I absolutely agree.

I also agree with you and, the begining of your writing today about Rhode Island letting the mentally ill vote , puts me in mind of something that happened to Crazy George( I use Crazy with much respect and affection when reffering to george, He is well aware that I call him this) We have a beautiful daughter, visually she is exceptional.Lots of other ways too. She was a very beautiful baby and was constantally ooohd and ahhhhd over. Someone who knew of georges problems saw her with him and perhaps they were joking but they said “this can’t be your baby she is so beautiful”. When he told me I was very offended. Joking or not people who do not suffer from mental illness can never understand the pain of feeling imperfect to the point of being unworthy of what other folks take for granted ( like voting)ect. We are a very worthy bunch,probally much smarter than most( we spend so much time thinking, at least I do)My daughter has mental illness, she is so troubled by her own mind. She is getting better and she is still quite beautiful. She deserves to experience everything everyone else does, she has the right to do so, we all do. We laugh at ourselves so we won’t cry all the time. We can make jokes about our situations, but unless you are part of our eleit group, making fun is definately off limits.

Therese – You know me pretty well by now, and gee, I’m guessing you’d know I wouldn’t take to kindly to this CRAP?!? Are we living in the stone ages. Yes, we are. Future generations are going to look back and remark on how unevolved we were.
But to the point, yes, I can say crazy, nuts, and my peers in the “in group” of this lot in life; however, if there are few things that tick me off more than pontificating buffoons that haven’t “earned the priviledge” (as you so well pointed out) to refer to mental illness in the manner this writer did.
Voting in Rhode Island?!? – Are they flipping kidding?
Let’s see, what about Diabetics – should they have to have their sugar tested before going in to the voting booth to make sure that their mind is clear enough to make an informed decision? This is whats “NUTS”.
There is so much ignorance combined with arrogance, which equals a “psychotic” situation. You know the saying – “Opinions are like butts; everyone has one and many of them stink” (now that was a very profound and mature comeback!!!)
Plus I had to “reword” the saying a tad!
The Chinese won’t allow people on anti-depressants to adopt their babies!?!?!?! Now, is that not crazy and nuts?!?! See, I’ve earned my stars and stripes to use that word!!
Lynn, my heart goes out to you and poor George. What an ignorant, disgusting, comment to make. Life is tough enough. Our beings are so fragile, and here you are both trying to relish the blessing of this beautiful baby, only to have it tarnished by some nimrod. I’m so sorry that you experienced such a pitiful scenario.
There are too many people out there who are missing the “sensor” button of common sense and kindness in the path between their supposed brains and their big mouths.
Ugh – Ugh – Ugh! Ok – time to let it go, but thank you Therese, Larry, and Lynn for sharing the ridiculousness that should not be going on in “this day and age”. I guess we haven’t come a long way, baby. (now I’m aging myself with that commercial phrase)!
God – please intervene in the hearts and minds of those who continue to bring forth hurtful thoughts, words and actions; that more people may pause and realize the magnitude of their impact on those around them. Amen.

very well put nancy, Power to the Crazies.I think god has given us all a true gift( it may not be quite the right size for most of us ) but our minds, scattered and troublesome though they might be, have put us in a position to use our special vision, we will inherit the earth and with our troubled minds and compassionate hearts, it will be a far more peaceful place than it is now. We understand what pain is and have compassion for others who experiance pain( what ever their pain might be)nancy your last though says it all-” may we all pause and realize the magnitude of our impact on those around us”.If we continue to speak up, and realize our worth, we can ” be the change we want to see in this world”

Now doesn’t all that just make you want to seek treatment? Is it better to be an official “non-crazy” because you are not in treatment, or to be “crazy” but act sane because you’re on Zoloft? Anne @ http://lifepundit.typepad.com/

re: I always love it when my Beyond Blue readers direct me to a piece of news… A few days ago loyal Beyond Blue reader Larry Parker e-mailed me
How does someone e-mail you if not via this blog?
Cully

Well put all. Guess now people with epilepsy will not be able to vote in RI because there medications used to control their seizures may alter their brain functioning (duh, of course it does-it stops the seizures) prior to casting their vote. I can’t understand what kind of (il)logical conclusion these law makers come to when drafting this kind of legal nonsense.

