Public Comment

Mentally ill people in recovery need a lot of help, from family, from society and from the mental health treatment systems. Generally, families are supportive--mine always has been. Yet, society doesn't want to deal with us, and would rather we do not share space with the "good working people," those who congregate at Starbuck's every morning before work. They do not want their tax dollars to go toward helping us live. At least, not near to them. When a low-income project or a mental health facility is proposed in a "good neighborhood residents invariable oppose it. They don't want to deal with mentally ill people because we are perceived as a nuisance and a danger. This is not true. It is the same thing that people dealt with in the past, when a black family wanted to live nearby--bigotry. 

The concept most people have of mentally disabled people is a cluster of "crazies" smoking cigarettes into billowing clouds, chattering among themselves--and while doing this, showing rotten teeth in their unclean mouths--and littering candy and potato chip wrappers everywhere... and, in some instances, vomiting, or even...urinating in public. This is the stereotype that people truly hold, and it is a very exaggerated perspective. It doesn't represent mentally ill people and especially not those who've worked hard at recovering. It is akin to the Black stereotypes once held and still held by many very ignorant people. Yet, mentally ill stereotypes are still common, and they are mainstream. That doesn't make stereotypes okay. 

To recover, a mentally ill man or woman must become very strong. Not strong in a way that you never cry, never show fear, or never feel pain; no, it is not that kind of strong. The strength I speak of is where you are not afraid to fall and then get back up, where you are not afraid to speak your real feelings, where you tell the truth, and where you stand up to people and systems who have more apparent power than you do. That's genuine strength, and it is a rarity. And to recover from mental illness, mentally ill people need that kind of strength, a lot of it. 

Additionally, mentally ill people need to be given a fair chance at success in life. We aren't getting that. We are sabotaged by multiple factors and by multiple people. Sometimes, admittedly, we sabotage ourselves, either because of the symptoms of the condition or because we have lost our self-confidence, somewhere along the way. But when we fail, this is reinforced by people's harsh criticism. This only perpetuates the cycle. Getting out of the cycle sometimes means that we must exclude the critical person from being in the know about our attempts at success. Maybe we will tell them about it a few years later, when we've become established at something. 

Words can hurt. And when people belittle us, this harms us. A failed work attempt does not constitute a failure. We've tried to do something, and for whatever reason, it didn't work, this time. It doesn't mean that our attempt will never work, that is, unless we incorporate negative reinforcement. This can happen when someone, regardless of good intentions, criticizes our efforts. 

The above describes the core of disability. 

When we find we are unable to work, for any reason, it leads to poverty. Poverty is poison, it leads to sickness, crime, drug addiction, death, what-have-you. Poverty is bad for you. 

When we are poor and we have a medical condition and/or a disability, we become fragile, and our existences become fragile. We become reliant on a safety net that has proven itself not reliable. We become reliant on the engine continuing to run in our 1985 Plymouth Reliant. We become reliant on our ability to do grunt work, or to work at a job cleaning dirty toilets...or maybe delivering pizza. 

Isn't it easier to just let ourselves become institutionalized? We can congregate with others beneath a great cloud of cigarette smoke, and we can have "milieu therapy." Nothing will be hard. If we get anxious, we can pop a pill for it. Sound good? 

Mentally ill people could use a bit more help and a bit more tolerance. We have feelings too.