They are just people that have problems with oppression and stigma!
28 – 07 – 2016
Spyros Petritis *
"I am a human being
I am not an animal"
It's easy this time
To loose my mind
It's easy this time
To loose my mind
Psychiatric
Psychiatric
Psychiatric
Psychiatric
It's easy this time
To loose my mind
It's easy this time
To loose my mind
Lyrics of Mylène Farmer's "Psychiatric": The famous French recording artist, songwriter, occasional actress, writer and entrepreneur, born in Pierrefonds, Quebec, on 12 September 1961, explained that she decided to write this song after seeing a documentary about "an insane asylum in Greece where the internees were abandoned, left to themselves and reduced to an animal status", and added: "Madness affectes me, simply".
See more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_(song)
You can also watch Psychiatric's Video Clip, by clicking here!
Dear All,
I am a Greek atheist and i fight against islamophobia, but also against fatphobia, ableism, ageism and all kinds of racism and social stigma in my country and abroad. As a left-wing politics' supporter, i also support social equality and egalitarianism. That is why i oppose to social inequality, but also in what intersectional feminism recognises as white, middle class, cis-gendered and able bodied feminism, although i strongly believe that two of the most basic problems in the whole world are still patriarchy and misogyny.
But it is even more embarrassing for me that so many so-called asylums for people with mental health issues or even handicapped people still exist in my country, Greece. In ancient Greece and Rome, the asylums referred to religious sites, where people facing persecution could seek refuge. But in our time the asylums are mainly psychiatric institutions, where people are tortured. That is why mental health issues affect me, in the same way they affect my favorite feminist singer-songwriter. Despite my poor english, i try to read articles in the internet and i always find useful and interesting to read the articles about all those topics on The Guardian's web page. But unfortunately, what i really want to say in this moment is that i was totally disappointed yesterday, when i read the article with this title: "Leytonstone tube attacker 'psychotic' at time of assault, court told", on that web page. Therefore, I would be very much pleased if you could also share the response I posted via my Facebook Page:
Dear The Guardian, there are no "psychotics".
They are just people that have problems with stigma!
That's the response, that i posted: Trigger Warning: It is totally disappointing that even The Guardian stigmatizes black muslims as "psychotics" without any concern about possible effects not only on black and muslim lives, but also on people that have already mental health issues and strive to survive in a world that causes them so much pain! This article is totally unaxeptable, it terrorizes people by promotιng inaccurate beliefs and myths, while making a distinction against people that have already mental health problems with oppression and stigma, and in favor of the far right politics in the United Kingdom and abroad, that envision the repeatment of what the Nazis called the "T-4," or "euthanasia," program. That is why when you say #AllLivesMatter you are being a racist, that is also why intersectionality is one of feminism's most important tools.
You can also see some pictures about the mental health stigma, via the link for my whole response. It may be unfair, but what about all those people that suffer in silence and disgrace? Words matter and the word: "Psychotic" is triggering. What i know is that even people affected by schizophrenia are generally less dangerous for other people, than for themselves, due to those biggest mental health myths, we all need to stop believing right now! It may be difficult to believe, but so much of what many of us understand about mental health issues is clouded by popular perceptions and long-held biases, originating even from the Middle Ages. Those myths can be damaging for folks who already experience mental health issues and can be among us in every field of our social life, because nearly a quarter of people have experienced some form of mental mental health issue in their lifetimes, while all social problems oppress us in our everyday lives, and it is inaccurate that mental health issues are biologically determined.
But if we continue believing all this crap how the hell are we going to help folks that suffer in silence and disgrace to open up and be really cured? In our globalized world, when the American Psychiatric Association tend to classify and stigmatize as mental disorders so many socially disapproved practices in the western world, or even non-western religious practices, such as Shamanism, it is really important to promote cultural diversity, but also support groups of people that fight against mental health stigma, such as the Hearing Voices Network, in the UK, but also in Greece and abroad: It is really outrageous that in a time when so many folks are driven to suicide, we are told like Monty Pythons's Brian (1979) to "Always Look On The Bright Side of Life", or die, like Robin Williams, who was just A Terribly Real Thing in a Terribly False World.
It is also crucial to learn how to deal with Mental Health Trolls, because it is not always easy to “not feed them”, while the barrage of negative comments in social media against Sinead O’ Connor, when she went missing and was considered to be suicidal, can be only shocking and proves that in most times it is not only difficult but also wrong to “not feed the trolls”. It can be also helpful to use the social media against that terribly false world, that is not only oppressive in any other way, but also deeply ableist, and drives so many women, so many lgbtqi+ people, but also passionate, brilliant, empathetic, brave, and sensitive artists, like Robin Williams and Sinead O’ Connor, to be suicidal.
But it is even more important to post the articles written by everyday people about how they experienced their own stigma, just like those below:
- Coming Out: A Paranoid Schizophrenic Talks About Stigma
http://www.ravishly.com/2016/03/10/im-coming-out-paranoid-schizophrenic-talks-about-stigma
- Schizophrenia: The first time I experienced stigma was at university
http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/blog/schizophrenia-stigma-university
Dum spiro spero: That is my life motto! Dum spiro spero means "While I breathe, I hope" in Latin and is a modern paraphrase of ideas that survive in two ancient writers, Theocritus and Cicero. In a way i have to thank you, but i also have to thank even all of the racist, but also capitalist skums, because it's them that mainly gave me the idea for the "Dum Spiro Spero, in English", web page! But it is also true that i try to respond to any disappointing circumstance by taking advantage in such a way!
I dedicate this article to all passionate, brilliant, empathetic, brave, and sensitive people I know of, that have the courage to open up and fight against mental health stigma in our terribly false world! But let me tell you a secret: We may me crazy, but we are not alone, because all the best people are! But what about considering the possibility that people with mental health issues are stigmatized for this reason, and not for the danger or even the strigma related to them?
“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
* Spyros Petritis is a Greek teacher and theatrologist. He is also a blogger and a human rights internet activist in his home country, Greece.
You can follow him on Twitter, or via his Facebook Page.
You can also visit his blog!