I think we should come up with a better term than “mental illness” (emphasis being more on the word “illness”). We don’t refer to other diseases with the tag of “illness” after them. We don’t say “diabetes illness”, “MS illness”, “heart illness” (usually we say heart problems), “cancer illness”. There has to be a more user friendly term that doesn’t carry the stigma. Does anyone see where I am going here or am I way off base.
Is mental illness stigmatized because as human beings our minds are what define us (compared to animals) and it is taken for granted that they should all be in good, if not perfect working order according to someone’s standards. We are talking about our ability to reason, of course, but we also have the emotional side to ourselves. So is our so called mental illness strictly emotionally based?

Whut ? There’s rules for being crazy ? … I make fun of everybody, all religions, all races, even God (in fact I do stand up God comedy, which nobody thinks is one dam bit funny but God…and me !)… (Did I mention that I also piss everybody off too !)
LUV 2 ALL
Wisdum

Why is it that whenever the press writes about the insanity of politicians, the inane behavior of celebities, or the peculiar or eccentric lifestyles of artists, writers, or otherwise social contributers in many avenues that require new, original ideas or outside the BOx titled “the norm” adjectives such as crazy and psychotic are used so commonly? As well as the misleading reference to mentally “ill” with such rancor?? Do these supposedly educated, well rounded individuals really have no insight to the number of people who are sufferring from mental illness today? Or even to the number of great contributors to our very lives, govt, arts, education, and very society that suffered as well? I taught my childen the old tale that you should not judge a man until you walk a mile…and also not to make fun of those less fortunate but in kindness tolerate and assist those less fortunate…I thought these lessons were the norm..Maybe not any longer??? And as to making fun of crazy I agree- I use humor to deflect the hardship, pain, and frustrations of being doubly “blessed” LOL with both my mental and physical disabilities but I think that laughing at yourself makes acceptance that much easier although it certainly doesn’t mean I should be denied my voting priveleges- Sounds like what they did decades ago when sterilization of the mentally ill in state hospitals was still the norm!!

I’m not one to dabble much into politics way above my head but the crazy word, I’ve earned long discussions on that one. If these people think they can ban people taking prescripts for mental disorders they better be prepared to fight the big drug companies who might get nasty if they start losing customers. I don’t know what the U.S stats are on the amount of Americans taking serious mental type medications but I know it’s staggering! Don’t bark up my tree I don’t have the stats and I’m too tired and in pain to find them.
Rhode Island decision makers might want to retract thier descrimination thoughts least they have hundreds of thousands of people chasing them home lol or maybe they are merely speaking of those that are locked inside hospitals but then again I’ve spent some time in those wards myself and I’m no more batty than the average american, I just have the balls to get help.
Now think that those of us who have prescription medications lurking inside our purses or on our bodies can be hauled off to jail if pulled over and not having written proof that we are being prescribed such medications. It happens more often than you know! Like if I need to spend the night somewhere or travel I need to hide my contraban…lmao.
As for Bush I’m sorry I’m not a bush fan I have to agree with having them both committed!

Is there a way to edit our comments? I just noticed that the last post I forgot to input my personal info….duh

God created “all” of us:
Psalm 139:14
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
I believe it’s a shame to put down people in general. Satan (the enemy) would have us to believe all manner of stupidity to further himself.

