Shitting Ourselves19 Superiority Complex

We mentally segregate people determined by their health. How disgusting is that? There is currently no equality amongst those regarded as ‘mentally ill’ and people who are undiagnosed (normal people), or even with those caring for them. Yes, there have been some improvements in treatment and care of people with chronic mental illness etc; (those people who usually have very visible symptoms, so they get help because they cannot be left the way they are; more so if they are a danger to themselves or to others), but it is more than simply neglect and stigma that leads people from manageable distress to crisis and extreme trauma. It is an irresponsible and arrogant approach. Depressed people, though, are the most common, yet most isolated and regarded as a waste product amongst our society. If an assumption of superiority and disassociation is evident in treating mentally ill people, how will they ever get the care they need or a place in society where they are accepted? How can you build the self-esteem in someone you see as inferior? And where does that place you, if something hits you badly? After the second world war when no-one had money or homes or food, when society came first and people were inter-dependent and worked together from necessity, amazing things were achieved on very little. Some media programs have been suggesting similar tactics for survival. But it’s not the government’s fault. Blame the economy. Far be it for governments to stand in the way of people using waste land to grow food for each other and other beneficial initiatives like that. Greed in commerce and politics is destroying all that the post-war generations fought for. Keep it up! Mad Maggie will at last be convinced of her children’s love supreme before she croaks. She must be so proud. If dog-eat-dog, is the equality we’ve settled for, how will you get on once you cannot cope, you lose your bite and appetite? Due to the proliferation of depression the debate is getting louder than it used to be. There is an arena for change and research into new ways to support people in crisis, but it is being squandered because it means spending more money. Not that it has been neglected for decades. Current regimes are restrictive, wasteful, self-serving, unimaginative and even some who are charged with policing the application of new recommendations are politically manipulative. So, very little happens apart from co opting and ignoring the comments of service-users and carers – especially those that are not of the compliant variety. Carers are generally more corroborative and hence, critical service-users are dispensable to the decision-making process. Priorities of carers is seen as the priority of service-users when it blatantly isn’t, but it still ticks the box. Clinicians who genuinely see the need for rapid and radical changes feel there are far too many constraints upon them. Even they get discriminated against and marginalised within the institution unless they zip it and cooperate. By discriminating on a health basis and not prioritising the development and support of the mental-health system, effectively turning a blind eye to our own social stigmas in this country, we are diluting the intrinsic potential in every individual, for a strong functioning society. ‘But read the glossy pamphlets, read them, look we’ve gone all this trouble for you…’ Social, political and institutionalised denial. Good parents help their children to make informed choices. That happens in most health practice now – why not in mental health? We’re back to that challenge: like with care of the elderly, the mental health system lends itself to that dynamic of abuse – the vulnerable at the mercy of the less vulnerable – it’s the challenge of what we regard as strength and weakness. For authorities to loosen their parental grip and seek ways to bolster the ailing power that the more vulnerable have is labour intensive. Less control is uncomfortable for service providers; it means an element of uncertainty, of flexibility, of fear, of risk. They have to respect your choice and move out of their comfort zone to provide what you choose; that’s if they’re up for it within the current bureaucratic constraints and targets. But that would mean experimenting with all the options that are open to you and how many people can they afford to do that with? And what if you get it wrong? Any parent knows only too well, they cannot control all the choices their children make. At some time, part of growing and maturing, for parents and children, means making our own mistakes and learning, even

