July is disability pride month. When I learned this, I was left wondering, what is disability pride. I know that people have been made to feel bad about their disabilities for most of history; this is clearly wrong, but isn’t disability “pride” taking it a step too far? I am disabled and here’s my take July as Disability Pride Month and disability pride in general.
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As you may know, I take part in mental health podcasts quite frequently. Recently, I’ve discussed issues such as mental illness as a disability, what people with and without mental illness need to know about suicide and one of my pet peeves when people try to look for the “bright side” of mental illness. Three mental health podcasts I’ve done were released quite recently and I want to share them with you.
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Britney Spears’ conservatorship is bringing to light mental illness conservatorships for disabled people. Many people are screaming that Spears shouldn’t be under a conservatorship. This then leads people to start screaming that no one should be under that kind of control. This is a mistake. While the Spears case may be an example of abuse (maybe, I don’t know), that doesn’t mean that conservatorships, in general, are abusive and it doesn’t mean that conservatorships don’t offer huge value to people who are disabled by grave mental illness.
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I hate magical thinking. I most especially hate magical thinking around mental illness and mental health. And that’s because magical thinking actually harms people with mental illness, people like me. And many, people believe in magical thinking without realizing it. In fact, whole bestselling books have been written and devoured that posit magical thinking (the Secret, anyone?). So let’s dismantle magical thinking and stop it from harming people with mental illness.
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Today, the Burble is honored to welcome guest poster, Marvin Ross. Marvin is an author and well-known advocate for the seriously mentally ill.
I fight anti-scientific thinking and antipsychiatry. Thanks to the reaction by many against measures to help minimize the spread of Covid-19, I have begun to see the common thread underlying the opposition to masks, social isolation, proper psychiatric treatment, and vaccinations. That thread is anti-science thinking and the huge growth in the past number of years in what is called “alternative medicine.”
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Some people try to control us. Some people try to control us for altruistic reasons, and others for darker reasons. Either way, though, I think most of us would prefer not to be controlled by another person. But it can be hard to tell when someone subtly tries to control you. One thing I learned many years ago, though, is that if someone doesn’t listen to you when you say, “no,” they are trying to control you — whether they realize it or not.
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I have a lot of experience with bipolar depression, and I hate it when people tell me to “cry it out.” I find this one of the most useless pieces of advice you can give a person who’s upset, particularly one that’s already crying. It’s built on the idea that you can cry out a sorrow of some sort as if there’s a beginning, middle and end. Well, I can’t comment for people without bipolar disorder, but for people with bipolar depression, “crying it out” isn’t an option.
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Bipolar Burble blog welcomes Lynn Nanos, a mobile emergency psychiatric social worker from Massachusetts. She writes about one patient’s experience with psychosis and the need for treatment without consent and assisted outpatient treatment (AOT).
I evaluate many patients with serious mental illness who lack awareness of being ill. Those who don’t understand they are ill, those who don’t have insight, are unlikely to initiate outpatient treatment. Here’s a story of one man who needed treatment without consent for his own safety.
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Doctors often don’t listen to people with bipolar disorder or other mental illnesses. In fact, most people with bipolar disorder know, the instant a doctor sees “bipolar disorder” on your chart, you’re screwed. Now, don’t get me wrong, not every doctor is the same, and I have had some doctors treat me with the same care I suspect they would offer anyone else. That said, on the whole, doctors don’t listen to people with bipolar disorder. Here’s why, and here’s how to fight it.
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