In a message dated 1/27/2002 9:10:32 PM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:


> If I am wrong, then I think Betty is right,
> up to a point.
>
It's probably to about the same point that I think I am right to as well.
Isn't that periously close to something Richard M. Nixon once said?

Sure I think the desired end result is not acceptable, especially when others
are involved.  But you're going to get one out of a hundred, or maybe a
thousand people who recognizes exactly how much half a loaf sucks.

Maybe I can say this, and my passion in this thread will make a little more
sense.  For a long time now, I've thought about a particular situation, and
this sort of developed into a soul sister feeling that periodically makes me
wish I had a magic wand just once in my life, to fix something that I would
not advocate fixing in other circumtances.  I'm also thinking that I'm not
the Lone Ranger on this.

In failing that, I'm thinking that whatever gives comfort, what the hell?

But that's advice for the situation as it really is.  I'm just talking about
locking the barn door now.  My real wish is that we could turn back the hands
of time, and work things so that good tools for living are made available to
all children, so they can feel empowered in any situation, regardless of
their physical limitations.  Their autonomy would be respected by default
anyway, because that would be the flavor of my dream society.

Yes, I do agree that medication is sometimes appropriate.  I'm just concerned
that we medicate so readily without taking into account the root cause of the
behavior, and how removal of that cause might result in a change in behavior.
 What are the conlusions of the diagnostician?  What does he do with this
information?

I have questions for mental health professionals.  Where is the American
Psychiatric Association in terms of its understanding of cultural relavance
as it pertains to the disabilty community?  Is it even aware of disabilty
culture?

I think it may have an inkling, but I don't thing they are ready for what I'm
saying.  They don't want what I'm saying.  That organization has a culture
too, and its going to take a long time for that to change.  What I expect,
what any civil or disabilty rights activist should expect, is a paradigm
shift of proportions the American Psychiatric Association would likely find
laughable at this time.

Do we think that those who refer to themselves as psychiatric survivors are
each without merit?   Is there no message there that disturbs anyone?

I have a shrink on deck myself, but I got to shop for him.  I had the
financial empowerment as a member of the working class to pick and choose.  I
paid cold cash to see this guy because my insuranace didn't cover him.

I was able to go to the psychiatrist that my neurologist trusted, and I got
to choose my neurologist too.  All along the way, I've been in charge.  My
insurance pays for my neurology appointments, but it's a fluke.  My decision
to see him was based on a little research.  Same thing with my primary care
physician.  I saw that he was on the ball, and I stayed with him after the
first appointment.

Empowerment was the ticket.  I was able to seek out good situations.  And the
tools -- all the tools I will ever need -- were placed before me at each step
of the way during my childhood and even through my adult years.

Some people didn't get access to those tools, so how can we expect them to
have those kinds of skills?  Are we going to medicate them for acting in the
only ways they feel that are available to them before we help them find the
skills they need to ensure what is rightfully theirs?

Are we really going to medicate them AFTER the fact?  That is nothing more
than keeping someone compliant, instead of teaching them how to define an
attendant's status as a servent who takes orders, in case that attendant
happens to forget his station.

The true concern here is how to enforce that attendants have chosen a station
of service that was not constructed to hold them up as Gods and saviors.
Everything else is perpheral information, as far as I am concerned.  That is
a hard station to assume because when in service to another, we take orders;
we do not give them.  We bow to the employer, and it is not the other way
around.  The tail does not wag the dog, and if it tries I am not going to
help it.

I never worked for anyone I could give orders to.  The real lesson here is
that we need to know how to put attendants in their place, and that has to be
reinforced by the community.

Do you know how many times I have heard in my life that "so-in-so was so
wonderful for working in that insitution or nursing home, and wiping those
people's bottoms?  Those difficult people who need help every day, and who
can't do anything for themselves, and there is this glorious person who wants
to help them put the spoon of food in their mouth.  Isn't it just all so
grand and lovely"

How glorious the attendant; the mighty savior of us.  Let us all take
medication and glorify the mighty God, the attendant who wipes our bottoms.

I can't be sympathetic with perpetrators of crimes who end up endangered
because of their own actions.  I have empathy for -- I have to have empathy
for  -- someone who is treated like trash in a garbage can all his life and
expected not to take angry action that maybe involves endangering somebody
else's life.

"I'm sorry that you don't like being treated like garbage your whole life,
even when you come here, but we're just going to have to medicate you until
you do like being treated like garbage, or until you learn to shut up about
it."

There's something I buried in the last paragraph.  There's something very
important that I buried in the last paragraph.  Let us not discuss
medication.  Let us discuss remorse.

This could be the place where people could say, "Okay let's go from here.
Let's start from today and right now.  How can we help you find the tools to
get the things you need in life, to ensure that you can say no in this life
and make it stick?

Betty