Columns

I have said this before and now I am saying it again: The mental health treatment system infantilizes mental health consumers. This is only part of the problem. The second part is that our lives aren't considered worth anything. When a mental health consumer dies prematurely, because of [effects on the internal organs of] psychiatric medication, poor diet, smoking, lack of exercise, and not having medical issues addressed, no big deal is made of it. Our deaths are barely worthy of note. 

Then, who and what are we considered to be? If our passing doesn't seem worth of a decent service, does that mean our existences are regarded on the same level as a pet mouse or goldfish? 

It appears that mental health consumers are not taken seriously. Additionally, we are rarely taken at our word. If we voice the ambition of, for example, going into technical training, the assertion is immediately, seamlessly dismissed. Of course, (so counselors think) we aren't up to the task of a career in a technical field. Then, our talk is regarded as no more than nonsensical babble. What if we could pull it off? Then we are perceived as being a freak. We are defined by "the mental health consumer who can repair microwave ovens." And we are still regarded as "cute" and not worthy of being taken seriously. Then, our deaths are about as important as the demise of a stuffed animal. 

Refined sugar is poison. It is put into nearly all processed food, and it shows up in many places we would never expect. It causes diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome and, resultantly, premature death. Consumption of it needs to be strictly limited. Workers in the mental health treatment system use it as a reward and as a pacifier. No thought is given to the health effects. 

I briefly worked at a homeless shelter as a counselor in the 1980's. I was instructed to dispense fruit punch. I was told that it triggers serotonin production in the brain, calms down clients, and thus, makes them easier to manage. The use of refined sugar, a poison, by caregivers in the mental health treatment system, is intentional, and therefore it resembles the behavior of tobacco companies. 

Refined sugar is addictive. And, because tobacco has been all but made illegal or has at least become taxed to the point where smokers are spending enough to fund the highway construction projects, it is likely they will turn to sugar as an alternate addiction. I believe refined sugar is equally deadly as tobacco smoke. 

There appears to be a conspiracy. (If I believed a "conspiracy" was about me, it could easily be thought a psychotic delusion. However, this is the sort of thing tobacco companies dream up, and that happens in the real world in big business.) Mental health consumers are fed poor diets, and cigarette smoking is condoned, so that we don't live too long. 

There is a problem with consumers having longer lives. When people are older, the more expensive medical issues come about to help us keep going. If the system can keep us dying young, the net effect is a reduction in spending by hospitals. This is simple math. A shorter-lived person needs medical assistance for a shorter period. And a younger, more abrupt death circumvents fancy things like coronary bypass, cancer treatment, and other procedures that come about because of longevity.  

Additionally, older mental health consumers like me are sometimes more capable of clear thinking, and this could be a psychological and organizational threat to the treatment system. It is harder to deal with a mental health consumer is old enough that they know more about many things than treatment providers who might only be in their thirties and who can outwit many treatment professionals.  

The mental health treatment systems were designed to minimize the nuisances and threats produced by a population that is perceived as an inconvenience. The method of operation is to isolate us through outpatient institutionalization, through poverty, through inpatient institutionalization, and through incarceration. We are seen not as people but as entities that must be managed. Anything that makes us more manageable and easier to control is seen as a plus. Refined sugar, the addiction to it and the treatment systems' use of it as a control strategy, is one part of this out of many.