Mental Health Awareness Week

[Cow of Shame]

[quote name='Azriel' date='Oct 3 2005, 11:58 AM'] ... someone was offended
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Why didn't you tell me up front that the ACLU was in charge?

A frowny smiley constitutes a deletable offense? Let me get started on my own yellow rain of censorship. I have certainly found some posts to be offensive, but if someone took the post seriously, then we should open dialogue...isn't that the whole point in here?

[zabbazooey]

Someone reported it. They found it offensive. End of story.

Continue this somewhere else, troll.

[theculturewarrior]

[quote name='Cow of Shame' date='Oct 3 2005, 11:50 AM']Personally, my friends with mental illness would have found my post HILARIOUS.  Just how thin skinned do you think people are?  That just because they have a chemical imbalance means they aren't able to recognize lighthearted banter? 
Are you saying they are STUPID as well?
Come ON people!
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People with mental illness tend to be more sensitive than the rest of the population. If we weren't, we wouldn't get sick! I don't think you posted that as a friendly jibe, though. I think it was intended to be cruel. Who is sick, me or you?

[Cow of Shame]

riiiight...said it just to get people all hyped up. did you even read it, zabbazooey, or are you throwing names around, all willy-nilly?

[zabbazooey]

I did read it. And I didn't like what I read.

It wasn't very nice.

If your other friends would have thought it was funny, tell it to them.

Because I don't care to read that.

[Cow of Shame]

[quote name='theculturewarrior' date='Oct 3 2005, 12:45 PM'] I don't think you posted that as a friendly jibe, though. I think it was intended to be cruel. Who is sick, me or you?
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[quote name='zabbazooey' date='12:47 PM']And I didn't like what I read.

It wasn't very nice.[/quote]

I think people tend to read intentions into other people's writing that which reflects what is in their own heart. I can laugh off posts that contain profanity, name-calling, and jibes at my culture, heritage & background...because I don't write with hate in my heart. Do you?

Edited October 3, 2005 by Cow of Shame

[zabbazooey]

Obviously not


this is the last of it because i refuse to hijack TCW's thread any further...make your own thread if you want to talk.

Edited October 3, 2005 by zabbazooey

[zabbazooey]

Or better yet PM me if you have a bone to pick.

[theculturewarrior]

I think trolls are better left ignored!

I wrote the following email and I'm going to send it to the people in my address book, including some of my coworkers. I'm worried though, that it will cause unnecessary concern for me. Will you look at it and tell me if it sounds "sane?"

Thanks!

[quote]Hello friends:

Today is National Bipolar Awareness Day. I feel like celebrating! It may not seem like something to celebrate, but allow me to explain. People with bipolar disorder traditionally have not had a day to celebrate. Throughout history, there was a high mortality rate, and a very poor standard of living. For example, in Britain, the mentally ill were displayed for entertainment...the "Madhouses" sold tickets to bored Londoners who would gawk at the mentally ill as if they were a circus freakshow. Not long after that, the question of eugenics arose. The British were concerned that the mentally ill were breeding at such ferocious rates, that they would do to Britain what rabbits did to Australia, and so they were taken from their families, and were sequestered, not necessarily for their own good, but for the "good of the country." Nazi Germany took it a step further. The disabled were social parasites, and Aryan blood needed to be kept pure, so the mentally ill were exterminated. The "Madhouses" were emptied.

Today, in the United States of America, we have the right to refuse treatment (although a judge can still order treatment against the will of the patient). It is no longer common for a mentallly ill patient to be kept under constraints. New therapies render most mental illnesses among the most treatable of diseases, and we are learning that mental illnesses are also among the most common of diseases. Most of us can live and work without anybody knowing that we are challenged by these ailments. If we all wore a scarlet letter on our cardigans, you would see that there are so many of us that perhaps the question of eugenics would arise again.

We are still challenged by stigma. There was recently in the news a story of a man with bipolar disorder, who had hid in a bathroom at an elementary school (in Nebraska) and raped a child. You hear stories like this often. A schizophrenic kills his parents. A bipolar rapes someone. They don't tell you about the untold millions of us who are living happy, normal lives. People are still uncomfortable with mental illness. For example, I went to confession once, and I told the priest that I was struggling with depression, and that I had been recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The priest was disconcerted, and from that moment on, he was visibly uncomfortable with me. That is not the normal reaction (I've had this conversation with a few priests), but it is a good example of stigma.

People who suffer things like this in general tend to be sensitive, more sensitive then the general population, or we would be given a clean bill of health. If we experience a crisis situation, we are often then confronted with the bigotry of people who have not experienced what we have. It is a double blow, and an invitation to further relapse.

There was a movie that took place during World War Two. The allies walked into one side of the mental hospital, and the nazis walked into the other, and they both gunned each other down. A patient took one of the guns from the fallen soldiers and began to gun down his fellow patients, crying, "look! I'm sane, like you!"

