50 Stories To Keep You Up To Date With The Interesting Things That Are Happening In The World

Here's the thing....if you are mentally ill and untreated, you're not competent enough to make choices for yourself. That's the point. You want to pretend that "oh they made their choice, this is the life they want to live" except they can't change their mind, can they, and many times, even if they have an inkling that they want help....they're often ashamed, embarrassed or simply afraid. You ever dealt with someone with severe mental illness? I have, several in fact, and there's simply no reasoning with them. How can you look at someone living in a box, talking to themselves as they dig through the trash and seriously think "ah, they've made their choice, they're living their best life and we must protect it!" It's insane.

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So because something COULD be abused, you'd rather pretend that the widespread failure that's steadily been getting worse for nearly 50 years is something we all just have to live with? State run facilities should be there to handle the people and cases that can't, or won't handle themselves. What we have now is, someone gets diagnosed, they get medicated. They decide they decide for whatever reason, that they don't like how the medication makes them feel (because what is really going to compare to the emotional highs of a manic episode) they stop their meds, they no longer are able to care for themselves, family nor friends can afford the obscene amount of money to have them committed to a private institution, so they just fall through the cracks, and often end up on the street....until eventually they're picked up for some sort of crime, big or small...at which point they're deemed mentally ill...they'[re held long enough for meds to take hold so they can be deemed .....cont

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Or at least "competent" and turned out on the street again. Maybe they're given meds, maybe not....and either way, chances are very high that they're going to again, choose to go unmedicated. Rinse and repeat. Over and over again. Why does this persist? Because people argue that someone being medicated is "technically" of sound mind, and thus the choice to stop meds and no longer be of sound mind, was a conscious choice made by someone who is mentally fit. Who does that help? How is that better than having an state funded institution who can provide not only the mental health care these people clearly need, meds and therapy, but a roof over their head and food in their bellies? Should we also ignore the fact that many people simply can't afford the meds and care they need as well? What we have now is not working, for anyone least of all those who are suffering directly.

I agree that the results often suck but bodily autonomy is a great thing. Because something COULD be abused, the US steers trans people away from their bathrooms, so yes.

Abused like a merry go round through the prison system? Abused like "this is the 12th time this year ________has been put on a 5150. We give them meds, they get better long enough to be turned away with a totes believable promise that it's gonna be different this time...yet here they come again. A manic person could jump from a building, in front of a train, do all kinds of reckless $hit that endangers not only others, but themselves. THAT is all but a guarantee. But because something could happen, we should pretend that what we know will happen, no matter how terrible, is preferable? Trans people are being turned away from bathrooms because a whole bunch of people who are absolutely not trans, ruined that for everyone. Trans people aren't a new thing, and there was never an issue up until the point of self identity and half a dozen different things all being swept under the umbrella of trans.

Where is involuntary treatment "an option"? As i already explained, there's not funding, and there's no dedicated space to that end. So what happens in practice is that people are held long enough for the bare minimum of care, with the explicit goal of getting them back on the street. Where the cycle continues. Or they end up in prison, where yes they will get slightly better treatment.....but that's still in prison, how is that going to help long term prospects? Yes, they have been abandoned by society....but the expectation that the mentally ill are going to do the right and responsible thing is simply unrealistic. If you're sleeping in a box under an overpass, do you really think therapy is their top priority? To have a chance, people need to given the space to succeed, the circumstances to focus on getting better. That's what i'm proposing.

Me? What do you think is the purpose of a STATE RUN mental care facility? It's a funded through taxes, patients aren't charged. People are treated based on NEED not money. Food, shelter, meds, Therapy....all provided so that the sick, have a chance to heal, or at least to obtain the tools so as to cope. That's the point, that's the goal. What we have now, isn't working.

I agree. But making everyone's employment, insurance and housing precarious and closing the mental facilities leaves the crazies on the streets. That is not the problem. The lack of a safety net is the problem.