if it’s the hard way. It really shouldn’t have to be that hard on us when it comes to our mental health. And sometimes parents are wrong, but good parents are still there for their children. Even when they smoke or they’re obese. Obviously, there have been improvements through political and social struggles in the west. Many of the attitudes I’ve mentioned, previously, such as racism and class distinction are at least acknowledged as detrimental, instead of being the prevailing ones in this country, but corruption and exploitation of privilege in government and commerce only encourages the opposite. We are rich in diversity, intelligence and experience though, more than enough to make life easier on us, rather than harder, but we need to start valuing that intelligence and experience in real terms. That takes long-term commitment and re-evaluation of what we hold precious in life. It means looking at how we value ourselves and on what basis. Some people don’t want that. They love putting their selfish ambition first, to live life pressured and stressed. It might be the only way to boost or supplement their ego, or relationship problems, or to feed their craving for money and success. It could be they see it as the only legitimate and reliable way to get the life-quality they want later, or the legacy they want to leave the children they see precious little of. So, what will they do when it fails them. Well, it can’t fail them, they’ll fight tooth and nail and never give in; self-determination to the exclusion of all others and all morals will see them through. Delusion. As if Jean Paul Getty had no clue what he was talking about when he said “Money has absolutely nothing to do with happiness – perhaps unhappiness.” If living humanely and empowering each other is considered detrimental to commerce, in contrast to pursuing predatory strategies, it is delusional. It should be made criminal. I like to be busy, a workaholic when my brain and body will allow me. I am ambitious about my work. But the idea of making life easier is foreign to commercial business practice in this country. It is viewed as a weakness to a business and a waste of resources. “Must be able to work under pressure” (that goes for creative and artistic jobs too, now) makes me run a mile, because I just cannot hack it. That’s what makes me a reject, unemployable, defective. Not that I have a legitimate illness which throws my mind into psychosomatic close-down and self-protection. I’m not even sure I could take the pressure of stacking trolleys at ASDA. “What!. You fucking whimp! You need your arse kicking into gear.” I can hear the majority crowd pressing in on me. “Well, I‘d stack trolleys at ASDA for my children!” Yeah, so would I. Would you do it for yourself? Would politicians do it? Would they sacrifice their second homes, to save the tax-payer, to supplement their income, or stop the people-trafficking and illegal immigration they’re so worried about? Or would they make multi-million/billion profit-making companies and their shareholders carry some culpability and responsibility to support the taxpayer more from their surplus, when the going gets tough? Not on your Nelly. ‘It never hurt Anthony Hamilton’ they’ll say. I applaud the people who have to stack supermarket trolleys, no doubt about it, but this government insists that ill people should be reduced to that now, so as not to be a burden on the tax-payer. So, that’s good for you isn’t it? It’s only the tough that get going then. But what if you’re not tough, what if you’re all out of tough, your tough has all been used up and your get up and go has got up and gone? What if stacking trolleys just doesn’t assuage the toss-up you have about why you’re living at all? What if it compounds your psychosomatic neurosis that you’re actually worthless? “Well, you just can’t be like that in life.” No … Now we’re getting to the crux of the matter. No-one can be like that. No one wants to contemplate that the life of one person can be so cheap because then we can all be treated like that. Too late. So, what we do is say that the person whose life is ebbing away in such drudgery is valuable. Doing what? Wasting it stacking trolleys? It isn’t stacking trolleys that makes them worthwhile, it’s the reasons why they’re reduced to doing it. Look at the kind of people who are forced into having to do these menial jobs. Some of them are highly skilled and highly qualified for other professions. Some are paying off their student loans. More power to them, then, but who is causing this situation?

Truth is; we are all capable of so much more. We are often unaware of our potential when circumstances push us down. I know I am capable of so much more but only within my mental and physical restrictions. If the government is so bloody-minded to value everything in monetary terms, why don’t we have a review of the voluntary services, publish a statement of accounts and show some monetary value to society, for all the work that is undertaken? Let people who are ill and prefer to work in this sector do so and reflect that effort as an offset to the amount the welfare state is costing the country. No way. This is already a reality, but the government is prepared to deny and destroy all that, for quick-fix vote-mongering. They will push and push and push and grind and grind and grind us all into compost for profit. And that’ll make us stronger. That’ll solve it, won’t it? Fuck your Post-Traumatic-Stress and what caused it. You’re defective. Fuck the reasons you have for surviving and enduring. Fuck having something to live for, that’s a luxury for beast fodder. But no, this work will give you self-esteem and help cure you, help you move on and stop you being stuck in the past. Will it? Fat Cats set the trend for current obesity levels. And everything we have in life, the smallest thing to everything we hold dear, everything permanent transient substantial and ethereal, everything worth anything is what they want us to pay for it with. “If an assumption of superiority and disassociation is evident in treating mentally ill people, how will they ever get the care they need or a place in society where they are accepted? How can you build the self-esteem in someone you see as inferior?”