It is so great to have a bitch.
Most people still simply condemn people with Mental Health Issues as selfish, lazy, etc, etc.
I am really angry because I was an innocent woman with honourable intention. All I wanted from life was a family and to achieve that I had to settle for a drunk! When I fell in love with my doctor because he was compassionate and had the same I.Q. level he accused me of being "fixated". Normal people fall in love whilst Mental Patients become fixated! The put downs and the degradations are endless. I could write all the way to the moon. When people can't say a nice thing about you behind your back why should we expect condemned people to go on living?
We like to kid ourselves that we have Humanity by offering a subsistence allowance for the unemployed and mentally unwell beneficiaries that ill afford the necessities of life whilst the Strong live like fatted cats on as much as 200 X the amount that the beneficiaries are expected to live on. If every action tends to treat the weak like they are scum in spite of our protestations of Humanity then why don't we just line them up and shoot them. Living with the alienation of Mental Illness would make a gun being pointed at your head seem sympathetic.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
I am told that I have no Choice but to be Positive
My psychiatrist throws out little platitudes every time I see him. He knows I'm screwed and I know I'm screwed. He makes observations of fascination that my Artistic abilities still seemed to be intact. To me that tells me that, in his opinion, I was otherwise a mental cripple. In frustration he tells me that I should enjoy a cup of tea. In other words I should just be happy no matter how complex and difficult every day life is becoming. Another psychiatrist told me that I have a lot to live for - My son - who, of course, I love dearly, but who was taken away from me when I dared to leave my marriage. Inspite of this, up till now I have managed to be a reasonably good mother. But I do not think that if the Psychiatric System has so succinctly failed me that he should have to watch his mother suffer with lost faculties for as much as thirty odd years. It is just an insult to peoples intelligence to expect them to be "Happy" when they know that they are no longer coping. Sure I can get all the help I want NOW that I am screwed. But I say I don't want help because I no longer have the where-with-all or the confidence in myself to utilise the resources. So I say do the decent and Humane thing and allow me the choice of Euthanasia and accept people with Mental Health Issues by giving them the dignity of employment rather than let them rattle around in closets for their remaining lives until they completely loose their minds.
My psychiatrist wrote a letter to my flax weaving Tutor. In it he said "Due to the acute worsening of her chronic mental illness" she was not able to concentrate. This was supposed to be a letter to cover me so that I could return to Flax Weaving. I felt so degraded by the truth of this letter that I could not pass it on. Clearly though it displays the futility and frustration of existing with full blown Mental Illness. The Tax Payers spend all their time moaning about people like me with hostility. And I don't want to live so why waste money on my life?
My psychiatrist wrote a letter to my flax weaving Tutor. In it he said "Due to the acute worsening of her chronic mental illness" she was not able to concentrate. This was supposed to be a letter to cover me so that I could return to Flax Weaving. I felt so degraded by the truth of this letter that I could not pass it on. Clearly though it displays the futility and frustration of existing with full blown Mental Illness. The Tax Payers spend all their time moaning about people like me with hostility. And I don't want to live so why waste money on my life?
Actually I knew I was "Different" when I was Five
And lived with the terror of becoming stigmatised ever since. And it seems to me if people within the "Mental Health" System just throw drugs at you instead of caring for the psychological needs of the patient then claiming the Moral high ground about caring for Human Beings is very hypocritical. The very first time I presented in a "High" was when I was sexually abused. No counselling - not even any curiosity. It would seem if they stick a diagnosis of "Bi-Polar" on you Drugs are somehow all you deserve. Another time I entered directly after a murder attempt had been made on my life. Still no curiosity and it was as if I was guilty because I was Bi-Polar. In my opinion, when the chips are down, no one sticks up for the Mentally Ill. There should automatically be a guardian or advocate appointed from outside the family appointed because people suffering from Mental Illness are often Identity Factors in dysfunctional families. The last straw, however, was being accused of sexually molesting my own child, and not being protected against vicious accusations by my Lawyers. I wanted a defamation action to be undertaken. I don't think I ever recovered from that. Patients Rights are still not protected in the "Mental Health System" and the Legal System. It seems such an empty parade that patients rights are supposedly protected, when, if you make a complaint you are fobbed off with nothing short of veiled contempt.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Victims if Crime have Less Right than Prisoners
I often think that those that commit crimes have it sweet compared to their victims. The criminals get three square meals per day in comfortable accommodation with education. The victims get left entirely to their own devices with little or no support.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Work
The first mistake is to not give these people work. Often people that suffer from Mental Illness are highly intelligent and capable human beings. We give the opportunity of work to people with Down Syndrome. If we gave people with Mental Illness the dignity of work I believe that these people's need for Mental Health Services would be drastically reduced.
