I agree with you Emika. It robs focus from the treatment of illness and trauma that was never self-induced, so yes, the side effect is to trivialise those who are not wearing their personal challenges as a badge of honour. It has created an industry for initially imagined trauma and fashionable diagnoses that go on to be self-fulfilling. It becomes difficult to distinguish because the underlying social contagion is self-obsession, which has been amplified by social media, to the extent that genuine empathy for others is crowded out. The competition of empathy and validation is what I think identity politics are all about. It is what drives all the social contagions.
I know, for example, how difficult it is to get mental health support for those who genuinely need it, having been an advocate for a few adults at different points in my life. This is particularly true when the individual has no insight into the fact they are ill - as long as they say they are well they are deemed to be. I knew real childhood trauma and now, closer to the end than those difficult beginnings, I notice they have stayed with me despite never speaking about them at all.
In 1980's UK, many sick people were abandoned and I understand that something similar happened during that Thatcher/Reagan period in the US. It was during that time that the nursing 2000 programme came to be in the UK which set the tone. It was a way to get a nursing degree and become an RMN without having to wipe an arse. However, I think it was The Mental Capacity Act (2005) that really did the damage. It was badly conceived, ambiguously written and consequently, poorly understood. It had so many holes that it gave the medical profession a way to opt out of their responsibilities - such as being competent.
So now many mentally ill people are living on the streets being exploited by drug culture and organised crime. Meanwhile resources are being wasted on people who seek relevance in a diagnosis. I recently read a book that liked up to the point when the author was trying to wrangle a PTSD diagnosis out of being talked to sternly on the stairs as a child.
It made me angry as I thought back to being in a row of boys in stress positions against the wall, arms outstretched, with pillows balancing on each hand for hours. I remember twisting in pain trying not to let my arms drop because there was a beating waiting in the dark. Those boys can no longer be reached. They are there forever. And nobody will ever give a fuck.
Hello! I am a terrible luddite, and can't seem to respond anywhere else to your kind recommendation of my work. So, please forgive me for piggybacking onto this (great!) piece of yours here, I just wanted to say --Oh my goodness, what lovely sentiments. Thank you so much for recommending me. I am very grateful.
I really do appreciate this piece of writing of yours, too. Such a nuanced and complex subject, and yes, the current social diseases we all suffer from are not doing us any favors. I think there have always been unseen forces, however subtle, oppressing us womenfolk. It's just in the water. Well, not always.... there were the many, many thousands of years of Matriarchy we too often forget, which preceded Christianity. Anyway, thanks for your work, and again, so much gratitude for your generous kindness in recommending Straw Into Gold.
Thank you that is very kind. It was good to read that people with similar experiences have reached out to you. I wish you a complete recovery beyond all expectations becuase the world needs you around.
It's kind of frustrating when people tried to be fashionable in such way. The things they are doing trivialized the experiences of others
I agree with you Emika. It robs focus from the treatment of illness and trauma that was never self-induced, so yes, the side effect is to trivialise those who are not wearing their personal challenges as a badge of honour. It has created an industry for initially imagined trauma and fashionable diagnoses that go on to be self-fulfilling. It becomes difficult to distinguish because the underlying social contagion is self-obsession, which has been amplified by social media, to the extent that genuine empathy for others is crowded out. The competition of empathy and validation is what I think identity politics are all about. It is what drives all the social contagions.
I know, for example, how difficult it is to get mental health support for those who genuinely need it, having been an advocate for a few adults at different points in my life. This is particularly true when the individual has no insight into the fact they are ill - as long as they say they are well they are deemed to be. I knew real childhood trauma and now, closer to the end than those difficult beginnings, I notice they have stayed with me despite never speaking about them at all.
In 1980's UK, many sick people were abandoned and I understand that something similar happened during that Thatcher/Reagan period in the US. It was during that time that the nursing 2000 programme came to be in the UK which set the tone. It was a way to get a nursing degree and become an RMN without having to wipe an arse. However, I think it was The Mental Capacity Act (2005) that really did the damage. It was badly conceived, ambiguously written and consequently, poorly understood. It had so many holes that it gave the medical profession a way to opt out of their responsibilities - such as being competent.
So now many mentally ill people are living on the streets being exploited by drug culture and organised crime. Meanwhile resources are being wasted on people who seek relevance in a diagnosis. I recently read a book that liked up to the point when the author was trying to wrangle a PTSD diagnosis out of being talked to sternly on the stairs as a child.
It made me angry as I thought back to being in a row of boys in stress positions against the wall, arms outstretched, with pillows balancing on each hand for hours. I remember twisting in pain trying not to let my arms drop because there was a beating waiting in the dark. Those boys can no longer be reached. They are there forever. And nobody will ever give a fuck.
Hello! I am a terrible luddite, and can't seem to respond anywhere else to your kind recommendation of my work. So, please forgive me for piggybacking onto this (great!) piece of yours here, I just wanted to say --Oh my goodness, what lovely sentiments. Thank you so much for recommending me. I am very grateful.
I really do appreciate this piece of writing of yours, too. Such a nuanced and complex subject, and yes, the current social diseases we all suffer from are not doing us any favors. I think there have always been unseen forces, however subtle, oppressing us womenfolk. It's just in the water. Well, not always.... there were the many, many thousands of years of Matriarchy we too often forget, which preceded Christianity. Anyway, thanks for your work, and again, so much gratitude for your generous kindness in recommending Straw Into Gold.
Thank you that is very kind. It was good to read that people with similar experiences have reached out to you. I wish you a complete recovery beyond all expectations becuase the world needs you around.
Thanks 💙