if a train wreck only fit for the Scrap Heap. It is so INHUMANE that I feel myself above the Law and should be entitled to EUTHANASIA. Of course I won't but MORALLY I win the argument HANDS DOWN!

Kamakaze

Perhaps it is an insult to compare myself with a Kamakaze Pilot because they are not afraid to die but I AM. I desperately wish I had the courage to commit Suicide because the pain and alienation is too great to bear but when it comes down to it I'm scared of my skin. It's so humiliating really. So while I hang around waiting to die I may as well take Pot Shots at why I think that we fail the Mentally Ill so miserably.


Where Psychiatry fails, in my opinion, is in it's "Paternal Pragmatism". I'm just a "Statistic". Apparently 80% of Mental Patients are in work. It does not seem to matter that most of those people are scraping the bottom of the barrel at the bottom of the food chain, living from hand to mouth, desperate to please lap dogs with little or no dignity, when at school many were some of the cleverest in the class. Psychiatry GLOSSES over these issues and all but MOCKS their clients as they struggle to assimilate into Society. They are not bothered with trying to change the Status Quo so that these Clients can be afforded OPPORTUNITY. They simply stand back and watch the Mental Patient take the punches until they collapse and then intervene with suitably sedating and numbing medication. Eventually, unable to commit suicide, the patient gives in and once again tries desperately to cling, once again, to the bottom of life's ladder, which almost invariably they will remain at yet can't understand why. STIGMATISM can only be controlled if the cracks in the floors are sealed. I believe this can only be achieved if we offer the same opportunities to the Mentally Ill as we offer normal people. Give them LADDERS which they can climb or give them the option of DEATH. It is not enough to let them LANGUISH for their lifetime. I am SORRY to be so UNGRATEFUL BUT I WOULD WISH FOR SOMETHING BETTER FOR MY DESCENDANTS THAN HELL ON EARTH IF THEY HAPPEN TO HAVE A MENTAL ILLNESS!

PEOPLE NO DOUBT WILL REJOICE WHEN I DIE

Actually I will REJOICE when I DIE. I have already decided that I will not seek any Medical help if Cancer returns or if I get Heart Disease or Diabetes or any other ailment for that matter. And if my Son or Partner dies I shall deliberately starve myself to death. At the moment I am living in Limbo and you could hardly qualify it as a LIFE.

PEOPLE ARE VICIOUS TOWARD THE MENTALLY ILL

People are vicious toward the Mentally Ill. "Sticks and Stones will hurt my bones but Names will never HURT ME!" is an out and out lie. I spent 9 months of my life feeding a Sculptor because he needed looking after, only to have the woman that he was having an affair with (I wasn't sure at the time) call me "anally retentive". I gave shelter and a home to a Lawyer that slept with me and then told his Ex-girlfriend right in front of me (on the phone) that living with me "sux". Another man told me that "My Reputation came before me", etc, etc, etc. The SYSTEM leaves me flailing about in a hostile environment where the only people, generally, that have anything to do with you are those that have agenda or take advantage and yet it is deemed inhumane to consider Euthanasia for the Mentally Ill. WELL I THINK IT IS INHUMANE NOT TO EUTHANAISE IF THAT IS WHAT THEY WANT. I look around me and have watched others with Mental Illness who live the same tortorous existence. They are universally SHUNNED to a lesser or greater degree depending on how STOIC they are, but still SHUNNED and CONDEMNED even by the "Nice Oldies" in the CHURCH. And yet we still WONDER why some people with Mental Illness go out and commit multiple killings. Anything other than Spiders and Flies and I'm not into KILLING but looking back and reflecting I am astounded at the degree of hostility that has been leveled at me and yet we kid ourselves that we are "Humane" and "Tolerant". When I had qualified as a Legal Executive and went for a job as a Receptionist with my Doctor his retort was that "It would be cruelty to dumb......" (as in cruelty to dumb animals) to give me the job . Of course it would be cruelty because everyone is so FUCKING NASTY! Doctors will treat you and then have nothing to do with you outside of office hours even if your I.Q. is the same as theirs. A friend of mine went to the Doctor to be asked "What Ward of the Nut House do you come from?" and that was to her face!!!!!!!!!!!! PEOPLE ARE NOT KIND AND I DEMAND THAT THOSE THAT HAVE SIMPLY HAD A GUTS FULL SHOULD BE ABLE TO CHOOSE EUTHANASIA.

Even I am getting Depressed but Someone needs to tell the TRUTH for those that come AFTER ME!

You see, the thing is with MENTAL PATIENTS is that you KICK THEM WHEN THEY ARE DOWN until they can no longer get UP AGAIN and then you argue they they should not be Euthanaised because they are NOT IN THEIR RIGHT MIND. IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE TO ME!

Dreams Asunder

This Poem was written in 1992
Things certainly haven't changed much

DREAMS ASUNDER

Dreams alight
Freight trains bringing night
Souls desire
Desperation fulfilled
No HOPE in sight
No DELIGHT
Images draped in White
Become Silhouette
Passing scenes
On a forgotten stage
Freight trains
Bringing Night