Perspective on loss of rights while seeking treatment with Mental Illness

It has been over five years since I went to an outpatient treatment for depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress. I have long since recovered from depression and panic attacks. I took advantage of the therapy to explore post-traumatic stress and related emotional management issues. It was time well spent.

I can only tell you in my experience after healing is all about embracing life again. It is not about repeating the cycle of the darkness of depression. Care and intervention brought me to renew a life of service I was once called to.

Making the choice to let depression not define the rest of my life was not without cost. Volunteering treatment, I still lost certain rights. In my opinion those rights should not have been lost, unless there has been criminal activity.  There is  a withdrawal that happens when mental illness is made known. I knew this would be a possibility if I was open about my care and progress. In every area of my life I have experienced people moving back.  

If I had an illness of the heart, or some other organ I would not lose rights or even the privilege of relationships, but if I engage in mental care I do. If my behavior or illness is harmful to others is one thing; but if I seek a care plan to actually deal with the problems going on in my brain I shouldn’t be penalized. 

Before you think I am paranoid or I am incapable as part of mental disorder, check my writings the last several years, I don’t think my observation is based on faulty wiring. Consider that we tend to view mental illness more negative than other illnesses. In the fat man blog I hold the idea that cardiovascular, cancer, and diabetes are really the things we should be afraid of. As I get older what grabs my attention are all the ways we can get dementia. As my father would say, “That’s some scary shit!”

As we look at the news, the first thing we think of when someone committing horrendous crime must be that they are mentally ill or unstable. It isn’t that a person has taken up a cause or course of action that is a choice of wrong, evil. No, it has to be an illness of the brain. 

Across our country there are young men between the ages of 19-23 who are killing mostly people like themselves. There are many instances where others are innocent who are killed or injured as well. Mental illness is not the edge to this violence, but turf, drugs, sex, money and identity are.

We do see more than enough people who harm themselves or others and there is an illness that is part of it. I worked

Jack looks young - One Flew Over
the Cookoo's Nest

seven years in mental hospitals where there were hundreds of meltdowns where some type of conflict or restraint was needed. I got punched in the nose by an 85 year old farmer and had difficulty once with a 90 lb. women. Both times I was taken by surprise. Every other situation I was able to safely secure both the patient and staff. If those 200+ incidents were with criminals I do believe injuries would have been common. In mental illness the acting out is more in the moment and not a planned action. If a criminal was in a hospital the response would be decisive, but with the hundreds I encountered in the hospital the illness itself would confuse their response. The violence is different. 

When I look at violence today, I don’t assume it is because of mental illness. In enough situations it may well be a factor. A greater fear for me is any ideology that is considered more important than the relationships of people and a genuine love for God. Theocracies, politics, philosophies are far more dangerous than mental illness. 

Mental illness, I believe is more common to all of us, because there is a lot that can go wrong in the brain that we probably haven’t even discovered yet.

Rights, responsibilities, relationships and respect should be all part of when somebody decides to see medical remedies for anything happening concerning our little grey cells. If we choose to harm self or others then we should expect consequences. But give a guy or gal a break if they are trying to put something in remission. Keep walking

Ps. a link for good faith and mental health articles 

http://www.meierclinics.com/ADHD_Myths_and_Treatment