Cully:
Vee haff arr vays …
Therese:
I’m going to seem like an ingrate after such a thoughtful blog entry for which you singled me out for giving you some background research, but … I have very mixed feelings about this.
For one thing, when “I remember when, I remember when, I remember when I lost my mind … Does that make me CRAY-ZEE?! Does that make me CRAZ-ZEE?!” hits the radio (or my CD) player, I am instantly in a place where someone, somehow, UNDERSTANDS me. I don’t even like hip-hop that much, but “Crazy” is an amazing song (with remarkably frank lyrics for a tune that became so popular).
On the other hand … I’ve engaged in fierce debates with African-Americans on the Beliefnet discussion boards about the use of the N-word (in the community). And I’ve been told with some vicious slurs (George Jefferson’s “honky” was the least of them) that if I’m not African-American, I have no business “censoring” African-Americans after they have long had such a repressed place in American society.
I’m not for censorship — for goodness’ sake, I’m an ex-journalist and current blogger on Bnet. But voluntary discretion, IMHO, would do wonders. I honestly believe that the use of the N-word “within the community” contributes to its use among whites and other non-African-Americans. Which I find a tragedy of the highest proportions.
Likewise, Italian-Americans were sharply divided about The Sopranos — some thought it portrayed realism, others thought it played to stereotypes. Several politicians quite loudly and actively boycotted the show (including the mayor of Bloomfield, New Jersey, who tried but failed to prevent the famous last scene of the show from being filmed there).
And then again, I still love my Gnarls Barkley. So my feelings are all over the map on this one.
Maybe the distinction, Therese, is in your very self-description, “holy whackjob” (which captures the fact, in an incredibly self-deprecating and sarcastic way, that you are both very religious and have depression). If we’re using such terms in that spirit, maybe it’s OK.
But if we use it in the spirit of one-upsmanship, I fear it becomes like the N-word to African Americans — an “in-joke” that quickly turns not-so-funny.

As the mother of a biracial son who was herself raised by a real life “Archie Bunker” (although my mother was certainly no ‘dingbat”) this is a sybject near and dear to my hearrt! I am in agreement with Larry on the “Nword” both in terms of its meaning asnd its useage; one of the most difficult times for me with my (now grown and fairly level-hraded son was his final high school years when he found racial jokes extremely funny and repeated them whenever possible; I had difficulty convincing him that he was merely perpetuating the stereotype albiet in a different manner than his grandfather who once actually (this was in the nineteen nintioes, no less!— referred to his(my son’s) father as a “darky” within our hearing! I fifound the popular “Helen keller” and “Your mama is so fat” jokes equally offensive (guess i was completelyout of step with pop cultire.!
I can’t go so far as to agree with my friend Larry’s opinion that even those of us with a diagnosis shouldn’t joke about it (Laughter is, after all, known to be a powerful medication on its own merit, and like you, T, I feel like I’ve earned the right) but I CAN understand his logic behind it. Won’t get political, but I will say that I find the current war and the prospect of it expanding into Iran and/or Korea terrifying and without any possible enlightened defense. Quite frankly, I find the whole “war on terror” to be something of an oxymoron. (What could be more terrorizing than war in this age of nuclear/chemical weaponry? I also find it frankly unbelievable that we can’t locate Bin Laden with all of our resources and at times wonder if we really don’t “want” to find him necause he and his organization give us a convienient “reason” to go to war against whopmever we fancy at the moment by declaring that nation a “haven for terrorists and training camps” keep in mind that i’m an ex sixties “flower child” who actively protested thevietNamAM “CONFLICT” by marching in D.C much to the horror of my WWIIveteran father (I managed to make it on thenational evening news coverage of the event, so there was no denying my participation, and it proved to be the first time of several that he literally “disowned’ me for a period of time. Obviously, i’m not a hawk; never have been, never will be, weather at home or abroad, though I will admit to developing a belated respect for my father’s service to our country after listening to an oral history tape he submitted to and hearing his first person accountof his four years on the ftont lines and seeing “Saving Private Ryan”, a story he actually LIVED, being only one of seventeen survivors and the highest ranking (as a Sgt, for crying out loud) out of his entire platoon during the Battle of the Bulgre when they hadbeen sent in to open the road to Bastogn(Sp?) for Patton’s army and winning medals for heroism in the process. Nonetheless, when my son expressed an interest in enlisting post 911, I was relieved when he changed his miond, so if that makes mr a hypocrite, then I guess I am. It was a true “crazy” frame of mind, a real “bipolar moment, if you will. I was proud of his desire to help yet unwilling for him to undergo the harsh realities of actually going to war and having to face kill-or-be-killed scenarios. (What mother DOES wecome that kind of life experience for her child?) So
i’ll admit to finding humor in the editorial, in spite of my resentment at being labeled as a member “substandard” group of citizens who shouldn’t be able to vote (I ‘d only be a danger if I SKIPPED my meds on election Day!) I guess I’m in accord with you, T, (BIG SURPRISE…LOL..) in that I feel I have ABSOLUTELY earned the right to pole fun at myself. Time served in the abyss ought to have SOME perks, after all! and killing the occasional snake isn’t enough for me especially since I can’t harvest teir skins for use on the matket. (No shoes, wallets or purses from those BABIES!) I’m fortunate enough not to haveever had to justify my possession of my medications since my (mostly) homebound status due to my paralysis keeps me out of the public eye, but find it unreasonable that we shopu;d be expected to carry copies of our scripts with us (I’m required to leave mine with the pharmacist anyway, so i’d be SOL if I ever WAS put in that predicament. Surely a call to the pharmacy ormydoctor could verify my “right” to these meds. It’s not like any of us would be taking them for recreational use, after all–there’s absolutely NOTHING recreational about severe depressionOR the meds used to combat it (IMHO)

