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A Journey With You

~ surviving schizophrenia

A Journey With You

Tag Archives: violence

Something To Consider (Trigger Warning)

23 Saturday Jan 2016

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

≈ 25 Comments

Tags

bipolar, blog, marketing, mental illness, mentally ill, pregnancy, public relations, schizophrenia], stereotypes, violence, writer, writing

Trigger Warning – Upsetting Content

I don’t expect anyone to answer the question I am going to ask. I think the reason I don’t want to know your answer is because I am afraid of what you might say, or what your answer means about how you see my life – specifically the value of my life.

If you were pregnant and they could test your fetus for schizophrenia, and the test was positive, would you terminate the pregnancy?

I would love it if researchers found a cure for schizophrenia. I would love it if researchers discovered more medications that worked better with fewer side effects. One thing I hope they never discover is a test for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder in a fetus.

What people with schizophrenia need is a positive PR campaign. We need a talented marketing firm to help change the image of the illness. Corporations do it all the time. If a restaurant has an outbreak of e-coli, or some other health issue or scandal, they usually change their marketing so that people see them differently and begin to trust them again.

Think about it. Right now, people who have little experience with someone who has schizophrenia, probably get their information from the media. The media portrays people with schizophrenia as killers or as the shooter in a mass killing. It would be terrifying to think your baby was going to grow up to kill other people.

But, a really good marketing team could turn that stereotype into something else. They could show families at home together. They could show a lawyer arguing a case in court. They could show a professor teaching a class. They could show an artist, writer, father, sister, aunt, brother. There are so many other images that they could choose. There are millions of people living with schizophrenia who have never hurt anyone else.

With or without a test for schizophrenia, we could use that PR campaign. It would help people with schizophrenia feel comfortable talking about their illness, asking for help, and getting treatment.

Let me put a question to rest. Even with schizophrenia, I am happy to be alive. I am thankful that I got a chance at living, loving, working, traveling, laughing, eating, writing, sleeping, and on and on and on.

I wouldn’t wish schizophrenia on anyone (I wouldn’t wish cancer or diabetes or any other illness on anyone either), but life has its challenges for everyone, and I am living with mine the best way I can, and I still manage to experience joy. This essay is the beginning of that PR campaign. I will be the first in line to open my life up and show people what it can look like to have schizophrenia. I don’t have money to run commercials, but I can write a blog, and that’s a start.

 

The Cost Of Terror

14 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by A Journey With You in travel, writing

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

9/11, airlines, guns, paris, past, schizophrenia, shootings, terror, terrorism, terrorist, travel, vaction, violence, war, writing

This morning schizophrenia doesn’t seem like such a big topic. It doesn’t seem quite as pressing as usual. It certainly isn’t on the forefront of my mind.

I am thinking of Paris. I am thinking of all those innocent people who lost their lives and how their families are grieving and how the witnesses will probably suffer psychological disturbances for the rest of their lives.

I am thinking there was a time when I used to say, “Mom, I’m going to ride my bike,” and I would be outside until my mother blew a whistle to call all four of her children in.

I am thinking of a time when I went door to door by myself, in neighborhoods that were not my own, and sold Girl Scout Cookies.

I am thinking about a time when I walked to school and back home again, or walked several miles to a friend’s house.

I am thinking of a time when schools didn’t have metal detectors.

I am thinking of a time when flying on a plane was unusual, and most of the people I knew had never done it.

I am thinking about a time when going to another country was exotic not something people did for business or their annual vacation.

I am thinking of a time when I had never heard of the word terrorist.

I am thinking of a time when we were not at war.

I am thinking of a time when murder wasn’t on the nightly news.

I am thinking of a time when we owned bb guns and had never heard of an AK47.

I am thinking of a time when I was so excited to go to a baseball game or a move theater and my safety never occurred to me.

I am thinking of a time when the only monsters I knew of were under my bed or in my closet, but would disappear as soon as my parents or brothers turned on the lights.

I am thinking of the loss of innocence and how we never get it back again.

I am thinking of all the murders we have to try and live with on a daily basis. How much terror is too much terror? What will happen to us if as adults we can no longer grieve the sheer number of those murdered? Will it destroy our hearts?