Ask yourself, who was sicker, the patient or the society from which he came? Who was sicker, the infirm in the "Madhouses," or the people who sold tickets to see them? Who was sicker, the nazis, or the people they killed? Who is sicker? Me, or you?

People are children, really. We never finish growing up. We never lose that spark of life, that sacred anima that makes us precious in the eyes of our parents (although for some, it flickers). But as children will, we sometimes bite, or pull each other's hair, or worse, we don't want to be friends with certain children. When a child steps on another child's toes, he may giggle, or he may pout for a while, but at the end of the day, he's at home watching Blue's Clues. If he sees a butterfly, he might step on it, and wonder why it doesn't get back up, or he might rub it into a pulp in the ground thinking, "poor butterfly!" But at the end of the day, he's at home watching Blue's Clues.

The mentally ill can be just as petty, selfish, and shallow as any child. That's just human nature. But we're as delicate as butterflies. I think this is why bipolar disorder has such a high mortality rate. 10 to 15% of us do not survive. You can literally drive yourself insane thinking about how shallow people are (I speak from experience!). And we can step on children's toes just as hard as they can, harder sometimes! But, sometimes, all it takes is a scowl, and we are mortally wounded.

I believe that life is beautiful. Sometimes I have to remind myself. If this email causes concern for me, I thank you, but that is not my intention. Suffering has meaning to me, and life is beautiful whether we see it or not, even when we hurt. Every leaf on every tree proclaims the beauty of creation. Every cell in my body is inscribed with the sanctity of life. Sometimes life doesn't make sense, and its beauty is hidden, but adversity teaches us to hope, and we cannot hope for what we already see. I will survive this disease. If nothing else, I refuse to be an accomplice to my own murder. (Sometimes co-existence looks that way to a butterfly).

If this inspires you to treat a bipolar friend or relative differently than you would treat anybody else, that would be ill advised. It could trigger depression just as easily as stepping on his toes. If it inspires you to treat everyone differently, than my work is done! Instead of tiptoeing in constant trepidition of breaking your bipolar friend or relative's heart, give him or her a hug instead. This is our day!

Love,

TCW

O Crux, Ave, Spes Unica.[/quote]

[Guest T-Bone]

[img]http://www.catholic.org/images/saints/stdymphna.jpg[/img]
[url="http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=222"]St. Dymphna[/url]


Hear us, O God, Our Saviour, as we honor St. Dymphna, patron of those afflicted with mental and emotional illness. Help us to be inspired by her example and comforted by her merciful help. Amen.

[theculturewarrior]

Is it bad?

[Guest T-Bone]

Your letter?

Your letter is excellent...

[theculturewarrior]

Thanks!

The thing is, last time I wrote a letter like this, it sounded suicidal, and a lot of people were concerned. I wasn't suicidal then, and I'm not now, but sometimes I don't really know how I sound.

[p-hawk]

As a unipolar, I like the letter.

[p-hawk]

[quote name='theculturewarrior' date='Oct 3 2005, 03:49 PM']Thanks!

The thing is, last time I wrote a letter like this, it sounded suicidal, and a lot of people were concerned. I wasn't suicidal then, and I'm not now, but sometimes I don't really know how I sound.
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That sounded not suicidal at all.

[theculturewarrior]

[quote name='p-hawk' date='Oct 3 2005, 01:50 PM']As a unipolar, I like the letter.
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What's a unipolar? You only get manic? Or you only get depressed?

[zabbazooey]

It's GREAT!

[theculturewarrior]

Pray for me. I started getting paranoid today. It had been a long time since I felt that, and for me, the next step is psychosis. I'm feeling better now, but if it happens again, I'm calling my doctor, God help me!

God is teaching me to love. Even in my distress, He reminded me to eat two servings of fruit and to take a walk tonight.

[Guest T-Bone]

[quote name='theculturewarrior' date='Oct 3 2005, 12:49 PM']Thanks!

The thing is, last time I wrote a letter like this, it sounded suicidal, and a lot of people were concerned. I wasn't suicidal then, and I'm not now, but sometimes I don't really know how I sound.
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When I get suicidal, I tend to hide it very well...
Not necessaraly a good thing.

[quote name='theculturewarrior' date='Oct 3 2005, 05:21 PM']Pray for me. I started getting paranoid today. It had been a long time since I felt that, and for me, the next step is psychosis. I'm feeling better now, but if it happens again, I'm calling my doctor, God help me!

God is teaching me to love. Even in my distress, He reminded me to eat two servings of fruit and to take a walk tonight.
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Praying for you...
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[Cow of Shame]

"If this inspires you to treat a bipolar friend or relative differently than you would treat anybody else, that would be ill advised."

And yet, you condemn me when I treat you like any other. *shrug*

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.




And another thing; no more sneaking Boo crackers. He is getting rather portly, and the crumbs make for an itchy bedroll