How Do YOU Treat the Mentally Ill?
By Rozie37
@Rozie37 (15499)
Turkmenistan
March 23, 2007 10:04pm CST
It amazes me the number of people who are mentally ill and don't realize it. What amazes me more are the people who mistreat the mentally ill. They don't realize that one day that could be them or their child or someone else that they really care about.
I was once a caretaker and now people are taking care of me. I always thought that I would not need care of this type until I was a senior citizen. Do you ever think about how quickly things can change? There are millions of mentally ill in the United States.
How often do you see them, if you leave the house, most likely every day. They are the homeless people who are babbling to themselves and seem at times to be angry at the world. Generally, this is Schizophrenia. No one ask to be mentally ill, it is a disease of the mind and needs to be treated with as much love and respect as possible.
The mentally ill are so stigmatized that even the gays with AIDS get treated better than we do. How many times in the past six years have I searched for low-income housing in Los Angeles County, only to find that I was the only one not qualified for the apartment, because it was marked for Aides patients, the elderly, or the handicap.
The mentally ill are shoved together in board and care homes and crammed two to a room that is two small for one person, let alone two. I am grateful to have a place to live, but I am sort of in the middle. I am not sane to live in the real world however, I don't feel that I am insane enough to live here.
Then there is the now famous "Not in my back yard," for the ones that are afraid of the mentally ill. I was talking to one of my old psychiatrist one day and I asked him whether or not it was harder working with the mentally ill, he said that he preferred working with the mentally ill, because they are much nicer.
I didn't fully comprehend what he was saying back then, but I do now. I would much rather have them in my corner than most of the "normal" people in this world. No offense, if you think you are completely normal. Yet again, I ask, how do you treat the mentally ill?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@Avichail (694)
• Indonesia
1 May 07
Rozie, have you watched the "I Am Sam" movie picturing Sean Penn and Dakota Fanning? It amazed me that often the mentally-challenge people are more mentally healthy than the "mentally-disturbed" people. It's the disease of the "heart" that corrupt many men today.
We think mentally-challenge people are those who need help the most, but we often forget, our 'heart' disease needs more help. We think we are superior than the mentally-challenge peole, we forget that with more "blessings" come also more responsibilities. We often just abuse the blessings we receive and eventually turn them into curses...
1 person likes this
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
2 May 07
"I Am Sam," is one of my top five favorite movie, not just because I have a mental illness, but because I really like Sean Penn's character in the movie. He understood that love could conquer all. He spoke and lived life through his heart. There was nothing phony about him.
I often feel embarassed about having a mental illness when I am not at home, around my friends. A lot of people don't understand me and I don't understand them. They tell me things like, you have to learn to play the game by the rules(meaning that life is a game)and I don't know what that means.
I have always known that I was different and it made me angry when I was younger. My mother had a mental illness and she cried a lot and to me she was weak. I cry a lot, but I am learning now that this is what gives me strength.
1 person likes this
@acongojada (57)
• United States
23 Jun 07
Dear Rozie,
you ask "How do you treat the metally ill?" I have heard this question so many times, in different ways, and I think that it could be answered so many different ways as well.
I feel that there is such a focus on medicating the "mentally ill", and sometimes just to sedate and control those who don't quite fit that mold that society finds acceptable. In addition, I have never gone to the doctor and felt that it was acceptable for them to diagnose me with an illness simply by talking with me for 15 mins. and coming to their conclusion. However, this is done millions of times, everyday, to people who have been "diagnosed" with mental illnesses.
I am not saying that mental illness does not exsist, just simply that I believe many are mis-diagnosed, and then medicated completely irresponsibly.
How would I treat the mentally ill? I would treat them like human beings. like living breathing people with feeling and emotions just like myself. I would want to know them as the person that they are, not just their illnesses.
I am glad that you worote about this topic. Great to read what you wrote!
Go Easy.
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
23 Jun 07
I can say this about me for sure, I was relieved when I was diagnosed. For many years I knew that I was different from the average person and it made me feel very uncomfortable.
When I was diagnosed, I went right home and read about it. I was over-whelmed with happiness. What they said was so accurate that I felt that God had made this up just so I would not feel alone in my suffering. Being diagnosed was the best thing that had happened to me, because then I knew what I was dealing with. Taking medication as helped a whole lot.
1 person likes this
@katzbee (91)
• Canada
2 May 07
Hello Rozie37, First and Foremost, please allow me to applaud you for the leadership and openness that you have displayed in this post.
As someone who earlier in life had occasions to be in constant contact with people in various stages of depression and neurological in-balances, I have come to be very understanding and compassionate towards anyone who suffers from any stage of mental illness.
Here in Ontario, Canada, we tend not to lump it all together as mental illness, but rather break it down into specific and separate illnesses.
Having said that, I am still bothered by the way governments and society treat those among us who for one reason or another are incapable of taking care of themselves.
I have read most, if not all of your posts since joining myLot and I can see that you are a truly remarkable and intelligent person, irregardless of any illness or malady that you may have. All of which does prove society wrong in their analysis of people with mental illness. True some people are more physically and mentally helpless than others.
May God Bless you and keep you on the right path.
You are trully a special person.
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