Columns

In the past decade and especially in the time of COVID-19 and having had Trump as a recent President--one who continues to influence and ruin the U.S., times have changed, and society has changed. There are a lot more pitfalls built into society, and many of them can cause death. There is not nearly as much forgiveness in the American environment, of behaviors of which people can't make sense. This is despite the surge in racism, in violence, and in other lawlessness in the name of reactionary conservatism, behaviors that people seem to get away with even though being mentally ill and acting inexplicably gets you in trouble. 

When the public has a heightened sense of fear, defensiveness, and intolerance, it is a lot harder for a severely mentally ill person to be treated gently or with decency. It seems that society has devolved, causing many people to fall into the black hole of ignorance that resembles a spiritual and social gravity well. 

Mentally ill people today must work harder than we once did, just to maintain what little we've got. And if we have our sanity, it says a lot of our ability to be tenacious. 

It is more important than it ever was that mentally ill people advocate for ourselves, that we make certain that our condition, whatever it happens to be, is treated--including when treatment professionals try to make it harder for us to receive treatment. In the past, treatment would knock at our door and/or be forced on us. Now, we have to assert ourselves to make the system notice us and give us the care that we need. This is beyond compliance, and this is necessary. 

I'm fighting a staph infection in my eyelid, and medical doctors will not take the initiative in helping me get it cured. But also, I am being shuffled between various mental health treatment providers, and I don't always know, from one week to the next, whom I will see. 

Additionally, Social Security is giving me a second Continuing Disability Review within six months, as though they forgot that the first one was done or is in progress. 

The care and treatment systems are falling apart. Much of this is attributable to the pandemic. But if we are to remain alive and functioning, we have to be determined. It might get easier in the future, or we might have to force it to be better through our own actions. 

I don't know what people expect us to do. Maybe there is no one in the position of expecting, and everyone is merely focused on what they need for themselves. You shouldn't personalize neglect; it is universal. 

Much of what I've said in the above manuscript is my own experience. but I am sure that I am not alone. Surviving is harder than it was, but maybe if we become stronger through exercising will, it won't seem so hard. 

Being mentally ill is not an easy lot, but then neither is surviving during a pandemic, social unrest, and a splintered society. This is what everyone has to deal with, whether we are mentally ill or neuro typical. Mentally ill people are not the only ones having a tough time. Much of the government is out of touch with this. Yet now we've elected a President who does not believe it is a crime to be a good person. 

If we want to live, lack of compliance with medication and other treatment is not an option.