Columns

ON MENTAL ILLNESS: So, Where is That Free Lunch, Anyway?

Jack Bragen
Friday May 18, 2018 - 04:49:00 PM

Nope, I am not compiling a list of free food places for this week's column. I am writing of the fact that you will get what you pay for. I am not speaking of retail, either, in which often you do not get what you paid for. I am speaking of recovery and doing well. 

"Doing well," is often the best we can hope for. And it doesn't always last. Doing well can mean anything from no suicide attempts, to staying out of the hospital for a year, or, for some, it can mean full time or part time employment. 

Doing well comes at a price. The price is effort. In addition, we must cultivate disbelief when people in the mental health treatment profession project their notions on us. They will often project onto us that we are subnormal, that we are dumb idiots, and that we are an inferior sub-species. 

We do not need to convince treatment professionals of our worth and competence--it is a waste of valuable energy. If we want to do well, it is generally necessary to be treatment compliant. However, that doesn't mean that we must accept and incorporate the warped perspective of therapists. 

I was seeing a therapist intern who was bad. I did not realize how bad of a therapist she was until the end, when I was kicked out because of poor attendance. At the last meeting, I exchanged thinly veiled insults with her. 

Often, we must do well in spite of treatment professionals, and not because of them. And, it takes work to get well and do well. There is not always a person to guide us through this work, to make sure we are on the right track, or to inform us of when we are barking up the wrong tree. We have to listen to people, yet not all people are going to be accurate. 

It is a good idea to cultivate mental clarity. Yet, how do you do that? Different people will have different answers. A psychiatrist might advise us that we are incapable of clarity and should be supervised. A religious person might tell us we can find clarity in the Bible. Donald Trump might tell us we can find clarity through the Republican Party, or perhaps by reading one of his books. Putin might ban the word "clarity" altogether, and might imprison anyone who uses that word. 

Everyone has her or his own idea of clarity. Yet, I would think, clarity could be definable as a type of thought that leads us to the results we want. If we want to remain out of a psychiatric hospital, we have to identify and edit out the delusional thoughts. This is aside from being medicated, which, for most mentally ill people is necessary. 

I've seen people who've gone off medication, and, inevitably, weeks or even months later, I've witnessed them being taken away by police. The code for it in California is 5150. 

The problem is that psychiatric medications create their own impairment--they block the mind and body from functioning at high energy levels. This can ruin our ability to be competitive in a job. Thus, where is the path to a better life? 

I have seen mentally ill people do well for a number of years. At some point, this ends. The individual could die, could have a return of severe symptoms of mental illness, or could have severe physical health problems that prevent doing very much. 

It requires effort to do well, but it also requires applying this effort wisely. There may be no roadmap to guide us on the correct path. Sometimes it is a hit and miss venture. Yet, this is life, and life doesn't guarantee anything. 


As a reminder to readers, I have self-help and fiction books available. To access them (on Amazon) click here.