Do all people with Mental Illnesses really want to be helped in the way the government is helping them?

Question

I personaly have a mental illness and I do like the way I am getting help from the government to some degree. But there are things that I dont agree with like not having a bigger say in what meds I take but honestly I am a fairly assertive person and have ok communication skills unlike alot of my fellow Gifted ones as I would call them. What is it that "normal" people fear so much about a person with say schizophrenia anyhow? Very rarely are people with mental illnesses actualy harmful to others mostly its just to are selfs. Dont I have the right to harm myself anymore if thats what I feel is right? Like the saying goes if you have a bad arm cut it off to save the rest of your body. Well if me as a mentaly ill person feels I have a bad arm dont I have the right to cut it off or no? I guess what im getting at is the fact that I kinda feel trapped in a system where my rights are slowly being taken away or maybe I am giving them away actualy its still sad either way.

Answer 1

The government does not want to help. What they want is for you to stay over medicated so that way you don't have feelings at all. I am bipolar and have post traumatic stress disorder. When I was 15 I was put into a mental institution for 3 months. At the end of the three months I was so drugged up I didn't even recognize my own face in a mirror. It was horrible. I continued on all the meds when I was discharged and all I can remember is being so stoned all the time I couldn't focus or learn at school. Once I finally stopped taking my meds (against my doctor's advice of course) I finally felt like a human being again. Almost 5 years later now I feel like I have a real grip on my own disorder without depending on drugs.
Continue counseling if it helps you but if you feel trapped into taking your meds than simply don't take them. You will probably feel better

Answer 2

I hear you....maybe the cutting bit is a bad example of personal freedom (too violent for a lot of people's tastes) but I hear you.

Personally, I think the social service system as regards mental health clients needs a LOT of improvement in the United States at least.

--we need to get the HMOs and PPOs on board and get *parity* or equality of funding going on a par with *other* health concerns, their bigotry against psychiatric issues is keeping a lot of folks, myself included, from returning to work because we have to choose (unfairly) between working and having access to our meds that *let us* work at a sane, reasonable price (which is NOT being shafted for full cost, hello??).

--We DO need more time with our doctors on meds issues than the 24-second shot clock that most places dictate, especially when you consider that most of the doctors poor folks are stuck with DO NOT speak English as their native, first language.

--We need full funding for all social services across the board, so that people can come forward and use the system without being browbeaten into a state of terror over payment issues.

--We need MORE CHOICES besides that Cognitive "Behavioral" stuff, ok? And don't sugar-coat it with a different name if it is the SAME thing....if it is a work-book and rubber-band around the wrist system, it is still the SAME THING. And it does NOT work for everybody across ALL problems. Really. Some of us KNOW this stuff is a TRICK concocted by the HMOs and know it won't solve our problems (yes, I said *solve* them, and I mean that in the *conventional* use of the word in the English language, not in the Social Worker sense of "exploit for profit indefinitely" ok?).

--But mainly....we need the Rightwad Money Clique who wants to own the whole world to WAKE UP and realize, this stuff IS for real and is NOT a damn character flaw, and that the longer they are bigots about it and don't help us, the worse it will get later on.

We need to stop letting folks fall through the cracks of the system over and over again just because the WorkBook and RubberBand Around the Wrist Clique says so....really, we need an option for folks who are NOT going to do that Cognitive "Behavioral" crap, so that they can stay on their meds, stay in the system and not have to sweat being *harrassed* by the folks who are quite frankly acting like Culties on the CBT issue.

Just my two cents.

Answer 3

I really don't think the government helps enough. If the goernment, insurance companies & society in general would wake up & treat mental illness just like any other medical condition I think we all would be better off for it. If you're depressed, you are as sick as if you have a bad case of the flu, though you're probably not going to get over it in a week like you would the flu. But, you aren't going to get the treatment you need as if you had the flu & in most cases it won't be paid for in the same amounts as if you have a chronic physical ailment like cancer or such. We need to rethink how we treat people who have these maladies & give them the same kind of opportunities that other physical ailments have for treatment...maybe then we'll all be better off.

Answer 4

there r no two people in all this world that are the same.......and our state of health is always changing......some of the saddest mistakes made are when people misinterpret things or memorize them and run around like they know something....i gotta say some educated religeous biggot told you a lie....most health problems are nutritional....and a lack of finding out that you....you can do and enjoy working.....and doing things.........most of us got told at a hyper time that we could not be helpful..........find something helpful...plant a flower....mow the lawn.....wash dishes.....and if you like to read...study painting and get some paints.......go for it.......