An Active Shooter: You Never Think It Will Happen To You

05 Thursday Nov 2015

Posted by A Journey With You in mental illness, schizophrenia

≈ 54 Comments

Tags

america, crime, domestic violence, guns, medication, mental illness, mentally ill, police, schizophrenia, shooter, violence

I heard gunshots yesterday morning at about 9. I got down on the floor and stayed there for a while. After several minutes of silence and sirens I made my way to the window. I could see the police blocking off the streets. My neighbors were outside beneath my window. I heard more sirens.

I called my husband at work and said, “I don’t know what is happening but I am okay. There were gunshots and now the police are blocking off the street.”  We talked for a minute and then we hung up.

I looked out the window again, and my neighbors were gathered and talking on the street. I decided to put on some jeans, go downstairs, and ask my neighbors what was going on. I headed out my condo door.

On the street, I joined a group of my neighbors. “Did that wake you up?” One of my neighbors asked.

“No, I’ve been up for hours.” I said.

“There is a shooter somewhere.” One of my neighbors said.

“I am going back in. It probably isn’t safe on the street.” I said and headed back toward the front door.

When I got back upstairs I heard the police tell everyone to get inside, “Now!”

I heard more gunfire.

I went into the back bathroom of my house with my tablet and cellphone. I called my husband. I told him I was hiding in the bathroom. He looked up the news and told me there was an active shooter in our neighborhood. While I was talking to him I could hear rapid gunfire. I told my husband the neighborhood was blocked off completely and not to come home. I said, “It is dangerous here, don’t come.”

My husband had to go to a meeting, so I called my mom and then my dad. While I was talking to my mom I heard men on the roof of my building. I heard loud voices and banging. I hung up the phone and walked into the closest to see if I could hear what the people somewhere in my building were saying.

The banging got louder. I heard people yelling, “Police! Open up!”

I crept into the front room and went to the front door. I opened it slightly, and there were about ten to fifteen officers in my hallway. One of them said, “Come here, right now.”

“Can I lock my door? Can I get my keys?” I asked.

They told me no, so I went down the hall to them in my bare feet and with my door open. I was terrified. I told one of the officers, “I have a mental illness.”

The officer shouted, “Wait, we have someone here with a mental illness!”

My neighbor, who was also in the hallway said, “Who has a mental illness?”

The officer and I didn’t say anything.

They put us in the elevator and told us to push the button for floor 1 and go to apartment 3. They told us officers would be waiting. We went to the 1st floor, and made our way to apartment 3 where several officers escorted us outside and down the street.

I borrowed my neighbor’s cell phone and called my husband. I told him I had been evacuated and I didn’t have shoes. My husband left his meeting, and started to run from downtown toward home. When he arrived several blocks away, the officers told him to go back. He finally talked to an officer and told him that his wife was close to the incident and that he could see me in a black t-shirt standing in a group of people. The officer started to escort him down the street, and I saw him and started walking toward him. Once the officer saw me coming toward them, he let my husband continue on his own.

At one point I told a female officer that I had paranoid schizophrenia and that I would need my medication by 5. The officer took my name, my apartment number, and where I kept my medication. She came back twice during the ordeal to update me on getting my medication. She was truly compassionate, took my illness and needs seriously and was more than willing to help me try and get what I needed.

We learned that the original call to police was a domestic disturbance and when the police arrived the man in the apartment building next to ours shot at the police barely missing an officer.

We spent the next 4-5 hours standing on the street, waiting for the stand-off between the shooter and the police to be over. The police were eventually able to take the shooter into custody. Thankfully, no one got hurt.

We were let back in our home at approximately 3. My feet were sore and dirty, my face was sunburnt, my back hurt, and I was on the verge of tears.

Gun Violence, Stigma and Mental Health

21 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by A Journey With You in mental illness

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

acitivist, advocacy, Advocate, bipolar, depression, gun violence, guns, huffington post, mass shootings, mental health, mental health reform, mental illness, mentally ill, police killings, prisons, psychiatry, psychology, schizophrenia, violence, writing

I may be able to say it with more emotion, but I can not say it with as much clarity, for all of you who are advocates, please read this article. It is so well done. Some people understand so clearly and are writing about it.

The article is about the truth behind why we are currently looking at changing mental health laws right now…basically, because the mentally ill are blamed for the gun violence in this country.  The statistics don’t back this up. It is true a high number of mentally ill people are in prison, but most of them are there for non-violent crimes.

This article also points out that a mentally ill person is shot by police every 36 hours, and that after one of our recent tragedies with a mass shooter, the public said they didn’t want a mentally ill neighbor.

I encourage you to read it. It is so important.

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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