1. Give up the luxury of denial. If you are on social security disability for mental illness and have no intention of getting off of it, stop telling professionals and everyone who will listen that you don’t believe in mental illness. Either you are scamming the federal government or you are lying to yourself. Either way, you are setting yourself up for forced treatment under our lovely new broadly sweeping outpatient and inpatient commitment laws coming to a town near you in July of 2008.
2. Don’t act crazy in the street. Don’t swear, raise your voice in an angry manner, wander aimlessly, stare at women (or men) you don’t know, give people the finger outside of a car or take pictures of people you don’t know without permission. Curse and abuse is actually a crime in Virginia, so even if you don’t have a psychiatric history, it’s not a great idea, but if you do have a psychiatric history or diagnosis, getting angry in public is a great way to get yourself temporarily detained for evaluation, especially when the standards for detention are lowered.
3. Be careful what you say to mental health professionals. This is the hardest piece of advice for me to give as a former counselor, trust between clients and their counselor or therapist is critical, but trust is a luxury we likely will no longer have if those who want to take away our civil/equal rights have their way in Virginia. Everything you say to your therapist or counselor can and will be used against you in a court of involuntary commitment. So if it’s something you wouldn’t want a special justice (i.e. the lawyer who is appointed to hear commitment hearings) to hear, don’t say it to your counselor or therapist. The same applies to anything you would not want your involved/enmeshed parents or other family to hear. Sad, very sad, but necessary to your freedom.
November 26, 2007 at 6:58 am
I’m getting disability because the psych drugs caused me serious health problems. No one wants to be disabled.
November 26, 2007 at 10:00 am
No, no one does. But if someone is on disability solely for mental illness and keeps telling everyone he or she meets including providors that he or she doesn’t have a mental illness, he or she is putting themselves at risk for outpatient commitment in my non-legal opinion. I don’t believe myself that not believing one has a mental illness should be any part of the criteria for commitment, but the reality is that it will be considered in a commitment hearing.
November 26, 2007 at 11:16 am
It’s my personal belief that not being honest with your psychiatrist or therapist is truly a waste of time — you might as well drive around town throwing that money out the window.
I think these changing laws are a good issue to raise with one’s therapist, to see where they stand and to maintain a relationship of trust with them.
November 26, 2007 at 11:30 am
I don’t disagree with you ceb, and this was the hardest advice for me to write, I put off writing it for a long time because it breaks my heart to think that it may come to this. Talking to your therapist about confidentiality is a good idea, but the fact is that if the laws change, it won’t be up to your therapist what they reveal to others, it isn’t even now in some situations unless they are willing to go to jail for contempt. There are 29 exceptions to confidentiality in Virginia already.
November 26, 2007 at 2:27 pm
amen to 3. there will be cases, of course, in which you really, really trust your counselor or psychiatrist, and trust them to much their records (yup, they can do that). or to eat their records when the govnt asks them to turn them in. in which case, by all means, talk.
but i know of people (some dear friends) who happily bandy about their history to colleagues, bosses, doctors, ER personnel, etc. so i echo hymes’ implicit suggestion and say, if it doesn’t feel safe, and you can get away with it, LIE.
November 26, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Denise, serious health problems are a good reason to be on disability. I hope no one is taking this the wrong way. My main concern here with point number 1 is for folks who are enrolled in community mental heatlh centers as consumers with a severe mental illness diagnosis and receiving disability on that basis but who tell mental health providers at the mental health center that they don’t have a mental illness. It is the disconnect between accepting some services that are only offered to people who are diagnosed as having severe mental illness and accepting the disability while saying that there is no such thing that could lead someone to be committed for lack of capacity.
I have no investment in anyone believing or not believing that they have a mental illness, my only concern is folks not setting themselves up for unhelpful and unwanted forced treatment.
November 26, 2007 at 2:44 pm
If only we could have an IQ test for Hollywood people who want to opine on the important matters of the day! It would cut down on the NOISE.
