We are not criminals

WHY DECRIMINALIZATION OF SMI IS IMPORTANT:

People suffering with other neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia can get treatment promptly without being kicked out of their homes to wander the streets until they are arrested and put in jail or prison rather than a hospital. Serious mental illness is the only disease where the doors to treatment are shut unless a crime is committed. This is pure and simple discrimination with the disastrous results we see in our country today — homelessness, incarceration, the disintegration of families, and death.

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True still the docs always ask us if we are a danger to ourselves or others

I agree with @Daze and yourself @django We only seem to get treatment when things have gone too far.

I don’t know what genius said you have to be psychotic for at least 6 months before getting diagnosed as Sz.

It caused me great personal injury and embarrassment being crazy for that amount of time.

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What really irritates me is how, since I’ve been in recovery for six years and symptom free for three, my new doctor decided to change my diagnosis because “schizophrenics don’t recover like that.” She didn’t see me at my worst!

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I completely agree. I had to end up in prison whilst psychotic and lose the wife before some arsehole finally decided i was schizophrenic. They wanna see you suffer for a few months (in case your making it up, i presume) before they dish out the diagnosis.

It took a Police officer and a doctor to ask why the bloody hell i wasnt seen sooner. It flaming grates me to this day - i had to have a ruddy breakdown and relapse before i got medicated properly.

To be clear, the reason there is a 6 month requirement is not because people don’t get treatment before six months. It’s because there are dozens of psychotic illnesses, and most are temporary and go away after brief treatment. No doctor wants to affix a permanent and damaging label on someone with a temporary condition. We are the unlucky 1%

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Trouble is - they even refused my Aps whilst i was in the “diagnosis” period. Tho i admit i wasnt helping matters cos i was raving drunk 99% of the time as a way of medicating - so they probably couldnt assess me properly. I still hate the old Cmht for it tho. When i just had the dx of borderline PD - i was treated like a time waster.

This is exactly why I hate that and other PD diagnoses. They could have a very useful place for setting goals in therapy. Instead, they’re frequently used to dismiss and belittle patients. My nurse friend told me that her ER doctors used to call Borderline “Crazy ■■■■■ Syndrome” and frequently slap the label on people (especially girls) who came into the ER and then just discharged them with no treatment after a 12 hour hold.

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I was seen at first and they gave me antipsychotic medication but didn’t follow up.

I ended up being committed after 8 months of everything falling apart and that’s when they finally diagnosed me.

I had been diagnosed with Psychosis before but I was only 17 so they avoided the Sz label then.

I was prosecuted for biting a policewomans hand,

later on in the hospital she was standing in my hospital room with me. I apologised.
then later I asked her to loosen my handcuffs, she didn’t do it probably scared of me

so then the next day I had huge ring of bruises around my wrists, it was really painful wen they made it really tight…so not funny!its brutal

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involuntary hospitalization is so commonly abused that doctors don’t even bat an eye at using this power unjustly. So many times ive been in a normal state of mind and yet forced for weeks at a time into a hospital. Doctors know were doing well and involuntarily hospitalize us all the time. Its inhumane and injust. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

They do treat us like criminals more than they want to help us I think. The stigma is still quite big, even in the health care industry.

I really derived the satisfaction of someone understanding from reading this thread.

until I started ‘twisting arms’ by telling authorities on them my treatment team didn’t show sympathy at all. I felt so hated I kept asking my pdoc if he wants me to switch to treatment from somewhere else.

now I have a nice sympathetic gentle and understanding pdoc. I cannot tell you what a difference that makes to me. let them (the ‘normies’) laugh at our needs, I can just imagine what their needs are…

even the religious organizations were often quite the opposite of kind to me once I sunk into sz. it just didn’t feel right or just and I rarely felt welcome in those kind of places. now that my symptoms subsided for many years they are willing to say a warm hello and goodbye.

I keep asking myself should I bother to be friendly to people who’ve treated me this way when I needed someone? I haven’t come to any conclusion.

judy

yeah and the answer must always be No, even if it’s yes , unfortunately

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After I told people at my last job my diagnosis (bad, bad idea and I will not be doing that again), a certain co-worker would frequently tell me how afraid he was of me, and how scary I was when I was wielding a knife (this was a fast food job and we cut bread).

And this was the guy who’d introduced himself to me as being “psychotic” on my first day there. :roll_eyes:

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I destroyed a table in a hotel room once to demonstrate my superpowers to myself (I thought I had super strength) and ended up getting the police called on me. I paid for the table at the desk though so they didn’t press charges.

Thankfully all that delusional stuff is behind me.

I have been extraordinarily fortunate in that I’ve never been in trouble with the law (except for this minor gun thing, but I didn’t get in trouble, just warned) and never been involuntarily hospitalized. I’ve also always had support from my husband, and he’s stuck with me through it all.

But it really, really bothers me that so many people in prison and on the streets are mentally ill and just need help and understanding. It’s just awful, and it makes me so sad.

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