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ON MENTAL ILLNESS: Recovery is Fragile

Jack Bragen
Friday October 13, 2017 - 03:31:00 PM

The price of sanity for someone like me, who suffers from a major psychiatric disorder, is continuous vigilance against recurrence of symptoms. In some instances, symptoms sneak past the barrier. The barrier consists of medication, therapy, a support system, and looking inward in order to identify and negate symptomatic thoughts.  

Last week's column may not have been my best work. 

I've gone more than 21 years without having another repeat hospitalization which, if it happened, would be caused by getting acutely psychotic. Getting acutely psychotic could begin with complacence, and/or believing that I have solved all of my problems. That in turn leads to lack of being vigilant enough against symptoms.  

Schizophrenia has certain things in common with conditions such as diabetes; one of them is that you need to keep on top of the illness and not let symptoms get too much of a foothold. However, it is much harder to monitor thoughts in comparison to blood sugar, which you can just test with a blood glucose meter.  

The environment our President has created is of no help to me in my quest to stay sane.  

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LAS VEGAS SHOOTER NOT LABELED AS MENTALLY ILL 

Experts do not believe the shooter in Las Vegas was schizophrenic. He did not have a history of mental illness. In the words of one expert: "Schizophrenia is a young person's disease." Brain scientists by now have begun an attempt to analyze the brain of the shooter. This is difficult because of his self-inflicted gunshot wound. Some theories have been put forth, such as a possible brain tumor.  

This was an incident which took many people by surprise and which according to some commentators, could not have been predicted or prevented. However, gun control would be one obvious measure to reduce the likelihood of such an incident.  

It shows a possibility of social progress when people don't have a knee-jerk reaction of labeling the shooter as mentally ill. Most mentally ill people, including myself, could not even go to Las Vegas, because of being too stressed out by driving that distance, or too stressed from being paranoid about an airline flight.  

 

GUTTING MEDICARE, AND SAYING, "THIS IS THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM" ARE OF NO HELP TO MENTALLY ILL 

President Trump has created a more hostile environment in our country, making it much harder to survive with a psychiatric disorder. The fact that Republicans have agreed to make huge cuts in Medicare, is pure evil, and will be responsible for massive suffering and death among retired people, disabled people, and mentally ill people.  

Not being able to get essential medication and other treatment will cause numerous mentally ill individuals to go into crisis. Without hospital services being available, it is likely that mentally ill people will be jailed, will die in jail, or will die on the streets. If you combine it with the absence of a good gun control law, it is a recipe for more shootings, and worse shootings. 

A President has limited ability to make things better for people, yet has total ability to make things worse.