I also believe that we would be delighted by the productivity that allowing them this dignity would provide. Perhaps a system of job pooling would work so that if someone is unwell another could fill in for them. But from my own experience, until recently, when I was given work I never missed a day. It was only during periods of unemployment that I indulged myself in Bi-Polar episodes. On that basis I believe that the Stigmatization of Mental Illness breeds upon itself and not giving patients the opportunity to work hinders recovery.
Idle hands are the devils workshop and foster crime and suicide in the unemployed. The cost to society is so great that it makes sense to keep people occupied and feeling as if they are contributing to Society. It could possibly halve the need of Law and Order and the burden on the Health System and for those reasons alone I believe such a tactic should be employed. The hostility towards the Mentally Ill would be reduced giving them breathing space and a feeling of acceptance which is still so lacking today.
We give work to people inside Prisons. Why not give them work outside the Prison to stop them committing most of the crimes in the first place? It costs $90,000 to keep someone in Prison which is enough to keep at least five people employed on the outside.
In spite of having successfully trained as a Legal Secretary my own doctor said "It would be cruelty to dumb..." meaning dumb animals to employ me as a receptionist. It is this sort of cynicism which needs to be addressed if people are to live happy and fulfilling lives.
I also trained as a psychiatric nurse and got an A in clinical in the Introduction and was given a D in Practical. I believe that this was a false mark given with the sole purpose of weeding me out because it was observed that I might be Bi-Polar like my mother. I was told I should become an Artist. Art is fine as a hobby but it doesn't often pay the bills unless you are first rate. It is sad that the very institution that treats people with Mental Illness stigmatised and shunned me because I was Bi-Polar.
Physically I'm as strong as an Ox but I don't want to spend the rest of my life, which could be another thirty years, rattling around in fear, hopelessness and isolation.
I also believe that we would be delighted by the productivity that allowing them this dignity would provide. Perhaps a system of job pooling would work so that if someone is unwell another could fill in for them. But from my own experience, until recently, when I was given work I never missed a day. It was only during periods of unemployment that I indulged myself in Bi-Polar episodes. On that basis I believe that the Stigmatization of Mental Illness breeds upon itself and not giving patients the opportunity to work hinders recovery.
Idle hands are the devils workshop and foster crime and suicide in the unemployed. The cost to society is so great that it makes sense to keep people occupied and feeling as if they are contributing to Society. It could possibly halve the need of Law and Order and the burden on the Health System and for those reasons alone I believe such a tactic should be employed. The hostility towards the Mentally Ill would be reduced giving them breathing space and a feeling of acceptance which is still so lacking today.
We give work to people inside Prisons. Why not give them work outside the Prison to stop them committing most of the crimes in the first place? It costs $90,000 to keep someone in Prison which is enough to keep at least five people employed on the outside.
In spite of having successfully trained as a Legal Secretary my own doctor said "It would be cruelty to dumb..." meaning dumb animals to employ me as a receptionist. It is this sort of cynicism which needs to be addressed if people are to live happy and fulfilling lives.
I also trained as a psychiatric nurse and got an A in clinical in the Introduction and was given a D in Practical. I believe that this was a false mark given with the sole purpose of weeding me out because it was observed that I might be Bi-Polar like my mother. I was told I should become an Artist. Art is fine as a hobby but it doesn't often pay the bills unless you are first rate. It is sad that the very institution that treats people with Mental Illness stigmatised and shunned me because I was Bi-Polar.