Margaret:
Thanks for your story.
Actually, I think what I was saying (I guess I need to clarify) is that old rule that it’s OK to laugh WITH others (in your boat) but not AT others with a word like ‘crazy’ inside the “family.”
I think I’m known among my fellow BBers as having a fairly sarcastic sense of humor myself ;-P

My Life is a Love song, sung to me by God
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VPUt6AscG9k
LUV 2 ALL
Wisdum

Re – Larry Parker | November 7, 2007 12:22 PM
Sorry Larry, I wanted to dedicate that song to you. Listen, there is no such thing as White people or Black people (I defy you to show me one !) We are ALL infinite colors of the rainbow, and we ALL operate in the same physical manner. Where we differ is in perception (and perception is everything !) Where the hell does science come off labeling people by color anyWay (and they’re supposed to be the intelligent ones !) I’ve had to deal with racism all my Life, and you know what, the only Way you can get by and over all that crap is to rise above it, or you will drown in it ! If you are proud of what you are, it doesn’t matter what they call you, in fact I tell all my dark skinned friends to say “That’s right, I’m a nigger, and I’m proud of it ! On the other hand, you my friend, are an ignorant, red neck, ahole !” (of course that will result in one hell of a fight, them thar peepoles ain’t got no sense O humor !)
LUV 2 ALL
Wisdum

Wisdum: While I take exception to your description of Larry, you are absolutelyCORRECT about using skin color to name a group of people! One of my close friends/former colleagues who is of African-American secent used to refer to those of us with less pigmentation as “pink people, and while I was still actively teaching I jad a WONDERFUL poster posted in my classroom (wonder what finally happened to it?…) of a box of crayons of all different shades all marked “Flesh” The difficulty for me in terms of my own terminolgy is that I live in an irbancommunity (and taught for thirty plus years in said community which is largely minority populated in terms of society’s labels while in actuality those of us ‘pink people” are the minority, and many of my friends and former colleagues objected to being refereed to as “hyphenated Americans” It’s only been in the most recent of census forms where it was possible to check “other” for the race section; prior to that I had to mark my son as “black simply because he had INE African-American parent. i’ll never forget when he was three and in preschool and another little boy with the same first name joined his class midway through the year. the kids started referring to the new bot as the “white Tommy (not his real name) and my son as the “black Tommy” in order to differentiate amongst themselves. My som was irate and shared this with me that night as I was supervising his bath. As I attempted to explain to him that he knew his Mommy was white and his Daddy black, so tht made him half of each, he became as indignant as only a three year old can, stood up in the t with his hands on his hips gazing down at his body and challanged “Show me my black half!” It’s one of those memories all parents have of particularly funny…or not-so- funny…sad, actually.. moments of child-rearing. We laugh about it today, but at the time his heart was truly troubled by the necessity his peers found in using those two descriptive…although actually UNsiscriptive words to identify him. Of course, because of the choices i made in life, I too have had to deal with a lot of racism, and agree with you that it’s one of the ugliest components of our uncivilized civilization!Of course, being raised by “Archie Bunker didn’t help either! My best friend in high school was of Italian heritage, and he ALWAYS (both to her face and behind her back called her either “WOP or “Dego.” Jewish people were “Kikes, Germans “Jerries, and seventh Day Adventists “Peanut Eaters” African-Americans had SEVERAL” monikers in his vernacular, some of them dating back to the late eighteen hundreds Because God is so good, he was (finally) able to accept my son as his grandchild and they became close enough that my son (sixteen at the time) actually eulogized him when he passed away. It DID take divine intervention, however. Lots of “housemaid’s knees” from THAT one, for myself, my mother AND my one sister who’s a believer!As bob Dylan would say, “…when will we ever learn?”

That doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is the media tying in stories of crimes with the criminal blaming it on mental illness, or where there is an implied blaming it on mental illness.
The issue is what degree of mental illness, and what type? Most people don’t even know what a personality disorder is, but I think killers are not simply “bipolar” or this that or the other mental illness, but a combination of some personality disorder or disorders (such as antisocial personality disorder) and possibly a mental illness. Like the student who killed the other students at Virginia Tech.
Then there are the female teachers – there were one or two, I suppose this latest one who fled to Mexico will say she has bipolar also – who blame their poor decision making on bipolar disorder. What a sham. I have been hypersexual but I would never hook up with a 17 year old girl because the hypomania does not cause that sort of poor decision making. I might make a poor decision with a person of legal age. But not someone under age. That goes beyond mere hypomania and hypersexuality into the no nonsense category of poor judgement.
Even the young woman who Kobe Bryant raped had no recourse in court, and Kobe walked free, because it was determined the young woman had bipolar disorder – so obviously this implies she wanted it since she was a nymphomaniac.
But – since this is what most people hear about mental illness or bipolar disorder – we all get stigmatized and discriminated against. I have experienced it. So I usually know better to excercise the good judgement of not telling anyone I have bipolar disorder. There is just too much ignorance out there to tell people. And their knowing doesn’t help me any.
On the other hand in an anonymous forum like this I can share all I want about people with bipolar, and also about highly functioning people with bipolar – the ones that shatter all the stereotypes.

District of Columbia, for both inpatient and outpatient:
D.C. CODE ANN. § 21-545(b). If the court or jury finds that the person is mentally ill and, because of that illness, is likely to injure himself or other persons if allowed to remain at liberty, the court may order his hospitalization for an indeterminate period, or order any other alternative course of treatment which the court believes will be in the best interests of the person or of the public.
=====================================================================
*** Keep in mind that having a mental illness isn’t enough to lock you up in a mental hospital. A court or jury would also need to determine that the person in question is also likely to injure himself or other persons. So I think that is a good policy. I don’t think I would want to be free on the streets if we were in this state of mind. Would you? The mental hospitals should have a policy whereby if your dangerousness goes away you should be released though — I think that is obvious. But how that works in actuality I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to be locked up like Cuckoo’s Nest “inderterminantly” that’s for sure. So I would say that part of the law should be amended. But it may be taken care of by the policies of the mental hospitals in the district of columbia, I don’t know. ***
Laws for all states can be found at http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/LegalResources/ATCriteria.htm .

Wisdum:
Be careful who you jump on.
I’m multi-racial myself (my paternal grandmother was Cherokee).

If all the minds of the world were in-touch with all truths, then they would all be quite sane, and definitely would be in-touch with reality.
However, if you had a bunch of minds across the globe who are not in-touch with ALL truths, but still were dependent upon beliefs instead, then obviously these people would not be in-touch with reality. In fact, you could call them crazy, due to such a fact.
Now here is the funny part. Today, 1% of the population has made a huge step in being in-touch with truths, and thus being in-touch with reality, and the rest of mankind, due to relativity, has labeled then as crazy, and has put them on meds to reduce the brain activity to make them function just the same as the 99% of the population.
This is a truth. But since beliefs are not directly connected to truths, and therefore truths sit beyond the limited scope of beliefs, this truth is beyond belief.
With truth being beyond belief, that is why throughout history, when new truths have been exposed, these truths are always violently opposed.