I hope that nobody takes offense to this sharepost. It's a "touchy" subject.
As I started my day I sat here and wondered about the mix of Church with a person with a MH diagnosis. I know a few people that belong to the Church that have an MH diagnosis. They are inactive and I wondered why?
My first response to my own question is what I felt like. I joined the church in my late 20's. I soon fell away after that. My reasons were, I didn't care, I was angry, I couldn't "hear" the messages well, I felt overwhelmed, voices and other symptoms were present. I felt that God cursed me with SZA. The last reason, I was extremely immature.
I was wondering if anyone could give me their take on this subject.
Those reasons I stated are all gone now. I went back to church and my life has changed. When I decided to go back, some told me it wouldn't help. WRONG!!! It does help. I won't preach here. I have a couple of friends that have a MH diagnosis that go almost every week and they are doing fine.
On a different note..stigma. Today I went to the state hospital to help outpatients fill out a NYS survey. The object of the survey is to help NYS see where things need improvement and things that work. Anyway I arrived early, I always arrive early, so I was walking around the building "looking" back at my experiences. As I was walking, many staff when they saw me shied away. They couldn't look me in the eye. I rarely, if ever feel "stigmatized." Today I did. It wasn't the people on the street it was staff that work in a hospital for those with a MH diagnosis.
At the CTRC, the outpatients are to smoke outside in a designated area. The staff however smoke in a different place AWAY from the "others." Fair? I think not. Are we scary? I seem to think we are...especially those of us who hold down full-time jobs. Have houses and cars and money in the bank. I'll bet ya that every staff I came across doesn't have a their cars paid for, and have a huge mortgage.
We as people with a Mental Health Diagnosis need to stop this type of stigma, which I would rather call discrimination. Thye civil rights movement in the 1960's started out small. Why can't we take it to that level? I hate sitting on my hands. I hope that one day, Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream will come true for all those who are oppressed.
Fight we must.
"Be the change in the world that you want to see."
David
Hi Dave,
Yes i agree each of us must be the change we want to see in the world. I'm writing new scenes for my memoir and will sign iwthin two weeks a contract with a literary agent so she can try to sell my book to an editor at a publishing house.
My list of from-within-the-mental health-system stigmas is long and I don't feel like itemizing them right now. Like you I have batted my head against the will of professionals who don't think people diagnosed with SZ are capable of much and when we do outshine them they're threatened and try to take away our power.
As for the church: I feel no need to practice my faith in a building with other people. I feel closest to God when I'm doing my writing. I don't buy into the idea that if I don't go to church I won't go to heaven. I was nine years old and missed mass once in a year and went to confession and the priest told me that if I didn't go to church I was going to burn in hell. Even at such a young age I thought he was wrong to say that to me.
In my twenties I attended mass two or three times and I felt I couldn't sit in a pew and ignore that the Catholic church held views that I didn't believe in about women's reproductive rights. So I stopped going because I didn't feel welcome. I wasn't going to sit in a pew and by doing so endorse the Catholic church.
Right now I consider myself to be Christian. I'm not a fan of organized religion. I'm not even keen on Buddhism as a spiritual practice. I believe in God and Jesus and I feel I was chosen for this role as a mental health activist.
So to me I walk the talk and I'm confident that on my last day when God asks me to account for what I did in my time here I won't disappoint him.
That's the way I see it.
Best regards,
Christina
Thank you for your input Christina!
I'm not trying to convert anyone, just a fancy little bit of curiousity.
Peace,
David