Physically I'm as strong as an Ox but I don't want to spend the rest of my life, which could be another thirty years, rattling around in fear, hopelessness and isolation.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
I put my own Life forward as an example of the present failures in the Mental Health System
I am going to use my own life as an example of where the present Health System failed me and put forward ideas how this suffering may have been averted so that future clients of the Mental Health System might be able to live more fulfilling lives.
I was born into Mental Illness. My mother was Bi-Polar and I was taken from her at birth and looked after for six weeks by my Grandmother. I was the second child and I honestly believe that, in this time of overpopulation of the Planet, we should consider restricting multiple births to people who suffer severely from Mental Illness and other serious Health Issues. Thus we could reduce the human cost of suffering in future generations. Children need stimulation if they are to thrive and my mother was so lost and isolated I believe that she was unable to provide the necessary level of care to enable socialisation of her children.
I watched my mother suffer the humiliations and degradations of being stigmatised and when I was 16 I wrote a speech on Euthanasia. It seemed to me that she was living a life of Hell and I believed that she should be able to have the option of Euthanasia. My mother, in her old age, has since gone on to find happiness in her golden years in a nursing home but I argue now for the right to have the choice of Euthanasia for myself.
I was born into Mental Illness. My mother was Bi-Polar and I was taken from her at birth and looked after for six weeks by my Grandmother. I was the second child and I honestly believe that, in this time of overpopulation of the Planet, we should consider restricting multiple births to people who suffer severely from Mental Illness and other serious Health Issues. Thus we could reduce the human cost of suffering in future generations. Children need stimulation if they are to thrive and my mother was so lost and isolated I believe that she was unable to provide the necessary level of care to enable socialisation of her children.
I watched my mother suffer the humiliations and degradations of being stigmatised and when I was 16 I wrote a speech on Euthanasia. It seemed to me that she was living a life of Hell and I believed that she should be able to have the option of Euthanasia. My mother, in her old age, has since gone on to find happiness in her golden years in a nursing home but I argue now for the right to have the choice of Euthanasia for myself.
To Live Like a Dog
Many people believe that Euthanasia should be an option for people dying of cancer and terminal illness but I would like to argue for the right of Mental Health Patients to be able to choose Euthanasia after ten years of treatment.
The Mental Health System applies a band-aid approach to the care of its consumers. The way it stands at the moment the care of often too little too late and it leads to lives of interminable suffering. I believe that it would be humane to limit this suffering through Euthanasia.
Psychiatry, as it stands, is the Cinderella of the Health System and if people were able to choose an end to their suffering I believe that more effort would be put into giving Mental Health Patients the comprehensive care that they need instead of investing so much time and money on people that have fallen to the bottom of the cliff. Most of the Mental Health Budget is taken up with supporting people who have completely lost hope and it is such a futile way to treat the Mentally Ill. The whole System needs a revamp and an attitude shift if we are to really help the Mentally Ill in positive and constructive ways.
Most psych survivors lead happy and fulfilling lives with support of friends and family but there are those that drift through life sentence and life sentence of desperation. It is for these people that I believe we should have the Humanity to offer Euthanasia as a way to escape that interminable suffering.
The Mental Health System applies a band-aid approach to the care of its consumers. The way it stands at the moment the care of often too little too late and it leads to lives of interminable suffering. I believe that it would be humane to limit this suffering through Euthanasia.
Psychiatry, as it stands, is the Cinderella of the Health System and if people were able to choose an end to their suffering I believe that more effort would be put into giving Mental Health Patients the comprehensive care that they need instead of investing so much time and money on people that have fallen to the bottom of the cliff. Most of the Mental Health Budget is taken up with supporting people who have completely lost hope and it is such a futile way to treat the Mentally Ill. The whole System needs a revamp and an attitude shift if we are to really help the Mentally Ill in positive and constructive ways.
Most psych survivors lead happy and fulfilling lives with support of friends and family but there are those that drift through life sentence and life sentence of desperation. It is for these people that I believe we should have the Humanity to offer Euthanasia as a way to escape that interminable suffering.
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