WHO CARES ABOUT DISCRIMINATION? OIC, only certain groups have rights...

Jeffersons Ghost

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Wed Jun-07-06 02:55 PM
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WHO CARES ABOUT DISCRIMINATION? OIC, only certain groups have rights...

On May 20, 2006, the president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness warned Congress that President Bush's proposed $9 million cut in the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) budget will erode progress in finding new treatments for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression -- condemning millions of Americans to chronic disability. Dr. Suzanne Vogel-Scibilia, NAMI board president, a practicing psychiatrist, and a person living with bipolar disorder, told a Senate appropriations subcommittee that she herself has had periods of severe illness, including catatonic episodes and three suicide attempts. http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/003407.html

Many claim, Leonardo da Vinci, Jimi Hendrix, Vincent van Gogh and Thomas Edison were in this group of social untouchables, so it appears we have an ability to contribute to society in some way, if given a chance. I know for sure Hendrix and van Gogh were in the group, because they took their own lives.

More often than anyone knows, it is being marginalized and openly discriminated against, not a mental condition that brings people in this group to suicide.

Years ago, as I was attepting to talk a fellow bipolar off the ledge of suicide, he asked me; Why did God create bipolar condition and shackle us with it's many horrors. All I could answer was, "I guess it's so that people would have electric lights," but many with mental conditions live in cardboard boxes and don't have electric light, unless street lights count. We are not discriminated against, when it comes to handing out punishment in court, though and many of us have police records.

How many people have a mental disability and what are their conditions and symptoms?

In a Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) people who answered that they have specific mental conditions and symptoms were classified as having a mental disability. In 1997, 14.3 million people age 15 and over (6.9%) had a mental disability. An estimated 3.9 million people had only a mental disability, 727,000 people had both mental and communication disabilities, 5.3 million people had both mental and physical disabilities, and 4.3 million people had mental, physical, and communication disabilities.

Furthermore, 8.1 million people (3.9% of the population) reported one or more mental conditions (learning disability; mental retardation; Alzheimer�s, senility, or dementia; and other mental/emotional condition). Another 6.9 million (3.3%) reported one or more mental symptoms that seriously interfered with their ability to manage day-to-day activities (frequently anxious or depressed; trouble coping with stress; trouble concentrating; trouble getting along with others). Finally, 4.6 million (2.2%) reported difficulty keeping track of money and bills.

We don't want your sympathy. All we ask is equality in society and the work place. We don't want to be discriminated against because we've had three different jobs every year for the past ten years. And the next time you hand that crazy old man on the corner a dollar for his 100 proof bottle of self-medication, please try not to tell him to cheer up. He can't simply decide to change his mind, if he is depressed. If he could change his mind he'd change it to normal.

Vincent van Gogh once said, "An artist needn't be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men." Van Gogh might be better known for his bloody ear than his warm heart, but you gotta love the sentiment.

Vincent van Gogh spent much of his life in and out of hospitals, until his brother finally convinced him to enter an asylum. The treatment rendered him soggy, but not appreciably more sane. The asylum allowed him to paint, and within its walls he created perhaps his most powerful work, "Starry Night." He once wrote to his brother, "I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day," a sentiment amply reflected in his most famous work.

Unfortunately for his art, he tried eat his paints in an apparent suicide attempt, which was the end of his painting privileges for a while. The pattern of recovery and relapse continued for almost two years, in and out of the asylum, and eventually in Paris, where he traveled to stay with his brother. Painting at every opportunity he didn't feel compelled to poison himself, van Gogh continued to struggle with bouts of paranoia and delusions, with a continuing impact on his physical health.

On July 27, 1890, van Gogh finally figured out that a tube of oil paints wasn't going to do the trick. While out painting in a wheat field, he shot himself in the chest with a revolver. Once again, he failed to do himself in, and he managed to walk home to the inn where he had been staying, before collapsing into bed without telling anyone what had happened. When the innkeeper found him in a pool of his own blood, he called a doctor and van Gogh's brother, Theo.

The bullet was too close to his heart to be removed, and van Gogh suffered another seizure. With his wounds, the impact was too much. After telling his brother, "the sadness will last forever," he finally died, two days after launching the attempt. He was denied a funeral because he had committed suicide.
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/artists/vincent-van-gogh/