Lived Experience Forum

[heal]

What would you do if you:

Care a lot about women's rights and rights of another vulnerable/minority group 

You live in a world/era where you cannot find anyone who cares about both of them, you cannot even find many people who cares about the first apart from a small online group

This is hypothetical because women's rights (though it is part of what i care about) is already popular, my issue isn't about women's rights, that's why it's a hypothetical question

What would you do if for example you're a feminist (or whatever other right you care fiercely about) however in the era you live in you cannot even find people (not even online) who care, or care at the level you care

[ButterflyBeauty]

Hello @heal,

We are so pleased that you have joined our SANE forum community! We are a collection of people from various walks of life whom are looking for a sense of deeper connection, understanding and support in our lives. I hope that you are able to find what you are looking for within our community! 

Our members are regularly engaging in topics that they want to explore openly with others, which you will have access to within the forum conversation feed. Our Topic Tuesday events are also held weekly and each session is about a different interesting topic. Our forum moderators are listening and the topics are picked based on what is that the community want to discuss in more depth! For a sneak peek, I have included a link for your reference: https://saneforums.org/t5/Special-Events/Topic-Tuesday-Finding-community-Feeling-belonging-and-conne...

We look forward to connecting and please know that you are not alone!

Thank you

ButterflyBeauty

[Willy]

I care about mental health which is why I spend time on this forum.

In particular I care about serious psychotic illness like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Apart from my own experiences, I have watched friends over and over again being atrociously and inhumanly mistreated by people who have gained the power, often not by merit,  to think and act the way they do.

I have seen at close hand how arrogance and ignorance has resulted in wretched suffering and premature death of bewildered, frightened people who just didn't know which way to turn. On occasions when I have attempted to speak out I have been silenced.

According to information from the Australian government 20% of the Australian population currently report some form of mental illness. That is more than 5 million people. A huge number. Quite rightly these people get a fair amount of help and attention these days. Many of these people also vote and any politician who ignores that many voters is a fool.

By contrast only about 0.5% of Australians currently report some form of psychotic mental illness. That is only about 130,000 people and that small number can fairly safely be ignored. We have no voice. We are marginalised and dehumanised. Just human trash that nobody, except perhaps a parent or other close relative cares about.

By some quirk of fate I am one of the fortunate ones who does have a voice of sorts as well as the absurdly stupid and insulting label of "high functioning", used by those who don't but should know better.

I look around and see so much suffering in the world. Sometimes I think that in the grand scheme of things my petty little cause and problems don't matter. Perhaps it would be a lot easier if we were all just swept up and consigned to the human garbage can. 

But that hasn't happened yet.

I cry out with all my might into the wilderness.

No answer,

I cry out again and again.

Regards

Willy

[chibam]

Hello @heal . Welcome to the forums! 🙂

I can relate to the scenario you describe very well. I care very strongly about an issue that seems to get very little attention from the major changemakers and other forces that govern our world.

I know through the grapevine that there are others out there who passively share my anguish over this issue, but most of them seem to have had their wills broken, to the point where they can't/won't stand up for what they believe in and openly voice their grievances.

It's so lonely and hopeless when you look across the field of media and political dialog and can find no trace of anyone advocating for what you care about.

---

@heal wrote:

What would you do if for example you're a feminist (or whatever other right you care fiercely about) however in the era you live in you cannot even find people (not even online) who care, or care at the level you care

---

About the one and only thing you can do in such situations is to speak out yourself for what you know is right; and just hope that others will hear you and be inspired to join in.

That's an overly simplistic answer, I know, but it's about all I've ever been able to come up with that feels even remotely tollerable.

[chibam]

@WillyI'm so sorry to hear about your frustrations in terms of trying to speak out about the mistreatment of people with serious mental health issues. I can relate, as I've often spoken out about mental health treatment and much of the time, it felt like nobody wanted to listen (and on many occasions, it felt like the powers that be wanted to bury my testimony altogether).

I'm not sure if your aware, but there are numerous organizations out there that seek to give a voice to the "mentally ill", and many take a special interest in bolstering the voices of those who have been harmed by the mental health system or other carers/helpers.

There's VMIAC (for VIC), Being (NSW), and LELAN (SA), just to name a few. There's one for WA, too, (the name of which escapes me at the moment 🤔), and I hear tell that there's a comparable fledgling organization in QLD finding it's legs.

On the fedral level, there's the National Mental Health Commission, which is taking a refreshing new interest in drawing "Lived Experiance" input into all their future policymaking. In practice, this means that there will be frequent open public consultations, to allow regular "Lived Experiance" people to throw their own 2 cents into all future policy development.

There's also "Lived Experiance Australia", which is an advocacy organization which seems to be closely affiliated with SANE. My understanding is that, if you have a gripe you want to air about mental healthcare, you can send them an email about it, and they may factor that into their future advocacy in government consultations.

