{"id":1471,"date":"2021-12-03T09:16:43","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T09:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/?p=1471"},"modified":"2022-11-11T14:25:58","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T14:25:58","slug":"a-message-to-those-struggling-with-mental-illness-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/a-message-to-those-struggling-with-mental-illness-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"A Message to Those Struggling With Mental Illness \u2013 Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In part one of this article series, I outlined the fact that mental illness can be classed into three categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Category one: The severely mentally ill<\/li>\n<li>Category two: Shrink induced mental illness<\/li>\n<li>Category three: Those suffering from chronic shitty life syndrome<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I genuinely believe confusing the three is doing disservice to those in category one who really need our care and support.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only if you have experienced the misfortune of seeing the suffering of a mentally ill loved one will you understand, otherwise it is difficult to comprehend the suffering that is associated with mental illness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mental illness is devastating.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It inflicts lots of pain and suffering on the affected individual and their loved ones.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Therefore, it is not something that should be taken lightly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Classifying people unable to cope with the difficulties of life as mentally ill is wrong, it is a trivialising of a serious disease that has and still continues to devastate many individuals and families.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mental illness is a severe illness that is brutal; it has resulted in enormous human suffering and is still doing so today.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Fake Mental Illness<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4334\" src=\"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/5-Ad-1080x1080-1-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/5-Ad-1080x1080-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/5-Ad-1080x1080-1-1030x1030.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/5-Ad-1080x1080-1-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/5-Ad-1080x1080-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/5-Ad-1080x1080-1-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/5-Ad-1080x1080-1-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/5-Ad-1080x1080-1-705x705.jpg 705w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/5-Ad-1080x1080-1.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Unscrupulous doctors and those who market mad medicine would like us believe one in four of us are mad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, you read it right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the mad medicine industry, a quarter of the population of the United States and the United Kingdom are crazy!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In watching Donald Trump and some of his supporters, some may start to believe this to be a fact.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But in fact, it is as far away from the truth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, there are many people facing complexities beyond their current ability to cope.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But there is a difference between someone\u2019s inability to handle complexity and them being crazy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That is the problem with the classifications of mental illness today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The majority of people diagnosed as mentally unstable are those down on their luck, or those incapable of handling the stresses of everyday life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They belong to category two and three of the mentally ill scale.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This fact does not mean we should abandon them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It simply means we need to develop a different strategy for treating such people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But before any such treatment can be devised or administered, we need to acknowledge that the large majority of people classed as crazy are simply those down on their luck or those incapable of dealing with life\u2019s hardships.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you are one of those in this category, I have a few words of wisdom for you.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Believe You Are Well<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/2-Ad-size-580-x-400-300x207.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/2-Ad-size-580-x-400-300x207.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/2-Ad-size-580-x-400.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Tell yourself you are not crazy and believe it irrespective of what the shrink says. Shrinks are in the business of making money. The more people they diagnose as crazy, the more money they make.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A wiseman told me stress is demand.\u00a0 Reduce the demands in your life and you will reduce your stress, which is probably the number one cause of mental instability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We sometimes create unnecessary stress for ourselves with our own expectation, or the perceived expectation of others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stop living your life according to other people\u2019s dogma.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just live within your means and you will be ok.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be thankful for the little you have; appreciate it and share it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The happiest people on earth happen to be the poorest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a lesson there for you.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>You Got to Believe<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4301\" src=\"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/3-Ad-size-580-x-400-300x207.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/3-Ad-size-580-x-400-300x207.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/3-Ad-size-580-x-400.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Centuries ago, the Catholic Church ruled the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everyone lived according to some form of religious doctrine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then came the industrial revolution and the enlightenment and everything changed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People stopped believing in a higher power.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While it appears liberating that religious doctrines are no longer forced down our throat, the problem is, there is a void that was left behind when religion was removed from our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We as spices are meaning seeking creatures.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We seek meaning in everything we do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without meaning, we feel empty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, a wise counsel for you is, you need to believe in something.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Heck, believe coronavirus was developed in Bill Gates&#8217; room.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As obscure as that might sound, but as least you will believe in something.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because the alternative, which is emptiness, is bad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Father Forgiveness Them<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4344\" src=\"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/16-Ad-1080x1080-1-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/16-Ad-1080x1080-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/16-Ad-1080x1080-1-1030x1030.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/16-Ad-1080x1080-1-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/16-Ad-1080x1080-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/16-Ad-1080x1080-1-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/16-Ad-1080x1080-1-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/16-Ad-1080x1080-1-705x705.jpg 705w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/16-Ad-1080x1080-1.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>So many people walk around with a poison called hate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are angry at someone who did something to us two hundred years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are angry at our parents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are angry at our high school football coach who did not place us on the first team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are angry at our children for not visiting us every weekend.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Heck, we are even angry at our pets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s anger, anger, anger.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am saying to you, the most powerful medication for category two and three mental illness is forgiveness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First forgive yourself and forgive anyone that ever transgressed against you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You cannot imagine the weight that would be lifted from your shoulder and mind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you forgive someone, you do not only free that person, you also free yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No matter how potent a mad medicine is, no mad medicine can come close to the healing power of forgiveness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Gimme Hope Jo&#8217;anna<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/9-Ad-1080x1080-1-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/9-Ad-1080x1080-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/9-Ad-1080x1080-1-1030x1030.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/9-Ad-1080x1080-1-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/9-Ad-1080x1080-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/9-Ad-1080x1080-1-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/9-Ad-1080x1080-1-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/9-Ad-1080x1080-1-705x705.jpg 705w, https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/9-Ad-1080x1080-1.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>I was not equating poverty with happiness when I said the poorest people are happier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most of the time, people in desperately poor situations remain alive because of hope.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Suicide rate in wealthy countries is more than in the poorest part of the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why is that the case?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hope.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We from poorer countries have hope.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hope in a better tomorrow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hope in a better future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you live in a society of plenty, there is nothing to hope for.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hence the emptiness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hence the suicide.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am saying to you, you need to have hope.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conjure up something to hope for, but hope because without hope life is not worth living.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paul Tremblay, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rightly observes\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHope is a desperate man&#8217;s currency.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hope is a good thing and good things never dies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In part one of this article series, I outlined the fact that mental illness can be classed into three categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Category one: The severely mentally ill<\/li>\n<li>Category two: Shrink induced mental illness<\/li>\n<li>Category three: Those suffering from chronic shitty life syndrome\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I genuinely believe confusing the three is doing disservice to those in category one who really need our care and support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1471"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4458,"href":"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471\/revisions\/4458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romeorichards.com\/healthcare-reforms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}