Sunday, November 29, 2009
lucidity
when i prepare for a speech or something like tomorrow, this type of music gives me a mindful base to prepare my mind.
i am feeling apprehensive, and little sick to my stomach. fighting for the prevention of institutionalization is a task that i feel is hard but doable, i've done it before.but, knowing where she might go, with it's history just makes me physically sick. i'll out of bed by 5am monday to get dressed to drive into the city for court. someone left a good question in comments--what's the criteria for discharge? i wonder if any one knows. she has just began to become lucid again this last week. on the way to court, i will no doubt have straight up rock music on full blast, drive like i'm on a mission and remain on task. enjoy this music for now.
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10 comments:
Lindsay's trying to say something; possibly something that she's angry about - or it may be something completely mundane that nobody wants to listen to, and she's angry about the ignorance. And now, her incoherent anger is dismissed as "psychosis," which permits further ignorance.
It's not her fault that nobody's willing to find out what she's angry about, and then try to fix it. And locking her up in an institution for the rest of her life isn't going to change that. Just make sure she knows that nobody's listening, because she might make the same mistake that I did - she may go on trying, thinking that if she just finds the right form of words, somebody will listen. They won't, because it's not in their interests.
matt
I have and am listening to my daughter, Matt. It's why i am in court tomorrow.
Again, all the best tomorrow!
thank you very much, Galen
Good luck today! We'll be thinking of you.
Yes, but Stephany, the vast majority of the people who work in those places genuinely believe that everything that comes out of a mentally ill person's mouth is bollox, drivel, inane, insane and delusional. There is a duty to ignore the speech of a mentally ill person, in the same way that some people still believe that one should ignore an angry child - don't give them the attention, and they'll shut up.
You know, that's the one bone I have to pick with K-PAX - the scene where Rachel Powell, played by Mary McCormack, engages Prot in a long and detailed conversation. People don't listen to the mentally ill as though they have something interesting to say - they want to get away from the discussion as soon as possible. The kind of conversation that McCormack has requires that one acknowledges the other as an equal, and is interested in what they have to say.
In a lockdown unit, patients are subordinate - after all, do the patients ever get to restrain the staff? And drug them? And tell them, in word and deed, that the way they're behaving is aberrant? Of course not. And in such an environment, how can anybody possibly recover, because the very thing that would lead to a greater understanding of the world around them (their right to seek information), is denied them?
Having your identity invalidated, day after day, is the cruellest thing that one can possibly do to another person. And yet, it's one of the few things that most are really any good at, I think, for a whole bunch of reasons that are too complex to go into, here.
Matt
I know how it works, Matt, kindly speaking you're preaching to the choir here. Right now, I am against a system and winning against all odds for my daughter.
I hadn't intended to be preachy - more a case of clarifying things in my own mind. I'm not a big fan of the concept of "authority," mostly because others' notion of this idea involves ordering people around, as though they were incapable of their own thought. In the environment in which Lindsay finds herself, it is *assumed* (pretty much as a fact), that she doesn't possess the capacity to think rationally, and while everybody proceeds in that manner, it will be true, because it will be too much effort for Lindsay to undo that collective belief.
I can't put it any more simply than that: as long as the institution believes that Lindsay is incapable of making rational decisions, then it will make that true, and will fight tooth and nail (no, Ana, if you're looking in, that expression is known in english, too!), to keep that true, and she will never be given the opportunity to demonstrate otherwise, because the horror that mentally ill people have been incarcerated for wont of the obvious question would be too much to bear.
Can you imagine that? Treated as though you're somehow mentally incapable, when you're understanding of the world is significantly more advanced than that of your keepers? It's a prospect that most seek to avoid.
Anyway, the court has to cover its arse, just in case... If you can offer it (the court), a viable alternative to institutionalization, then it will probably decide in your favour. Alternatively, if you can demonstrate that the facts are not as the institution claims (ie, Lindsay's diagnosis and prognosis are pretty much completely inaccurate), then you will be strongly positioned, I think.
Matt
Yes, the talons are dug deep into my daughter as their patient and this is why i fought so hard 2 years ago, for perspective. i know how bad it is and once you get to western you do not get out. i got her out after 21 days by fighting my ass of at the Governor's level, which now i will be taking it to the media when the timing is appropriate.
Hmmm. I'd make a friend of the court (in the person of the judge, of course), ahead of the media. Judges remember stuff; they work on precedent; and they're much more attuned to the nuances of the available evidence. The media will only be interested if you can make the story sensational enough.
What is Western's case, anyway (ie, on what basis are they arguing for institutionalization?)?
Matt
PS His Holiness appears to be not impressed with Bocelli's music in the still, above!
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