Rambling Friday: A Little Calmer Explaining

            I know I was ranting quite heavily yesterday. I’m not going to apologize for what I said but for the tone I said it in. Since I was extremely angry at the time of writing it. But I figured today I should take the time to explain why I was so angry yesterday in a calmer manner, so that you, my readers, could understand why I was so angry yesterday.

            First I will start off by saying I have been an active Mental Health Consumer for 18 years. And that is a long time for some, but there are others who have been in it for longer. Before I even got into the system back in 1981 Amastad was founded under another name but it was still the same basic place as what I came into. You had to have a mental illness and you had to sign up to be a member and check in everyday when you came in.

            It was a peer support center for the mentally ill to help each other recover and get better. They had activities to help with that along with just some fun stuff to help people get out and socialize in general. But after 20 years roughly the State of Maine forced them to abandon that system and become a hangout for anyone that wanted to come in. They still keep doing the activities. But gradually it is becoming another homeless hangout infected with drugs and alcohol. It is the prime example of us losing a benefit and treatment since we lost our sanctuary.

            After we lost our sanctuary we tried setting up another club but they forced that to close as well. They keep forcing us to see our therapists and doctors less and less. And now they want to take case managers away from people because they don’t meet lawmakers’ assessment of being in need enough.

            I thought we were supposed to leave it to doctors to determine that. Not accountants.  But it seems like accountants are deciding how much of a life we deserve to have and moreand more it seems like they want to lock us up in our houses except for appointments that become far and in between.

            Yes, I am angry because I am mentally ill and more and more it seems like you are treating us as a plague on you instead of the human beings we are. We have thoughts and feelings and aspirations as well. We have creativity in us and opinions along with talents as well. But it seems all you see is the illness and the expense we cost you.

            All we want is a bit of acceptance and some space to work on getting better. A few little perks to life like anyone else would want. We aren’t asking much and we even create things to help us get better that we run. But you rip it out of our hands and give it to corporations instead who have no idea how to run it right or the personal touch we offer.

            It seems all you see is money, money, money, when we create something instead of us trying to help ourselves and cost you less money. We are trying to pull ourselves up by our own two hands and you keep knocking us down. Why do you make it so that we practically have to kick the door in before you will listen to us?

            Are you that unfeeling or unkind? Are we that horrible to you? We did nothing to harm you and we did not ask to have mental illness. We are just trying to do the best we can in this world and asking for a bit of help. What is so wrong with giving us that help?

            I guess you don’t have an answer for that. But I’ll keep asking till you do or change course. For now, leave your questions and comments below. And if you want my columns to show up in your inbox enter your email address in the box below where it says follow by email. Tomorrow I will be addressing some bullies in town. As for right now I am off to do some studying. *Tips his hat and walks out the door. *