November 26, 2007 at 3:35 pm
I’ve already talked to hymes, but for those of you who read my pingback—I have absolutely no hard feelings towards hymes. I just had a reaction to the statement I put on my blog which in context on this sight makes much more sense, which I say in my piece.
I ran with my gut on this one—I was triggered—but it didn’t make me think hymes was totally off base within the context she was discussing.
Mental illness as a pathology bugs the shit out of me,but we’re stuck with it for better or worse for now and in order to protect yourself, as hymes says it may behoove you to play their game at times.
I’m lucky enough RIGHT NOW to not have to play the game 24/7, but I sure as hell have to come time for disability review. The thing is I don’t have to lie. I can just describe my life. My doctor can do the name calling. (labeling) I won’t use it for myself.
My care providers are all enlightened to some degree, but I still fear forced treatment in an abstract sense because I feel like we never know might we come to such a place again.
November 26, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Hey Gianna, I wasn’t suggesting anyone play the game, I was suggesting that if someone doesn’t believe they have a mental illness, they not put themselves in a situation such as being a community mental health center client in order to get a small check every month if they have other ways of earning their way and no health problems from medications or other reasons. i.e, as I said, someone who is on SSI or D solely for mental health reasons and is surrounding themselves with people who believe that they are in fact seriously mentally ill. That is a set up for being force medicated if our laws change here.
I guess having kidney failure, pathology isn’t such a triggering idea for me. I mean my kidneys are called “in failure” as if they flunked a test, oh wait, they did, because of complying with medication for the wrong label/diagnosis, I wonder what my problem is with forcing medication on folks? But back on point, if someone says my PTSD is an illness, I don’t get upset, it doesn’t make a difference to my experience and the work I do to recover and cope and stay on track as best I can.
I’m not upset with my nephrologist for saying I have a chronic illness of the kidneys, even a “defect” which I also have, why am I going to be upset if someone says my PTSD is an illness? I don’t associate ill with bad. I do get upset when people assume or act as if I am less than because I have a psychiatric diagnosis. But I don’t get upset if someone says I have one.
I think this is tricky territory and I respect however others choose to look at themselves, my concern here is people keeping themselves safe from government intrusion.
November 26, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Thanks hymes. I get it at this point. Really your comment just served as a springboard for my own problems with being pathologized, because I do have problems with that. I, frankly, haven’t come to some final conclusion about whether I should be considered sick or not. I am disabled, but does that make me sick? And then there is the whole iatrogenic illness which arguably, yes, I have. But as far as something underlying–well I don’t know.
Okay here I go again and basically for your post I’m off topic at this point—which is why I took it to my blog. Hope I didn’t cause any stir for anyone.
I think your advice in parts 1 and part 2 of this series are very well thought out and important. And like I said in the first post I think it would be great to make a “page” to put at the top of your blog with your advice.
November 26, 2007 at 10:42 pm
I’m currently reading the icarus harm reduction guide and Will Hall writes on p.15 – “Looking to non-biological factors like trauma, sensitivity, or spirituality doesn’t mean your problems are more your own fault than someone who points to biology, genes, or brain chemistry. You don’t need help any less just because you don’t see yourself as have a “disorder” or being “sick.”
November 26, 2007 at 10:55 pm
I don’t disagree with you or Will Denise. I think how one identifies is a very personal matter and up to the individual. My only concern is when folks put themselves at risk for forced treatment, and even there, it is still their choice. I was thinking about someone who doesn’t want help or feel the need for help , not someone who does want help. I think we have gone far from what I was writing about, which is protecting oneself from government intrusion rather than how one identifies.
November 26, 2007 at 11:00 pm
I guess for me it all comes down to oppressive relatives, not the programs themselves.
November 26, 2007 at 11:13 pm
Yes,. everyone’s situation is different. I’m very sorry for your situation Denise and really glad you are “here” with us and safe. You offer so much to all of us with your work and talent.
November 26, 2007 at 11:23 pm
you made my day!