madbook ~

MENTAL ILLNESS || SOCIETY'S ILLS
Fred goes for another walk | John Strain tells the story | My response:

     Many of us in the field know "Fred" or have someone very much like him with whom we work | Sad and troubling | More than once I've heard of some poor soul whose gone off and the police have found a body under a bush or (quite recently) drowned and floating in the river |
     Each time, after hearing the sad news, I think, maybe next time I'll be more inured, better steeled and less likely to react than the last time | It never happens | For better or worse, I know there will be some "next time" that I'll be wondering about anew |
     While I might not completely agree with the closing premise about Fred's condition being "...the result of a brain disease... [that]...the DSM-IV calls schizophrenia" your comments and observations are on the mark.
     Perhaps, just perhaps, my skepticism to this characterization comes as much from society's approach to folks who live perceptual parallel lives | Their thoughts and reality as much in some different realm while simultaneously present with ours | I imagine the experience could well be terrifying, though at other times alive and vivid in a manner the rest of us can hardly conceive of |
     But as to socieity's approach | On the one hand, there's the gross over-reliance on drug companies who claim new "miracle cures" only to later be caught pulling the "cure" from the market becuase of severe, adverse side effects (see, for example, the problems now surfacing with Risperidol) | The next facet is that society ~and many individuals within society~ reject and revile those who have difficulty "adjusting" to a fast-pasted, materialistic, discernable-outcome, goal-oriented ethos |
     The "solution"? Send troubled folks off to inpatient institutions, lock 'em up in prisons (for what are often "crimes" of social embarassment), and get 'em signed up with group homes or community psychosocial programs where they can spend their days drinking lots of coffee and supporting the tobacco industry [Stereotypes, I'll admit, but still valid ones] |
     Making the picture even more complicated, society ~and I'm talking most of the planet here, not just the US of A~ devalues people with mental illnesses, forgets about their plight, and seriously underfunds those who are enjoined with the task of being the care givers | There is only so much one can do without the real interest of society at large as a component of solving difficult -and at times, intangible- problems |
     Solutions are not being sought | While the media broad brushes souls with mental disorders as foam-at-the-mouth psychokillers; the funding avenues (public and private) seem apparently more concerned with the quality of furnishings in executive offices than in paying for clients' basic living needs expenses or emathetic support systems | The cards, so to speak, seem stacked against people with long term psychiatric disabilities |
     But as daunting (and, perhaps, depressing) as this may seem, we cannot lose hope on those souls, like Fred, who walk away from what support systems are in place when they first get the chance |
     "Recovery" -IS- an option, though not if it's narrowly defined | We can endeavor to strive toward having supports for people, and in funding them more equitably |
     There are some real BIG battles to fight, not the least of which is addressing social prejudices against people who are perceived as being "worthless" due to the fact that they may not appear to "contribute" to the bottom line dollar sign of the GNP |
     We can constantly combat the negative stereotyping and social opprobation heaped upon both those who experience mental illness and those who elect to work with them |
     Now, aside from apparent psychotic symptoms, the second most devastating condition experienced with mental illness is LONELINESS! Solving that is not something that throwing money at can correct | So let me propose something else |
     We must enjoin others to "adopt a difficult soul" as a brother/sister/family member or friend to be with and to follow them through their travails and triumphs | A tall order, to be sure, but ultimately one which, I believe, is essential if the "Freds" of our society, are ever to have safe haven in the community |
     Finally, we need, as a society to stop "dealing with" symptomologies and recognize that part of many people's problems lies in a profound and complex spiritual angst | That's right, it ain't just about money or drugs or even ~ the lack of decent housing for the poor (among which many folks with mental disorders find themselves) ~ it is as much about a deep malaise of the soul | And with a social order that values "he who dies with the mosy toys, wins" over the value human lives, it could very well be that many of the folks we typically dismisss as mentally ill, are ill in the same way the canary in the coal mine succumbs to noxious poisons in the air | Frankly, we also need to recognize the larger social ills that keep us from truly assisting those most troubled, and paradoxically, least visible on the psychic social radar screen |
     Regrets this took so long | Then again, no I'm not | Helping people who suffer constantly to acheive a measure of control over their situation, AND to acheive some satisfaction with the overall quality of their lives, individually, that's what I mean when I speak of "Recovery" | That's what we need to have in place for Fred and his fellow travelers to come in from the metaphorical rain |

Thanks, John, for keeping attention on Fred's situation.

posted by Will Brady @ 08:34