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| Unfair Discrimination The following memo was sent to all California State Senators by Tom Barresi: October 23, 2000 We (the mentally ill of America), have been bombarded for 2 thousand years by mood-crippling stigma, and unfair, discrimination. We have answered our "patronizing" relationships with cannon shot, but we need reinforcements at once.
As I approach my third decade of being a mental patient, it has never ceased to amaze me, how uninterested people are as to the "why" of a mental collapse. How a person like myself could be reading Chaucer in the original, 15th century English one day, and engaging an entire police department in mortal combat, just 10, stress-filled days later. Or for that matter, how a 30 year old schizophrenic in New York, with no real history of murderous violence, could push a defenseless young girl under a subway platform. Discounting these events as merely the end-products of madness, or as something internal in the patient's mind going bad; we, the American public, enable ourselves to avoid taking any kind of "social responsibility" for the tragedy. But in retracing the steps of the mentally ill individual, you will find the blame for his behavior, resides solely on the doorstep of us all:
In my case, as I'm sure in the New Yorker's case, the tragedy was precluded by months of isolation, and rejection from all around him. First and foremost your medication goes down the sink, in a futile effort to feel "whole" or normal; while at the same time, acceleration of thought becomes the order of the day. The result (after several weeks of this manic energy) is to rid yourself of something that's been bothering you for decades. In my case, I was going to rid the world of Satan (purely invisible), with my 8 inch kitchen knife; while in the other unfortunate case in New York, our tragic figure was possibly going to rid his libido of something he could never comprehend: a girlfriend. Social intervention of almost any degree would have prevented the inevitable, psychotic outcomes, mentioned above. But instead, we float past our first line of defense "our family", (we have no friends), who not wanting to get too involved, continue with their denial of us, as we go crashing into our second line of defense… you… society; who actually want to get involved even less! How locking us up and putting us in a hole, (as per S-1865 Courts), is going to ease this "societal" problem (which is over 20 million strong, at the time of this writing), is completely beyond me. When a simple defining of "true mental patients" (those with totally treatable chemical-imbalances), versus the harder to spot," behaviorally dysfunctional" (and not mentally ill at all); would lesson stigma, and tension all the way around for all of us; especially our infamous, uninformed, American society! Tom Barresi, Click here for additional writing on this topic. Note: Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by NAMI Santa Cruz County. |
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Opinions expressed in this web site do not necessarily reflect the views of NAMI Santa Cruz County, NAMI California or any affiliated organizations. We attempt to present a balanced perspective on issues by presenting multiple viewpoints. Copyright 2005 National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Santa Cruz County, All Rights Reserved. FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted (©) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |
