Golden Masses
The month has been long. A lot has been happening, with illness with my family and in the community, injury, and chaos. I have been struggling with “hearing voices”… and I think that this is something that needs clarification amongst western psychologists and therapists.
When I was young, under-age and still a teenager, I was put in front of therapists and psychologists and they would ask three basic questions. 1.) Are you having thoughts of hurting yourself or committing suicide? 2.) Are you hearing voices? 3.) What is the date and the who is the President of the United States? These three questions categorize you into a quick trial diagnosis and then the doctors prescribe treatment and possibly meds. Just like that, you are in a box. You are a box, on a little piece of paper. Now, they say that they do not keep records after seven years, but this is most likely a lie. Just as it is a lie that if you committed a felony or misdemeanor over seven years ago it is not deleted nor does it disappear from your record.
Unfortunately, and I say this with impetus, I learned my way around these questions. Some people to need to answer these questions honestly, and people should be able to trust their doctor. But this is not the way it is in the mental health system. Now, here is another mind twister. We actually need more of this in our prisons. There are fine lines to be drawn and observed here and this is an incredibly difficult and tenuous subject.
Some people do need solitary, some people do need immediate interveinious medication, some people do need to wear a straight jacket, some people do need to be saved from themselves. Where and When is a very delicate thing. Professionals need to not lose their compassionate instinct. We need health care in our prisons to take care of sick and GIFTED people that have become victims of our system, and we also need doctors, case managers, social workers, and Social Security experts with awareness of the fact that some “sypmtoms” are a good and blessed thing and that they can definitely be channelled into gifts. And we need trained personnel-counselors who know how to do this. I am talking about Autism, Dyslexia, ADD, ADHD. I am speaking of Bi-polar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective disorder, PTSD, Multi-personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder. I am speaking of people aged zero to105.
So those of you out there who are reading this and have diagnosis, whether you are in prison, re-hab, the psyche ward, NA, AA, on welfare, on any type of disability, in government housing etc…., know this: You are okay. It is also okay to not be okay. There are more of us than you know. We actually outnumber the masses… we are the masses. I am serious. We are. Know that you are gifted. Don't let them tear down your spirit. Have Faith.