And also, since your particular interest seems to be "serious psychotic illness like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia", that probably classifies as a disability; which means you can air your grievances to the Royal Inquiry into the Abuse of Disabled People.

[MattsOpinion]

we grew up being different
they wanted to say i was something
then they wanted to ignore me

they always had an agenda and i didn't care for any of it.
kept it all hidden
i was not like their generalisations
but did being different mean i was alone?
i realised there was a whole lot of us who were different.
scattered around, just had to find them
a lot of people, not knowing how to;
shunning authority in their own way
coping with life in their own way
and now i'm so thankful i'm not like that wall all the average people built.
they base their lives on commercialised rock and roll and power tools
and abase themselves by lying to themselves
spend my time scorning their sacrilegious ways
finding peace in the discordant that they'll never understand
sure, sometimes i feel alone
but being different is a beautiful thing.
i know what no-one else can know. 

i wouldn't change a thing

[Willy]

Thanks chibam for that information,

I was not aware of some of the organisations you mentioned. I have saved a copy of your post for future reference. For most of my life I have not spoken out about what has happened to me and what I have seen happen to many others. I have just stood there like most other people that I know with MH issues and "copped it sweet".
 
When I was first hospitalized many years ago I learned pretty quickly that you kowtowed to anyone wearing a white coat if you didn't want to be subjected to some "very unpleasant" interventions. I guess that attitude has stuck with me.
 
I experienced a traumatic incident several weeks ago that I have been struggling to deal with since.
On the morning of the 30th Dec 2021 I visited my GP for a routine check up. I was pretty down on the day due to some covid issues relating to the gym that I attend. The doctor picked up on that and asked me about it. While talking to him I became quite distressed. Without warning he jumped up suddenly and ran from the room. I in turn experienced panic at his reaction. My mental health management plan requires me to remove myself from a triggering situation as quickly and safely as possible. Left alone in his consulting room I decided to leave. I went to the front desk to pay and was grabbed by someone from behind. My glasses were broken in the ensuing struggle. I tendered my credit card to the receptionist and when I got it back I left and walked home without interacting in any way with anyone. At no stage did I threaten, abuse, assault or even say anything much to anybody other than “I just want to pay and leave”
 
When I got home I took some additional medication and went to bed. Some time later the police arrived and forced their way into my home claiming that I was considered a danger to the public. Shortly after that, two mental health workers arrived who I believe were from Eastern Mental Health (Vic). Their agenda was to sedate me and take me to the Peter James aged psychiatric care facility. Some of the things I have heard about that place would make your hair stand on end. I would never allow myself to be taken there.
 
Since I didn’t need sedating and refused to go they harassed and bullied me for some hours. I assume this was to try and trigger me into reacting which would justify them using force. When that didn’t work they tried to talk me into allowing them to inject me with a slow release anti-psychotic. I refused that also. Apart from anything else, an injection of this nature on top of my existing health issues would be very dangerous and could well prove fatal but these bozos couldn’t have cared less. In the end I negotiated with them to undertake a course of CBT-p which I had been wanting to do anyway but had not been able to find a suitable practitioner.
 
Later that afternoon someone from Peter James rang and put me in touch with someone at Eastern phn (federal government) who were supposed to arrange a CBT-p practitioner. Six weeks later after a lot of messing around they still haven’t been able to find anyone.
 
Since  then I have found a new GP and made a complaint to the Vic Govt Mental Health Complaints Commissioner (MHCC). This complaint is still far from resolved to my satisfaction. A couple of my friends urged me not to make any complaints. They thought it could backfire and put me in an even worse position. I take their point.  Some of these government mental health people appear to be a law unto themselves and don't seem to be above lying and breaking the law to achieve their own of malicious objectives.
 
I live with a guy who is intellectually disabled. People with intellectual disabilities (ID) are just as badly off as MH people when it comes to abuse from authorities. Some years back, police conducted an armed dawn raid on our house and arrested him claiming that he was a "dangerous sexual predator" who had tried to abduct two young girls in his car. He doesn't even drive or own a car. What appears to have taken place was entirely in the imagination of two young girls who had seen him come out of a movie theatre. All his legal rights were denied. The police refused to release video security footage to our lawyer from outside the cinema where this alleged  "crime" was supposed to have taken place etc etc. In court he was deemed incompetent to enter a plea of not guilty but the the police prosecutor was somehow willing and able to bypass the court system if his guardians would acknowledge his guilt which we would not. Had we done so he would have been assessed and almost certainly placed indefinitely in custodial care (a low security prison).  He is a kind, gentle person and totally a non criminal type. Putting him in gaol would have destroyed him mentally on top of his intellectual disability (acute autism). Several traumatic court appearances and many thousands of dollars later when the case was about to escalate to the county court, the public prosecutor dropped the charges due to lack of evidence.
 
The world can be a very cruel place for people with MH or ID 
 
Regards and thanks for listening to my tales of woe.
Willy