TW

Thanks, @fluffylight , but I' m in Victoria. I'm keeping my options open.

@Historylover

Your inner fight seems a necessary part of your soul as well as inner light, and how you are wired.

I have seen these inpatient situations too often, and it has been heartbreaking from the outside, as I have loved the people who endured coercive locked doors and chemical restraint.

Keep in touch with the forum.

All good, @fluffylight. Caring is half the battle.

My u-know-who gave me the fire in my belly, @Appleblossom, and I am unable to back down from a fight except when it is in my best interest.

I read a quote recently, badly paraphrased, that he who is right stands alone.

Your preaching to the choir, @Historylover . I, and many of us on here, have been saying the same things for years. Pills and other absurd treatments being ludicrously used to "treat" real-life problems; with no actual help for the problems being forthcoming. How is it that nobody with the power to change things ever notices how utterly absurd this situation is? It would be like the water ministry attempting to "help" a drought-affected region by dumping a free palate of bricks in every citizen's front yard, and then bragging about their own generosity and initiative in tackling the crisis. Their "solution" being so far removed from the nature of the crisis... so useless... so irrelevant, that it would boggle the mind as to how they could possibly be so damned clueless as to what's going on.

But, of course, drought-striken farmers are "somebodies" in our culture - so when the government screws them around, they can raise hell and the nation backs them. We nutters are "nobodies" in the social hierarchy. So the official systems can mishandle our crisises till judgement day and nobody will ever bat an eyelid. In this case, "the professionals know what their doing, so we'll leave it in their capable hands."

At the end of the day, I think it just all comes down to charisma - or lack thereof. I don't know about other patients of the system but, for whatever reason, I've never been the sort of person that people really like. I think their glad to be rid of me, so the idea of me disappearing into a broken system that tortures, mutilates, and eventually consumes me doesn't bother them overmuch.

I may be totally off the mark here but I think, as a general rule, people don't like so-called "mentally ill" people much. That's why it is so easy for the system to detain, coerce, oppress and even violate people without any real outcry. That's why basic human rights so often feel like a half-remembered myth to us. We're just not part of the "cool clique". We're not "real humans" like the normals. Hence, the normals don't genuinely believe we warrant the same dignity.

And, @chibam, when we draw attention to their ignorance, they regard us as mere unintelligent patients who keep them gainfully employed. (Not sure of the meaning of 'gainfully'). Perhaps 'employed' is sufficient

I can sense a person's expertise just by looking at them. Our history is written all over us for those who read the language. One of my inquisitors has a trail of damaged souls in her wake; the other two are green and beholden to her for their security. How do these people get these jobs? Clawed through the good guys and ground them under their hobnailed boots?

Perhaps we should stage a major protest in our major cities. Only joking, of course. Well, half joking 😏.

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@Historylover wrote:

Perhaps we should stage a major protest in our major cities.

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I think that will just lead to a wave of commitals, TBH. No meaningful awareness or garnering of support.

I'm reminded of an article about Otto Von Bismark I once read. Apparently there was this social caste in Germany (I forget who, specifically) that Bismark didn't like. In the German parliament, Bismark kept passing more and more laws/policies that really screwed these people over. One day, the Kaiser asked Bismark why he was being so antagonistic to these people. Bismark confessed that he wanted to rile them up to the point where they would stage an uprising, so that he would be morally justified in bringing the full force of the police down on them and locking the lot of them up in jail. Problem solved.

I think that, if we were to go off half-cocked in trying to make noise over our plight, our fate would be something similar. I don't see us being the heroes of our own revolution, somehow. But perhaps that is just cowardace or my broken spirit talking. Perhaps a mix of both.

I've been wondering a lot recently about the "Not Before Time" report that was released a couple months or so ago by a VMIAC associate, down there in Victoria. It was a damning condemnation of your system down there, but within a couple days of it's release, it seemed to completely disappear from the news cycle. It seems to even have become a non-event even within mental health advocacy circles - I've seen virtually no mention of it recently. It's become as if the report was never released at all.

It feels as if something sinister has happened behind the scenes. I remember reading at the time that the Victorian government were livid with it's release by the authors, as the government hadn't sanctioned it's release and wanted it's more damning conclusions to be watered-down before publication.

I can't help but wonder if threats have been made to the various advocacy groups by the powers-that-be. "If you don't shape up and become team players, we can make life very difficult for you. We can cut your funding; or we can blacklist you from having any contributing role in our policy-formation conferances." Something of that nature.

There are few things more hazardous then standing up for what you believe in. You're betting with life and limb, but even worse yet, you run the risk of failing. And I think that that's the outcome that stings the fiercest.

We're all so used to the image of the successful martyr; that Martin Luther King-esque image of the hero who gives his life for what he believes in, yet nonetheless succeeds in bringing forth the racial equality he so dearly dreamed of. We can make our peace with that ending. But the idea of fighting till our last, and then the bad guys still reign supreme at the end of the day... that's the image we just can't stomach. That's the image that really knocks the fight out of people, I think.

@Historylover I just thought of you and wanted to check in and say hello and see how you are going? xo