@Historylover
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I have had feedback that some people who are being "@" ed are not receiving these posts. It has been suggested that there maybe a bug in the SANE software with long "@" lists so I am trying a different format.
Hi Historylover
My own view of so called "mental illness" aligns very much with yours. It wasn't always that way. In the early days after being released the first time from a long stay in a psych hospital my view was simply to put it all behind me and just get on with life. Whenever I got knocked down by another psychotic episode or bad life experience, I just got up and kept going. While it obviously had its flaws and earned me a reputation as a "rather strange fellow", in hindsight it worked reasonably well for me as a survival technique. I think the technical term for this is denial or running away and the downside is that the underlying causes never get looked at. Not that it would have made much difference in those days. For a start I wouldn't have had a clue how to go about dealing with this stuff and the underlying pain was probably beyond my capability to handle in any case. In those days there also wasn't the pressure from authorities to "take your medication as directed". That edict seemed to have evolved slowly over time.
My first encounter with the Victorian mental health people after many years happened about 5 years ago when I was hospitalised with a medical problem. I must have told them (unwisely ) that I used antipsychotics. The MH people turned up at my hospital bedside and have been on my back ever since. From that point on I started to think that maybe I did have a "brain disease" and just had to accept it. My family and friends were not so accommodating.
I started attending a CBT-p psychologist in Feb this year which I have written extensively about on this forum. My current views and understanding of MH has evolved from this therapy. Apart from a lot of reading about what is sometimes referred to as the big T and little t trauma theory, this approach seems to make sense when I relate it to my own life. I am still learning about this stuff but when my therapist said to me recently "You are not broken" it was to say the least a very liberating and emotional moment.
I assume some will have significantly different views about the causes of mental health to this one. For me it is important to acknowledge and accept these differences and realise at this point in time that no one has all the answers and nothing works for everybody. I don't see this proposed action group as trying to determine the causes or best cures for mental health problems. I am happy to leave that to the many experts and researchers. I see it rather as giving people who have to deal with these problems as much choice and control over their lives as possible. I also see it being about providing ready access to good quality information and affordable, functional facilities. In a word it is about liberation.
I guess I'm still pretty angry about all the people who throughout my life have implied that I was not only broken but "damaged goods" that were beyond repair. I am not sure that I will ever be able to heal these deep seated resentments so I just keep telling myself to get up, keep going and to try to do something to help others if and where I can. This includes trying to improve a system that has resulted in a lot of inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment for myself and many others.
Thanks for your pledge of support
I am currently looking at the best ways to provide a means for those interested to have ongoing online discussions about reform action rather then clogging up this forum. I also don't see this SANE forum as being set up for or very suitable for this sort of thing. We could however "report back" to the SANE forum from time to time to let others here know what we are doing and make it possible for others to join us if they wish to. I hope to post my suggestions for a suitable set up soon. There appears to be some reasonable free options available. From what some have said I think it is important for people to be able to maintain their anonymity so that will be a key consideration.
Regards
Willy
