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Halloween and Schizophrenia From Stereotypes and Stigma to Candy

15 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by A Journey With You in bipolar, caregivers, hope, mental illness, schizophrenia, stigma, Uncategorized

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candy, costumes, creepy, crime, criminals, Halloween, Hollywood, hospitals, lobmotomies, mental health, mentally ill, movies, psych wards, psychiatric facilities, severe mental illness, sterotypes, stigma

I love October it is the first month after summer where days start to get cooler, nights longer and there are all of those great flavors like pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple. As a kid, October held one of my favorite days at the end of the month, Halloween. But that was long before I had the diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Now Halloween marks the most stigmatizing and stereotyping day of the year for people with a severe mental illness. There are straightjacket costumes, the horror films, the haunted asylums, and many other cultural favorites that make it look like those of us with a mental illness are terrifying, monstrous, and the places we go for treatment are houses of horror.

People have become more and more aware of how costumes, mascots, names, etc. are offensive to certain groups over the years. Look at the campaigns to get the Red Skins to change their name, and the pushback on Hollywood to hire transgender actors to play transgender roles as well as Asian actors and other POC to play roles intended for them. All good, every bit of it.

Many groups have experienced a tide of change about their identities, but that wave has not included severe mental illness. There has been a great deal of public acceptance of anxiety and depression, those two disorders have made it into the mainstream in ways schizophrenia has not. I have seen little shift in public awareness or acceptance of schizophrenia, especially in October.

There is hope, though with movies like Netflix’s Maniac, where the main character has schizophrenia and displays many symptoms, but isn’t a monster, a criminal, or even unlikeable. That is a huge change from the stereotypes on many crime shows that write in the killer as someone with schizophrenia.

The history of psychiatric facilities as places that tortured patients with treatments like lobotomies, ice baths, insulin shock therapy, and other stuff of nightmares, almost cements psychiatric facilities with a role on Halloween. The boarded up closed up, and long unused asylums that dot our countryside don’t help as many people and television shows report tales of ghosts and other haunting stories.

I don’t hate Halloween, though. On the bright side, at least it is a night that involves candy, and who doesn’t want to celebrate pillowcases, and plastic pumpkins packed full of sugary treats, especially candy bars that are full-size.

 

 

Untie the Myths: Shootings and Mental Illness do not go Hand in Hand

19 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by A Journey With You in caregivers, mental illness, schizophrenia, stigma, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

asylums, bipolar, firearms, guns, hospitals, mass shootings, mental health, mental illness, mental institutions, mentally ill, schizophrenia]

In the weeks since the school shooting in Florida at Stoneman Douglas, we are once again talking about mental health and the treatment of people with mental illness. President Trump has called for more mental institutions, as one of his solutions to the problem of mass shootings. And last week, Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, said that communities need to have the option of involuntarily committing mentally ill people to reduce crime.

As someone with paranoid schizophrenia, who could be impacted by sweeping law and policy changes, what do I think about these two powerful men and their statements? I think they are both right in their proposals, but the information or assertions that lead to these proposals are inaccurate, based on faulty reasoning, reactionary, and wrong.

President Trump is correct that we need more long-term psychiatric beds in every state in the union. According to The Treatment Advocacy Center in 1955, there were 558,239 psychiatric beds in the United States, and as of 2016, there were 37,679. What does this mean? It means people who are experiencing a mental health crisis may not find a bed, or they may go on a waiting list that has them waiting as long as a month or more for the type of treatment they need.

Attorney General Jeff Session is correct that we need a better system to get people into hospitals. Under the current system, a person must be a danger to themselves or others to be involuntarily committed. As someone who has been psychotic, and in need of treatment that I did not trust (due to paranoia), and I lacked insight into my condition based on a symptom called anosognosia. An involuntary commitment would have helped me get the treatment I needed much faster. When someone is psychotic the length of time that they are psychotic matters regarding recovery, treatment, and the likelihood of future episodes. In other words, the sooner someone gets treatment, the better.

So, all is well in Washington DC regarding attitudes towards mental health? Right? Wrong. The fact that a mass shooting led to these proposals is troubling at the least and harmful at worst. The statistics do not back up either one of these responses to gun violence. According to the American Mental Health Counselors Association, only 3 to 5 percent of all violence (including firearm violence) is tied to severe mental illness. In the same article, on their website, AMHCA reports that people with severe mental illness are twelve times more likely to be the victims of violence (including firearm violence) than the general population.

It is easy to blame the mentally ill it is a simple and clean and for most people, perfectly sensible cause of violence. But it isn’t truthful, and the number of people those myths hurt is on the rise every year. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) one if five American adults will experience a mental illness, and ten million adults in America live with a serious mental illness. So, are these repeated stereotypes about mental illness and violence hurting someone? Yes, they are hurting a large portion of the adult population in America. They are keeping people from treatment (don’t want to admit I have a mental illness) and keeping people from jobs (people don’t want to hire someone who they believe (although inaccurately) is prone to violence).

We need solutions to mass shootings in America. We also need solutions to mental health in America, but the two things are a separate conversation and tying them together destroys life and productivity; it costs our society and individuals way too much. It’s time to get serious and untie the myths so we can make room for change.

 

 

Facebook Statuses I Would Like To See In 2030

27 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by A Journey With You in bipolar, hope, mental illness, schizophrenia, stigma, Uncategorized, writing

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

bipolar, change, cure, depression, drugs, elderly, Facebook, future, guns, homeless, hope, hospitals, inspiration, Internet, medication, mental illness, mentally ill, police, prison, schizophrenia], social media, writer, writing

Facebook status updates I want to see in 2030:

“The state psychiatric facilities are being turned into retirement centers for the elderly. Of course, they’ll add golf, swimming pools, and restaurants.”

“The United States no longer has the highest number of people in prison. Since a cure has been found for so many mental illnesses, the number of inmates has dropped to less than half of previous numbers.”

“Back in 2016, there were thousands of homeless people in the United States. Now all we see are people backpacking around from city to city – travelers have replaced the homeless.”

“Can you imagine what it was like in 2016 when people could buy weapons on the Internet? It must have been terrifying!”

“Can you believe there was a time when some people couldn’t afford their medical treatment? Barbaric!”

“My grandparents had to choose between groceries and medication! How could anyone allow that? Terrible!”

“My parents said when they were younger, that some people didn’t vote! Can you imagine that?”

“It is so nice to see our military rebuilding all our roads and bridges.”

“My mom said the police used to respond to calls regarding the mentally ill. Say what?”

“I heard people used to make fun of mental illness. Wow! Seriously, messed up.”

“There were hate groups in 2016. Damn, I’m glad I live in 2030!”

“Previous generations nearly destroyed our planet. It is a good thing the world came together and made some changes.”

“I read a book today about life in 2016. Man, have we come a long way!”

“I got my shot today. I no longer have schizophrenia.”

 

Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act

17 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by A Journey With You in caregivers, mental illness

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

acitivist, advocacy, Advocate, bill, congress, family, government, helping families in mental health crisis act, hospitals, involuntary treatment, law, mental health, mental illness, mentally ill, parents

Family members and people who are advocates for the legal rights of the mentally ill are not always on the same team, and I am not always on the same team as either one of them.

Here is an article by a mother supporting the new bill before Congress, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act.

Here is an article by legal advocates who do not support the bill. 

I have to admit, that I often do not see eye to eye with family members and the laws they want to get passed. I don’t agree with number 4 (in the first article) which would give caregivers and parents access to more information regarding the person in treatment.

For me, when I see a new doctor, I always sign a waiver allowing my husband access to all information regarding me. I want my doctor to feel free to talk to my husband about all aspects of my care in an emergency. I don’t, however, want anyone else to have that right. The only person I want to be able to make decisions about my mental health treatment is my husband. I do not want a treatment facility to release any information about my care to anyone else under any circumstances. If my husband is unable to make decisions along with my doctor, I would rather make these decisions on my own with my doctor even if I am not well.

I may not agree with all the issues of legal advocates either. For example, I recently did an interview with a feminist magazine and I mentioned that the law, as it currently stands in some states, about involuntary treatment should be changed to a lengthier amount of time. I think if someone is admitted involuntarily because they pose a risk to themselves or others that a hospital should be able to hold them longer than seventy-two hours. My reasoning behind this is that it often takes longer than seventy-two hours for psych medications to start working. I think someone at risk should be held a minimum of one week (I think a little longer would be better, but the extra four days may prove to save some lives).  This probably isn’t a popular position to the legal advocates of the mentally ill, but it makes perfect sense to me, someone who knows the difference a few days can make in terms of psychosis and stability.

Most other details of the law (spelled out clearly here), I am in support of with the exception of what I mentioned in my first paragraph and number 6 which limits the powers of national advocacy programs. The example they use for the provision of this change in policy is an advocate that told a mentally ill man what he needed to say to be released from care. He was released from care, and then murdered his mother. I think the person who counseled that man was unethical and negligent, but I don’t think all national advocacy programs interactions with the mentally ill should be changed because of one case.

Please feel free to comment/debate in the comment section. I am definitely open to hearing your opinions.

Tragedy Strikes Again and we need to Think about it

24 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by A Journey With You in mental illness

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

acitivist, advocacy, Advocate, guns, hospitals, mental health, mental illness, mentally ill, psychosis, racism, shootings, terrorism, violence

I am posting this so you will be aware that there has been another horrific shooting in the United States. This is becoming a pattern. It really is.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/24/us/louisiana-theater-shooting/

Our country has so much to deal with right now. The tension and violence are very high. We are battling racism. We are suffering from increased levels of gun violence. We are seeing increased incidents of terrorism. We are suffering from a crumbling mental health system (no open beds for people who are psychotic).

Things have to change. People are dying almost daily over these issues. We have to think of new solutions, we have to vote for people who will create real change.

A short post to ask people to think of ways they may be able to contribute to changing the current social problems.  Don’t forget, one person really can change the world. It may be you!

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