Return Our Sanity Through Timely Treatment

Return Our Sanity Through Timely Treatment
By Jane
People with Stable Minds Can See Illness for What It Is

It's the day after the Newton Children’s Massacre and I want to say something as a mentally ill person. I have had bipolar disorder all my life. I have been successfully treated for the illness for 23 years. Since then I have done extensive research on the disorder and written four books on the subject. I have developed opinions on the way treatment is given (and withheld) in this country.

Mentally ill persons are the most discriminated persons in the country. They can easily be fired from jobs (“she just wasn’t capable of doing the job,” instead of the truth—we were afraid of having a mentally ill person around).

When people find out about their illness, they lose friends and sometimes are blackballed from organizations. A mentally ill person has to be careful with what he or she says and does at all times, so as not to trigger stigma.

At the same time, access to treatment has been made difficult. In the past few years, states have cut access to mental health treatment by limiting the illnesses they will treat. In my own state, mental health clinics will only treat those with schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder. No other illnesses are eligible.

In the past year, I was cut from the program after five successful years with the same psychiatrist because I was “too stable” to receive treatment any longer. And I am a person who actively seeks treatment, demands it, and insists that I always have my medication, even if it means an ER visit to get it.

What about those who resist treatment? Those like the school, theater, congress-people, and mall shooters? The profile invariably shows that they did not seek treatment, that they refused it. Often it is found that a parent tried many times to get help for their child, but was turned away because he was not a danger to himself or others—yet.

Read Pete Earley’s book Crazy, in which he describes his efforts to get help for his bipolar son. He found that most mentally ill people are not in institutions, but in jails or prisons, because they did not get help when they needed it, but the criminal justice system intervened after they had acted out.

What about a person’s right to be healthy? We don’t leave sick people lying on the street to die. We deliver them to the hospital to be healed. What about a person’s right to not be mentally ill? They are in no shape to make a decision as to whether or not they should receive treatment or medication. They have a right to be treated. The “freedom” we allow people to have in our country to be mentally ill is illusory and has nothing to do with real freedom. These are chains that bind and hold a person even as they declare their own freedom.

Treat the person—return him or her to sanity—then let the person decide whether or not they wish to be ill. Then, and only then, are they capable of making such a decision. We need to upgrade our mental health system and to change our laws to deal with the reality that is mental illness and to truly help the helpless.

As I See it: My Friends are Dying Like Flies

As I See it: My Friends are Dying Like Flies

By Marvin Spieler, Editor at Large Columnist

Try to Stay Healthy

Note: This article is reprinted from the fall 2003 edition of City Voices. Marvin's sentiments here reflect how a lot of us feel about losing the friends we have made in the mental health community; people who have touched our lives as the late Marvin Spieler had.

What does the title mean? It means very dear loved ones, friends, mental health advocates and acquaintances are dying like flies. Obviously they weren't flies. Not by any means would I ever think that. However, they are dying so regularly. So many are now gone I can't imagine who will be next. They are dying so often, in a sense they are dying like flies. My memory of who died and when is beginning to be a continuous blur of images. Dead acquaintances bother me a great deal. I knew them or admired their work as advocates and I miss them dearly.

I'm mourning the memory of my wife who passed more than three years ago. I knew Reta since 1975 and was married for a dozen years. All I can feel now is pain. Six months later, Ken Steele, a close friend, contemporary and mental health advocate of incredible achievement thanks to the right medication after thirty years lost in hospitals, also died. My mother left earth that year too. She is still in every one of my bones. The avalanche of deaths started with the great advocate Howie the Harp. The Peer Advocacy Center in Harlem, busy training consumers to become peer advocates, now functions in his memory and in his name.

Quincy Boykin, New York City's Department of Heath and Mental Hygiene's citywide consumer advocate's death scared the hell out of me. He had a stroke, which he survived. Months to a year later he died. Whether it was another stroke or a rumor he had a heart attack doesn't matter. He meant a lot to me, fought for us all, gained the respect of providers for all of us and empowered many consumers.

Dr. Aquila of St. Lukes/Roosevelt Hospital stated at a June 27, 2003 conference sponsored by the Manhattan Mental Health Council that consumers die ten years younger than the greater population. It was pointed out that suicide factored in.

The body doesn't age faster because of mental illness does it? If not, why the disparity? Two ideas immediately occur: we generally are overweight due to the psychiatric medicines and those who smoke or have smoked for many years are at risk.

I would ask, are we getting the quality healthcare we need?

Our diets are generally poor due to lack of knowledge and low incomes as well. A poor man's diet makes you overweight.

All this comes to mind yesterday with a phone call. I learned a friend had a clot in his lung. He was lucky to get to a hospital in time.

What can you do? 1) Stop smoking; 2) exercise on a regular basis; 3) improve your diet; and 4) consult your psychiatrist about your medicines.

I personally have stopped smoking recently. It's a big start. Believe me, it isn't easy. I crave a cigarette whenever I see a person with one, but resist smoking. It's a step in the right direction.

It's a start for me. However, how far has my body deteriorated? How much at risk am I? The younger you are the greater chance for changing old habits. Time is on your side. Use it wisely.

Mental health issues effect everyone, and that includes New Yorkers

Mental health issues effect everyone, and that includes New Yorkers. For example: Latinos living in the US, women, 45+ers, and the unemployed are groups at a higher risk for developing clinical depression or anxiety disorders. But what can be done about this?

I worked in at Columbia Psychiatry/NYSPI as their patient librarian where I procured for our Spanish-speaking patients the best mental health information that was available in English and Spanish, because knowledge is power. I read a lot during my tenure at the patient library, and I wanted to share my knowledge, so I wrote nine books. The books I wrote, I wrote to combat the stigma of mental illness and to educate.

My titles deal with mental health issues and language acquisition. Two of my books received the honor of a recommendation by the APA President Jeffrey Lieberman and internationally known mental health advocate Elyn Saks J.D., PhD.

http://www.amazon.com/author/williamjiang

Recovery is the Level of Happiness We Obtain

Recovery is the Level of Happiness We Obtain

By Jeffrey V. Perry CPRP, MSM, Program Manager for Baltic Street, AEH, Inc. Peer Bridger Program

The pursuit of happiness is something we must remain vigilant in attaining. It is the central core of any human’s right to be. Recovery, in my estimation, is solely about one’s level of happiness in perspective to a worldview of satisfaction, not the individual short-term peace we could have. I hope my recovery will be long-term and self-sustaining. My life’s happiness, health, and mental stability are only as good as the level of satisfaction I have within, and put in place for, myself. My life goals in recovery are for this quality of life, which I see as what any person with a history of diagnosed or undiagnosed mental illness, substance abuse, medical problem or anyone with a compromised condition, deserves.

One’s awareness of their personal level of satisfaction is the most important factor in understanding if there is a “problem here.” It is often those undiagnosed individuals who have not addressed their situation by getting help, treatment, or services, who feel their sense of satisfaction diminished or who are in a total denial of any problem, and fight an uphill battle; while those diagnosed face other struggles, such as a search for any level of recovery, which is supposed to, by definition, be the down-hill fight. When you find the right combination of treatment for yourself, there is a better chance for recovery. But oftentimes, treatment may not focus on any level of recovery, and instead focus only on symptoms management. This, yet, at the cost of a diminished level of personal happiness and a lackluster recovery that takes time away for one’s regular life pursuits, cloaked in a stigma of social inferiority, particular in today’s I-based “IPod” existence.

We have being fighting against stigma on many fronts in our recovery, yet never did we conceive that it would in fact increase rather than be eliminated. As technology becomes more refined the gap between those looking for real happiness becomes much wider, because we have to wade through every new wave in technology to understand what we need in order to be happy again. Not to mention the high prices that we can never afford while in economic symptom arrest.

While under symptom management, in many instances, when our possessions are taken away for old safety-based reasons, they are never accounted for, or remembered (by the confiscator), or promptly returned. Where others would be furious, we become justifiably upset, yet, we, and our possessions, may be dismissed to causality.

So, we get to understand that life can be cruel, even under the direct care of others who prefer to see us however is most convenient at that particular time (not to single out any institution or individual). It seems to me that it is second nature to take advantage of the disabled, who many look down upon, or simply have low regard for in contrast to their “able” selves, and who believe that the disabled, of course, are naturally less happy, or, at least, they should be. It is indeed a miracle if a disabled person is happy. When will we each admit that we are all disabled or handicapped in some way? Is it not only about personal fulfillment or about accomplishing tasks?

One of the failures of symptom management is that it has not yet helped people rise to the level where they can find the kind of work that fulfills them. Medication cannot motivate a person or inspire them. And it certainly may help us do that which we want not to do, like not thinking clearly, being irritable and bothered by everything, or just not feel well, and possibly even behave in a negative manner. But, all in all, it’s about progress, isn’t it? We must move forward like anyone else. Right?

Note: This essay is from, A Peer on Peer Perspective in Psychiatric Health (In Prose and Poetry) by Jeffrey V. Perry, CPRP available in e-book formats. For more from Mr. Perry, please visit http://www.jeffreyvperry.com